Library performance improvement in the law school accreditation process: Investigating the relationship between the attributes of the accreditation-related library self-study process and perceived library performance improvement.

摘要

This dissertation had two research objectives. The first objective was to examine the relationship between the attributes of the accreditation related library self-study process and perceived library performance improvement. The second objective was to evaluate the perceived usefulness of the ABA library accreditation standards as evaluative instruments during the accreditation related library self-study and site inspection process.; The population of the study comprises law school library directors, law school librarians and law school library site inspectors in all the 120 ABA accredited law schools as listed in the publication entitled, “Official Guide to United States Law Schools, 1998”. No sampling strategy was employed in this study. As such, questionnaires were mailed to law school library directors (120) and law school librarians (120) in all the 120 ABA approved law schools. Thirty questionnaires were mailed to law school site inspectors whose names, designations and official addresses were provided by the ABA.; Eleven research hypotheses were generated for the study's first research objective. Only 8 of the 11 research hypotheses were supported by the data. There was no statistically significant relationship between the choice of an appropriate self-study design and perceived library performance improvement (r =.16, p >.05). There was no statistically significant relationship between amount of time taken to complete the self-study process and perceived library performance improvement (r =.19, p >.05). These two independent variables were dropped when a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed with the dependent variable, perceived library performance improvement. The results of regressing the remaining eight independent variables with perceived library performance improvement show that collectively all the eight independent variables significantly explained the variance in perceived library performance improvement (F = 29.73, R =.66, R Square =.44, p .0001). However, only two independent variables were included in the stepwise regression model: support from the accrediting agency and motivation to bring changes and improvements among self-study participants.; Six research hypotheses were generated for the study's second research objective. The results of running ANOVA show that no statistically significant differences exist in: (1) the mean amount of perceived usefulness of the ABA library accreditation standards; (2) in the mean number of most useful evaluative instruments and; (3) in the mean number of least useful evaluative instruments. The results of chi-square tests of independence show that: (1) a statistically significant relationship existed between the respondents in the three sub-groups and the kind of changes they recommended be made to the ABA library accreditation standards (chi-square = 11.4, df = 4, p .05); (2) no statistically significant relationship existed between the respondents in the three subgroups and the use made of other evaluative instruments (chi-square = 9.2, df = 6, p >.05) and; (3) no statistically significant relationship existed between the kind of changes that respondents in the three sub-groups recommended be made to the ABA library accreditation standards and the use made of other evaluative instruments (chi-square = 4.25, df = 6, p >.05).