Taking Impact Metrics to the Next Level at the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Published

June 14, 2015

Author(s)

Susan L. Makar, Amanda J. Malanowski

Abstract

Only a few years ago, librarians in the Information Services Office (ISO) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were providing a single number as a metric to measure the impact of NIST as a whole. In just a few short years, ISO has helped NIST expand its portfolio of impact metrics to include publication collaborations, publishing in top journals, and comparative data with other institutions. ISO’s impact assessment results are part of the U.S. Department of Commerce Technology Transfer Report as well as NIST’s Balanced Scorecard. Impact assessment services are only one aspect of ISO’s radical changes to be more closely knit with its customers and be seen by them as “strategic research partners.” This expansion of services to include impact assessment has paid off in numerous ways for both ISO and NIST. The ISO staff have taken their skills sets up a notch to include citation/data analysis and network visualizations. This enhanced toolkit has helped bring greater visibility to ISO and its staff. As a result, ISO staff are regularly called upon by NIST management, as well as bench scientists, to help with new challenges that no one would have considered asking ISO to do a few years ago. NIST as an organization has benefited from ISO’s expertise by being better able to demonstrate its value and impact to Congress, the greater research community, and society in general. This paper tells how ISO systematically became a key player in helping its parent organization, a Federal government agency, demonstrate its impact and value to stakeholders. It also shares the research and methodologies behind ISO’s portfolio of assessment measures.

Proceedings Title

SLA 2015 Annual Conference

Conference Dates

June 14-16, 2015

Conference Location

Boston, MA

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

collaborations, impact assessment, metrics, publications

Citation

Makar, S. and Malanowski, A. (2015), Taking Impact Metrics to the Next Level at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, SLA 2015 Annual Conference, Boston, MA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=918280 (Accessed May 1, 2026)

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