Closing the Loop: Creating Deliverables That Add Value

As special collections librarians and liaison librarians work together to create in­novative experiences working with primary source material, it is important to remember students have much to offer in the collaborative design process. In this case study, Prudence Doherty, a special collections librarian, and Daniel DeSanto, an instruction librarian, describe a project they initiated and implemented with upper-level education majors at the University of Vermont (UVM). The students were pre-service teachers (student teachers working toward degree and licensure) enrolled in Social Education and Social Studies, a course that focuses on teaching methods, assessment alternatives, and resources used in the elementary (K–4) classroom. The project gave the pre-service teachers an opportunity to work with three digital collections in order to design lesson plans for elementary-aged stu­dents. The project closed the loop of learn, create, and teach by requiring students to learn evaluative approaches to working with historical material and then create lesson plans based on those approaches. By creating professional resources for other teachers, the students added value to the digital collections

Behind the Scenes: Secrets of Preparing for Successful Research Appointments

Have you ever noticed how librarians are stereo-typically portrayed in movies and on TV? There is the perception that librarians are extremely uptight, awkward, and boring, that they require nearly complete silence, and they rarely offer any actual help. That is definitely not what being an academic librarian is about. For me, it’s about helping, learning new ideas, exchanging information, and making the research process (which I love!) a bit easier. Remember the librarians in Matilda or on Arthur? They were always willing to help and make the process of finding resources a little bit easier. That’s what I want to do. Over the last couple weeks, I have been helping students navigate the research process through one-on-one research appointments. [excerpt

Scout the road ahead: The early-career librarian's guide to using the academic calendar to manage your workload

This poster was presented at ALA 2017, the annual conference of the American Library Association.Committee volunteer opportunities, calls for proposals, instruction requests, and collection development deadlines can all sneak up on the early-career librarian, leaving them feeling overwhelmed at certain points during the academic year. This poster for early-career academic librarians will use graphics, charts, and bullet points to map out specific "crunch points" and important deadlines according to where they fall in the academic calendar. We will also have a handout that early-career librarians can use to remember questions to ask at their current or new institutions about specific deadlines and points in the academic calendar, such as the end of the fiscal year. This planning guide and poster will help early-career librarians recognize times each year when their workload is likely to increase or when they need to be prepared to submit proposals for conferences so that they can capitalize on opportunities, better organize their time and plan ahead to minimize stress and anxiety

Librarians Across The Sea: ACL And Missions

The Association of Christian Librarians (ACL) is missions-hearted, missions-minded, and missions-handled. This stance was vital to the founders. It is also vital for the calling and ministry of the present membership. We shall expand and illustrate these statements. The past, present development, and future will be covered

Learning and Libraries: Competencies for Full Participation

published or submitted for publicatio

How do you spell 'support'? Multiple methods of library support to distributed education programs

This paper consists of librarians from two universities, one in the US and one in Canada, discussing and demonstrating the various ways they offer support to multiple distributed education programs. Because different programs on the same campus often offer distributed courses in different formats, libraries are required to become expert in all formats offered. This presentation will discuss library support via WebCT, Blackboard, FirstClass, proprietary courseware, email, the web, and Conferencing software. Where appropriate, differences between library support in the US and Canada will be noted and examined