Ethnography in Action: Active Learning in Academic Library Outreach to Middle School Students

This article describes an outreach activity developed and coordinated by academic librarians as part of a state program for low-income middle school students. Rather than offering a traditional library tour, the library organizers wanted to provide the middle school students with a meaningful experience that would encourage active participation, critical thinking, and alleviate library anxiety. As a spin on the traditional tour, students applied an ethnographic approach to learning about the library. The authors describe the development and implementation of the activity and provide recommendations for other librarians involved in outreach to K–12 students.     

Library Service to Student Athletes

Abstract

Student athletes at Penn State have been identified and targeted as an underserved population, and over the past year a new outreach program has been created and piloted to meet their needs. The student athletes share the characteristics of distance learners much of the time and present a number of challenges to the librarians who serve as mentors for this program. This paper describes this project, emphasizing the different skills and technologies necessary to reach this unique group of students.     

Checking Out the Library: Partnering for Outreach to Short-Term International Students

In the academic year 2015–2016, librarians at Eastern Washington University implemented a series of outreach events for incoming cohorts of international students from Japan participating in a short-term English language program on their campus. The outcome of those outreach efforts has yielded valuable insights into the challenges associated with reaching a short-term international student population, and the particularly vital importance of a strong partnership with program faculty and staff.     

Reconnecting the Disconnects: Library Outreach to Faculty as Addressed in the Literature

While academic librarians have always sought to create the best services for college faculty and students, the increasingly self-defined “teacher-librarian” needs more than ever to promote positive relationships and collaboration with classroom faculty. Based on a review of library literature, this article explores the nature of several disconnects between librarians and college or university faculty and examines the ways in which library outreach to faculty in its various forms seeks to bridge those gaps. The author maintains that library outreach addresses the issues between librarians and may result in higher levels of advocacy, collaboration, and collegiality.     

A Value-Added Partnership Between a Chief Learning Officer and a Medical Librarian

A community-based participatory research project was conducted to identify health information needs of clients (an underserved population) at a homeless shelter. Staff at the shelter, medical students, and public librarians were sought as outreach partners; their needs and challenges in accessing health information resources to serve underserved populations were also assessed. The community needs assessment yielded results that helped shape a medical library's efforts in supporting medical students’ service-learning activities related to humanistic education. The resulting data also informed library decisions on health information education outreach programs tailored to vulnerable, underserved populations and community partners serving the specific populations in the communities.     

Libraries Across the Sea: Using a Virtual Presence and Skilled Student Assistants to Serve Students Abroad

The authors discuss methods and challenges of supporting branch academic libraries overseas that are not staffed onsite by librarians or permanent staff. The authors present their two-pronged approach of creating a virtual presence carefully customized to the needs of the students studying abroad along with specially and highly trained student workers. The new program, grounded partly in theories from education and business management, is shown to have substantially improved both library services for our study abroad students as well as library student workers’ performance.     

Providing Health Sciences Services in a Joint-Use Distributed Learning Library System: An Organizational Case Study

The purpose of this organizational case study is to describe the complexities librarians face when serving a multi-campus institution that supports both a joint-use library and expanding health sciences academic partnerships. In a system without a centralized health science library administration, liaison librarians are identifying dispersed programs and user groups and collaborating to define their unique service and outreach needs within a larger land-grant university. Using a team-based approach, health sciences librarians are communicating to integrate research and teaching support, systems differences across dispersed campuses, and future needs of a new community-based medical program.     

When it's all Greek: The Importance of Collaborative Information Literacy Outreach Programming to Greek Student Organizations

This article examines the rationale and benefits of establishing collaborative outreach partnerships between academic librarians and student services professionals to meet the information literacy needs of Greek students. Through a literature review and case study, the authors discuss the realities involved in facilitating this kind of collaboration and its potential to create meaningful co-curricular outreach programming.     

Matters of scale: small-scale intensive outreach to graduate students

Abstract

As an alternative to large-scale outreach events, three public services librarians created a series of small-scale outreach events aimed at educating graduate students about library services and increasing positive perceptions of the library. The librarians ran five events with a 2:1 student-to-librarian ratio, and one event with a 13:1 student-to-librarian ratio. Using pre- and post-event surveys, the librarians evaluated student knowledge and perceptions of library services. Events of both sizes indicated that graduate students valued the outreach events and perceived increased comfort with the library following the events. However, the events with 2:1 ratios resulted in higher perceived comfort levels and more interest in scheduling follow-up appointments with librarians than the 13:1 ratio event. The researchers of this case study conclude that small-scale events have positive benefits for graduate students and that outreach assessment can be used to justify the increased time and cost commitments that are necessary for small-scale outreach events.     

The personal librarian program: an evaluation of a Cushing/Whitney Medical Library outreach initiative

The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library (CWML) at the Yale School of Medicine has offered a "Personal Librarian" (PL) program to medical center students since 1996. This outreach program matches students to a professional librarian as they matriculate, a relationship that is maintained until the student graduates. PLs offer individualized assistance for almost anything-from interpreting library policies and procedures to helping locate materials to assisting with thesis research. The program requires nominal effort on the part of the librarians, making it possible to expand the program to include other student groups. A recent survey revealed that students are extremely satisfied with the program and would generally welcome more contact from their PL.     

University of Central Florida Librarians on Location

Abstract

Librarians on Location is an innovative project implemented at the University of Central Florida and is designed to move reference service out of the library to meet the needs of students. At two campus locations outside of the library, librarians use a wireless laptop to provide reference service and demonstrate library resources. The intent is to proactively meet the information needs of those students and faculty who might otherwise remain unaware of the extensive resources provided by the library. The nature of the project also addresses differing information-seeking styles in an informal setting. Because of the location in different buildings on campus, the project enhances the library's visibility to faculty, administrators, and students. Librarians on Location is one part of an ongoing and innovative outreach program at the University of Central Florida Library.     

Connecting Students of the Present,Past, and Future: An Activist Approach to the Collection and Use of Student Documents in the University Archives

ABSTRACT

Student documents, including scrapbooks, diaries, and student organization records, are invaluable resources for the study of higher education, reform movements, and intellectual and social trends. Not only do they provide fodder for scholarship and classroom instruction, these materials serve the multi-faceted research needs of administrators, alumni, and the community. In order to document student experience fully, it is essential that archivists and librarians institute an innovative outreach program that underlines the importance of maintaining and utilizing student related documents, and in the process actively engages students, faculty, administrators, and alumni in the archives' program.     

The role of the academic library in supporting LGBTQ students: A survey of librarians and library administrators at LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities

This study engages public services librarians and librarians in administrative or managerial positions in a conversation about LGBTQ student needs. Using a sample from the Campus Pride Index’s Best 25 LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities, the researchers gathered information regarding outreach, collections, facilities, services, and policies for LGBTQ students. The results of this survey suggest that, while there is a great deal of support for LGBTQ students among librarians, the Campus Pride criteria is not entirely being met. There is an unclear delineation between the role of the library in promoting LGBTQ friendliness, and the role of the larger university, which may be related to the uncertain position of the library in the campus environment. However, the empathy that librarians in both decision and non-decision making roles have towards LGBTQ students opens up the possibility of deeper conversations and proactive, innovative support services in the future.     

Creating an online information literacy course for concurrent enrollment students: A collaboration with a state-sponsored online school

This article discusses a collaborative project to create an online one-credit library research course for high school students in a dual credit program. The project included a team of reference and instruction librarians at a midsize public university, the university's concurrent enrollment program, and an online state-sponsored school that provided courses to high school students. Current literature related to the information literacy knowledge gap, outreach to secondary schools, dual credit or concurrent enrollment programs, and for-credit online information literacy courses is reviewed. The process of creating the course will be discussed along with the benefits and challenges of the project.     

Beyond Disciplines: Providing Outreach to Underserved Groups by Demographic

As more students, faculty, and staff from traditionally underrepresented groups enter universities and colleges, academic libraries must find ways to reach out to these groups in order to better meet their unique educational needs. In this article, librarians from two large public universities describe how they used data about their communities to determine which underserved groups might need additional outreach, and then marketed library tools and services to student veterans, students with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students.     

Reference Services and Collection Development Faculty Outreach Through the Campus Network

Abstract

Effective reference services and collection development in a small academic library depend upon collaborative planning and performance by the entire library staff. Coordination of library activities and understanding of the library and college mission are the foundations of a program responsive to the needs of the college community. Partnerships between the library and classroom faculty ensure that curricular needs are satisfied through activities as diverse as bibliographic instruction and materials acquisition. Traditional interactions have been greatly enhanced through rapid advances in telecommunications, offering librarians additional tools for faculty outreach.     

Library Outreach Positions: From Planning to Practice

East Tennessee State University has a diverse student population of approximately 12,500 students. Recent statistics have indicated that the student body is bypassing the physical library building, including reference services, and connecting to online sources from off campus. With only six public service librarians whose duties include interlibrary loan, instruction, and other key library functions, librarians are limited in their ability to provide outreach to those students who might never enter the library. In this article, the authors describe the decision process in developing outreach librarian positions for the graduate programs librarian and the undergraduate student services librarian and discuss the specific services that these librarians provide to students.     

Investigating the participation of business librarians in academic program reviews using corpus-based methods

Prior research into the role of business librarians in academic program reviews has relied on surveys and interviews, revealing that librarians perceive that they are marginalized in the review process. Using a collection of program review documentation produced for the reviews of nine graduate programs offered at a Canadian business school, this study employs corpus-based techniques to obtain direct measures of librarian involvement. The findings provide objective confirmation that business librarians are not well integrated into program reviews overall, and that their contribution to the reviews of professional programs is even more limited than their contribution to the reviews of research-oriented programs. Based on best practices and missed opportunities observed as part of this study, seven strategies are suggested for integrating business librarians more fully in the program review process for the benefit of all program stakeholders.     

“I Wanna Be in the Room Where It Happens”…: Using Curriculum Mapping to Support the Information Literacy Goals of Online Programs

Embedding information literacy and instruction within an online program can be a difficult process to begin. Curriculum mapping guides librarians to the courses where their services can have the most impact. However, curriculum mapping can seem like an overwhelming and unwieldly process. This case study demystifies the process and shows how simple and effective curriculum maps can be designed and utilized. Particularly in environment with a single librarian dedicated to online outreach serving as a coordinator for other subject liaison librarians, curriculum mapping is a tool that allows for clear communication, outreach and systematic assessment. This paper will provide an overview of how the curriculum maps were developed, how they were used for communication and outreach both within and outside the Libraries, and ideas for programmatic assessment based upon the maps.     

Reaching Out to International Students: A Focus-Group Approach to Developing Web Resources and Services

Librarians at the State University of New York at Buffalo implemented the Resources for International Students Web guide to support library outreach to a multicultural and multilingual audience. A focus group helped librarians to understand the needs of new international students and tailor Web resources accordingly. In addition to creating awareness of international student cultural challenges, this article presents focus-group guidelines to assist in the planning process of library services and resources.