The role of assessment in library user education

In response to a growing need for the library to articulate the success of its efforts in terms of student learning outcomes, librarians at the University of the Pacific Library developed a plan to assess library instruction. The assessment project included the selection of a population, the development of learning objectives, the development of assessment devices, and data collection and analysis. This paper describes the process and presents the results of a case study of assessment of library instruction for first‐year students. Suggestions as to how assessment can lead to the development of good practices in both instruction and evaluation are given.