The Library as a Campus Sustainability Champion

Library collaboration with other campus departments is a key method of cultivating and demonstrating value, both in terms of fruitful connections and increased impact. A library collaboration with the campus sustainability office accomplishes this task, and helps to promote a cause that is important to the entire campus community. This poster will explore how collaborative projects between the library and campus sustainability officer resulted in the increase in the library’s status as a champion of innovative and important initiatives, the opportunity to work with students to accomplish projects, and the chance to make a positive difference in the world. Initiatives included creating a library sustainability committee, co-authoring a grant to add plastic bag recycling to the library, switching to compostable dinnerware for library celebrations, creating a large-scale library display for Earth Month, and working with custodial staff to change the ratio and placement of recycling and garbage bins in the library. Even these modest efforts have increased the library’s profile and allowed library staff to contribute their efforts to a meaningful initiative. This poster will be especially useful for libraries that are looking to get started incorporating some sustainability topics into their outreach and programming efforts

Discovery Search Tools: A Comparative Study

This review allows librarians to compare three of the major discovery services–EBSCO Discovery Service, Ex Libris’ Primo and Serials Solutions’ Summon–on the basis of price, content, user experience, features and functionality and back-end configuration to make informed decisions about the best tool for their institutions. Design/methodology/approach The comparisons were made through a literature review, study of the vendors’ websites, several interviews and personal usability testing of each tool. Findings The tools each have their strengths and weaknesses, and a decision of which tool is most appropriate for an institution varies depending on the institution’s needs and current situation. Originality/value A literature review shows that no study has yet been conducted comparing these three discovery tools, and few comparative studies of discovery tools have been published recently

Citation Managers 101: RefWorks and Zotero

Workshop on Zotero and Refworks by Mandi Goodsett, Performing Arts and Humanities Librarian. Refreshments will be available in MC 429 for networking and further discussion until 1 pm. Even if you are unable to attend, we hope that you will encourage students to come and learn about the citation managers

Supporting faculty through an open education and affordability gratitude campaign

Purpose The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how an academic library can use a library-led, public, positive, and broad faculty gratitude campaign to help a campus embrace a culture of open education. Design/methodology/approach Using a literature review of faculty outreach efforts in the area of open education and an examination of the psychology of persuasion, this library developed a gratitude campaign that consisted of a faculty video, letters from the provost, signed cards from students, door hangers, and the delivery of swag bags to faculty offices. Findings While it is challenging to assess how much an initiative may have changed campus culture, initial responses to the gratitude campaign have been overwhelmingly positive. In addition, it cost little or nothing to develop the campaign and materials can be reused in future events and initiatives. Practical implications Changing campus culture, maintaining momentum in a program with limited funding, and reaching reluctant faculty are all challenges for open education initiatives. Initiating a gratitude campaign can begin to address all of these by being public, positive, and inclusive. This case study describes how a campus could adopt any or all of the gratitude campaign strategies and it includes openly licensed examples, templates, and models for readers to use. Originality/value Open education and affordability efforts that use presentations, grant programs, and awards are common on academic campuses. However, when funding is tight or these efforts fail to reach new audiences, a gratitude campaign can make inroads where these traditional efforts are limited

Whip Up a Statewide Team of Affordable Learning Ambassadors

In 2016, OhioLINK, Ohio’s statewide higher education library consortium, reached out to its member library deans and directors asking for suggestions about emerging demands that might be addressed at the statewide level. Library leadership expressed a need to address textbook affordability and to explore how libraries and OhioLINK could lead the charge to make course materials more affordable. OhioLINK developed a multi-faceted strategy, based on a long history of determining different pathways that could work for different institutions depending on funding, staffing, faculty interest, and administrative support. The first course of action was to “whip up” a team of library champions to help support the affordable learning efforts led by OhioLINK

An eLearning Partnership: Applying the Quality Matters Rubric to Online Library Instructional Materials

As more students experience higher education in distance courses and online degree programs, librarians recognize the importance of their presence in campus learning management systems (LMSs). To provide this important distance support in the most effective way possible, librarians should follow online instructional design best practices. This poster describes one librarian’s experiences collaborating with her eLearning Department to learn about the Quality Matters (QM) program, and the steps she took to apply the QM rubric to her own online learning objects. The QM program uses a research-inspired rubric and peer-review system to ensure high quality online courses for participating institutions. While QM is usually applied to credit-bearing online courses, the librarian found it valuable to apply the QM rubric to her online workshops, and she will share ways for attendees to use QM values to improve the design and delivery of a variety of information literacy online learning objects

Commitment, Respect, and Trust: The Building Blocks of a Strong Mentoring Relationship

Many formal mentoring programs only call for one characteristic in prospective mentors and mentees: a willingness to participate. However, research has shown that there are specific mentor (and mentee) characteristics and behaviors that encourage a meaningful, lasting mentoring experience. Generally, these characteristics and behaviors fall into three categories: (1) a commitment to the relationship, (2) mutual respect between mentor and mentee, and (3) mutual trust.1 Fortunately, these attributes can be nurtured in mentors and mentees, especially when the relationship is given careful forethought. In this chapter, the mentoring relationship is examined, particularly the central elements of mutual commitment, respect, and trust. Relevant theory and research are applied and a sample mentoring agreement is appended