Information Literacy\u27s Secret Weapon: Using Portfolios to Integrate into the Curriculum

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Extracurricular Librarians

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State and Legislative OER Panel

Discussion of Colorado and National OER Legislation Many state governments are supporting or considering supporting OER though related legislation, funding or other significant action. These actions, if executed well, have the power to substantially increase use and production of OER in the given state. Some examples of state supported initiatives are Open Oregon and BCcampus. States have many options for action such as providing funding, creating centralized programs, and requiring certain actions on the part of public institutions such as identifying courses as using OER or having a plan related to OER or the cost of course materials. This panel examines important issues related to the recent bill HB18-1331 in Colorado and proposed and passed legislation or state-sponsored funding or requirements related to OER in other states. The goal is to examine one case in depth (Colorado) and to inform attendees about what is going on at the state and national level. The panel and audience may evaluate the most effective ways in which state or national government can support OER. Panelist 1: Meg Brown-Sica is Assistant Dean for Scholarly Communication and Collections at Colorado State University. She was the representative from CSU to the OER Council created by the legislature in 2017. She has been involved in OER education and organization at CSU and gives several workshops each year at colleges and universities for the Open Textbook Network. Panelist: 2: Brittany Dudek is the Online Instructional Librarian for Library Coordinator at Colorado Community Colleges Online and recently served on the Colorado OER Council. She has spoken at several conferences on topics related to OER and has been a part of the CCC Online’s OER initiatives. Panelist 3: Dr. Karen Danielson is program chair and associate professor of Visual Art s at CCD. Prior to joining the CCD team, she spent seven years teaching courses on the arts and education at Indiana University’s School of Education. She is a proponent of OER and served on the recent legislative committee in Colorado. Panelist 4: Dr. Bruce Herbert is the Director of Scholarly Communication at Texas A & M Libraries. He holds his Ph.D. in Soil Sciences and has taught Geology at Texas A & M. Dr. Herbert is an advocate for OER at Texas A & M and has been following legislative proposals regarding OER in Texas. Panelist 5: Lily Todorinova is the Undergraduate Experience Librarian at Rutgers University, where she coordinates the Open and Affordable Textbook Program (OAT). OAT is an incentive award program for faculty/instructors who redesign their courses to feature open educational resources, or library content. In the first two years of its implementation, OAT has saved approximately $2.1 million to Rutgers students. In addition to OAT, Lily works with a number of undergraduate services and programs, including leadership institutes aimed at first generation college students and students with significant financial needs. Lily was previously the Academic Services Librarian at the University of South Florida. Panelist 6: We will probably have representatives from either SUNY/NY and/or Rutgers in NJ. Outcomes: 1) Examine the recent state legislation in Colorado regarding OER including the process and next steps. Attendees will gain knowledge about how this process worked in particular and how similar initiatives could work. 2) Discuss initiatives in other states and the pros and cons of different types of action. Attendees will gain an understanding of how different sorts of initiatives have had varying degrees of success and will be able to possibly guide similar activity in their own regions. 3) The panel and the audience may come to conclusions about which actions can most effectively support OER production and adoption

Discover EDS: Tales of Implementation and Use

This paper supplements the panel, which was delivered in a “Lively Lunch” format and included presentations by librarians who have employed EBSCO’s Discovery System (EDS) in their academic institutions. The panelists addressed several important aspects of launching a discovery system in an academic library, such as Implementation; Information Literacy; and Assessment, Usability and Customization. The implementation component included technical aspects, business requirements, enhancing the operability of link resolvers, launch preparation, and implementation success. The information literacy portion addressed how academic reference services and library instruction have been transformed because of EDS. Assessment, Usability and Customization focused on customizing the search box and assessing EDS using statistics and usability testing. Michael Gorrell, Executive Vice President of Technology and Chief Information Officer of EBSCO Publishing, was present, and a Q&A time was scheduled at the end of each session for audience members to ask questions, comment, and share experiences. The implementation process of a Discovery Service involves many different aspects and is a large undertaking for any library. Depending on the size of the library, its technology infrastructure, and the number of staff involved, the implementation time can vary greatly. In addition, the planning processes and the considerations made prior to implementation are also affected by the nature and needs of end-users in these institutions. Selecting the resources to include in the discovery service, resolving technical issues, developing a strategy to publicize and market to end-users, and assessing and customizing the product are all part of a continuous course of implementing Discovery Services—a process that begins long before implementation and has no fixed completion. This process involves a collaborative and consorted effort from all areas of librarian expertise, from technical services to public services. The simplicity and comprehensiveness of discovery tools redefine how libraries deliver services across the board, changing the expectations users have of the experience of searching library resources and challenging librarians to redesign instruction and teach information literacy in new ways. These considerations and our own experience with implementing EBSCO’s Discovery System (EDS) at the University of South Florida prompted us to open up a discussion across university and college libraries in the U.S. and across librarian functions, technical, and public services, in order to share, discuss, and learn from each other the lessons of Discovery Service implementation and use. We wanted to focus on the continuous nature of this process, involving the user perspective, as well as the perspective of the vendor, EBSCO. We believe that talking with our colleagues and collaborating with publishers makes us much better positioned to anticipate the changing needs of users and enhance the experience, accessibility, and discoverability of library content

Keynote: OER - Advocacy Service Connections

Keynote address during Building Bridges: Tools for Open Educational Resources (OER) Advocacy and Collaboration at TCUS Libraries , an online workshop held April 13th, 2021 1:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time. Keynote Speaker: Lily Todorinova, Undergraduate Experience Librarian, Open Educational Research, Rutgers University Libraries

Untapped Resources: Graduate Assistants and Collection Development

In response to budgetary crises, academic libraries are often forced to relegate traditionally professional librarian duties to student assistants, paraprofessionals, and other support staff. Among the newly transferred roles is collection development including the analysis, selection, and maintenance of materials and resources. Review of the literature reveals that this trend has substantially grown over past years; however, the scope and level of responsibility of the transferred projects has been limited. Additionally, the literature severely lacks mention of the roles played by graduate students working in academic libraries, while pursuing their MLIS degrees. The objective of this session is to explore the use of graduate student assistants working toward their MLIS degree in the conduction of complex collection evaluation, selection, and analysis from the perspective of one graduate student assistant and one professional academic librarian. The attendees will learn about the benefits of involving graduate student assistants in the collection development process, in terms of the need to acquire hands on experience prior to first-time professional employment, issues of current subject specialty knowledge, curatorial objectivity, and professional development in the mentor-mentee relationship

Wikipedia and undergraduate research trajectories

Purpose This study analyses undergraduate students’ use of Wikipedia bibliographies. The study has implications for Wikipedia as a “discovery tool” of library collections, library instructional practices, and understanding the complex ecology of students’ research processes. Design/methodology/approach 30 undergraduate students were recruited from introductory English writing classes. A controlled survey was conducted in Qualtrics®, including the following sections: 1) pre and post test of students’ understanding of authority/quality of sources, 2) tasks analyzing participants’ choices for further research after reading a Wikipedia article, and 3) students’ determination of the authority/quality of sources in Wikipedia reference pages, using an adapted version of the Turnitin® Source Educational Evaluation Rubric (SEER). Findings The investigator found that students were unlikely to follow references they found in bibliographies of Wikipedia pages. This was expressed most clearly in their comments, which revealed that Wikipedia’s reference sections are found to be too overwhelming and numerous. These entries are depicted by order of appearance in the text and are not ranked, or presented in an order students considered useful. Participants were not likely use Wikipedia as a discovery tool of library content because they perceived Wikipedia as being markedly different, even in opposition to, library resources. Students disclosed being warned by their faculty and instructors not to use the online encyclopedia at all in their research process. However, paradoxically, after reading a Wikipedia article, students were most likely to go to Google, or revisit Wikipedia, for more information, as opposed to using the library. Study participants reported that “ease of access” is the most important consideration when choosing sources to include in research papers, followed by the actual authority/quality of these sources. Students also greatly benefited from having a structured rubric available at the point of their research process when they are asked to determine the authority/quality of sources, and especially within Wikipedia bibliographies. Practical Implications The findings of the study offer suggestions for both the design aspect of Wikipedia and the instructional methods of academic librarians. This study also informs library practices and emerging collaborations with Wikipedia, specifically the “Wikipedian in Residence” program and the concept of using Wikipedia as one type of a discovery tool. Originality/Value There is a lack of empirical evidence showing how or if students use Wikipedia bibliographies to continue their research. The possibility of the online encyclopedia as a discovery tool for library collections is relatively unknown and unexplored. The topic of collaboration between Wikipedia and libraries is new and emerging in the field. Research Limitations This is a small-scale study of students’ use of Wikipedia in one university campus, but its results can spark a discussion of the larger question of undergraduates’ research trajectories. The findings of the study suggest that these trajectories are extremely influenced by two conflicting issues: faculty influence and resource convenience. The researchers plan to extend the study to include faculty’s perceptions of the value of Wikipedia to undergraduate students’ research, including faculty’s own involvement as Wikipedia editors and contributors. Future research of undergraduate’s use of Wikipedia could benefit from a greater recruitment of participants across a diverse pool of academic institutions, as well as a mixed research method of observation, task analysis, and interviews.Peer reviewe

Information Literacy in a Global Context

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Writing Center and Library Collaboration: A Telephone Survey of Academic Libraries

Writing and researching are highly interrelated processes and there is much overlap between the goals and responsibilities of writing center staff and librarians. There is little evidence, however, that partnership between writing centers and libraries has been instituted as standard practice in academic institutions. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to explore the current state of the relationship between the writing center and the library. A telephone survey was administered to librarians in a sample of 268 academic institutions. The results indicated that only 26.7% of libraries actively collaborate which their university’s writing center. A strong majority of the non- collaborating institutions (74%) expressed a willingness to do so in the future, while 85.7% of the collaborating institutions thought that the program was effective in increasing the writing and researching skills of students. In the libraries where collaboration was either not possible or not desirable, the main reasons, which were interpreted from the librarians’ responses, included lack of resources, a disconnect between theory and practice, and cultural issues