Evaluation may be thought of as a process rather than a one time event. The purpose of evaluation in informational services is to gauge the effectiveness of the activities, outreach, education, or referral service.
Evaluating Informational Services begins during the planning stage with the development of a logic model or similar system to pre-identify the most important things you want to know about the service and its effectiveness. Once these are identified, measure them before you start the service and periodically during service delivery. The trends you find can help guide revision and marketing of your service.
Examples of outcome measures for Informational Services
Service |
Benchmark or Measure |
| Information and Referral | • Number of contacts (e.g., calls, web site hits, directories distributed or requested) • Relative usefulness of service for intended audience (e.g., clergy or providers using the service) |
| Prevention | • Comparison of baseline measure to periodic measures on a timeline (e.g., calls to hotlines, number of people treated for suicide attempts at a hospital, number of youth alcohol related police contacts) |
| Education |
• Number of audience members reached through prevention method (e.g., number and placement of materials, presentations) • Pre and Post test scores related to education content |