Conference report, Dartmouth conference 10-7-05
On Friday, Oct. 7, 2005, I attended the October Conference sponsored by the Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries, held at Dartmouth College.
Susan Fliss, director of education and outreach at the Dartmouth College library, presented the first morning session, “Strategies for librarians in cross-campus collaboration. She discussed the goals of collaboration, including showcasing the library’s resources; working with faculty in order to become partners in the education process; publicizing the library’s services. Collaboration is about learning and teaching, students and faculty; librarians’s role as both participants in and supporters of the teaching process. She gave an example of cross-campus collaboration at Dartmouth College: a faculty member teaching first-year English gave her students an assignment that spanned both fall and spring semesters. During the fall semester, the students produced a written term paper; in the spring semester, they produced a multimedia presentation based on the term paper. The librarians were integral to the entire process, guiding the students to proper resources for both assignments. The librarians stressed that they needed to determine what the goal was for the collaboration. The faculty member, Stephanie Boone, said she had grown tired of research papers that were very “high school”, and she wanted to involve someone else in the assignment. She invited the librarian to collaborate; they designed the research exercise together. Both Dr. Boone and the librarian were present in the classroom.
Susan showed a video clip about another cross-campus collaboration between the IT department and the library at UMass-Amherst. The librarian and the IT rep both went to a workshop on collaboration out of state. Before the workshop, the librarian was not aware that there is a separate academic computing department. They started “cookie chats”: casual discussions with food, no agenda, just folks gathering to chat. They mentioned that the chats helped to develop relationships with each other which help tremendously when there are issues or problems that need to be addressed.
Challenges of collaboration include: recognizing how we might get in the way of collaboration and how the other person might. We need to be open about our style: do we need to think about a response/decision or do we prefer to act quickly? We need to think about how we give and receive constructive criticism. “It’s not about the library; it’s about the students.”
Strategies include: identify needs which might be solved through collaboration; potential partners. Articulate goals, outcomes, solutions, and plans. Recognize challenges and roadblocks. Evaluate and re-evaluate.
Martin Kesselman, life sciences librarian at Rutgers University, spoke next on “Opportunities, connections, and synergy: virtual and live collaborations of librarians, students, departments, and industry. He mentioned that collaboration presents more opportunities for funding. He collaborated with the faculty of Cook College at Rutgers in applying for and receiving a USDA Higher Education challenge grant. They created an interdisciplinary course “Food and nutrition business informatics and communication.” The course includes a “virtual collaborative learning laboratory” which included library resources. Connections for students included: created participatory learning communities; cross-fertilization via collaborative work; virtual internships: active learning experience with companies. Mr. Kesselman mentioned some collaboration issues: individual is less important than the team; need for common understanding; keep administrators in the loop; stay on track, make sure everyone is on the same page; look for ways to promote your collaboration and how your collaboration can lead to other partnerships and/or serve as a model for others.
The final morning session was a team presentation by Catherine Crohan, coordinator of library instruction, and Dennis Tamburello, O.F.M., professor of Religious Studies and college core coordinator, both at Siena College in New York, who spoke on “Creating an information literacy plan for first-year students: librarians and students collaborate.” They discussed the “foundations sequence” at Siena: 2-semester course required of all first-year students: writing intensive; small classes; build learning community. The librarians participate in the foundations sequence, to the extent that Ms. Crohan actually taught in the sequence (not just the library portion). The librarians were invited to attend the required “training” session that the faculty participate in; Ms. Crohan stressed that we need to “invite ourselves” if we’re not invited by the leaders to meetings/sessions such as the training session. All faculty teaching in foundations are required to follow certain policies, including “The information literacy plan for foundations.” The key question that the plan tries to answer is “What information literacy skills do we want to focus on during the first and second semesters?” The plan includes focusing on the following skills in the fall semester:
1. How to find things
2. Evaluating the quality of sources
3. Understanding the basics of academic integrity
4. Constructing a bibliography
In the spring semester:
1. Writing a paper that involves significant library research
2. Critical review of sources
The key is that the librarians and the teaching faculty developed this plan and the Foundations faculty is required to follow it.
After lunch, Kathryn Soule, coordinator of outreach and public service at the University of Virginia, presented “Service with a byte: building a new model of customer service.” Library patrons do not necessarily distinguish between questions which should be directed to the library (informational) and those which should be handled by IT (technological). They identified this as a problem at UVA, and a committee was formed to come up with solutions. The science and engineering library and the university’s IT division collaborated to combine their respective service/help desks into a single entity, providing a unified service desk that allows library users to easily obtain assistance with circulation, reference, and computer questions. They did this as a pilot project in the fall of 2004. They cross-trained the student workers to be interchangeable among the various service points. Lessons learned included: different organization culture between IT and the library (library student workers were required to find replacements for their shifts if they couldn’t work; IT students didn’t have that expectation, etc.); they did too much training (3 days, too much according to Ms. Soule); they were too ambitious at the beginning (need to be realistic about goals).
The next afternoon speaker was Scott Walter, assistant dean of libraries for information and instructional services at the University of Kansas; he spoke on “Collaborative planning for collaborative learning: designing and promoting new learning spaces on campus.” In the spring of 2004, the University of Kansas libraries joined with representatives of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Instructional Development and Support, and others, to design a new learning space on campus, to be dedicated to supporting collaborative teaching and learning in a technology-rich environment. A working group was formed to evaluate the needs of faculty and students for learning spaces that bring together print and electronic resources with learning tools that assist in collaborative learning. They wanted to move beyond the existing model of computer labs and group study areas. Their recommendations included: Layout (includes areas for formal instruction; informal study; independent inquiry, and group work. Furnishings (easily reconfigured); Equipment (wired and wireless workstations; whiteboard; software for collaborative work and shared access to information); Support structure for “one-stop shopping.” After the collaborative learning environment was implemented in August of 2004, they noticed patterns of use: academic coursework; student organizations; and IT training. Lessons learned: Involve all campus stakeholders from the beginning; build the case for change as part of broader discussions, i.e. effective teaching; learner-centered instruction; characteristics of “net generation” students; commit to faculty development.
The final speaker of the day was Susan Herzog, information literacy librarian at Eastern Connecticut State University: “Plagiarism: key to collaboration.” Many people on campus are natural allies with the library in educating students about plagiarism: English faculty; Writing Center faculty; judicial officer; Center for Teaching Excellence, etc. Ms. Herzog described several potential models of collaboration: director of the writing center and information specialist at faculty retreat; English department faculty and information literacy librarian at faculty development day; English department faculty, judicial officer, and information literacy librarian at faculty development day; English and History department faculty, judicial officers, and information literacy librarians from multiple campuses at regional faculty development day; English department faculty member from another campus, expert on plagiarism and faculty culture, and information literacy library at regional faculty development day. Challenges: faculty reluctance to confront plagiarism (fear of confrontation, etc.); if you become the resident expert, expect many faculty phone calls and drop-ins; requests to find proof; and requests for the perfect detection software (which doesn’t exist).
Submitted by Janice Schuster, 10/11/05
Susan Fliss, director of education and outreach at the Dartmouth College library, presented the first morning session, “Strategies for librarians in cross-campus collaboration. She discussed the goals of collaboration, including showcasing the library’s resources; working with faculty in order to become partners in the education process; publicizing the library’s services. Collaboration is about learning and teaching, students and faculty; librarians’s role as both participants in and supporters of the teaching process. She gave an example of cross-campus collaboration at Dartmouth College: a faculty member teaching first-year English gave her students an assignment that spanned both fall and spring semesters. During the fall semester, the students produced a written term paper; in the spring semester, they produced a multimedia presentation based on the term paper. The librarians were integral to the entire process, guiding the students to proper resources for both assignments. The librarians stressed that they needed to determine what the goal was for the collaboration. The faculty member, Stephanie Boone, said she had grown tired of research papers that were very “high school”, and she wanted to involve someone else in the assignment. She invited the librarian to collaborate; they designed the research exercise together. Both Dr. Boone and the librarian were present in the classroom.
Susan showed a video clip about another cross-campus collaboration between the IT department and the library at UMass-Amherst. The librarian and the IT rep both went to a workshop on collaboration out of state. Before the workshop, the librarian was not aware that there is a separate academic computing department. They started “cookie chats”: casual discussions with food, no agenda, just folks gathering to chat. They mentioned that the chats helped to develop relationships with each other which help tremendously when there are issues or problems that need to be addressed.
Challenges of collaboration include: recognizing how we might get in the way of collaboration and how the other person might. We need to be open about our style: do we need to think about a response/decision or do we prefer to act quickly? We need to think about how we give and receive constructive criticism. “It’s not about the library; it’s about the students.”
Strategies include: identify needs which might be solved through collaboration; potential partners. Articulate goals, outcomes, solutions, and plans. Recognize challenges and roadblocks. Evaluate and re-evaluate.
Martin Kesselman, life sciences librarian at Rutgers University, spoke next on “Opportunities, connections, and synergy: virtual and live collaborations of librarians, students, departments, and industry. He mentioned that collaboration presents more opportunities for funding. He collaborated with the faculty of Cook College at Rutgers in applying for and receiving a USDA Higher Education challenge grant. They created an interdisciplinary course “Food and nutrition business informatics and communication.” The course includes a “virtual collaborative learning laboratory” which included library resources. Connections for students included: created participatory learning communities; cross-fertilization via collaborative work; virtual internships: active learning experience with companies. Mr. Kesselman mentioned some collaboration issues: individual is less important than the team; need for common understanding; keep administrators in the loop; stay on track, make sure everyone is on the same page; look for ways to promote your collaboration and how your collaboration can lead to other partnerships and/or serve as a model for others.
The final morning session was a team presentation by Catherine Crohan, coordinator of library instruction, and Dennis Tamburello, O.F.M., professor of Religious Studies and college core coordinator, both at Siena College in New York, who spoke on “Creating an information literacy plan for first-year students: librarians and students collaborate.” They discussed the “foundations sequence” at Siena: 2-semester course required of all first-year students: writing intensive; small classes; build learning community. The librarians participate in the foundations sequence, to the extent that Ms. Crohan actually taught in the sequence (not just the library portion). The librarians were invited to attend the required “training” session that the faculty participate in; Ms. Crohan stressed that we need to “invite ourselves” if we’re not invited by the leaders to meetings/sessions such as the training session. All faculty teaching in foundations are required to follow certain policies, including “The information literacy plan for foundations.” The key question that the plan tries to answer is “What information literacy skills do we want to focus on during the first and second semesters?” The plan includes focusing on the following skills in the fall semester:
1. How to find things
2. Evaluating the quality of sources
3. Understanding the basics of academic integrity
4. Constructing a bibliography
In the spring semester:
1. Writing a paper that involves significant library research
2. Critical review of sources
The key is that the librarians and the teaching faculty developed this plan and the Foundations faculty is required to follow it.
After lunch, Kathryn Soule, coordinator of outreach and public service at the University of Virginia, presented “Service with a byte: building a new model of customer service.” Library patrons do not necessarily distinguish between questions which should be directed to the library (informational) and those which should be handled by IT (technological). They identified this as a problem at UVA, and a committee was formed to come up with solutions. The science and engineering library and the university’s IT division collaborated to combine their respective service/help desks into a single entity, providing a unified service desk that allows library users to easily obtain assistance with circulation, reference, and computer questions. They did this as a pilot project in the fall of 2004. They cross-trained the student workers to be interchangeable among the various service points. Lessons learned included: different organization culture between IT and the library (library student workers were required to find replacements for their shifts if they couldn’t work; IT students didn’t have that expectation, etc.); they did too much training (3 days, too much according to Ms. Soule); they were too ambitious at the beginning (need to be realistic about goals).
The next afternoon speaker was Scott Walter, assistant dean of libraries for information and instructional services at the University of Kansas; he spoke on “Collaborative planning for collaborative learning: designing and promoting new learning spaces on campus.” In the spring of 2004, the University of Kansas libraries joined with representatives of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Instructional Development and Support, and others, to design a new learning space on campus, to be dedicated to supporting collaborative teaching and learning in a technology-rich environment. A working group was formed to evaluate the needs of faculty and students for learning spaces that bring together print and electronic resources with learning tools that assist in collaborative learning. They wanted to move beyond the existing model of computer labs and group study areas. Their recommendations included: Layout (includes areas for formal instruction; informal study; independent inquiry, and group work. Furnishings (easily reconfigured); Equipment (wired and wireless workstations; whiteboard; software for collaborative work and shared access to information); Support structure for “one-stop shopping.” After the collaborative learning environment was implemented in August of 2004, they noticed patterns of use: academic coursework; student organizations; and IT training. Lessons learned: Involve all campus stakeholders from the beginning; build the case for change as part of broader discussions, i.e. effective teaching; learner-centered instruction; characteristics of “net generation” students; commit to faculty development.
The final speaker of the day was Susan Herzog, information literacy librarian at Eastern Connecticut State University: “Plagiarism: key to collaboration.” Many people on campus are natural allies with the library in educating students about plagiarism: English faculty; Writing Center faculty; judicial officer; Center for Teaching Excellence, etc. Ms. Herzog described several potential models of collaboration: director of the writing center and information specialist at faculty retreat; English department faculty and information literacy librarian at faculty development day; English department faculty, judicial officer, and information literacy librarian at faculty development day; English and History department faculty, judicial officers, and information literacy librarians from multiple campuses at regional faculty development day; English department faculty member from another campus, expert on plagiarism and faculty culture, and information literacy library at regional faculty development day. Challenges: faculty reluctance to confront plagiarism (fear of confrontation, etc.); if you become the resident expert, expect many faculty phone calls and drop-ins; requests to find proof; and requests for the perfect detection software (which doesn’t exist).
Submitted by Janice Schuster, 10/11/05
posted by Janice at 2:44 PM
