After attending both a
workshop and a webinar on the topic of evaluation within the last two weeks, I
am happy to say that evaluation is alive and kicking in the museum world. It used to be that evaluation scared staff
members, and many begrudged even including it in a grant proposal, let alone
doing it. To many it was an
intimidating process which is now pretty commonplace, and continually helps to
inform us and answer the ‘How Are We Doing?’ questions.
The level of dialogue about
evaluation is more sophisticated – but the core remains the same – the 3 basic
questions that guide this work are:
1. What is the
purpose of the evaluation?
2. What do I
want to know?
3. What do I
intend to do with the information?*
Certainly we
can collect the information from a never ending variety of sources, but it is
what we intend to do with that information that really matters.
With more ways to capture
information than ever before, whether it be the age-old person-to-person
interview or the latest social media methods, it is all good, and it shows that
we are looking & seeing, listening & hearing, and engaged in this
ongoing conversation.
*Planning a Program Evaluation, University of
Wisconsin