Ever wondered what are the ‘must haves’ for the genuine evaluator’s bookshelf? We don’t have all the answers – and would like your suggestions! – but we do have a few books we have found incredibly valuable. We’re gradually building a list of these on the Genuine Evaluation website in two spots:
- First, you’ll see a skinny bookshelf (five books high) in the left-hand column of the blog if you scroll down a bit – you can click on the >> button to see more books
- Second, we’ve embedded a bigger version of the bookshelf on this page, where you can see more at a time, comment on the books, make suggestions of your own, … We’ve categorized this page under Resources => Recommended Books (see the list of Topics in the left-hand column)
A couple of features you should be aware of when viewing these Shelfari bookshelves:
- If you hover over the book cover you’ll see book reviews from Patricia and/or Jane – what the book’s about and why we found it valuable
- The bookshelf updates automatically as we add more interesting books, so check back often and see what’s new!
Any comments on the above books or suggestions for others we should consider? Please tell us by adding a comment below, or use the Contact Us page to comment off-line.
Jane at Real Evaluation
Patricia at CIRCLE (RMIT)
Can I make a suggestion? These two are classics, even if a bit outdated.
Scriven, M. (1993). Hard-won lessons in program evaluation. New Directions in Program Evaluation, 58. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shadish, W. R., Cook, T. D., & Leviton, L. C. (1991). Foundations of program evaluation: Theories of practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Thanks, Chris! They were on our ‘to add’ list!!
P.S., If anyone knows how to make the javascript version of a Shelfari shelf show up properly within a post (not just as a widget) on a self-hosted WordPress blog, please send me a note via the Contact Us page!