Aligning assessment to organizational performance in distance education service delivery

This article seeks to provide an understanding of the issues in and possible steps of aligning the library's assessment processes to distance education service delivery. Through a review of the literature and current practices, the researcher sought to identify the need and value of aligned performance assessment processes for libraries, the primary contributing alignment factors affecting the library assessment process, and potential benefits of improved alignment of the assessment process for libraries in aligning assessment to the distance education services provided to customers. The results of the review suggest that libraries can improve the reporting and value of their assessment processes by improving the alignment of their assessment processes to distance education service delivery in 2 ways: internally, through the use of consistent and innovative processes, metrics, and culture within the library, and externally, by embracing the alignment factors and available technologies of the library's service environment. The library must progressively elevate the alignment of the library's assessment processes from the traditional internal nonalignment of assessment to the total internally--externally integrated aligned assessment. This article concludes with a conceptual model of aligning library performance assessment to distance education service delivery for the effective reporting of library value and performance to stakeholders. KEYWORDS alignment, assessment, distance education, library value, performance, service delivery DOI: 10.1080/01930826.2010.489005