Project CATE Using outcome measures to assess school-age children's use of technology in urban public libraries: A collaborative research process

Abstract

Although outcome-based evaluation was routine in governmental and nonprofit agencies by 2002, it had not been systematically applied to the evaluation of children's services in public libraries. At the same time, digital technology had grown commonplace in public libraries, with 94.5% of libraries providing Internet access to the public in the year 2000. This article examines various definitions and models of outcome-based evaluation; describes the lack of knowledge regarding children's use of technology in public libraries, despite their majority status among users; and presents an original outcome-based evaluation model (the Project CATE model) developed to assess this use. Although this unique, dynamic, and interactive evaluation research model was conceived as a collaboration between the Saint Louis Public Library and the Florida State University School of Information Studies, it is designed to be transportable and applicable in a wide variety of assessment situations.