Baby Boomers in the Brave New Academic Library

Excerpt: The baby boomer generation is larger than any generation that has preceded it. Boomers are more likely to live longer and better than previous generations, and they have changed jobs more often than previous generations. They understand the necessity and have the desire to be life-long learners

How IT Continuing Education Has Transformed Our Library

Excerpt: Having the skills and knowledge to adequately respond to technology-based information demands has never been more important. When the library at East Tennessee State University was opened in 1999, it was the first new academic building that had been constructed on the campus in a number of years

A Way to Reach All of Your Students: The Course Management System

Due to a shortage of librarians to teach classes coupled with a growing student body, librarians at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) decided to explore alternative means to deliver instruction. Their charge was to supplement traditional classroom instruction by utilizing ETSU\u27s course management system (Desire2Learn, D2L) to inform students about resources and search techniques. They created a D2L module consisting of short films and documents about the library that faculty could add to their course sites. This paper outlines the process of selecting topics, creating materials for the module, and promoting the module to faculty

LibGuides: Customizing Subject Guides for Individual Courses

Reference librarians at East Tennessee State University\u27s Sherrod Library identified LibGuides as an efficient way to introduce undergraduate students, particularly those in their first two years of college, to the university library. Selecting pertinent library resources based on a course syllabus and creating a LibGuide for the course provides the students with a limited number of relevant materials. Librarians and professors view the use of subject guides attached to a course management system site as an effective educational solution. Librarians facing exponentially expanding resources and first-year students who are used to turning to Google for all their information needs can utilize LibGuides to guide students toward more relevant library resources

Redirecting Library Instruction Based on Socioeconomic Data

Purpose. This paper aims to utilize data collected at the national, state, and local level to analyze our library instruction (LI) program with the goal of designing a program to best suit student needs. Design/methodology/approach. The collection and analysis of national, state, and local economic and computer access and usage statistics was carried out. Findings. Although most incoming freshmen at East Tennessee State University have access to computers and can perform basic computer functions, they do not have the skill set necessary to do college‐level research. Practical implications. Sherrod Library needs to continue providing traditional LI classes. Furthermore, new ways to train incoming freshmen in research methods need to be developed. Originality/value. The use of national, state, and local economic and computer access and usage statistics to create a profile of our students in order to assess LI and outreach programs

Libguides to the Rescue: The Cure for the Same Old Boring Papers

Devising new ways to collaborate with faculty can be a challenge. In offering professors the opportunity to replace a written paper with a LibGuide assignment, the librarians hoped that the close working relationship necessary to ensure the success of this pilot would allow us to become actively engaged in the classroom. From the perspectives of faculty, a LibGuides assignment can represent an interesting alternative to a research paper that offers flexibility in design and content. For students, a LibGuide assignment can not only be fun but also challenging, since they will have to assess everything they put in the guide

Old Tool, New Function: Using LibGuides to Breathe New Life into the End-of-Semester Project

In 2008, Sherrod Library purchased Springshare’s LibGuides to create research guides for the library’s homepage. We also created LibGuides for individual classes when we taught library instruction sessions. Several of our professors worked closely with librarians to create the LibGuides for their classes, and those guides are heavily used. Inspired by this success, we looked for other ways to use LibGuides to connect with our faculty, students, and community. Our most creative use of LibGuides happened in 2013 when several librarians approached carefully-chosen faculty with an invitation to participate in a pilot project. We chose among the professors who routinely requested library instruction sessions; seemed to be open to trying new ways to engage their students; and whose classes were small and not writing intensive. These three professors were invited to a meeting where we offered them the opportunity to replace their traditional written paper with a LibGuide assignment. We explained that students will still have to do quality research to produce a good LibGuide and suggested that there are a number of benefits from replacing a written paper with a LibGuide assignment, including: • the replacement of an assignment that students don’t look forward to writing and professors don’t look forward to grading with a more engaging assignment; • the ability to engage students by assigning a robust research project using a flexible tool that is easy to use; • the creation of an electronic resource that students can easily include in an electronic portfolio. This presentation describes the pilot project