The meeting was held on Friday, June 17, 2016 from 11:00am-1:00pm. It was convened by Tiffany Davis of Mount Saint Mary College and attendees shared resources and talked about assessment and other related topics.
Notes and resources are below:
Planning for next year – thinking about last year.
JP – The session that did not go well, from her POV. The students thought it went well, however. In general, when she wasn’t in class for the whole time, had to rush and students had to work in groups. It was a citation class, and the students didn’t see the need for it, until afterwards.
Database sessions go really well when students are in a computer lab. She’s there for the whole class, and can give them instructions verbally.
TT – His students do want to work in groups, and he gives them different questions. Everyone can work together, but they each have to come up with their own answers. He had time to go over the responses with them, and they got to have hands-on experience. He gave them topics, and the response was that the students felt less lost than doing it on their own.
TD – Think about what level of students you are teaching before deciding if group work. Sometimes upper level students prefer working individually.
SP – There are smaller amounts of resources, especially when you are using physical books. For that, group work is best. The diverse age and experience range of their population means there can be additional difficulty with having groups work together. The students with life experience are generally more serious about learning about the resources.
WW – He starts with the question, “have you been to the library?” If you have a student who is only familiar with research with Google, how do you teach them how to evaluate the websites they get to? Being emerged with the students has always worked well. Being directly around students, instead of just standing in front of the class, walking around to make certain they’re on the same page helps. The setup is a standard classroom with rows.
JP – Stands over their shoulder to help the quiet kids who might tune out if they get lost.
EH – Finds she gets more follow-up when she gets involved directly with instruction students.
TT – Establishes rapport by starting with pop culture references that might draw in undergrads. He gives positive reinforcement when possible.
EH – Thinking about bad sessions, one happened when a professor didn’t show up. But the one she could have helped was when she tried to do way too much in the short time that she had. They ended up having a second session to make up for not getting much done. It helped to have a library-positive professor.
TT – They have been adhering to a common lesson plan among the reference librarians.
TD – Next year, freshman orientation. Is anyone involved with the process? At MSMC, they just started being involved with orientation next year. The library is helping with the sessions on time management and plagiarism, instead of doing a full-on instruction class.
SP – They have an instruction class rather than have the ability to be embedded with individual classes. They have a “passport to individual learning” and there’s a prize for filling it out before the class. The booklet gets stamped when they achieve certain lessons. Each of the three librarians gets part of a group, and at the end they get their library mug.
EH – They have the embedded two-shot instruction with the English class, and they have a table at orientation, but nothing that captures all new freshmen until they come with their class.
CBG – Gameify, make your tables interactive. Plinko https://prizewheel.com/products/plinko-game/
SP – at a previous college, they got parents involved as advocates of library services, knowing that students are likely to call home when they’re stressed.
JP – They go to parent orientation, she always starts with, “do you know what hours the library is open?” and they are amazed.
Working with faculty
TT – it’s difficult to get the word out about doing instruction. SUNY is cutting back on 100 level instruction. They were 6-week classes that introduced the concepts of various curriculum.
EH – Does anyone teach classes for credit? SUNY Ulster does, but no one in the group does. IT would give more time to delve into the framework and would make librarians more like faculty.
EH – They are working with one faculty member who is offering her science students an opportunity to have no final exam if they go to a whole series of eight workshops. They will cover dissecting scientific articles, basic database searching, using PubMed, and how to write a scientific article. Also how to make a poster presentation, and scholarly issues in the scientific publishing world. The tutoring center covers citations.
TT – Questionnaire was a quiz on information literacy, including the benefits of Ask Us 24/7. They use it for as many lessons as they can. It ended up being 25 out of 30 classes.
What are you planning next year that’s new?
SP – Relationship building, they finally got faculty recommending that students go to the library, and find articles. The assignment specified that. She plans to reach out to new instructors to be included in their meetings, and to make the library part of the first course.
TT – Assessment. Megan Oakleaf's assessment cycles (see links to the right.) Using a system to keep track.
Tiffany Davis, Mount Saint Mary College (Convener)
Ellie Horowitz, Dominican College
Jen Park, Mount Saint Mary College
Stephanie Poegel, Salvation Army Library
Tom Trinchera, SUNY Dutchess
William Woford, SUNY Orange
Carolyn Bennett Glauda, SENYLRC Staff
We are tentatively scheduled to meet again on Tuesday, November 1, 2016 from 11am-1pm. Stay posted for registration this fall!