Starting From Scratch: Implementing a Successful, Multifaceted Information Literacy Program for the First-Year Course

This study describes a program created from scratch in which collaboration is initiated by librarians with teaching faculty in the first-year program to provide information literacy skills to incoming freshmen. The program is not only successful logistically, but is designed with assessment needs and evidence of student learning in mind. Additionally, the program design takes into account the needs of learners through utilization of a variety of learning activities and teaching tools that include group interaction, web-based tutorials, individual assignments, and peer-learning

Working Ideas for Staff Development in the Academic Library

Staff development helps to introduce new technologies to staff and gives them the tools and training to use them successfully in their specific work areas. Staff development also helps to keep employees connected to what is going on in their work environment as well as the library as a whole, and gives them a sense of power and usefulness, thus increasing the likelihood that they maintain enthusiasm for their work. This article presents a working example of how committees can be formed within library organizations to implement successful staff development. Characteristics of such programs include needs assessment, planning, and the carrying out of training and other activities

The New Face of Library Instruction Is the Interface

It is no longer of utmost importance for library patrons to be physically oriented to the library in the traditional sense when using a library as an information outlet. Instead, patrons have an increasing need for knowing how to access an overwhelming amount of information, not by looking at shelves, bound volumes, or indexes, but by navigating their way through collections in the electronic environment. This article discusses ways to transform bibliographic instruction in academic libraries from an emphasis on the physical collection to teaching the utilization of electronic information resources. The author outlines an example of how to orient freshman students to the electronic resources used for finding information, while incorporating information literacy skills

Poor Leadership and the Toxic Environment

Being cognizant of one's skills as a library supervisor will go a long way towards determining if a library's staff considers its workplace healthy. A library can be flush with funding, have the greatest collection of resources, and be equipped with great technology -- but with poor leadership, work production and cohesiveness of staff members will steadily decline. Taking notice of the work environment and staff interactions, in addition to setting good examples, will serve any library supervisor well in improving workplace conditions. This article explores simple ways to incorporate these strategies

Starting From Scratch: Implementing a Successful, Multifaceted Information Literacy Program

First-year programs often provide critical avenues for freshmen students’ first exposure to information literacy. Collaborations between librarians and first-year programs often include orientations that are brief and limited in scope. Implementing a more rigorous approach to acquisition of information literacy skills in a first-year course requires buy-in from administration and faculty, as well as significant planning and sound instructional design in order to demonstrate learning outcomes and provide for useful assessment. This article provides a blueprint for designing and implementing a successful information literacy instruction and assessment program in the one-hour credit, first-year experience course. Assessment data demonstrates a 24-percent increase in acquisition of information literacy outcomes for the sample.This study describes an information literacy program created from scratch in which collaboration is initiated by librarians with teaching faculty in the first-year program to provide information literacy skills to incoming freshmen. The program is not only successful logistically, but is designed with assessment needs and evidence of student learning in mind. Additionally, the program design takes into account the needs of learners through utilization of a variety of learning activities and teaching tools that include group interaction, web-based tutorials, individual assignments, and peer-learning

How To Be Information Literate When Choosing Your Work Environment

For new professionals who recently entered the field, there are many factors to consider when deciding what type of library one would like to work in. Examining several different criteria and prioritizing each of those points can be the difference between taking a long-lasting position and leaving as soon as the next job is available. Factors to consider when looking at potential jobs should include thorough understanding of the job description, organizational funding, personnel, and location

Staff Development Ideas to Improve Quality of Job Performance and Satisfaction

In this article, the author describes ways to improve job performance and satisfaction through the creation of staff development opportunities in libraries. Successful examples from an academic library are provided which include committee work to encourage participation, social engagements consisting of a gathering of food and ideas, group trips of cultural and educational significance, and training sessions that help to enhance staffers’ use of technologies and resources that are job related

Library Assessment from a Fresh Perspective

One of the greatest strengths of Next Gen librarians can be found in their ability to bring new and innovative ideas to the information workplace. Next Gen librarians can successfully serve in capacities that include leadership roles in core library functions such as planning or assessment, often with an enthusiasm that is refreshingly welcome. This article chronicles the efforts of a Next Gen librarian who successfully helped implement an assessment plan for all library operations at a four-year public university. Aspects of the plan discussed include forming a committee, establishing goals, collecting data, and putting the plan into action

Institutional Repositories Provide Open Access to Scholarly Communication

Institutional repositories present academic institutions with the opportunity to provide global open access to the scholarship that is created within that institution without going through the traditional scholarly publishing model. In the fall of 2008 the North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship (NC Docks) became the pilot institutional repository of five universities within the University of North Carolina system. Moving forward to present day, the five school pilot has taken off and gained momentum as each school has since begun populating NC Docks. As we have found out at The University of North Carolina Pembroke (UNCP), participating in an institutional repository requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention costs on the part of the Library. Discussion of aspects to consider when participating in an institutional repository includes cost, marketing initiatives, campus buy-in, and publisher relations

Using Clickers to Increase Information Literacy Outcomes in the Classroom

Commonly referred to as CRS (classroom response systems), clickers are innovative, interactive tools that have become increasingly popular on university campuses in the last five years. Many different CRS products are available, but the concept underlying all of them is the same: students use hand-held clickers, similar to a television remote control, to respond to multiple choice or polling questions that the instructor posts as part of a daily lecture. The responses are gathered by a central receiver, tallied, and immediately projected back for all to see.In this study, there are two major assumptions in regard to student engagement: 1) Clickers provide a mechanism for students to participate anonymously and 2) Clickers integrate a "game approach" that may engage students more than traditional class discussionTwo main questions are to be answered: Does the use of clickers increase student engagement and can the use of clickers increase information literacy learning outcomes