Thinking Outside the Building: Developing a Library Ambassador Program Across Campus(es)

In an effort to address declining university retention rates and to reach students who may not make it to the library for research help, the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is in the process developing a peer-mentoring program. This program is one way the library can help the institution in its efforts raise student retention rates and improve student success. Peer learning programs have proven successful in tutoring centers and elsewhere in the university for decades, and research has shown that trained undergraduates are ideal candidates for delivering general reference and information literacy instruction to their peers (Bodemer, 2014). It is the library’s hope that seeding the campus with library ambassadors will help raise the profile of the library and information literacy on campus and at our satellite campuses as well. ETSU’s Library Ambassador Program entails hiring undergraduates each fall and offering them two semesters of information literacy training with a specific focus on learning the databases within their respective fields. Once training is complete, ambassadors are deployed in the academic buildings of their majors to help students with research and to connect students requiring in-depth help to librarians. As word of the program continues to spread, requests for ambassadors at satellite campuses and at additional main-campus computer labs has grown, and in the Fall of 2018, the library plans to hire 20 additional ambassadors to meet these needs. It is the library’s goal for the Library Ambassador Program to continue to grow each fall until ambassadors are stationed in each computer lab, residence hall, and academic building on and off campus

Reimagine the Possibilities: Shifting a Peer Reference Program from In-person to Online to Hybrid

In 2017, the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University launched the Library Ambassador Program (LAP), a peer-reference program through which trained undergraduate students employed by the library are stationed in buildings across campus to help students with their research. Just as the LAP was gaining traction, COVID-19 forced a quick transition to online mode. This presentation will discuss the value we found in shifting our program online and how the LAP functions now in a hybrid space, supporting information literacy both online and in-person across campuses. Participants wishing to develop their own peer-mentoring program will come away with practical tips on creating an information literacy curriculum designed for a hybrid environment and implementing a hybrid service model for peer-reference help

Peer Reference & Beyond: Cultivating Community in an Information Literacy Program

In 2017 the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University created the Library Ambassador Program as a peer-reference model of service for research help. Since that time, our program has grown into a large close-knit community of undergraduate students invested in forwarding information literacy across campus. Learn about how this unique program fosters a sense of community among the student workers it employs and throughout the larger college campus community

MegaPipe: the MegaCam image stacking pipeline at the Canadian Astronomical Data Centre

This paper describes the MegaPipe image processing pipeline at the Canadian Astronomical Data Centre. The pipeline combines multiple images from the MegaCam mosaic camera on CFHT and combines them into a single output image. MegaPipe takes as input detrended MegaCam images and does a careful astrometric and photometric calibration on them. The calibrated images are then resampled and combined into image stacks. The astrometric calibration of the output images is accurate to within 0.15 arcseconds relative to external reference frames and 0.04 arcseconds internally. The photometric calibration is good to within 0.03 magnitudes. The stacked images and catalogues derived from these images are available through the CADC website:Comment: Data available at http://www.cadc-ccda.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/megapipe/index.htm

Making the Transition: Developing a Peer-Mentoring Program Targeting Transfer Students

In 2017, the ETSU Library developed a peer-mentoring program targeting transfer students from local community colleges. The intent was to ease the transition from community college to our four-year university, to help students establish an ETSU identity before arriving on campus, and to offer undergraduates research help from trained peers

Games and Roleplaying in the Classroom

The Library Ambassador Program hires approximately 20 undergraduate students each fall and provides them with two semesters of information literacy and research skills instruction before deploying them across campus to help students with their research. As part of their training, instructors use various game-play strategies in the classroom including: a card game designed to teach players about databases and how they function, a card game intended to teach players how to evaluate sources of information, and a roleplaying activity meant to prepare ambassadors for experiences in helping students. Many emotions are involved in the action of gameplay such as competitiveness, satisfaction, and excitement. The card games and roleplaying activities we play in class harness these emotions to create a fun and engaging way to develop research skills. Games in this context also provide opportunities for collaborative learning as students work together to problem-solve and to learn new skills

Engaging Students in Information Literacy: Lessons from Our Library Ambassador Program

The Library Ambassador Program hires approximately 25 undergraduate students each fall and provides them with two semesters of information literacy and research skills instruction before deploying them across campus to help students with their research. As part of their training, instructors use various game-playing and active learning strategies in the classroom including: a card game designed to teach players about databases and how they function, group problem-solving exercises, a card game intended to teach players how to evaluate sources of information, and a roleplaying activity meant to prepare ambassadors for experiences in helping students. In this session, participants will learn effective methods for implementing active and collaborative learning strategies to engage students in information literacy instruction

Developing a Peer-Mentoring Program to Expand Information Literacy across Campus

In an effort to expand information literacy throughout our institution and to reach students who may not make it to the library for research help, our library faculty have developed a peermentoring program. The Library Ambassador Program entails hiring undergraduate students, providing them with two semesters of information literacy instruction and deploying them across campus to help students with their research

Let Your Library Shine: Creating a Student Newsletter to Raise the Profile of an Academic Library

Developed to raise the profile of the library among ETSU\u27s student community, which is comprised of nearly 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students, The Sherrod Library Student Newsletter is released twice per semester and highlights library events, resources, and services that students may not otherwise know about. It is our library\u27s hope that creating such a newsletter will increase student attendance at library events as well as increase the use of featured library resources and services. Join us as we discuss the steps and logistics of planning, creating, funding, and releasing a student newsletter