How should an evaluation plan be organized: Decisions

The Decisions section of the evaluation plan is usually the most difficult part of a plan to prepare, but it must be included if the evaluation is to have a sufficient impact on decision making. This Guide is based upon what may seem like a simplistic premise: Decisions informed by sound evaluation are better than those based on habit, ignorance, intuition, prejudice, or guesswork. Although the history of digital libraries is still young, experience indicates that far too often poor decisions are being made about the design and implementation of digital libraries because critical decision makers lack pertinent information when they most need it. For example, �Build it and they will come� appears to have been an underlying assumption in failed digital libraries such as Contentville.com. If more effort had been made up front to expose such assumptions and collect information related to decisions about audience identification and income revenues, millions of dollars might have been invested more wisely. Here is a brief example of a Decisions section:

DECISIONS:

If this evaluation is to provide timely, accurate information to inform decision making regarding the improvement of DLEE, we must anticipate decisions that will be made. It is important to remember that most of these decisions have to be made regardless of the quantity and quality of information available to the decision makers at NAAEP and DiglibRUS.com. Therefore, it is essential that evaluation be conducted efficiently so that decisions are informed in a timely manner. The following decisions are anticipated:

The beta version of the graphic user interface for DLEE must be enhanced so that all members of the intended user community are empowered to access engineering education resources with ease.
The basis for sustained funding for DLEE after the ASF support is exhausted must be identified.
Mechanisms for recognizing the volunteers who validate DLEE resources must be identified so that they receive proper acknowledgement within their academic departments.
Whether to include the DLEE collection within larger scale digital libraries must be decided.

The Decisions section of an evaluation plan should answer the following questions:

What decisions are pending regarding the digital library being evaluated?
Who are the primary decision makers?