LibGuides: Special Interest Group Archive: Academic Directors 1/10/2018

Academic Library Director SIG January 10, 2018

The Academic Library Directors held their meeting from 9:30 -12:30 at Southeastern. The meeting was facilitated by Kari Mack, Director of Library Services, at SUNY Ulster. The focus of the meeting was on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) document, "Academic Library Impact: Improving Practice and Essential Areas to Research."

Discussion topics and activity

Kari led the group through a discussion of the six research priorities outlined in the "Academic Library Impact" document.

Communicate the library’s contributions.
Match library assessment to institution’s mission.
Include library data in institutional data collection.
Quantify the library’s impact on student success.
Enhance teaching and learning.
Collaborate with educational stakeholders.

The group selected two priorities to discuss further. They selected "communicate the library's contributions" and "quantify the library's impact on student success." They split into two groups and through a rapid prototyping exercise, they developed ideas and a plan for each priority.

Prototype for communicating the library's contribution

The plan for communications involves both faculty and students.

Cultivate faculty relationships:

Convene focus groups
CETL workshops
Attend faculty conferences

Student communications:

Get students to tell their stories:
- to other students
- to faculty
- to parents
Student focus groups on designing a library
Engage with parents and students on particular days, like drop off day

Prototype for quantify the library's impact on student success

The plan involves gathering information from recent graduates:

Find the department that surveys alumni (development, career resources, assessment, individual academic departments) and add a library experience question to their survey.
Talk with faculty and ask graduates about the value of their library experience.
- Stories
- Likely to be highly motivated students

Or refer to existing studies.