In conjunction with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) President’s Program at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, the association sponsored a contest to identify exciting library innovation projects using teams to implement new ideas. Given the high quality of the proposals and innovative thinking demonstrated in the projects, the President’s Program Committee selected three winners from the 28 teams of academic librarians who submitted proposals.

The Cook Library Civility Project from the Towson University Albert S. Cook Library was named the winner in the “in progress” category.

“The Cook Library demonstrated a unique way of dealing with a common problem. Their video empowers the students to handle noise problems themselves. Through this project, the Cook Library benefits from the diverse strengths of every member of the team, a truly innovative and collaborative venture,” the committee noted. “The reviewers admired this positive-oriented approach and the library’s goal of expanding the campaign to other formats.”

The Nightmare on Vine Street: A Team of Zombie Librarians Take On Freshman Orientation from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga Lupton Library and 3-Hour School Library Field Experience for Pre-Service K-12 Teachers from the Lavery Library at St. John Fisher College were named the winners in the “implemented” category.

“The Nightmare on Vine Street video game demonstrates creativity by transforming the traditional library tour into an engaging online encounter,” said the reviewers. “Taking full advantage of the current zombie craze, this project relied on extensive teamwork in order to develop a highly successful and enticing instructional experience. The team was thoughtful in building an assessment component into the project. The zombie hook provides a high impact factor.”

“The St. Johns Fisher College project looks outside the campus and reaches out to the community, another department and to a specific group of students,” the committee continued.  “The students get a unique and practical opportunity that benefits their future careers, and fosters the sense of collaboration between teacher and librarian in a K-12 atmosphere. This is a great example of interdepartmental collaboration that impressed the committee with its innovative qualities.”

Read all of the contest entries, including the winning submissions, below. We encourage the ACRL community to review submissions and post comments, suggestions, and feedback.

Institution: University of Lethbridge

Writing 1000, or “Introduction to Academic Writing”, is a 3-credit hour introductory course in academic writing offered at the University of Lethbridge “designed to develop skills in critical reading and writing at the university level. The course includes the critical reading of assigned texts and an introduction to expository writing, including description, analysis, persuasion and other strategies of academic discourse” (University of Lethbridge course calendar). This course is taken by about 30% of U of L undergraduates.  Over the years, it has become accepted practice, supported by the coordinator of the academic writing program, for a librarian to visit each section of Writing 1000 at least once per semester to introduce students to finding and evaluating key library resources to support the successful completion of the course’s major research paper.

Recently, in discussions between instruction librarians and Writing 1000 instructors, a need was identified to try and make some of the more basic information literacy instruction for the course available in an online format. The intent was to allow students to access information literacy instruction at the point of need, at their own pace, and repeat instructions as necessary; for the face to face time librarians spend with the classes to focus on  higher level concepts rather than basic bibliographic instruction; and to provide better support to distance sections of Writing 1000.

Under the leadership of library administration a team was formed to work on this project composed of one academic librarian, a library intern and the coordinator of the academic writing program. Team members met to discuss the key information literacy learning outcomes for the Writing 1000 students.  This discussion was informed by instructional strategies used by our librarians in the past and the ACRL Information Literacy outcomes. The two librarians involved in the project worked together to develop instructional content, organized into 6 learning modules, based on the learning outcomes. This took the form of videos, worksheets and quizzes embedded in the Learning Management system for writing 1000.

The coordinator of academic writing acted as a primary contact for Writing 1000 instructors and organized an opportunity for all of the instructor to meet with the two librarians to discuss the project’s goals and implementation. In addition he provided leadership among the instructors to ensure that they were updated about the project and that all students were directed to complete the online learning modules. Each instructor assigned 3% of their course mark based on library module completion.

The online learning modules were launched in January 2011 and completed by writing 1000 students through the academic term ending April 29 2011.  Overall student feedback was extremely positive.  Team members are currently evaluating the project’s success and making modifications for the next semester.

Project type:  Completed Project

Budget: N/A

Team members:

Heather Nicholson, Intern Librarian
Rumi Graham, Librarian
Cliff Lobe, Academic Writing Program Coordinator
With cooperation from Library Administration and all Writing 1000 instructors

Institution: University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries

CONCEPT

This year the University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries decided to try a new approach to celebrating National Library Week (April 11-15). Our team of staffers from Public Services, Communications and Systems created a series of events based in social media, allowing us to explore the use of Facebook and YouTube to raise awareness of the libraries’ services among students.

The team’s synergy was fueled by the uniqueness of the project, and the encouragement to trail blaze. We established a few goals for the project from the outset, namely to raise awareness among students regarding underutilized services, to increase the number of “likes” on the UTSA Libraries Facebook page, and to show students that library staff are approachable, fun and full of information.

When planning the campaign, the team took the time to really think about how to make the events as attractive to students as possible. Recognizing that “Club JPL” is a popular student nickname for the John Peace Library, we decided to create special t-shirts and buttons featuring a Club JPL motif to use as incentives for student participation.

IMPLEMENTATION

Blending virtual activities with physical ones, we promoted our NLW events on our Facebook page, as well as via large posters and digital signage within our libraries. Our team spit into sub-groups to work on particular events or promotions.

Perhaps the most successful activity of the campaign was our video quiz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8nE1mRCF-k), produced by two of our research services librarians together with a member of our systems staff. Created using YouTube annotations, the quiz led participants through a series of short informational videos linked together by library-related trivia questions. The video proved to be fun, educational and interactive.

Another activity was our check-in deal, which used Facebook’s new “deal” functionality (currently in beta) to reward students with an “I Like Club JPL” button each time they checked in to the John Peace Library on their Smartphone.

Our campaign rounded-out with two “Meetups” – one in the John Peace Library and one in our Downtown Campus Library—for which we posted secret passwords in Facebook to entice students to attend and collect prizes.

OUTCOME

By most measures, our National Library Campaign was a huge success. Our goal of increasing traffic to our Facebook page was met with 158 new “likes” and substantial increases in comments (almost all positive). We had 672 views of our National Library Week tab within our Facebook page, and 18,283 post views—up 502% from the week prior!

Individual events also performed well. We had 143 students complete the video quiz and all 500 “check-in” buttons were given away by the fourth day of the campaign. Attendance at the Meetups was strong, and our Club JPL t-shirts proved to be much more popular than we ever imagined with students inquiring as to how they could buy a t-shirts for themselves.

All told, our National Library Week campaign proved to be a worthy experiment, really highlighting the potential of social media to connect with students.

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: $1000

Team Members:

Anne Peters, Communications Coordinator
Kawanna Bright, Head of First Year Services
Jose Rodriguez, Senior Systems Analyst
Dasa Ortiz, Administrative Associate
Tara Schmidt, Research Services Librarian
Jeff Lacy, Research Services Librarian
Sarah Stosick, Graphic Designer
Gregory Longoria, Systems Analyst
Damon Bullis, Web Specialist
Naveen Jayakumar, Graduate Assistant

Institution:  Augustana Campus Library, University of Alberta

The augustana human library brings to the Augustana Campus (Camrose, AB) of the University of Alberta and the Camrose community a public outreach opportunity to discuss prejudice, stereotypes and diversity with persons who have been recipients of prejudice and stereotypes or who are otherwise seen as “different”.  Individuals who have experienced lives of prejudice and stereotyping (or any unique/significant life experience that others can learn from) are encouraged to become “human books” so that they can be “checked out” by individuals who want to learn more about the challenges faced by the person amidst insufficient acceptance of diversity … be it racial, sexual or anything “different”.  The conversations which follow create learning opportunities rarely otherwise found. Putting a human face to diversity challenges people to think differently and possibly therefore support and advocate for the most accepting and supportive environment for all.  Topics covered in Human Books include: transgender, AIDS, racism, married lesbians, atheism, male feminist, autism, war vet, childhood sexual abuse, and many more.
The slogan of the augustana human library is the “augustana human library: growing with people, growing in community, growing our world” and it was developed to promote the concept and participation in the initiative.

The first component of the slogan “growing with people” refers to the students, staff, and faculty of Augustana.  These are the constituents who have most directly been influenced by the augustana human library because of its presence on the Augustana Campus.   At this level, we are challenged to acknowledge issues of diversity on our doorstep.

Secondly, “growing with community” gathers together the local neighbors from the surrounding community to join in the conversations regarding diversity for the betterment of everyone.  All are invited.

Lastly, “growing our world” speaks to the effort to affect people locally and energize them for influencing change on a broad scale.  The personal stories shared by Human Books reflect a lived experience of prejudice and stereotyping throughout the world.

An innovative aspect of the augustana human library that ties into the information literacy component of the project is that readers are encouraged to experience the Human Books as information sources for undergraduate research and the development of critical thinking skills. Students learn to cite the Human Books in their undergraduate research in the same way that they would books and journal articles — as valid information sources that thereby challenge the “norm” of the established bibliographic comfort zone.  Using diversity as a means to challenge thinking and incorporate the growth of critical thinking into undergraduate research and expression is win-win!

The team took the event from concept to a well executed event with regional and national press coverage in the process.  Potential Human Books were identified, invited and given an orientation.  A research project was developed as part of the event to contribute findings to the library profession. The event was advertised thought the community to assure a breadth of participants.

The augustana human library is about encouraging people to step back from prejudices and stereotypes and consider life from someone else’s lived experiences.  This gives people an opportunity to learn about diversity, be enriched by it and, in fact, celebrate it!  The event is ongoing and will now be offered in each academic term.   It is deemed a success as participants in the augustana human library consistently report the influence on their understanding of diversity to be significant.

Project type:  Project in Progress

Budget:  $100 (cookies and coffee)

Team members:

Bill Harder, Pastor
Bawlf Lutheran Church, Bawlf, AB

Cindy Gerling, Public Services Assistant
Augustana Campus, University of Alberta

All Augustana Library Staff participate in the support of the event in some way!

Institution: University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries

CONCEPT
Academic library websites can be intimidating for undergraduate students who may have limited experience with library research. To help address this need, the UTSA Libraries launched Serials Solutions’ Summon unified search service in January 2010. One month later, a team consisting of staff from four library departments launched the Summon Mobile service, allowing users to easily perform searches from mobile phones. The mobile service was publicized using a 42-second video as the centerpiece for marketing efforts (http://lib.utsa.edu/Help/Summon/mobile.html).

The primary audience for Summon was undergraduates, and undergraduates are heavy users of mobile technology, so the mobile search appeared to fit well with student preferences. While using a phone for in-depth research is clearly not ideal, the mobile feature would enable students to perform quick inquiries or check the availability and location of a specific item.

IMPLEMENTATION
The library’s Instructional Designer, Communications Coordinator, and two Research Services (subject) librarians served as the implementation team. The group developed a three-step plan: 1) to research and test Summon Mobile, 2) to familiarize library staff with the product, and 3) to promote Summon Mobile to students.

Although the library does not yet have a mobile website, the team learned that users could easily access Summon Mobile from web-enabled phones by pulling up the library’s regular home page and inputting a search term into the Summon search box. The team spent a week experimenting with Summon Mobile on a variety of mobile phones.

To educate staff, a written guide to Summon Mobile was produced which provided “how to” instructions and troubleshooting tips. Next presentations were made at staff meetings, using a document projector to demonstrate mobile searches on an iPhone.

Finally, the Summon Mobile was announced to students via a dedicated web page (titled “Does my phone have what it takes to do a library search?”), and a home page “ad” was created to point to it.

To advertise the service, the team created a promotional video with several goals in mind: the video would be short (the final product is 42 seconds); it would engage students (they chose a charismatic student as spokesperson and used creative animation); and it would have a straightforward, “how-to” approach. Most importantly, the video would answer the question, “why would I want to search library resources on my phone?” All told, the video took two hours to film and twenty-four to edit using software applications from the Adobe Master Collection Suite.

After the video’s launch, it was decided that the big search box on the home page needed a brand identity. The library debated names and solicited student feedback before setting on “Library Quick Search.” This name has the advantage of transparency – it explains what the tool does upfront.

OUTCOME
To date, there have been 1,100 hits to the Summon Mobile video on YouTube–a good indication of interest. Most noteworthy, following these promotional efforts, monthly searches of the Summon service have risen from an initial 900 searches in January 2010 to over 46,000 searches in April 2011.

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: staff time only

Team Members:

Heather Williams, Instructional Designer
Anne Peters, Communications Coordinator
Natasha Arguello, Research Services Librarian
Gary Woods, Instructional Services Librarian, Downtown Campus Library
Greg Longoria, Systems Analyst II

Institution: University of Prince Edward Island

Our project began when long-time open-source software promoter and University Librarian Mark Leggott envisioned a collaborative web environment for the creation and stewardship of core data assets, a type of repository that would support researchers by addressing their established workflows and providing them with new tools for research, while responsibly caring for that data and research on library servers. This idea has developed into the Islandora (DiscoverySpace) project. The goal of the project is to develop the open-source Islandora repository software as user-friendly third-generation repository software that provides multiple interactivity features alongside a strong data-stewardship platform. In order for the project to exist, and to succeed, patterns of work in the library, and the roles of library staff have had to transform, new revenue streams have had to be located, and the traditional relationships between library and IT staff have been invigorated.

To bring the project from idea to implementation, Mark united the systems team, developers, and librarians and developed a technical and managerial infrastructure to support the on-demand development of local repositories for UPEI researchers based on the Islandora system (these systems are called “Virtual Research Environments” or VREs). Islandora was also used in the development of a large number of community digitization projects. Every time a grant was received, or a service contract entered, the work furthered the development of the software, allowing new projects to take advantage of innovations funded by previous projects, and increasing demand for the software. By taking a leadership role in the digitization and research infrastructure development at our local institution, we were able to develop our own tools and extend our commitment to serving our patron communities. Interest in the VRE service continues to grow, and we find faculty members coming to us in ever larger numbers. To date, we have developed over 120 local projects using Islandora, and the project continues to grow with the recent acquisition of a 2.4 million dollar grant from the Atlantic Canadian Opportunities Agency, which will enable us to produce a series of “solution packs” designed to serve different types of researchers and data. This funding will also allow us to grow the larger open-source community surrounding the software, and develops new sustainability models for the project by fostering the development of a local Islandora services company. This company “DiscoveryGarden” generates revenue for the university, and ensures the continuance of the open-source software project into the future. You can visit our vre service pages at library.upei.ca/vre and learn more about the project at islandora.ca.

Project Type: Project in Progress

Budget: 2.4 Million Dollars

Team Members:

Mark Leggott – University Librarian at UPEI and CEO of DiscoveryGarden Inc
Kirsta Stapelfeldt – Islandora/Repository Manager, UPEI
Donald Moses – Digital Initiatives and Systems Librarian, UPEI
Alan Stanley – Programmer, UPEI
Gervais de Montbrun – Systems Administrator, UPEI
David Wilcox – Support /Training Coordinator, UPEI
DiscoveryGarden Incorporated Programmers
Systems and Library staff with UPEI’s VRE service

Institution:  Anne Arundel Community College

English department faculty bring classes to the library for information literacy instruction; librarians encourage students to use reliable resources found within the library catalog and databases.  We analyzed 481 student Works Cited pages citing 3381 sources from 46 sections of ENG 112 and ENG 121 classes taught by 28 full and part time faculty members during Fall Semester 2010 to assess the kinds of resources students use and the degree to which they utilize ebooks.

Library budgets are expended to insure collections effectively support the curriculum taught at the college.  In an environment of increased competition for scarce resources budget cuts, higher enrollment and online classes mean that judicious expenditure is essential.  In recent years the library has added thousands of electronic books as well as an increasing number of electronic databases which supply full text content of journals, newspapers and magazines. Our project allowed us to assess whether college resources are being expended on materials students actually use. It also enabled us to asses the effectiveness of our library instruction as it related to research assignments.

The project outcomes included a strategy leading to more effective assignments, closer collaboration between English faculty and librarians, better information literacy instruction and higher student success with research.  Data from the project supports teaching strategies and library collection development efforts.  We are able to assess patters of source us and respond/adjust accordingly.  Our findings enabled us to create a template for faculty assigning research-based projects that will help them guide students toward reliable resources.  With support of the Chair of the English Department and the Vice President for Learning at AACC, the Assignment Audit Checklist will be distributed to all part time/adjunct faculty.  Its use will support student success and will be used by the instruction librarian to tailor classes relevant to student needs.

Project type:  Completed Project

Budget: N/A

Team members:

Professor Janice Lathrop, Reference Librarian
Professor Jessica Rabin, English Department

Institution:  Lupton Library, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

Take one librarian enrolled in a game design class, add seven more librarians from different departments with ideas and energy, stir in a liberal dose of popular culture and a new crop of First Year Experience students and what do you end up with?  A library orientation video game requiring students to complete a series of tasks in order to escape from the library all while being hounded by zombie librarians!

At Lupton Library, we are a small but dynamic and interconnected staff of 30. When one of our colleagues asked for help on a Game Design project for her Masters, more than half a dozen people from around the building stepped forward with ideas and offers to help. Working as both one large group and a series of smaller teams,  the staff and faculty involved in the project met over the course of several months to craft a video game experience that would teach the basics about our library as well as entertain and challenge students new to our campus.

Designed as a companion piece to an iPod-based building tour, the basic concept for the project was a horror-themed “escape the room” game. The entire group brainstormed the creepy scenario for the game: a student wakes up late at night in a study room on the top floor of the library and has to navigate their way out of the building by appeasing various librarian zombies encountered along the way. One small group then mapped out the story board and escape plan for the game as well as the locations where individual events would need to be filmed. Another group developed the zombie characters who appear in the game and the props and sound effects that would be needed for each scene. A third small group worked out the mechanics of the film shoots (done late at night) and acquired the essential zombie makeup supplies. The game coding was all done by our colleague from IT, in fulfillment of her class assignment.

The resulting game was highly successful, played by over 500 students in the first year. One instructor tells us that 98 out of her 100 first year students completed the game. The cross departmental team brought together heretofore unknown talents from around the library to create something we never imagined we could achieve. Who knew that one of our librarians could write game code, or that another had experience with zombie makeup? We didn’t have any idea – until this project came along. The experience not only produced a rich and unique orientation experience for our first year students, it also fostered stronger working relationships across departments and heightened our creative abilities as professionals.

Project type:  Completed Project

Budget:  $40 for zombie makeup

Team members:

From Library IT:
Andrea A. Schurr: Chief Game Designer, Coder, Producer
Stephen Leather: Game Installation and Support
Jason Griffey: Zombie Librarian

From Reference and Instruction:
Lane Wilkinson: Storyboard Creator and Zombie Librarian
Bo Baker: Makeup Artist, Cameraman and Zombie Librarian
Caitlin Shanley: Storyboard Creator and Zombie Librarian
Beverly Kutz: Story Board Contributor and Zombie Librarian
Virginia Cairns: First Year Experience Liaison and Zombie Librarian

Institution: DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Fairfield University

Two of our learning goals for our fall semester instruction sessions for the freshmen English courses are: to connect students with the services we provide to support them, and to provide an orientation to our building. Previous attempts to accomplish these two goals—guided tours and a choose-your-own-adventure style movie—either took too much time away from the active learning activities that are crucial to the success of our Information Literacy Program or quickly became dated.

To stay true to our vision of creating life-long, information-literate learners, we needed to take a more creative approach. We had read several articles discussing the benefits of gaming in pedagogy, and were excited about the possibilities this might afford. After further discussion and research, we decided to create an interactive, multimedia game for our instruction classes. However, we knew that we didn’t have the skills necessary to create the quality of product we envisioned. So, we approached Fairfield University Media Center to propose a partnership. We assembled a creative team composed of librarians, producers and programmers to create a game based on the popular DVD game, Scene It.

The project was a collaboration from the start. The librarians worked closely with each other to establish learning goals for the game. The librarians wrote the script, and producers and programmers from the Media Center offered feedback and suggestions. Team members met many times to discuss script ideas, presentation formats, and question/answer options. As a result of this process all team members were able to bring ideas to the table that strengthened the finished product. For example, it was the media center who suggested to animate the characters in the film clips to allow for the addition of future game modules. The librarians worked in close consultation with the programmer to make sure the final product could be played both with a live classroom, and online.

Preliminary evaluation data suggests the game has been a huge success. In post class evaluations 95% of students reported that the game “somewhat” or “substantially” contributed to their awareness of library services. We are still awaiting results of our more comprehensive evaluation pre- and post-tests, but observational data suggests the students thoroughly enjoyed playing the game. They were engaged, attentive, and took the “competition” seriously. It garnered enough positive response that the University is considering making the game part of First Year Orientation events. Such a successful project was only made possible by the extensive collaboration between the Media Center and the Library, and the good working relationships of the members of the creative team.

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: $2500

Team Members:

Jessica McCullough, Sr. Reference Librarian and Instruction Coordinator
Philip Bahr, Reference and Media Librarian
Curtis Ferree, Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian
Karen Connolly, Producer
Steve Evans, Programmer
Chris McGloin, Media Services Specialist

Institution: Johns Hopkins University

As the new outreach coordinator for a rare books collection, I have been charged with creating interest among the Hopkins community for our older material. In particular, I am tasked with raising the profile of Hopkins’ George Peabody Library, a beautiful 19th library that is underutilized, in part due to its location away from the main Homewood campus. Outreach, of course, cannot be done without the fine assistance of others, and I have been quite fortunate to have a strong team of librarians in both the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts and the Research Services division to assist with planning and hosting events such as our recent Valentine’s program, “Dirty Books and Longing Looks: Erotic and Romantic Books from the George Peabody Library.”

We worked together to create a book list, promotional material (including coupons to be redeemed for free Valentine’s sweets), and a staffing schedule for the event. What was so wonderful about the teamwork process was that our selection of material was quite diverse, spanning from the 15th to 19th centuries – from incunabula depicting Greek love myths to illustrations of love designed by William Blake, the displayed books did not reflect the interests of just one individual. The various details in putting on such an event are, of course, myriad, permitting team members to offer valuable ideas even if they could not physically make it in person to the event. Furthermore, we decided that since the location of the Peabody is viewed as a detriment to using its resources, we would bring the Peabody to the Homewood community by hosting the event in the library room of the newly restored Gilman Hall. This, of course, posed some challenges, such as receiving approval from Conservation to proceed with our plans, as well as creating guidelines for permitting attendees to handle the materials on display.

Not only did staff from two different departments work together to share their expertise with the Hopkins community, but it was also a terrific way to engage student employees. In particular, one student worker designed flyers and coupons for the event and proved to be such a wonderful promoter that she even gained permission to advertise the event on the campus’s sidewalks via the magic of chalk!

The event itself was a great success with over 200 participants ranging from undergraduates to faculty. By bringing the Peabody to the Homewood campus we were able to raise the profile of the collections, as well as remind attendees that rare books are for scholarship, but can also just be viewed for fun, no questions asked! Students asked numerous questions about the Peabody’s collections, work and internship opportunities. Indeed, the event proved so popular that we as a team will be planning a special rare books-themed haunted house for Halloween at the Peabody!

Promotional photos
Event photos
Blog

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: $70

Team Members:

Heidi Herr – Outreach Coordinator for Rare Books & Manuscripts
Paul Espinosa – Peabody Library Assistant
Chella Vaidyanathan — Librarian for History & Curator of 19th & 20th Century Books & Manuscripts
Don Juedes — Librarian for the History of Art, Classics, Film & Media Studies, & Near Eastern Studies
Gabrielle Dean — Librarian for English and the Writing Seminars & Curator of Literary Manuscripts
Julie DePasquale — Student Assistant in Rare Books & Manuscripts

Institution: Hackney Library – Barton College

Every fall since 2006, the Hackney Library at Barton College has held an open house. The purpose for the open house, in addition to welcoming back the community, is to showcase the library as an inviting space with knowledgeable and friendly staff, and for many students, it would also be an initial exposure to the library. In the fall of 2009, the library tried a new approach to the annual open house and held a music festival. The event was supposed to be a stop on the fictional Band Book Tour, a tour featuring several bands and performing at venues with names based on frequently challenged books. The event was a huge success and won a John Cotton Dana Award in 2010. In the fall of 2010, the library staff decided to capitalize on the success of the first event and make the second annual Band Book event even larger than the first. This would require not only a good deal of hard work, but the efforts of quite a few people.

The first thing a music festival needs is bands. The library staff reached out to musicians with ties to campus to perform at the event, which not only created a diverse lineup of four bands, but would also expose the campus community to music that is being created by musicians affiliated with the college.

In keeping with the music theme, library staff decided to contact local businesses who feature live music to get them involved as well. These businesses were asked if they would donate gift certificates or other giveaway items. In exchange for their participation, the logos of the participating businesses would appear on the flyers for the event, which provided them good exposure on campus as well as providing great prizes for those in attendance. The businesses were all very excited about this idea and ten local businesses agreed to participate. Additionally, a local music store agreed to provide a PA system and sound man for the event.

Collaboration was also crucial on campus. Library staff worked with the director of campus dining services, and had dinner served al fresco in front of the library, which helped draw in even more students. The event planning committee also worked closely with the director of student affairs and many student peer leaders who helped in various capacities during the event.

The final, most important level of collaboration was within the library itself. In addition to all the event planning, library staff designed t-shirts, can koozies, and backpacks that would be given away at the event, and all of the advertising for the event including multiple flyers and two video advertisements, also filmed by library staff.

In the end, the event was a massive success, and teamwork was at the heart of it. Library staff, local business owners, musicians, students, and campus employees all worked together to create a unique event that helped foster a sense of community on campus as well as within the greater local community.

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: $2000

Team Members:

Rodney Lippard – Library Director
Steven Stewart – Library Technical Associate for Outreach and Public Services
Cynthia Collins – Library Associate for Outreach and Public Services
Ann Dolman – Outreach and Public Services Librarian
Local musicians
Local business owners
Barton College Campus Dining Services
Barton College Student Affairs
Barton College Student Peer Leaders

Institution:  University of Houston Libraries

The peer mentor project was designed to offer faculty members a new option for incorporating information literacy instruction into their classes by providing specialized training to selected peer mentors. The project has been successful because of collaborations among librarians, faculty, students, and the university writing center.  It is funded by a library “micro-grant” program.

The Liaisons involved in this project invited interested faculty members to pilot with a class for which library instruction was appropriate.  Additionally, the team collaborated with the Writing Center to identify writing consultants to serve as peer mentors in classes for which they were already assigned.  In total, seven classes and seven peer mentors participated in the project.

The mentors agreed to participate in the project for the spring 2011 semester and worked closely with the appropriate team members to learn skills relevant to objectives and assignments for their course.  The mentors were expected to serve as mentors for their classmates and assist them in library-related work.  The specific nature of the training and support expectations varied depending on the requirements of the course and expectations of the instructor.

The initial desired outcomes were:

• Improve information literacy skills of students without requiring a faculty member to devote class time to one or more library instruction sessions;
• Offer interested students the opportunity to collaborate with a librarian and enhance their research skills;
• Provide a new way for librarians to interact with faculty and learn more about their teaching;
• Develop a project-based partnership with the Writing Center;
• Potentially lay the groundwork for a team approach to information literacy instruction that can be implemented on a larger scale.

The team is currently assessing the success of the project.  Initial outcomes and team member contributions include:

• Miranda Bennett initiated the project idea and led the team through regular meetings and communication using an online project management site.  She created a timeline and initial outline for the project.
• Christina Gola initiated the collaboration with the Writing Center and identified 5 English Composition courses in which writing consultants were already embedded.
• Liaisons Kerry Creelman and Rosalind Alexander each identified an appropriate course and received faculty consent.
• Each of us experienced some difficulties recruiting interested peer mentors.  Team members met and shared ideas for increasing the recruitment of students.  The final outcome was that each team member used a different but successful method for recruiting a peer mentor.
• Once peer mentors were identified, the team members successfully worked together and individually to provide necessary training.
• Currently the team members are working together to assess the project.  Assessment will include student and instructor surveys, focus groups, and review of Blackboard discussion threads.
• Based on initial observations, not all courses and peer mentors proved to be a successful match for this project.  However, several team members will be able to provide valuable lessons that will benefit the future development of this project.
• The partnership with the Writing Center has been highly successful and discussions for a larger scale project in fall 2011, including a Grant proposal are being coming to fruition.
• The team plans to write a recommendations for a larger scale program for the library.
• The peer mentors involved in the project will receive a $100 gift card for their work.

Project type: Project in Progress

Budget: $1200

Team members:

Rosalind Alexander – Communication, Sociology, & Technology Liaison Librarian
Miranda Bennett – Head of Liaison Services for Collections & Research Support
Kerry Creelman – English Liaison Librarian
UH Writing Center
Faculty partners
Selected students for Peer Mentors

Institution Type: Health Professions Library, Nova Southeastern University

Courtney Mlinar attended the Southern Chapter- Medical Librarian Association annual meeting in Fall 2010 and observed at a Poster Session that a library in Baltimore had constructed a studio for student presentations. Courtney, Kaye Robertson and Desman Ford met together and discussed the possible uses for a studio: faculty could use lecture recording outside of courseware, Skype with colleagues, use Camtasia, create videos; students could practice presentations and observe how they look during a presentation, Skype with students at different sites. We met with Marcus Montgomery from NSU’s Office of Technology, and he knew about some equipment that was no longer in use from another campus site. He assembled a shopping list of what equipment we needed to purchase and what was already available. He wrote the proposal and walked the proposal through the Office of Technology approval and purchasing for us. When all the equipment arrived in March, Marcus brought a team of techs and assembled the room for us. We added carpeting to the room and a window on the door as well. On the day Marcus was ready to demonstrate the equipment the Director of Circulation, Ann Wood, shared ideas on the best way to book and administrate the room usage. We setup a Google Calendar on the front circulation computers for studio scheduling. The same day we already had students come to the library and want to use it. As with all plans, we discovered the students had additional ideas on how the room could be utilized- they wanted to record in Tegrity or Wimba (courseware) their presentations for class assignments. Todd Puccio had setup a library orientation course in WebCT a few years earlier with Wimba and Tegrity. He gave everyone a brief session on how to use the software. Kristin Kroger created screenshots and instructions on how to record presentations in Wimba and Tegrity. In the meantime we went ahead and allowed students to record presentations while both the students and staff learned how to use the equipment. The students were aware we were learning and shared many ideas on how best to implement the studio setup for maximum usability. We are still evolving the use of the room and it is already very busy!

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: $4000

Team Members:

Courtney Mlinar, Academic Support Services/Reference Librarian
Desman Ford, Library Systems
Marcus Montgomery, NSU Computer Technician III
Kaye Robertson, Executive Director
Kristin Kroger, Reference Librarian
Todd Puccio, Director of Technical Services
Ann Wood, Director of Circulation

Institution Type: Central University Libraries

Faced with a space crunch in The Blanton Building where they currently reside, OIT was forced to look for new space on campus to house their Help Desk Unit. They already had a presence in the Fondren Library with their Academic Computing Technology (ACT) department, so OIT and CUL partnered together to bring OIT’s Help Desk to the Fondren Library, to the space occuiped by ACT. The ACT was moved into the Library’s Information Commons space to better align computing services to students and faculty. CUL moved their Student Multimedia Center from the room it occupied out into the Information Commons, freeing up space for the ACT unit. CUL also moved interlibary loan out of the Information Commons creating a space for a 14 seat touch computing lab. The grand result is that faculty and students now have a fully integrated Information Commons, with standard PC’s, MultiMedia Macs, a touch computing lab with 14 ipads and instructor station, a multifunction room and a support staff comprised of OIT and CUL employees. Architectural changes were minimum and designed in house. All costs were shared by both parties.

Project Type: Project in Progress

Budget: $30-50,000

Team Members:

Gilian McCombs, Dean of Central University Libraries (CUL)
Joe Gargiulo, CIO, Office of Information Rechnology (OIT)
Rob Walker, Director of Digital Services, CUL
Pat Van Zandt, Asst Dean for Scholarly Resources and Research Services, CUL
Tyeson Seale, Information Commons Technology Coordinator, CUL
Abby Kinney, Director, User Services Information Technology Services, OIT
Brad Boeke, Director of Academic Technology Services, OIT
Mary Queyrouze, Assistant Dean, Technology Services, CUL
Bill Dworaczyk, Assistant Dean, Facilities, CUL

Institution: Eastern Kentucky University Libraries

Imagine a space that transforms learning experiences for students of an entire university, a vision that encourages collaboration and was built through innovative teamwork, a new mission in a historic library. Completed in September 2010, Eastern Kentucky University’s Noel Studio for Academic Creativity inspires critical and creative thinking. The Noel Studio is an example of what can be accomplished through visionary leadership and teamwork in 21-st century libraries, from librarians to student research consultants.
The Noel Studio, a collaborative effort driven by student need, is the result of years of teamwork and leadership. Students often came to the library asking for help on presentations and multimodal projects, help the library realized was not available on EKU’s campus. The Crabbe Library embraced a calculated risk and envisioned a program that brought together services for writing, oral communication, and research all within the heart of its space.

The dream began in 2003 when a plan to relocate the writing center to the Crabbe Library was the intended outcome of an internship between the writing center director and the former Dean of Libraries. A team assembled, including members from the English Department, the Communication Department, Quality Enhancement Programs, Campus IT, and the Crabbe Library. Team members envisioned a space that functioned as a collaborative and integrated approach to writing, communication, and research.  The vision grew in 2008 when the Noel Studio became a centralized piece of the University’s SACS reaccreditation focus and Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). EKU’s QEP pledges to graduate critical and creative thinkers who communicate effectively through quality information and research. With changing university curriculum driven by the QEP, the Noel Studio gained momentum and attracted a million dollar donor. In seven short years, an idea was born and enhanced by a creative team dedicated to an innovative library space: an integrated service point providing assistance for not only research, but also for writing and communication, which would serve students well into the future.

Students who use the Noel Studio improve their communication skills by understanding the foundational elements of communication; seeing the connections between effective communication and appropriate information; using the fundamentals of critical and creative thinking to create and revise communication products; working with consultants to develop research strategies, organize and refine ideas, deliver articulate presentations, and create high-quality products; and honing group communication skills.

Early data suggest the Noel Studio is effective in helping students with research, writing, and communication.  Results also highlight student perception of learning as a result of consultations: students felt more confident identifying the thesis and purpose of their assignment, viewing topics from multiple perspectives, evaluating information and research to refine their communication, approaching communication design creatively, and incorporating a variety of appropriate sources. Dr. Doug Whitlock, EKU’s President recently acknowledged the success of the Noel Studio, explaining that “…with the opening of a new space of this size and scope, expectations often exceed reality. The Noel Studio is the rare case where reality has exceeded expectations.”  Visit this site for more info: http://www.eku.edu/photo/noel-studio-academic-creativity

Project type: Completed

Budget: 3 Million

Team members:

Shawn Apostel, Communication Coordinator Noel Studio
Russell Carpenter, Director Noel Studio
Carrie Cooper, Dean of Libraries
Renee Everett, Former Chair of Communications Dept.
Betina Gardner, Coordinator of Public Services, Library
Julie George, Business Library and Academic Commons
Liz Hansen, Chair of Communications Dept
Kevin Jones, Interim Reference Team Leader
James Keller, Chair of English Dept
Jean Marlow, EKU IT Dept
Trenia Napier, Research Coordinator Noel Studio
Sherry Robinson, Executive Assistant to the Provost
Stacey Street, Institutional Effectiveness
Leslie Valley, Writing Coordinator Noel Studio
Jayne Violette, Communication Faculty
Kate Williams, Director of QEP
Sara Zeigler, Dean of University Programs

Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Engaging and connecting with millennial students during the course of library instruction sessions can be a challenge. Seeking to discover a more creative way to introduce these students to the library was a team from the University of Illinois Undergraduate Library. The team, consisting of Susan Avery, Instructional Services Librarian, Dominick Spinelli, Pre-professional Graduate Assistant, and Dave Ellenwood, Pre-professional Graduate Assistant, determined the best way to connect with a generation of students who define themselves by their technology, music, and popular culture was to infuse these same elements into a video. Using elements of popular culture such as hip-hop, which has gained worldwide popularity particularly amongst marginalized communities, also helps foster a multicultural classroom environment. In addition to improving student engagement, videos provide alternative learning experiences for those who prefer auditory or visual learning.

The desired outcomes of this video would allow students to:
• become familiar with the Undergraduate Library as a physical and virtual space
• discover multiple ways in which to get help
• learn about the availability of loanable technology
• gain an awareness of the scope of the library’s collection

The complementary strengths of the team leant themselves well to the development and production of the video. Susan facilitated production of the video and identified and provided content and appropriate context for individual elements, based on her experience leading the instruction program in which the video would be shown. Dave’s unique skills in writing, producing, and performing rap music were utilized in the creation of original music that incorporated the content identified by Susan. Dominick lent his skills in the completion of the visual elements of the video, identifying existing photographs in the library’s collection and taking new photos to illustrate the rap lyrics. He also produced the video, incorporating all of the elements. Following its completion the video was shared with Undergraduate Library faculty and staff for comments, feedback, and additional editing.

The video has been shown to classes of first-year students throughout the 2010-2011 academic year. The success of the video in the classroom reaches beyond the immediate observations of visual engagement, head bobbing, and foot tapping. It has been demonstrated in more significant ways by student discussions and questions following its viewing. Students in Rhetoric classes are asked to identify and discuss aspects of the library that are unexpected and/or potentially beneficial to their success as students. English as a Second Language classes are asked to view the video and think about how this library differs from those in their home countries. The ensuing conversations have been significantly more substantive than those that took place prior to the video when the instructor simply pointed out aspects of the library from its web page. The end result of this project is a true testament to the success of teamwork and the unique skills and contributions of each member of the team.

The Undergraduate Library Rap can be viewed at:

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: N/A

Team Members:

Dominick Spinelli, Pre-professional Graduate Assistant
Dave Ellenwood, Pre-professional Graduate Assistant

Institution:  Texas Tech University Libraries

Cynthia Henry, Personal Librarian for Texas Tech University Libraries, was interested in meeting students where they were… literally, so she developed the Roving Reference project. After applying for and receiving the Libraries’ internal research grant, Cynthia bought a cart with wheels to hit the ground roving! This allows her and two colleagues, Carrye Syma, Personal Librarian, and Kimberly Vardeman, Reference Librarian, to mobilize their service to people across the TTU campus.

Wearing cute t-shirts that match the marketing on the cart which reads L?ST (ask me), the librarians take the cart around campus at the beginning of each semester assisting students, parents, and even new faculty. This service is beneficial to Texas Tech University by providing needed guidance to new people on campus. The University Libraries benefits by being one of the first entities that people meet on campus. Since it creates a positive interaction (helping someone who is lost or helping someone find information), people internalize that the Libraries are a helpful and friendly place. Roving Reference Librarians also explain about the personal librarian program, that each field of study on the TTU campus has a dedicated librarian to help with assignments and research.

The three Roving Reference Librarians field all kinds of questions from “Where is Holden Hall?” to “I saw a documentary last night on wind energy. Can you help me find more on this topic?” Using laptops, iPads, and the campus wireless internet, Roving Reference Librarians connect students to the information they need, by simply supplying directions or an in-depth look at the Libraries resources. The goal of Roving Reference is to show students how easy it is to access full-text articles, meet and connect with a TTU librarian, and experience a positive interaction with the Libraries.

Roving Reference Librarians started roving over the summer of 2010, with a big push during the fall semester. The librarians travel in teams of two, occasionally going individually and once all three went. Kimberly took the cart to Raiderville, where 2,000 students camped out before a rival football game, and she gave out contact information for the students’ personal librarians and swag from the Libraries.

The Roving Reference service has been a huge hit on campus. The team decided to collect feedback from patrons and created a three-question survey consisting of these questions:

• Would you use this service again?
• Do you think you are more likely to use the Libraries after using the Roving Reference service?
• How could this service (Roving Reference) be improved?

Even with teams of two, during the first two weeks of the fall semester the cart was so overwhelmed that the librarians could not tally all the questions due to the mass of people in the queue. Librarians talked to countless students and answered ninety-three patrons’ questions. Twenty-three students responded to the survey, all with positive feedback. Roving Reference Librarians plan to increase cart use in future semesters by moving the project to a permanent service to continue making personal connections across campus.

Project type:  Project in Progress

Budget:  $400

Team members:

Kimberly Vardeman/Assistant Librarian
Carrye Syma/Assistant Librarian

Institution: University of Scranton/Weinberg Memorial Library

The Weinberg Memorial Library at the University of Scranton has formed a Green Team to implement sustainable practices within the library. The Green Team strives to “green the library” and to better educate our students, faculty, staff and public. The Green Team is made up of Library faculty, administration, staff and students.

The main initiative of the Green Team was to improve and increase the amount of recycling in the building. The Team studied the current layout of bins and the behavior of students noting that co-mingling trash and recycling in one bin was the norm. We found the buildings recycling bins were not clearly labeled and were poorly located. We purchased fifteen sets of color coded bins with special lids, placing them in high traffic areas, with labels clearly stating which bin was for what type of material, and fliers neatly explaining how co-mingling spoils a bag of recycling–essentially turning it into trash.

We have also done an ad campaign to promote recycling. The Chair of the Green Team addressed two sections of a TV Production class to discuss specific issues related to sustainability within the library. The students then created, as a graded assignment, Public Service Announcement (PSA) videos about various recycling issues in the library. The videos each address a different aspect of recycling and run on the library’s four HDTVs throughout the day.

After reviewing the amount of paper the library purchases in a semester and taking note of how much paper is left or wasted by the printing stations, the Green Team recommended double-sided printing to Library Administration. The administration agreed with the Green Team’s assessment and duplex printers were purchased and installed in place of all print stations. This will both decrease the number of wasted pages that are printed daily and significantly reduce the total amount of paper used within the library.

In order to decrease the number of disposable water bottles discarded in the building. The Green Team asked Library Administration to purchase a filtered water bottle filling station in the Library. With the filtered water available for students to refill their reusable water bottles, we also purchased BPA-free water bottles with a logo designed by senior students looking to enter the field of Public Relations. The logo design features the University of Scranton’s ‘S’ logo and the Weinberg Memorial Library Green Team’s leafy Green ‘W’ logo. The bottles read “‘S’ave our ‘W’orld.”

During Earth Week we held a recycled craft night for students, faculty and staff. We used our unused book covers to create origami pieces that were then put on display during the library’s Environmental Art Show exhibit. The Team is always looking for new and interesting ways to reuse old materials.

The Team completed the recycling goals it had in its first year; however, we realize this is an ongoing struggle and continue to investigate new ways to promote sustainability in the Library. The Green Team also accomplished many other goals unrelated to recycling, which included an Environmental Art Show, Earth Week displays, Informational and Educational fliers, and the adoption of a section of a “Heritage Trail.” This will be an ongoing commitment that will allow the Team to share their dedication of bettering the environment with the community.

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: N/A

Team Members:

George Aulisio
Kristen Yarmey
Donna Mazziotti
Bonnie Oldham
Sheli McHugh
Narda Tafuri
Betsey Moylan
Charles Kratz
Bonnie Strohl
Beth Teets
Barb Evans
Sharon Finnerty
Karen DeMaria
Gillian Naro.

Institution:  Albert S. Cook Library of Towson University

When Albert S. Cook Library, Towson University’s only library, was built in 1969 the total student enrollment for the university was 8,859.  By 2011, the university’s enrollment had grown to 21,840.  Since the student population has expanded so much but the library has not, students must study in close proximity to one another while in the library.  This often results in students unintentionally disturbing one another and more students have voiced complaints that the library is not doing enough to foster a studious atmosphere.

In order to address the increasing number of student complaints about other students’ rude behavior in the library in recent months, the Cook Library Marketing Committee decided a culture shift is needed.  Committee members said that library staff do not have the time, nor do they feel comfortable being the “noise police” and that a negative list of outlawed behavior would not work.  So the committee decided a positive approach is needed and the Cook Library Civility Project was born.  This project involves self-selected members of the Marketing Committee and other interested library staff creating a video that promotes acts of civility in the library.  In this video modeled after Liberty Mutual advertisements, a student witnesses an act of civility, such as someone taking a cell phone call outside, and the witness then performs a different civil act such as throwing away trash.  These “pay-it-forward” acts of civility continue for about five or so scenes and then it will end with the tag line “Civility: That’s Our Policy; Albert S. Cook Library”.  We hope then to turn this into a true communication campaign with signs and buttons that contain the tagline.  The campaign would be unveiled during new student orientation with the hopes that it would set the tone for the new students’ behavior in the library.

The creation of this video and other campaign elements will be truly a collaborative effort.  The Cook Library Civility Project Committee members will be meeting in the next few weeks to bring together our individual ideas for the “pay-it-forward” scenes and develop a story board for the video.  Once the story lines are in place, then shooting an editing will begin and each person on the project committee will play a role that is in line with his or her interests and experiences.  Two of the committee members (Paul Brown and Lisa Woznicki) have experience in making library videos so they will be heavily involved in the filming and editing.  Three other committee members (Melissa A. Ravely, Amanda C. Youngbar, and Laksamee Putnam) spend a large amount of time working in public areas of the library so they will be working on recruiting actors for the video and thinking of ways to extend the reach of the campaign.  Librarian Joyce Garczynski who is interested in assessment will work on focus group testing the video so that we are sure that we have a message that resonates and will help change the culture at Towson University’s Cook Library.

Project type:  Project in Progress

Budget:  N/A

Team members:

Joyce Garczynski, Communications and Development Librarian
Melissa A. Ravely, Research and Instruction Librarian
Amanda C. Youngbar, Library Associate
Lisa Woznicki, Research and Instruction Librarian
Paul Brown, Multimedia Assistant
Laksamee Putnam, Research and Instruction Librarian

Institution: Washington State University

The Information Literacy Education Learning Environment (ILE) is a homegrown environment designed to provide learning and assessment opportunities focused on information literacy (IL). Released as an open source product in May of 2010, ILE has been utilized to provide instruction and assessment for approximately 12,000 students at WSU across six colleges on three campuses. In ILE, students are presented opportunities to learn IL concepts utilizing tutorials from WSU, and from those available from other institutions available on the open web. Assessment of student learning is conducted through multiple-choice quizzes, and students’ ability to transfer what they’ve learned is assessed through short answer questions. Currently the ILE project-team is in the process of analyzing the results of quiz questions mapped to ACRL IL standards, in addition to a more granular sub-standard categorization. The intent is to be able to identify WSU undergraduate IL strengths and weaknesses to inform the instruction provided by instruction team members, and contribute to an institutional understanding of progress made towards the learning goals of the baccalaureate, of which IL is one of six.

To date, the project-team has conducted a preliminary statistical analysis of 173 quiz questions, asked 39,484 times to approximately 4500 WSU undergraduates. These students were enrolled in 240 sections of 9 courses across 6 colleges on the WSU Pullman and online campuses between fall 2007 and spring 2009. When completed, the final analysis will include analyses of quiz question results from a sample of over 12,000 students, including over 200 individual quiz questions. From our preliminary analysis, we are able to infer that, undergraduate students at WSU demonstrate the greatest proficiency in the area of evaluating information, and the least aptitude in the area of accessing information.

The team composition includes a Project Manager (PM), an Undergraduate Developer, an Information Technology Specialist, two additional Instruction Team members, and a Digital Initiatives Librarian . In addition to managing the project, the PM designed the environment, works with faculty to design course spaces, and provides technical support. The Undergraduate Developer, is the primary coder for the environment, his efforts on the development front have made the environment a viable option in place of the university provided learning management system, such that our team maintains control of the environment. Our Information Technology Specialist manages our server environment, provides technical support, and assists in the data mining processes. Our Instruction Team Members make contact with instructors looking to incorporate IL instruction and assessment into their courses, and work with the PM in developing appropriate educational interventions to accomplish the goals of the course. Our Digital Initiatives Librarian has the statistical analysis skills; he selects the tests, and runs the numbers.

This large-scale study when completed has the potential to quantify WSU undergraduate IL proficiencies in a manner such that recommendations can be made as to the type of information students would benefit from. Further, the project-team purports that this effort will act as a component in demonstrating the value the libraries bring to student learning on our campuses.

Project Type: Project in Process

Budget: N/A

Team Members:

Project Manager – Steve Borrelli Instructional Design and Assessment Team Leader
Undergraduate Developer – Eun Leem
Information Technology Specialist – Jon Scott
Instruction Team Member – Corey Johnson Instruction Team Leader
Instruction Team Member – Lara Cummings Instruction Librarian
Digital Initiatives Librarian – Alex Merrill

Institution:  Champlain College

In the summer of 2010 the group of teaching librarians (TLs) at Champlain College began reassessing and reworking their lesson plan for their Core 110 classes, the required first year, fall semester course in Champlain’s general education curriculum. Through brainstorming, affinity mapping, and dialogue, the librarians determined the requirements for the class:

1.    Since this is the first time librarians make contact with students in a classroom environment, the TLs all wanted this first impression to be positive.
2.    The session had to be inquiry based like all the other information literacy instruction at Champlain.
3.    The session should be fun for both students and librarians.
4.    The session should thoughtfully integrate technology into student learning.

We had looked at using clickers, but quickly realized that this option was unfeasible due to our limitations of no dedicated classroom space and having to teach 31 sections over two weeks. We instead began discussing the possibility of using a technology called Poll Everywhere that allowed students to participate via a technology that they all had with them: mobile phones.

The TLs all agreed that this would be a fun tool to integrate into our pedagogy, so we began constructing a pilot session together. Each team member brought their different strengths to developing the session. Some created the polls and trained others in how to effectively use them, and others contributed by developing the non-technical parts of the session.  During the planning and preparation phase we asked ourselves if the extensive effort in setting up polls and integrating an unfamiliar technology was going to work or be worth it in the end.  However, the level of excitement and the desire to refresh our teaching was palpable among the TLs. We ultimately decided that a little more work in setting up the software was not going to overshadow that enthusiasm.

We began teaching the sessions in the Fall of 2010. After identifying and correcting several technological glitches, the mobile polling was a complete success. Feedback from both students and faculty was overwhelmingly positive and one student even asked their professor, “Can we do more of these in class?”

This project was innovative in its scope and breadth as a pilot project.  Trying something new is always challenging.  Trying something new in 31 sections over two weeks with 500+ students and four librarians could be called downright crazy!  The support the librarians received from each other, from faculty, and from our library director was vital to the project’s success.  While each librarian walks into a classroom on their own, the awareness of other librarians’ excitement, sense of experimentation, and student enthusiasm for the project motivated each librarian to step outside of their comfort zone and try something new.

Outside of the success in the classroom, the project’s greatest success was in shaping a team that is willing to experiment, to fail, and to think in new and exciting ways.

Project type: Completed

Budget: $0

Team members:

Andy Burkhardt/Emerging Technologies Librarian
Brenda Racht/Reference & Interlibrary Loan Librarian
Paula Olsen/Reference & Instruction Librarian
Michele Melia/Cataloging & Systems Librarian

Institution: New York Law School Mendik Library

“Like nearly all law libraries, the New York Law School had a series of web pages with links to recommended free legal resources. Early in 2010, Systems Librarian Terry Ballard envisioned a search gadget for the library’s Facebook page that could search a number of these sites simultaneously. He remembered seeing a Google product called “Custom Search” that set up a Google search prelimited to specific sites. By the time that he had added 20 sites to the initial engine, it became clear that this could be a powerful tool in legal research. He demonstrated this to the full group of librarians, and they agreed to expand this for a September release on the library’s web pages.

With input from the librarians, Ballard expanded the list to include 100 sites. In spite of the additions, results still appeared in less than one second, although Google limited the results sets to 100 hits. We next set out to find an appropriate name. After a number of suggestions the library settled on DRAGNET, because it “drags the net for appropriate materials.” Ballard then retrofitted the acronym “Database Resource Access using Google’s New Electronic Technology.”

When DRAGNET was announced to the library world in late August, it was visited by hundreds of users, and well-received in Twitter and the blogosphere. Several people wrote Ballard suggesting that he add search tabs to increase the focus of results and expand the potential hit count. Tabs were added for recent, New York, International and federal sites. Still, results appeared in less than a second.

After the initial release a committee was set up to monitor new additions to DRAGNET. This allowed for an effective mix of technology and legal experts to determine the future course of the project. They began adding to the DRAGNET family by adapting a previous project. For some time the library had been tracking 150 law reviews with free online access. By constructing a DRAGNET engine to add to the page, they could search all of the journals at once. A third project was an engine that searched only the statutes, regulations and constitutions of the fifty states and federal government.

Using usage tracking programs the team was aware that the DRAGNET project was popular with users on and off campus. In particular, a number of cabinet level federal sites were regular users as well as law firms nationwide. In March, the library learned that DRAGNET had won the American Association of Law Libraries award for library publications, nonprint division.

In the spring of 2011, the team also developed an IGoogle search device for DRAGNET and the Law Reviews with online content, so anyone with an IGoogle account can have instant access to the data. For the future, they hope to create a mobile application for the project.
The DRAGNET pages can be found at:
http://www.nyls.edu/library/research_tools_and_sources/dragnet1

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: N/A

Team Members:

Terry Ballard, Assistant Director of Technical Services for Library Systems
William Mills, Associate Library Director
Grace Lee, Electronic Services Librarian
Valerie Carullo, Government Resources/Reference Librarian

Institution: Keiser Lakeland Library

“Who Knew?! Collaborative Effort and Team Spiritedness “Journals 2 U” Inspires the College Student’s Connection to Scholarly Journal Use
by Karyn Zelbovitz, MLIS, Library Director for Keiser University Lakeland Library.

Reviewing the usage statistics of my in print journals was an empty experience. Thousands of dollars had been spent on periodicals that never left the shelf. Although library policy allowed for checkout of journals, but alas almost all of them had not been circulated. The library staff attempted to place journals in more visible locations, aimed them closer to seating areas, hoping that turning clear canisters facing outward would draw more interest. This was to no avail of change in the circulation stats.

Month after month of handling periodicals, while seeing cutting edge cover stories go virtually unnoticed, it became obvious that change was needed. Either the resources of the print journals needed to be redirected or the journals needed to sprout wings and fly off my shelves. I asked “Why?” and thought of my educational journey spotted with quiet afternoons in the stacks, and the emergence of databases. Had digital collections replaced the need for print? My regional and national accreditation reviewers certainly required print journal availability.

My query emerged again in the midst of a library orientation. Young and enthusiastic college starters sat around a carrel of technology as we began training. I asked, “Who can tell me, what is a journal?” One student spoke up, to the approval of his classmates, “A journal is like a diary, a place where you write about a some aspect you are interested in tracking.” All agreed. Again, I asked, “Is there another definition of a journal?” The group was silent. I held up a scholarly journal to the group and there was no recognition. I asked sheepishly, “Is this a journal?” They group looked puzzled. Similar responses were found in several other groups. I was astonished that bright college students could not identify a journal as a journal when prompted with a visual clue. I began to immediately send to faculty copies of the best cover stories as a gift from the library. Perhaps the instructors would enlighten the students, when they themselves read a great article. This soon became a team effort, to save the journal. I began Journals 2 U.

My serials librarian was given the task of taking the most exciting information from our in print journals and making 30 copies on colored paper for each of the program department heads in our university setting. Each week, 30 copies went to a new department until all the departments had received this gift from the library. We thought colored paper would allow the student and faculty to easily find the article in the midst of their other handouts. We received thank you notes for our efforts, but our circulation stats did not change by one number.

We then met informally with instructors as we were giving them their free journal packet about what they were teaching in the next month. We found new articles that zeroed in on relevant subject materials to their planned curriculum. We received more notes of appreciation, but again not one journal was circulated.

We created a display that wrapped around the upper level of the collection displaying the various articles sent to the programs. Accreditation teams marveled at our innovativeness and promotion of journals. However, not one journal was checked-out.

Then, in setting up a library orientation with an instructor that was recently published, we explored direct usage of periodicals. The instructor stated she wanted students to read and use in print journals more as an educational objective. I suggested her students could select an article from our in print nursing collection and provide a brief paper presentation. She loved the idea. She told the other nursing faculty. They loved the idea. They each added this to their lesson plans and assignments. They told other faculty of other disciplines. Now many instructors add this assignment when they request a library orientation. Journals 2 U reminds faculty of the scholarly merit, programmatic value, and budgetary worth of print journals to academia.

Today, as I prepare for a large group of nursing students for a library orientation in which they will learn about library resources and databases, each will be checking out an in print nursing journal of their choice. This innovation has become commonplace now in the library. The library team has a special quiet smile as each journal is circulated. We saved the print journal.

Journals 2 U was successful and all of the library staff and faculty are responsible for its development. The team spiritedness that began with the library staff was collaboratively supported by the faculty. Everyone in this innovation was a winner. Students have an exemplary scholarly article, faculty have curriculum support, print journals are being circulated, and accreditation reviewers love Journals 2 U collaborative success.

But there is that moment, when a new college student is standing in the library with one of the new journals in her hand, smiling in eager anticipation of what new things she will learn as she gazes at the cover and walks towards the circulation counter. She did not know that there were journals of experts in her discipline that wrote scholarly articles. My circ stats and budgetary expenditures are now well supported by that student’s smile. Who knew!?

Project Type: Project in Progress

Budget: pre-existed budget with no new costs

Team Members:

Karyn Waters Zelbovitz,MLIS,MSC,MS, Library Director
Tsu Yin Lue, MLIS, Serials Assitant Librarian
Jonathan Koch, MLIS, Reference Assistant Librarian
Audra Rose,MLIS, Information Literacy Assistant Librarian

and the fabulous collaborative faculty of Keiser University Lakeland Campus

Institution:  Georgia Institute of Technology Library

Overview

In January 2010, Georgia Tech’s User Engagement Librarian (Ameet Doshi) and the Library’s East Commons Coordinator (Charlie Bennett) collaborated with Georgia Tech students Jonathon Walker, Avinash Sastry and Kyle Tait to launch the first “research library rock n’ roll radio show” on WREK 91.1 FM Atlanta. WREK radio is operated by students and funded by the Student Government Association.

Conception

This collaboration began with the intent to market library events and resources via brief public service announcements. Eventually the idea morphed into a weekly program exploring various library-related themes. The radio show is called “Lost in the Stacks” and broadcasts live at noon every Friday. Each show is a mix of interviews with students, faculty and library staff and theme-related music. For example, a show with the theme of “The Library and Film” included interviews with the librarian who develops the film collection, undergraduates from the film club about how they use the library as a location for their films, and a professor about using the library’s scholarly film resources. Each interview is followed by a set of theme-related music. For the show about “Libraries and Film,” music included songs about films or filmmaking (for example: “Clark Gable” by The Postal Service). Producing each week’s show involves 2-3 hours of research and recording, as well as brainstorming about theme-related music.

Implementation

Obtaining a weekly slot on WREK’s schedule involved direct communication with the student leadership of the station. We were asked to submit a proposal and record a “pilot” episode for evaluation by the WREK executive board. Fortunately, many students indicated an interest in the idea and offered their production skills to help record the pilot and serve as board operators each week. Every program on WREK requires a student board operator controlling the technical aspects of the show. Because student schedules can be erratic we needed to recruit three or four back-up student operators willing and able to step in as needed.

Achieved and Desired Outcomes

We created a website (http://lostinthestacks.org) directing users to the show’s Facebook page. As of April 2011, the site has more than 550 fans on Facebook, and many are students actively commenting on the wall. A desired outcome for the program is wider distribution of the entire show, including the copyrighted music, via a podcast. Because of the complex legal issues involved, this requires additional research and resources before it becomes a reality. Nonetheless, the show has already garnered attention within the library community and at Georgia Tech.

Our listener evaluations suggest that the radio show has been a successful, low-cost, high-impact collaboration with student media helping to shape perceptions of the library and library staff in new and positive ways. The collaboration leverages existing infrastructure and uses existing low-cost marketing channels (such as Facebook and Twitter) to gain listeners.

To our knowledge, “Lost in the Stacks” is a unique concept in academia, though our hope is that we inspire other libraries to engage their users in similar “cool” ways.

Project type:  Project in Progress

Budget:  $500 – $5,000

Team members:

Charlie Bennett, Georgia Tech Library, East Commons Coordinator
Ameet Doshi, Georgia Tech Library, User Engagement Librarian
Jonathon Walker, Georgia Tech Student, General Manager WREK 91.1 FM Atlanta
Avinash Sastry, Georgia Tech Student, Primary Board Operator for “Lost in the Stacks” (WREK Atlanta)
Perry Shuman, Georgia Tech Student, WREK staff
J. J. O’Brien, Georgia Tech Student, WREK staff
Alli Low, Georgia Tech Student, WREK staff
Kyle Tait, former Georgia Tech Student, former WREK staff

Institution:  Kansas State University Libraries

The typical model of embedded librarianship, where a librarian is incorporated into a course as a co-instructor, has been applied as a means to overcome the limitations of “one-shot” library instruction classes. However, while the service provided is thought of as superior to a “one-shot” class, it can also be overwhelming for the individual librarian. When resources are thin and libraries are under-staffed, the question is: how do we solve the scalability problem? Our project aims to provide a solution by utilizing a cross-departmental, team-based approach to embedded librarianship in order to better utilize the time and talents of individual librarians, while also enriching student learning.

Led by Dean Lori Goetsch, Kansas State University Libraries is undergoing a major reorganization to become an inventive, data-driven organization. The Office of Library Planning and Assessment (LPA) infuses assessment components into the library’s operations. Within the LPA Office, the Research & Development Librarian initiates, prototypes and facilitates innovative endeavors in the library.

Departing from the traditional subject liaison model, Leo Lo, the Research & Development Librarian, is initiating a collaborative project with librarians from the Faculty and Graduate Services Department (Elisabeth Pankl) and the Undergraduate and Community Services Department (Jason Coleman) to design and implement a team-based strategy to embed information literacy and library services into an online general education course, Geography of Tourism, as a prototype project.

The librarians collaborate with the instructor to integrate information literacy into the pedagogical strategies of the course. This is accomplished by delivering information literacy instruction synchronously through an online presentation platform (Wimba) and asynchronously through a wiki and screencasts, and by delivering reference service asynchronously through a message board embedded in the university’s course management system (K-State Online).

All three librarians deliver reference service and facilitate information literacy learning on the message board, which has the advantage of allowing students to see all questions and answers. This reduces the students’ need to use the library’s reference services, which in effect lessens the burden on the library’s reference staff. As the three librarians each have their own expertise, the students are exposed to a broader range of researching techniques than they would be with an individual librarian. Another advantage of using the message board is that it can serve as an archive of reference Q&As for the course, thus not only providing a time-saving mechanism for future courses, but also a device for assessing student learning.

Assessment of student learning is determined via analysis of a series of assignments, including a social media project, and a more substantial culminating research project co-designed by the team of librarians. Each of the three librarians’ time committed to the class will be recorded. The data derived from this case study will inform Kansas State University Libraries of the effectiveness, scalability, and feasibility of this team-based approach to embedded librarianship. This project could potentially transform how embedded librarians operate, and it could become a template for other academic libraries to emulate.

Project type: Project in Progress

Budget: N/A

Team members:

Leo Lo, Research & Development Librarian
Jason Coleman, Undergraduate and Community Services Librarian
Elisabeth Pankl, Faculty and Graduate Services Librarian

Institution: MIT Libraries

Assessment activities in the MIT Libraries were centralized with a reorganization that went into effect on July 1, 2010. This first year, fiscal 2011, my Assessment Team and I have been piloting a number of efforts to incorporate assessment into every new library department’s regular work flow. At the same time, it’s been critical to raise awareness in library administration of what assessment means and how it works in order to ensure that all staff become comfortable with it.

The Assessment Team has begun a pilot to produce a set of “monthly metrics” each month that highlights some aspect of the Libraries. These are shared with the library leadership group at the beginning of the month. The first monthly metrics was sent in March 2011.

Initially, we have these goals:

· To highlight some interesting tidbit each month that illustrates what assessment can look like.

· To encourage library leadership to think about what their service could “look like” when presented as visual data.

· To develop a “dashboard” of metrics to show to the public that describes the MIT Libraries.

I began with discussions with the Associate Head of Administration, to whom I report. I shared those vague ideas with the Assessment Team, who represent various departments in the MIT Libraries, and we brainstormed a long list of possibilities. I met with the communications officer to learn more about what kinds of data is of interest for our marketing materials, and gathered input from the library leadership team for future ideas.

Then we just went with it! Each month, the group works together to choose something that we think might be striking. Christine gathered interlibrary loan data for the first effort, and Mat created a graph for it that showed how it’s risen for the past 5 years. The next month, Mat used collections data to show that our newest physical books do continue to circulate, despite the increase in electronic materials. This past month, I created a Wordle of comments gathered from surveys collected by the User Experience group about library spaces and hours.

All of these were presented to the library leadership group with context – what does this data represent, what might it mean, and what questions does it raise for further study? Library leaders share the monthly metrics with their departments when they “see” something in the data that they had not thought about before. One of our upcoming metrics will be to show how our web site and subscriptions are used on- versus off-campus. Peter is working with data on reference referrals by circulation staff. In the coming year, we hope to do something to show the impact of our new non-MIT partnerships.

It’s been quite a challenge, but it’s a start! We’ll see if it is effective in getting library staff more comfortable with numbers and what they can mean.

Project Type: Project in Progress

Budget: N/A

Team Members:

Lisa Horowitz, Assessment Librarian
Peter Cohn, Urban Studies & Planning and Real Estate Librarian/Manager for Instruction Services
Christine Quirion, Head, Information Delivery and Library Access
Mathew Willmott, Physics Librarian and Collections Specialist

Institution: US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) is the lead  medical research laboratory for the U.S. Biological Defense Research Program. Its mission is to conduct basic and applied research on biological threats to protect the war fighter.  As an integral part of USAMRIID’s research, the Medical Library’s challenge is to identify, procure, and maintain quality scientific and technological information resources and to provide distinguished, responsive service to its customers. To fulfill its mission, the Library maintains book, document, database, media, and e-resource collections that are both comprehensive and relevant in the field of biological defense.  Its motto is: “The USAMRIID Medical Library—the research starts here”.

One of the Library’s strategic goals for FY11 is to increase its marketing efforts to connect with its patrons and non-patrons. If successful, the plan’s focus will result in an increased awareness of the library’s value and an optimized usage of the library’s resources.

An example of its implemented outreach activities is a re-vamped “lunch and learn” movie program. Prior to 2011, the Library typically invited a guest speaker or held a film presentation in conjunction with its “Subject of the Month” bulletin board display which highlighted a specific topic traditionally observed during that month (e.g. Native American Month, National Honey Month).  These outreach programs drew minimal attendance (even with the offerings of free food), so the Library decided to revise its Subject of the Month program. Since USAMRIID’s research involves infectious diseases, the Library decided to focus its film presentations on that subject as well, and has begun a program called “Infectious Diseases—the Reel Thing”.  This program is a team effort of the Library Director, the Public Services Librarian, the Library Technician, and a research scientist (formerly on the Library Committee). The workflow is as follows: the researcher and the Library Director brainstorm about various infectious diseases as potential subjects of interest, the Library Director selects the disease topic, the Public Services Librarian identifies possible film titles which could be shown, the Director previews, selects/rents/purchases the film for showing, and compiles the background  information for the bulletin board, the Library Technician prepares the bulletin board layout and designs the publicity flyers for distribution. The research scientist conducts supplemental word-of-mouth marketing to his colleagues about the upcoming event. The entire Library staff assists with the refreshment offerings which accompany the film showing.

The first 2011 “Reel Thing” highlighted “World Leprosy Day” and the Carville leprosarium; attendance for this showing was greater than the Library’s total 2010 program attendance. Films related to “World Tuberculosis Day” and “Lyme Disease Awareness Month” have also drawn respectable audiences. Shows on Malaria, Polio, and Plague are a sampling of other infectious disease documentaries planned for showing throughout the rest of the year.

While it is too soon to tell the influence of the revised marketing strategy, current statistics reveal an increase in library service usage and overall library attendance.  Including a responsive researcher on the programming team was key to the campaign’s success.

Project type:  Project in Progress

Budget:  $0

Team members:

Denise Lupp, Library Director
Lori Beaudoin, Public Services Librarian
Jenny Novacescu, Library Technician
Bradley Stiles, Research Scientist

Institution: Lavery Library at St. John Fisher College

Recognizing how essential collaboration between the K-12 classroom teacher and the school librarian is in promoting information literacy, the team worked together to form a three way partnership that included the college’s Lavery Library, the college’s School of Education, and approximately 100 school librarians in Upstate New York near the college’s campus. The Education Librarian team member contacted school librarians of surrounding K-12school districts and asked for their participation; response by the school librarians was enthusiastic.

The team then created a requirement for every K-12 pre-service teacher enrolled at St. John Fisher College to spend 3 hours of field experience in a school library. The three hours field experience in elementary libraries is imbedded into course EDUC356: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Literacy. For secondary education pre-service teachers, the three hours are imbedded into EDUC 418: Literacy Instruction for Middle-Childhood and Adolescent Learners.

Professors teaching those courses were included in all team discussions and readily agreed to prepare students for their school library field experience by communicating to students their expectations regarding connections each student should make between course assignments, school library resources, and information literacy.

The process itself is simple. Undergraduates and K-12 school librarians are paired by the College’s Director of Student Teaching. Soon after each semester starts, the undergraduate introduces him or herself to the school librarian via email and they find a mutually agreeable date and time for the undergraduate to spend three hours in the school library with the school librarian.

The student carries paperwork with him or her for the school librarian to sign as verification that the 3 hours field experience has been completed. The completed paperwork is returned to the college’s Director of Student Teaching. During the three hours, the undergraduate can observe how the school librarian collaborates with the classroom teachers in the school. The undergraduate can asks questions like:
If I was a classroom teacher in your school, how would you and I collaborate?
How could I use the library resources when planning my lessons?
What are some examples of ways you currently work with classroom teachers?
What should a classroom teacher do to make the most of the school library librarian?

The thinking behind this project is that newly hired K-12 teachers are often so busy they never connect with the school librarian. However, if their undergraduate teacher preparation allows them to experience the value of classroom teacher/school librarian collaboration, they enter their profession seeking out the school librarian because they realize from the very beginning that the school librarian is a value-added piece of their students’ educational experience.

Project Type: Completed Project

Budget: N/A

Team Members:

Kathleen Sigler, Education Librarian, St. John Fisher College
Melissa Jadlos, Library Director, St. John Fisher College
Dr. Wendy Paterson, Dean of the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. School of Education
Allison Bosworth, School Of Education Director of Field Experience and Student Teaching
Other team members were the approximately 100 K-12 School library Media Specialists who participated

Institution:  University of Texas Libraries

When our proposal to integrate information literacy into the new undergraduate core curriculum at the University of Texas at Austin was accepted, we were overjoyed, but soon realized we didn’t have the resources to support instruction sessions and faculty/librarian collaboration for each of the almost 300 Signature Courses that our freshman class of more than 7,000 incoming students would now be required to take.  The Signature Course Faculty Toolkit (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/signaturecourses) was developed by a team of eleven staff members from Library Instruction Services, Technology Integration Services, and Digital Library Services as one solution to this problem.  The purpose of the Toolkit is two-fold: it provides a self-service station for faculty while also marketing our instruction services beyond the typical one-shot  session that had been our primary way of collaborating with faculty in the past.  The Toolkit provides an autonomous opportunity for faculty to self-select how to integrate information literacy into their course while also promoting that librarians are available to help develop assignments, guides or other research assignments that may or may not involve an in-person class meeting with a librarian.  While this self-service model makes it difficult for us to track all of the courses where we’ve successfully integrated information literacy within the Signature Course program and requires us to let go of our control over this content, it allows us the bandwidth to effectively and sustainably support this program with our staff of three full-time instruction librarians within a model that we believes deepens student learning through more holistic course integration of information literacy content.  While Library Instruction Services conceived the idea of the Toolkit and provided instructional design guidance, the repository was collaboratively developed with the web design and usability expertise of Technology Integration services and the programming expertise of Digital Library Services.  We were fortunate to work with an instructional technology specialist in Technology Integration Services who understood our goals and could effectively translate our ideas to the programming and design staff who were actually building the tool.   A wiki was used to create a collaborative workspace where each of these units within the Libraries could share ideas and content through the initial development stages.  Questions about functionality and design were posed in this space with answers provided by the person possessing the relevant expertise.  This same collaborative strategy has supported a redesign effort this year, which began in response to anecdotal evidence gathered through discussion with our faculty collaborators about what they found useful in the Toolkit and which parts of the Toolkit were unclear to them .  Staff from Library Instruction Services and Technology Integration Services conducted a usability study with faculty and are working towards a redesign of the interface based on that input, which we hope to complete in Fall 2011.  This ongoing mode of collaboration has allowed us to document our process, track decision-making, and establish accountability for tasks in the development and maintenance process while working across units and creating a shared vision for implementing and improving a library service.

Project type: Project in Progress

Budget:  N/A

Team Members:

Jade Anderson, Information Architect
Aaron Choate, Head, Technology Integration Services
Anna Fidgeon, Graduate Research Assistant
Cindy Fisher, First-year Experience Librarian
Matt Lisle, Instructional Technology Specialist
Elise Nacca, Library Assistant II
Michele Ostrow, Head, Library Instruction Services
Meghan Sitar, Instruction and Outreach Librarian
Audrey Templeton, Programmer
Matthew Villalobos, Web Designer
Krystal Wyatt-Baxter, Instruction Librarian