Weathering the Storm: Riding the Waves of an Evolving Profession in Turbulent Times

Librarians are no strangers to re-envisioning themselves. From the closed stacks and “guardians of information” era, to the open learning commons and information desk model, we have evolved as needed to better serve the needs of our communities. As we adapt to changes in technology, information needs, and learning models, we aim to remain viable, maintain sustainable practices, and still feel invigorated by our profession. This can be a struggle given the need to continue some traditional aspects of librarianship, while trying to incorporate innovative information literacy practices, dynamic collection development, and cross-campus collaboration.. Non-library faculty and campus administration often have an “ideal library” in mind that doesn’t necessarily fit with the changing professional identity of some academic librarians. Library faculty often feel a sense of double-consciousness as they are asked to support other faculty, but also engage in their own teaching and scholarship. Additionally, as budgets shrink, it can be difficult to remain optimistic about the viability of the library. However, uncertain budgets, and a rapidly evolving environment has given one library a sense of opportunity and a desire to proactively change their identity on campus. This panel focuses on how library faculty at one public liberal arts institution are working toward reframing themselves, their work, and their library. They will discuss the challenges and benefits of reframing information literacy sessions, and creating and teaching in an Information Studies minor. They will highlight the changes in workload as they looked to new ways of working with campus faculty on information literacy, collection development, and liaison work, and became involved in campus initiatives beyond the library. They will address the challenges and opportunities that arise from using students to staff the library’s information desk and teach database demonstrations in place of librarians. Finally, they will discuss how their identity is evolving to incorporate new Framework principles and what they envision for the future of their library. Attendees of this session will leave with an understanding of the benefits and challenges of changing public service models, liaison roles, and instruction and reference work for library faculty

DeWitt Wallace Library Annual Report 2013-2014

Summary of library and media services activities for 2013-201

Annotated Bibliography: The Reference Desk: Grand Idea or Gone Down the River?

This bibliography is from a panel presentation at the 2017 ACL Conference. The goal of this panel was to explore different rationales or sets of values that illustrated the continuation of the reference desk and reference service as essential to the success of the academic community. We discovered that “what to do with reference” is far from a settled question. We discovered passionate arguments, diverse models, and an array of data. In this current stage of figuring out the value of academic libraries to the campus as a whole and to students in particular, it seemed that there was limited hard data connecting Reference services to how they met students’ needs. How do we make ourselves valuable, important, essential, and useful? Maybe we need to change our model? If so, how do we examine ourselves and our environment appropriately to make this happen? What factors should we examine? Which ones must we keep? What things can we discard or change? When students come to seek assistance, they generally need the short, instant, and personal help, without having to attend a whole training session or class. Individual and personalized guidance for their immediate need is the most important factor for them. How do libraries provide that

Aiming for service excellence: Implementing a plan for customer service quality at a blended service desk

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations that excel in customer service. The article identifies key organizational structures that have been shown to support or hinder good service and discusses the process of implementing these structures in practice and the results of an assessment process designed around determining success

Managing the Reference Desk Online

Communication between reference librarians is vital for the provision of enhanced reference services. This article discusses the creation and application of three Web-based tools that allow librarians to offer quick answers to questions posed on the library’s e-mail reference service, to easily share news and ideas with each other between reference desk shifts, and to be actively involved in the scheduling of reference desk shifts

Raising the Bar on Training at Valparaiso University

We have recently overhauled our IT training program that we offer our students, faculty and staff. In the past, the training program consisted of sessions about changes to campus systems or sessions related to very specific software uses such as mail merge or tables. Users can now expect that training will be more than software use and how-to’s. We have started looking at ways to enhance our clients overall use of campus technology. As we examined ways to better serve our campus community, we engaged in qualitative observations in many areas. We examined how our graduate students were using technology to collaborate. The faculty were observed by our training staff to see how they were employing campus technology in courses and integrating technology into their assignments given to students. We interviewed our Help Desk Student Consultants to see what they observed as major training goals throughout the campus based on their interactions with clients. Upon completion of our observations, we outline our course development plans for increasing technology integration and full use of our campus technology offerings to further our mission of enhancing learning, teaching and job function through technology. Our goal is to reach beyond the software functionality and take our clients to the apex of relevance and application

Libraries in transition: evolving the information ecology of the Learning Commons: a sabbatical report

This sabbatical report studied various models in order to determine best practices for design, implementation and service of Leaning Commons, a library service model which functionally and spatially integrates library services, information technology services, and media services to provide a continuum of services to the user

Creating Pathways to Develop Student Professionalism - A New Direction

The 2007-2008 academic year brought a new program of student employment to our IT department called IT Fellows. This program brings together the technological skills of IT along with soft business skills to assist our student employees in becoming well-rounded individuals fully prepared for life after college. In previous years our primary area of student employment was the Help Desk in which there was a tiered system in place with opportunities for resume and interview experience, raises, and promotions. The area of training needed further development and the move to the new program provided enhanced opportunities for training at all levels of employment. First-year candidates attend a week-long Leadership Academy, followed by a full year of training in four six-week rotations of their choice, after which they interview for year-long assignments as interns. Internship opportunities are provided in all areas of the department as well as some campus departments outside of IT, and provide transcript credit for them to carry forward in their prospective careers. As they progress, some upper-class Fellows become mentors, coaches, managers, and trainers themselves. All Fellows participate in educational seminars throughout the year which address many areas of technology and professionalism. Come journey with us as we explore the new terrain of students as colleagues, and the benefits of expanding time staff as well as student employees

Reframing Library Student Employment as a High-Impact Practice: Implications from Case Studies

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how academic libraries can directly contribute to campus student success initiatives through student employment programs. Case studies from the perspectives of two supervisors demonstrate how library student employment programs can intentionally incorporate the characteristics of High-Impact Practices. This paper builds upon a previously published systematic review of the academic library literature on student employment, which found a significant gap in the discussion of employment as a mechanism for learning and retention. This paper aims to address this gap by focusing on practical applications for creating more learner-centered student employment programs