Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/233379
enables appointment scheduling, and the opportunity to chat with a librarian in real time. Since most of our faculty and students access our collections via the web, we've created a position for a web developer who can design pages that are functional, intuitive, and mobile-ready. These new page designs also allow us to communicate with users we may never see face-to-face. In addition, we use Twitter, Facebook, and a blog to stay connected with users. We are working to develop "moment of need" interventions that put resources in front of users before they even realize they need them. These interventions require close communication with faculty and students, who can alert us to assignments and due dates. We then can provide users with relevant and specific research hints through everything from social media sites to our portable whiteboards at library entrances. Other libraries that serve business schools are offering more services related to the databases students will use once they enter the workforce. For instance, some libraries are appointing Big Data specialists who can help students and faculty understand how to sift through and analyze enormous datasets. The University of Tennessee Libraries have created the position of "data curation librarian" who will support the use and management of research data. Other libraries might post a job for a "data scientist," who can make "discoveries while swimming in data." That's how Thomas Davenport and D.J. Patil describe "The Sexiest Job in the 21st Century" in a Harvard Business Review article. As content and deliv- ery methods change, libraries will continue to adapt. Impact and Engagement Even as libraries are making it simpler for students and faculty to navigate our vast collections, we're also measuring our usage and effectiveness so we can understand how our resources are being used. Libraries have always been good at measuring inputs—how many books we've purchased, how many people have come in our doors, and how many reference questions we've answered. Increasingly, though, like all academic organizations, we're being asked to document the outputs and outcomes of our work. In simple terms, we need to assess the ways the library has changed the lives of the students it serves. In fact, libraries across the U.S. are working together to do just that. In 2010, the Association of College and Research Libraries published a report called "The Value of Academic Libraries." Its goal was to articulate the impact libraries can have on their home institutions in terms of admissions, retention, graduation rates, student achievement, faculty research productivity, and even student placement. Many of these measures are difficult to design and implement, but assurance of learning is a hot issue in the education field. So, for many of us, identifying the ways that higher education changes student lives will be an ongoing and critical responsibility. In fact, the UST Libraries are experimenting with ways to assess if student use of the library can be linked with academic performance. Once we've ensured anonymity, our goal is to determine whether BizEd January/February 2014 49