Jumping onto the Bandwagon: New Librarians Navigating the Science/Technology Librarianship

Abstract The terminology of engineering is daunting to the novice librarian without any science background. Library information school (LIS) students without training in scientific disciplines express concerns about pursuing a career in engineering librarianship. Why don’t they get onto the science/technology (sci/tech) bandwagon? What information and inspiration are necessary to sail toward the science and engineering horizons of our profession? A successful transition from graduate student to practicing engineering librarian requires a complex combination of knowledge and skills. The support and assistance of colleagues is critical and the establishment of support groups for various research needs can provide a mechanism for discussing common concerns. The author will discuss strategies to encourage science, engineering, and library students to pursue careers in science/engineering libraries and highlight ideas on recruitment and retention of new science and technology librarians

Nuts and Bolts: Inclusive Library Instructional Practices using UDL Guidelines

Presentation at the Disability, Access, and Teaching One-Day Symposium on April 10, 2019. Washington, DC. “UDL & Teacher Perspectives” Roundtable (Karina Jeronomides, AU; Alyssa Hillary, U of Rhode Island; Sara Luterman; Nedelina Tchangalova, UMD; Sarah Irvine Belson, Christine Bresnahan & Charlotte Morse, AU)Librarians face challenges in designing and creating inclusive learning environment for students who are diverse not only in terms of age, race, sex, (dis)Ability, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, but they are also different in the ways of how they learn. At the University of Maryland – College Park, librarians, teaching faculty and instructional designers are working together to create accessible content for eLearning and to reach out to a wider population of learners using recent technological tools and existing university’s content management infrastructure. Digital technologies, online resources, and mobile devices coupled with the guiding principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework and the University of Maryland (UMD) Web Accessibility Guidelines allowed to tailor instruction practices to create an inclusive and accessible learning environment for every student. I incorporated various tools and resources in order to achieve the learning objectives set up for library instruction classes. In this presentation, I will provide practical tips and tricks for applying the UDL framework and web accessibility principles into my instruction efforts

Enhancing Library Instruction with Crossword Puzzles in Kinesiology Classes

The poster was presented at the 2016 Tri-Chapter Meeting (MACMLA, NY-NJ and PHIL Chapters), The 3Ls - Librarians, Leadership and Learning on September 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, PA (http://macmla.libguides.com/tri-chapter2016-posters).BACKGROUND: The goal was to determine if using crossword puzzles increases students’ engagement in learning information literacy concepts. METHODS: Crossword puzzles were designed with a free online tool and distributed in five kinesiology classes during library instruction sessions. Students completed the puzzles as a homework. Feedback from students was solicited in writing on the back side of the crossword puzzles. RESULTS: The crossword puzzles were completed by a total of 64 students, which yielded a response rate of 63% of the total of 101 students enrolled in all five classes. Nearly one third of students submitted written feedback on this activity. They indicated that crossword puzzles were a fun way to review resources available through the libraries and wished to have more of them in other classes. Only a few students found the crossword puzzles challenging and time consuming but a few others liked the challenge and worked with a friend. CONCLUSIONS: When hunting for the answers, students perceived that this assignment prompted them to consult the handouts distributed in class in addition to exploring the library’s web site. Using crossword puzzles is a creative way to reinforce material covered in library instruction classes

Changing Hats: Five Ways to Diversify Your Information Literacy Teaching Toolkit

This chapter offers practical ideas for connecting with students in the classroom, keeping their attention sharp, and making them smile while navigating the information literacy concepts and searching library databases

There is life beyond Google! Effective research tools for finding authoritative resources in family, community and public health

Poster presented at the Bioscience Day 2013: From DNA to Cellular Function, University of Maryland, College ParkThe Internet is an increasingly important source for finding information in public health. Google and Google Scholar are powerful tools to discover this scientific knowledge. However, in academia, researchers often need to dig up beneath the surface and find more authoritative resources and tools beyond the free Internet and to discover contemporary trends in family, community and public health research through paid subscription databases. The aim of this poster is to show advanced search techniques to navigate the information landscape with specialized search engines (e.g. Clinical Key and POPLINE) and in databases (e.g. EMBASE, PubMed, and Scopus).

Sail with the Wind: Inspiring Students and Faculty to Reach Horizons of Academic Success

Poster presented at 2015 MAC/MLA Annual Meeting, "Find Your Inspiration“ in Ashville, NC - October 19, 2015. Image with a boat: http://7-themes.com/7017170-sunset-from-boat.html. Uploaded by ZoRDeX.Building relationships with faculty and students can be challenging for subject librarians. Reaching out to the scholarly community offers opportunities for collaboration through teaching and research. Furthermore, the large spectrum of students’ learning styles creates a challenge for faculty instructors to teach high-level research skills in physical and online classroom environments. In addition to their teaching responsibilities, university faculty pursue research projects as a requirement for tenure and promotion. Rather than continuing the old practice of streamlining information literacy into one-shot lectures where students and faculty alike learned about library services and collections, the author established a partnership with the Associate Dean for Educational Innovation at the School of Public Health. This collaboration proved to be instrumental for further developing a series of library services that support student’s and faculty’s research. This poster presents the evolution of the author’s efforts as a subject library liaison to provide teaching and research assistance to students and faculty in the School. It discusses collaborative activities, marketing the services, assessment methods and insights for the future. Participants will be introduced to effective methods and tools for teaching information literacy concepts

Rooting skills and expertise in liaison work: Strategies for embedded librarianship

Poster presented at the 38th Annual IATUL Conference Bozen-Bolzano, ItalyAs needs for teaching and research faculty evolve, librarians must possess certain knowledge and skills in delivering quick service and expertise. Among those are having a professional subject background, faculty status, commitment and flexibility to provide innovative services, understanding of the research needs of scholars, and technical proficiency in managing electronic records. Building strong librarian-faculty relationships is also a key factor in offering assistance when and where it is needed. The author reviews the current literature on embedded librarianship, identifies best practices and models in faculty-librarian collaboration, and examines successful strategies implemented at the University of Maryland, College Park. Participants will be introduced to effective technologies for providing instructional support, reference assistance, and collaboration with faculty on research projects. In addition, the author shares insight from the application of three approaches: (1) Embedding information literacy sessions into online and face-to-face courses along with offering Librarian’s Office Hours outside of the library; 2) Providing subject specific resources from the library collections for the observance of the Social Justice Day, a campus wide project led by the former dean of the School of Public Health, and 3) Executing literature searches, managing citations and co-writing for a research project consisting of scholars from the United States, Canada and Europe

Teach Smarter with Free Library Resources

Presented at the 2022 UMD Professional Track Faculty Symposium (PTK, https://faculty.umd.edu/2022/video-library).Will your students be required to do a literature review? Do you want your students to be effective researchers and produce better papers for your class? If you answered YES to these questions, don’t delay! Contact a librarian and start planning together for a library session for your students! As the librarian for the School of Public Health, I find that most students have very little knowledge of the resources available to them, or even where to begin serious literary research. How can I help? Have a guest lecture with or without any interactive tools, design a website with resources for one-stop shopping for information resources, meet with students via Zoom, and engage with them through Kahoot!, crossword puzzles, funny quizzes, etc. The librarians are part of the team of UMD faculty who are here to make sure you are a success

Search Engines and Beyond: A Toolkit for Finding Free Online Resources for Science, Technology and Engineering

As many information professionals know, searching the Internet landscape using the Google search engine will find only 20% of the information available on the Internet. Not only are there alternative general search engines beyond Google and Yahoo, there are an abundance of specialized search engines for finding specialized content. Reaching this specialized content requires specific searching skills, knowledge of the structure of the web, and an understanding of how search engines work. The aim of this webliography is to offer a selective list of search engines and information resources that will help science/technology librarians offer more subject-specific information to their STE clientele. This webliography can serve as a starting point for those interested in researching STE resources on the web, or for experienced researchers to find obscure citations. Most of the annotations for the resources were drawn from factual information on the home page as well as commentaries by the authors

Nuts and Bolts: Inclusive Library Instructional Practices Using Universal Design Learning (UDL) Guidelines

Poster presented at the UMD Disability Summit, "Looking to the Future: The ADA Turns 30" on April 5th, 2019, University of Maryland, College Park.Librarians face challenges in designing and creating inclusive learning environment for students who are diverse not only in terms of age, race, gender, (dis)Ability, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, but they are also different in the ways of how they learn. At the University of Maryland –College Park, librarians, teaching faculty and instructional designers are working together to create accessible content for eLearning and to reach out to a wider population of learners using recent technological tools and existing university’s content management infrastructure. Digital technologies, online resources, and mobile devices coupled with the guiding principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework and the University of Maryland (UMD) Web Accessibility Guidelines allowed us to tailor our instructional practices to create an inclusive and accessible learning environment for every student. We incorporated various tools and resources to achieve the learning objectives set up for our library instruction classes. In this poster, we will provide practical tips and tricks for applying the UDL framework and web accessibility principles into our instruction efforts