Faculty–library collaborations in digital history: A case study of the travel journal of Cornelius B. Gold

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors present a case study on a teaching and learning initiative in digital humanities at Connecticut College. The article outlines a project in which students in a midlevel history course collaborated with library staff and faculty to develop a digital exhibition on a nineteenth-century journal in the College's collection. The cooperative approach and institutional support that the team received provided an effective and flexible means for achieving common goals. As students applied emergent technologies to college collections, they were able to conduct meaningful research and bring archival resources to new audiences.     

A Review of: “Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases: Modern Methodologies. Tibayrenc,Michel, ed.”

ABSTRACT

Hospital libraries serving military bases offer a different perspective on library services. Two libraries located on islands in the Pacific Ocean provide services to active duty service men and women, including those deployed to other regions of the world. In addition, these hospital libraries serve service members’ families living on the base, and often citizens from the surrounding communities.     

Faculty–library collaboration: A model for University of Colombo

Faculty–library collaboration paves the way to make students information literate and finally to make them life-long learners. In traditional universities, the faculty–library collaboration is an emerging phenomenon as these two entities are driven by separate agendas; teaching and providing services. Rapid development in information and communication technologies has built a platform for these two institutions to work collaboratively and for making synergies. The purpose of this paper is to describe the conceptual model for faculty–library collaboration based on the extensive literature review and some strategies used by librarians at University of Colombo to collaborate with the academics.     

Where the private meets the public: Results of a survey of library professionals’ observed student use of academic library spaces for prayer

Abstract

Reports of college students using the library for spiritual practices, including prayer and meditation, consist mainly of anecdotal observations, news stories, or press releases about the creation of such spaces within academic libraries. Driven by their own experiences with students using library spaces for prayer, the authors examined how prevalent this was across US academic institutions. Using a large-scale national survey, this study found library professionals observe a wide range of student prayer behavior in a variety of library spaces, regardless of institutional or campus demographics. The results provide academic libraries with evidence to support accommodating students’ spiritual needs in library spaces.     

The impact of library instruction: do first-year medical students use library resources specifically highlighted during instructional sessions?

Objectives:

The research sought to determine if first-year medical students consulted and cited resources specifically highlighted during library instructional sessions.

Methods:

Students attended a library resources instructional session. Resources that pertained to the students'' assignment were demonstrated and discussed. The students created a report including citations from relevant literature. The citations were analyzed and categorized as: a resource discussed at the instructional session, a resource found on the course LibGuide, a library resource, course material, or some other resource. All citations were subcategorized as print or electronic.

Results:

Three years (2008–2011) of data analyzing 2,983 citations showed that 49.55% of all citations were from resources discussed during library instructional sessions; 21.86% came from resources with links on the course LibGuide; 77.51% were from library resources; and 90.68% came from electronic resources.

Conclusion:

Students cited resources specifically highlighted during library instructional sessions for their assignments. The percentage of all citations coming from resources highlighted during the instructional sessions or found on the course LibGuide indicates that library instruction had an impact on the students'' work.

Highlights

• Review of the literature shows that instruction about library resources accompanied by clear guidelines on scholarly research methods and resources provided by course instructors have the biggest impact on the quality of cited materials in student bibliographies.
• Graduate medical students cited library resources more frequently than nonlibrary resources for their assigned coursework.
• Graduate medical students cited materials and resources specifically highlighted during library instructional sessions for their assigned coursework.

Implications

• Instruction about library resources tailored to medical students'' assignments impacts the resources that the students consult and cite for their assignments.
• Using the information gathered from citation analysis to modify teaching plans can impact the effectiveness of library instructional sessions.