Methods to reach faculty and students
· Georgia Tech participates in new student orientation and finds that works well as a fun way to get involved in students’ community from the beginning.
· Megan (Purdue) approached the Civil Engineering department with the news of a digital repository for them – good opportunity to market library and added services, develop working relationship on which to build.
· John ( U Minn.) Developed web pages for each class – didn’t wait for faculty to ask or approve but presented as fait accompli.
· Gretchen (Temple) - vendor fairs work well; attract mostly graduate students and faculty; got great feedback; nice having vendors demo databases and promote new features and opportunities. Patterned after Dartmouth model; held from 11-2; provide food; solicit vendors for financial support and raffle items
· Pasty (Auckland) Use summer vacation to good effect to market latest services, find out about new courses and information needs. Be precise and firm about setting up a meeting: “May I stop by Monday at 2:30? No, then how would Tuesday at 10:00 work?”
· Provide a display area in the library that is dedicated to faculty research – “1,000 people walk by this spot every week – would you like to see your work featured?”
· Provide grant-writing sessions, develop library resources to help (mixed results noted from participants)
· Maliaca (Ariz): Good success generating interest with more general programming (a la public library services). At homecoming, sponsored a Junior Scientist Day. Departments could bring their student groups to feature work; helps faculty fulfill their outreach mission. So many groups wanted to participate, had to restrict numbers. Offers book clubs as a community building program. Developed a speaker series – faculty excited to talk about their research outside their departments.
· Willie (GA Tech)– focus on ABET requirements – ethics tutorials that provided a significant boost to faculty relations
· Provide reference services in the department? Megan noted mixed results. Student lounge is better venue; food key. Impact on staff time is an issue.
· Dave (UCSD), Bring in relevant student projects for display in the library; feature competitions/research
· Scientific art on display – builds community -- and covers bare walls (!)
· LibGuides – don’t ask, just tell you have already completed it, welcome feedback; using WebVista, Moodle
· Get invited to college curriculum committee meetings. Consider what resources they will need, develop presence with faculty, especially new faculty who may not appreciate all the resources available. Help set up keyword alerts, feeds for their research.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
ASEE 2009 Conference Papers Online
Check the ASEE Conference Proceedings web site for access to full text of all ASEE 2009 papers (even though it doesn't say 2009 yet, they really are there when you search).
For ASEE ELD presentations and handouts, check the ELD web site and for presenters who haven't already sent their presentation to be added, email them to Julie Cook, julesck(at)u.washington.edu.
For ASEE ELD presentations and handouts, check the ELD web site and for presenters who haven't already sent their presentation to be added, email them to Julie Cook, julesck(at)u.washington.edu.
Special Interest Groups: Assessment of libraries, of learning
Our small group discussed ideas on assessment and tools/strategies used:
... of learning:
... of learning:
- Outcomes-based, some libraries create outcomes for their overall information literacy programs, some at the course-level, some at the instruction session level. At course-level, one example involved librarian-faculty collaboration to implement 7-question pre and post-test, print journals was an area students have trouble with locating, others mentioned using quizes, looking at projects/papers, getting faculty feedback on improvement in student learning
- Student self-assessment tied in with larger institutional instruments (a few questions on information literacy are incorporated)
- One idea is to study how recent alumni have transferred their information literacy knowledge from the university to the workplace
- Citation analysis of papers/projects
- Working with faculty on assessment of projects, esp. literature review sections
- Importance of collaborating with faculty, directors of writing centers and first year programs and tying in with AbET, NEASC and other regional accreditation self-studies, etc.
- Bruce recommended taking a look at Mark Emmons work at U of New Mexico
- We joked about using a Facebook quiz. "Everyone would take it."
... of libraries and services:
- some participate or will soon in the following standardized: MISO: Merged Information Services Organizations, LibQUAL+® for service quality, and homegrown tools
- Other tools we briefly discussed: project SAILS, ETS iSkills Assessment
- For reference assessment some use in-house surveys, also a online link within after virtual reference to a satisfaction survey, other ideas that came up include mystery shopper in collaboration with marketing students, as well as observation assessment of students at the reference desk.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Bats, Bats, and More Bats - A Few Facts (Ain't cha got no rhymes for me?)
- Where: Austin downtown under the Congress St. bridge (built 1980). The bats moved in soon after (also, in a more natural setting near San Antonio 20 million bats roost at Braken Cave)
- Mexican free-tailed (Tadarida brasiliensis) : 1.5 million under the bridge all day, feeling groovy (visitors during the day can hear them chirping). Visitors at dusk can see them wisping away across the sky.
- They eat at up to their body weight in moths and other insects each night
- Estimated total consumption for Congress St. bridge colony per night: 10-15 tons of insects. Yum!
- Size of these little gals: around 4-5 inches with 12-14 inch wingspans
- Travel time when leaving: ~60 miles per hour
- Travel distance: a couple miles from roost
- In August the bats in this "maternity colony" each have a cute little pink pup (they all live in Austin only from around March to November before momma & pup heads South for the winter)
- Life span of up to 18 years
- They return to the bridge at dawn, but do they all come back at once? Can any early risers comment?
Sources: Bat Conservation International (based in Austin), Organization for Bat Conservation, Bats in American Bridges, and image from Wikipedia
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
So, are we Meeting the Needs of Engineering Faculty, Researchers, and Students?
We are working hard and certainly trying to by analyzing collections & surveying users to make sure we have the "best fit" resources and services for our campuses.
Using Engineering Theses and Dissertations to Inform Collection-Development Decisions, Especially In Civil Engineering
Patricia Kirkwood, University of Arkansas, performed an analysis of Master of Science and Ph.D. projects to determine the percentage of items cited held by the library. She found that 85.7% of serial articles referenced were available at the university library. However, they held only 45% of the referenced books/monographs. Another finding: 1/3 of the citations of the civil engineering citations were incomplete or incorrect. Opportunity for instruction here.
This study helped her determine what additional resources the library should be considering for their collections. Kirkwood was surprised by the results, for the 3 Ph.D. dissertations that were analyzed, 64% of cited sources were grey literature (technical reports, standards, other non traditionally published materials). For the 22 MS theses, 33% of the referenced items were journal articles.
Kirkwood has been able to use this data to change their government depository profile. She’s added state level documents, such as transportation department publications, and cataloged specialized web resources and added them to library web guides. Also, she’s reviewing non-traditional publishers that were referenced and teaching new tools such as TRIS (Transportation Information Research Service, U.S. Department of Transportation) and TRB, Transportation Research Board, of the National Academies.
See also:
Materials Used by Master's Students in Engineering and Implications for Collection Development: A Citation Analysis by Virginia Kay Williams and Christine Lea Fletcher, Mississippi State University
As well her Kirkwood's other 2009 paper:
ROUNDING UP THE COLLECTION: THE STORY OF TRAIL DIGITAL CONTENT COLLECTION (digitization of technical reports)
Library and Information Use Patterns by Engineering Faculty and Students
William Baer and Lisha Li, from Georgia Institute of Technology, conducted an online survey of Civil/Environmental and Mechanical Engineering students and faculty in order to determine their use of the library and information.
They found that the undergraduates come to the library at least once per week and for most faculty who responded, they visit at least once per month. Top reasons undergrads come to library: individual study, group study, check email, word processing.
For graduate students, top reasons are to access books and journals, followed by checking out books, individual study, attending class/seminar or use of printers.
Google effect: Baer and Li asked if “Google is sufficient” for their research needs and more undergrads agree with this statement, however graduate students tended to disagree. For use of information resources undergrads choose Google first, while grads report use of databases as their first choice for searching. Researchers asked students to choose “best databases.” They found that graduate students selected evenly choose both Web of Science and Compendex as their top choices followed by ScienceDirect then Google Scholar. Several other resources were included in their student, see their paper for additional details. The engineering faculty chose Compendex as their first stop for information.
Baer and Li asked students to report how well they feel they know the databases, ranging from expert to no-knowledge. Librarians will use this data to help create instruction for students, especially in areas the students are reporting “no-knowledge.” The training method preferred for both graduate and undergrad students is “online tutorials.”
Finally, researchers asked library users to comment on one thing they would like the library to improve, suggestions included to gain access to more ejournals, faster ILL, among others. Since the study they have implemented rapidILL document delivery service. Overall, more outreach is needed to promote library resources and services as well as training on various research tools.
Download their presentation (PPTX)
Changing Library Vendor Contracts: A Case Study in Acquiring Ebooks from an Online Book Vendor
Charlotte Erdmann, Purdue University, first described her mindset, to get the materials that best fit the users of Purdue library. She mentioned various research studies on ebook selection which can be found referenced in her paper. Erdmann analyzed usage data from ebook usage over multiple years in order to get the best selection for Purdue students and faculty.
Ebook advantages: convenience, full text searches, broader selection
Since March 2005, Purdue began bargaining for ebooks and initially chose, due to user preference, ProQuest Safari. With only two simultaneous users they had 1000s of turnaways so found funding to increase number of users. By the end of 2007, they went with a “slot plan” to purchase certain amount of titles, which Purdue staff base on the four most popular publishers that made sense to Purdue based on prior usage data. They also take faculty input on selections of titles.
Using Engineering Theses and Dissertations to Inform Collection-Development Decisions, Especially In Civil Engineering
Patricia Kirkwood, University of Arkansas, performed an analysis of Master of Science and Ph.D. projects to determine the percentage of items cited held by the library. She found that 85.7% of serial articles referenced were available at the university library. However, they held only 45% of the referenced books/monographs. Another finding: 1/3 of the citations of the civil engineering citations were incomplete or incorrect. Opportunity for instruction here.
This study helped her determine what additional resources the library should be considering for their collections. Kirkwood was surprised by the results, for the 3 Ph.D. dissertations that were analyzed, 64% of cited sources were grey literature (technical reports, standards, other non traditionally published materials). For the 22 MS theses, 33% of the referenced items were journal articles.
Kirkwood has been able to use this data to change their government depository profile. She’s added state level documents, such as transportation department publications, and cataloged specialized web resources and added them to library web guides. Also, she’s reviewing non-traditional publishers that were referenced and teaching new tools such as TRIS (Transportation Information Research Service, U.S. Department of Transportation) and TRB, Transportation Research Board, of the National Academies.
See also:
Materials Used by Master's Students in Engineering and Implications for Collection Development: A Citation Analysis by Virginia Kay Williams and Christine Lea Fletcher, Mississippi State University
As well her Kirkwood's other 2009 paper:
ROUNDING UP THE COLLECTION: THE STORY OF TRAIL DIGITAL CONTENT COLLECTION (digitization of technical reports)
Library and Information Use Patterns by Engineering Faculty and Students
William Baer and Lisha Li, from Georgia Institute of Technology, conducted an online survey of Civil/Environmental and Mechanical Engineering students and faculty in order to determine their use of the library and information.
They found that the undergraduates come to the library at least once per week and for most faculty who responded, they visit at least once per month. Top reasons undergrads come to library: individual study, group study, check email, word processing.
For graduate students, top reasons are to access books and journals, followed by checking out books, individual study, attending class/seminar or use of printers.
Google effect: Baer and Li asked if “Google is sufficient” for their research needs and more undergrads agree with this statement, however graduate students tended to disagree. For use of information resources undergrads choose Google first, while grads report use of databases as their first choice for searching. Researchers asked students to choose “best databases.” They found that graduate students selected evenly choose both Web of Science and Compendex as their top choices followed by ScienceDirect then Google Scholar. Several other resources were included in their student, see their paper for additional details. The engineering faculty chose Compendex as their first stop for information.
Baer and Li asked students to report how well they feel they know the databases, ranging from expert to no-knowledge. Librarians will use this data to help create instruction for students, especially in areas the students are reporting “no-knowledge.” The training method preferred for both graduate and undergrad students is “online tutorials.”
Finally, researchers asked library users to comment on one thing they would like the library to improve, suggestions included to gain access to more ejournals, faster ILL, among others. Since the study they have implemented rapidILL document delivery service. Overall, more outreach is needed to promote library resources and services as well as training on various research tools.
Download their presentation (PPTX)
Changing Library Vendor Contracts: A Case Study in Acquiring Ebooks from an Online Book Vendor
Charlotte Erdmann, Purdue University, first described her mindset, to get the materials that best fit the users of Purdue library. She mentioned various research studies on ebook selection which can be found referenced in her paper. Erdmann analyzed usage data from ebook usage over multiple years in order to get the best selection for Purdue students and faculty.
Ebook advantages: convenience, full text searches, broader selection
Since March 2005, Purdue began bargaining for ebooks and initially chose, due to user preference, ProQuest Safari. With only two simultaneous users they had 1000s of turnaways so found funding to increase number of users. By the end of 2007, they went with a “slot plan” to purchase certain amount of titles, which Purdue staff base on the four most popular publishers that made sense to Purdue based on prior usage data. They also take faculty input on selections of titles.
Assessment of IL at Smith College: ABET, ACRL, & within First Year Engineering Course
Assessing Information Literacy In Engineering: Integrating A College-Wide Program With Abet-Driven Assessment
Donna Riley, Smith College, described how they formalized their information literacy program in fall 2003 and are moving towards an institutional-wide program that incorporates assessment of discipline-specific measures. At first they tapped into the first year writing intensive course. Their IL program has grown into a discipline-by-discipline curriculum-integrated approach based on ACRL information literacy standards and science and technology standards. Around 40% of the departments have developed department-specific IL outcomes already, others are working on theirs. They are now at phase two and collecting data to assess student learning. The engineering faculty wanted their outcomes to dovetail with ABET criteria so they have hybridized the ACRL/ABET. ILST performance indicators are highly detailed and ABET outcomes are broader so faculty needed to design an assessment plan that could work for both. The literature shows that each institution develops their own outcomes even though there have been some papers, including some within ASEE-ELD in past years that have dealt with alignment, or mapping ABET to ACRL standards.
At Smith, they decided to map their own standards with ABET/ACRL in various focus areas related to information literacy. First mentioned is lifelong learning which Smith has developed more detailed performance goals that are measurable. The second area of focus on is ethics as stated in ABET broadly as “an understanding of professional and ethic responsibility” which related to ACRL 4/ILST4. They developed their own outcome and again, performance criteria that embodies this. Communication is the third focus area Riley mentioned and showed specific performance criteria that includes “student exhibits clear writing style,” etc, see paper for details. The final area of focus for Smith Engineering is experimentation which does not map well with ABET so they added wording into their performance criteria “finding and using information” in addition to “data.”
Riley discussed how their use of e-portfolios allows for assessment of their performance indicators in the aforementioned categories. Student assessment also occurs within courses, for instance students produce final portfolio instead of taking a final exam in her course. At the program level, assessment occurs after sophomore year by review of the portfolio and later near graduation a panel of faculty review the e-portfolios. Possible evidence for IL: annotated bibliographies, ethics case analyses related to information, reports from design projects, and so on.
Riley thinks that ABET should revise 3(b) to include language that addresses need for information literacy and makes suggestions for how they could do this in their paper.
Riley followed up by presenting another paper, Integrating Information Literacy Into A First-Year Mass And Energy Balances Course, co-authored Smith College librarian Rocco Piccinino. Smith’s curriculum-integrated approach to IL is sequenced throughout students college career, however this paper focuses on one specific course, a first year second semester course which is required of all engineering majors. Course objectives include engineering calculations, mass/energy balances, as well as engineering ethics, and information literacy which revolves around a life cycle assessment project.
Riley assigned a reading and held discussion with her students prior to the library research session. The reading (Graham, L. and Metaxas, P.T. (2003). “Of course it’s true, I saw it on the Internet”: Critical thinking in the Internet era. Communications of the ACM 46 (5):70-75.) is about students’ performance on an information literacy test showed that they tend to be over confident in their research abilities. Riley felt this helped her students check their own over confidence. She also asked students to do a homework assignment to practice information retrieval and access, in addition incorporated a question on her mostly content-intensive mid-term exam about IL. She mentions the importance for faculty to integrate and reinforce IL skills but throughout the course. She has her students put skills into immediate practice and makes them accountable by ensuring students are using appropriate documentation, creating annotated bibliographies, and so on in an iterative way.
Assessment of student learning included various components. First, they used a one minute paper at the end of the session, which students rated learning experience as excellent or good, mentioned that highlights were learning about databases, navigating web site, full text icon, etc. but students did not mention the in-class group activity or evaluation of sources, so they may revise assessment to determine value of these components.
Second, Riley performed focus groups and of the 24 students invited, 9 participated in 2 sessions. She had three guiding questions not specifically related to information literacy and 4 of 9 mentioned information literacy and the value to their learning and at least one related IL to critical thinking.
Third, a course survey, or student self-assessment of initial course objectives, which showed that IL was on high end, though “it wasn’t most central it made an impression on them.”
Fourth, analysis of Student Work including homework, tests and projects showed from an initial quiz where students performed poorly on information literacy after research session and projects, students showed significant improvement. Still one of their biggest difficulties was determining holding for a journal with both online and print formats.
Riley feels factors contributing to student learning include:
- Librarian inclusion
- Reinforcement by faculty member
- Iteration
- Integration – accountability across coursework
This approach may be more resource intensive but authors recommend featuring and sharing faculty work in these areas, gaining faculty buy-in and creating incentives for participation. Most important is developing relationships to make this happen.
Donna Riley, Smith College, described how they formalized their information literacy program in fall 2003 and are moving towards an institutional-wide program that incorporates assessment of discipline-specific measures. At first they tapped into the first year writing intensive course. Their IL program has grown into a discipline-by-discipline curriculum-integrated approach based on ACRL information literacy standards and science and technology standards. Around 40% of the departments have developed department-specific IL outcomes already, others are working on theirs. They are now at phase two and collecting data to assess student learning. The engineering faculty wanted their outcomes to dovetail with ABET criteria so they have hybridized the ACRL/ABET. ILST performance indicators are highly detailed and ABET outcomes are broader so faculty needed to design an assessment plan that could work for both. The literature shows that each institution develops their own outcomes even though there have been some papers, including some within ASEE-ELD in past years that have dealt with alignment, or mapping ABET to ACRL standards.
At Smith, they decided to map their own standards with ABET/ACRL in various focus areas related to information literacy. First mentioned is lifelong learning which Smith has developed more detailed performance goals that are measurable. The second area of focus on is ethics as stated in ABET broadly as “an understanding of professional and ethic responsibility” which related to ACRL 4/ILST4. They developed their own outcome and again, performance criteria that embodies this. Communication is the third focus area Riley mentioned and showed specific performance criteria that includes “student exhibits clear writing style,” etc, see paper for details. The final area of focus for Smith Engineering is experimentation which does not map well with ABET so they added wording into their performance criteria “finding and using information” in addition to “data.”
Riley discussed how their use of e-portfolios allows for assessment of their performance indicators in the aforementioned categories. Student assessment also occurs within courses, for instance students produce final portfolio instead of taking a final exam in her course. At the program level, assessment occurs after sophomore year by review of the portfolio and later near graduation a panel of faculty review the e-portfolios. Possible evidence for IL: annotated bibliographies, ethics case analyses related to information, reports from design projects, and so on.
Riley thinks that ABET should revise 3(b) to include language that addresses need for information literacy and makes suggestions for how they could do this in their paper.
Riley followed up by presenting another paper, Integrating Information Literacy Into A First-Year Mass And Energy Balances Course, co-authored Smith College librarian Rocco Piccinino. Smith’s curriculum-integrated approach to IL is sequenced throughout students college career, however this paper focuses on one specific course, a first year second semester course which is required of all engineering majors. Course objectives include engineering calculations, mass/energy balances, as well as engineering ethics, and information literacy which revolves around a life cycle assessment project.
Riley assigned a reading and held discussion with her students prior to the library research session. The reading (Graham, L. and Metaxas, P.T. (2003). “Of course it’s true, I saw it on the Internet”: Critical thinking in the Internet era. Communications of the ACM 46 (5):70-75.) is about students’ performance on an information literacy test showed that they tend to be over confident in their research abilities. Riley felt this helped her students check their own over confidence. She also asked students to do a homework assignment to practice information retrieval and access, in addition incorporated a question on her mostly content-intensive mid-term exam about IL. She mentions the importance for faculty to integrate and reinforce IL skills but throughout the course. She has her students put skills into immediate practice and makes them accountable by ensuring students are using appropriate documentation, creating annotated bibliographies, and so on in an iterative way.
Assessment of student learning included various components. First, they used a one minute paper at the end of the session, which students rated learning experience as excellent or good, mentioned that highlights were learning about databases, navigating web site, full text icon, etc. but students did not mention the in-class group activity or evaluation of sources, so they may revise assessment to determine value of these components.
Second, Riley performed focus groups and of the 24 students invited, 9 participated in 2 sessions. She had three guiding questions not specifically related to information literacy and 4 of 9 mentioned information literacy and the value to their learning and at least one related IL to critical thinking.
Third, a course survey, or student self-assessment of initial course objectives, which showed that IL was on high end, though “it wasn’t most central it made an impression on them.”
Fourth, analysis of Student Work including homework, tests and projects showed from an initial quiz where students performed poorly on information literacy after research session and projects, students showed significant improvement. Still one of their biggest difficulties was determining holding for a journal with both online and print formats.
Riley feels factors contributing to student learning include:
- Librarian inclusion
- Reinforcement by faculty member
- Iteration
- Integration – accountability across coursework
This approach may be more resource intensive but authors recommend featuring and sharing faculty work in these areas, gaining faculty buy-in and creating incentives for participation. Most important is developing relationships to make this happen.
Annual Meeting Notes
There are a couple of related items which had interest and general conversation during the business meeting.
One of the items mentioned by our PIC IV chair, Noel Shultz, mentioned was the ASEE Statement on Sustainable Development Education, initially created in 1999. I has recently become part of the conversation within ASEE, and part of that process will include a review and revision of the existing statement. I have succeeded in locating the statement, it is included on the ASEE webpage and can be found here : http://www.asee.org/about/Sustainable_Development.cfm
The other topic of interest and broader discussion was around ELD choosing to green our portion of the conference by supporting and promoting environmentally friendly practices. This would benefit the member of ELD, but will allow us to set an example and promote these practices to ASEE for larger implementation at the conference. This conversation has been happening in other library organizations and perhaps among university conference planning units. We would like to gather information and input from all of those people who interested helping. So if you would like work for and with the division in this capacity, let me know and I'll work to get a group started.
Some of the ideas generated on greening the conference are below:
* no handouts at sessions, link to e content on webpage
* member pledge for green practices during the conference
* an opt out option for no paper conference book
* get rid of the conference CD - the papers are all online
* green hotel options (those hotels that have greener practices)
* Local and green food options
* virtual conference options
* online / electronic session evaluations - no more paper!
* have convention center set the temperature higher (less AC)
Possibly partner with other divisions in ASEE for leading this effort. Good candidates may be the Environmental Engineering Division and the Energy Conversion and Conservation Division.
Additional resources:
EPA page on green meetings:
http://www.epa.gov/oppt/greenmeetings/
"Green" Hotels Association: http://greenhotels.com/index.php
The list of ideas above will be sent to our PIC chair to provide her information to speak on at the Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday.
One of the items mentioned by our PIC IV chair, Noel Shultz, mentioned was the ASEE Statement on Sustainable Development Education, initially created in 1999. I has recently become part of the conversation within ASEE, and part of that process will include a review and revision of the existing statement. I have succeeded in locating the statement, it is included on the ASEE webpage and can be found here : http://www.asee.org/about/Sustainable_Development.cfm
The other topic of interest and broader discussion was around ELD choosing to green our portion of the conference by supporting and promoting environmentally friendly practices. This would benefit the member of ELD, but will allow us to set an example and promote these practices to ASEE for larger implementation at the conference. This conversation has been happening in other library organizations and perhaps among university conference planning units. We would like to gather information and input from all of those people who interested helping. So if you would like work for and with the division in this capacity, let me know and I'll work to get a group started.
Some of the ideas generated on greening the conference are below:
* no handouts at sessions, link to e content on webpage
* member pledge for green practices during the conference
* an opt out option for no paper conference book
* get rid of the conference CD - the papers are all online
* green hotel options (those hotels that have greener practices)
* Local and green food options
* virtual conference options
* online / electronic session evaluations - no more paper!
* have convention center set the temperature higher (less AC)
Possibly partner with other divisions in ASEE for leading this effort. Good candidates may be the Environmental Engineering Division and the Energy Conversion and Conservation Division.
Additional resources:
EPA page on green meetings:
http://www.epa.gov/oppt/greenmeetings/
"Green" Hotels Association: http://greenhotels.com/index.php
The list of ideas above will be sent to our PIC chair to provide her information to speak on at the Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
