Categories
Outreach Programming

Outreach to Staff

Guest Author – Julie McDaniel, Student Success Librarian, Sinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio

Focusing on college faculty and students in our work as librarians can make it easy to overlook the potential of reaching everyone else who works at our institutions. At Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, we have launched a variety of initiatives that help us connect with college staff, which we believe help us promote library resources to staff.

In my role as Student Success Librarian, I work with college staff who are also connected to student success and represent a wide variety of departments on campus. Part of my role is to connect staff to as much information about our college as I can to make sure that students are receiving the most accurate information the first time and to decrease inaccurate referrals. We have created several ways to do this. These programs go beyond the library’s traditional role of articles, books, and video.

Sinclair Community College campus

We created a series of programs, called Sinclair 101, that help staff learn about other departments on campus. The Sinclair 101 team hosts two events each month – one where we tour a campus space (such as our automotive department, culinary spaces, theatre backstage, etc.) and one where we have a question-and-answer session. Staff are generally excited about the opportunity to talk about their area and other staff appreciate the opportunity to learn about the services, resources, and offices on campus and how they can help students. The cross training and new knowledge allow everyone to better serve students and improve referrals between departments.

Our library hosts an Employees Pursuing Graduate Degrees group once a month to allow employees to share successes and struggles while encouraging one another. As the participants discuss their experiences on their way to advanced degrees, we have been able to talk about library databases, citation management apps, predatory publishing, interlibrary loan as well as general research topics. We have also been able to make referrals to our Institutional Review Board and Research, Analytics and Reporting departments. Staff appreciate the attention to their “outside of work” projects and we benefit by being on the cutting edge of community college research.

We created a series of programs called Tips, Tricks & Hidden Gems that focus on various software programs or apps that are used on our campus. A “super user” leads the session and shares tips or work arounds that are helpful to others who also use the systems. Participants in the sessions are encouraged to share their shortcuts as well as ask questions to allow the group to problem solve as needed to help everyone do their job better. We were able to have one session focused on the library where we reviewed our website and used that as jumping-off point to talk about all our resources – which are, of course, available to staff as well as students.

In general, we have raised the visibility of the library by reaching college staff to help them do their jobs better as well as helping provide current accurate information about our institution to help our students succeed.

Categories
Leadership Outreach

It’s not too late to join the team!

Although the formal application period has passed, the CJCLS Communications Committee is still looking for additional members. The charge of the committee is as follows:

To facilitate the sharing of ideas, best practices and news from ACRL/ALA units and relevant outside agencies to CJCLS members; assess the many communication options available and maintain a formal communication plan to disseminate information among CJCLS members. Membership on this committee includes the Section’s Webmaster and Newsletter Editor.

Hear from members about the value of joining the committee:

  • The committee is regularly active and working on projects.
  • It’s a chance for us to celebrate the work being done in community colleges! So much of ACRL content is focused on four-year institutions and not relevant to community colleges with fewer resources.
  • Get professional writing opportunities (like these blog posts!) to put in your portfolio.
  • Highlight news and innovations from community colleges across the country.

Interested? Reach out to the incoming chair Lisa Eichholtz on ALA Connect.

Categories
Events Outreach

CJCLS News for April

Below are two opportunities for professional learning and contributing to the CJCLS community in April.

Attend a Webinar

Register for CJCLS Webinar: How to Create an Effective Survey

April 24, 3-4pm EST 

Interested in using a survey to conduct research, but unsure of the design process? Learn the basics of creating effective research surveys.

Write an Article for the Newsletter

Share what is happening in your libraries and communities with other community college librarians! 

Read our call for CJCLS Newsletter articles. Submit your 200-500 word article by April 24.

Here are some examples of articles from past CJCLS newsletters:

  • Reaching Across the Campus to Support the Freedom to Read
  • The Value of Community Professional Development
  • Zero Textbook Cost Initiative
  • Library Equity Book Group
  • Seniors Going Digital
  • Hamilton Digital Escape Room to Teach Library 101

The More We Share, the More We Have” by Pietro Soldi for Creative Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Categories
Outreach Writing

Call for CJCLS Newsletter Articles

CJCLS colleagues — we would love to hear about what is happening in your libraries and communities! Why not write an article for the Spring 2023 CJCLS Newsletter? We are looking for stories about:

  • library programming
  • library instruction
  • equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives
  • collaborations with other departments or institutions
  • other ideas — what do you have in mind?

Please contact us with any questions, or submit a story between 200-500 words with your name, job title, and your library name to acrlcjcls@gmail.com by Monday, April 24. The newsletter will be published in May on ALA Connect, via social media, and our Newsletters webpage.

We look forward to your ideas and submissions!

Categories
Outreach

Veterans Day

My grandfather served in the army in World War II. He is buried alongside my grandmother in the beautiful Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. My grandfather never talked about his time serving in the military.

On Veteran’s Day, I wanted to share some resources related to amplifying the stories of veterans and their families, as well as serving veterans in libraries.

A green field surrounded by fir trees with a view of Mount Hood and blue sky in the background.
Willamette National Cemetary, Oregon (2013)” by Another Believer is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Listen to Stories for Veterans Day recorded by StoryCorps. Encourage others to share their stories via StoryCorps. Stories can be recorded remotely and uploaded to the StoryCorps Archive.

Explore the Libraries & Veterans National Forum Toolkit which has resources compiled by experts in veteran services to help you develop programs for veterans at your library.

Read Orienting Student Veterans to the Library created by Sarah LeMire and Stephanie Graves.

Register for an upcoming WebJunction webinar about Suicide Prevention for Veterans, Service Members, Families and Communities scheduled for November 15 from 2-3pm EST.

Look at Veterans LibGuides created by community college librarians and create one for your Library.

Please comment on this post to share resources to add to this list.

Categories
Leadership Mentoring Outreach

Get Involved in the CJCLS Mentoring Program

Are you new to community college libraries and want to expand your professional knowledge/skills? Or are you an experienced librarian willing to share your knowledge to help others develop their skills? The CJCLS Mentoring Program Committee invites you to participate in the CJCLS Mentorship Pilot Program!

We’re now accepting participants until March 15, 2022.

After the deadline, participants will be paired (mentor/mentee) and the mentoring pilot program will then run from April 1, 2022 until June 30, 2022.

After the pairing, there will be a Mentoring Program Kick-Off Meeting to review the expectations.  At the end of the program in June, participants will be asked to complete a survey to assist our committee in collecting data on what worked well, what can be improved, and assessing the program overall.

Requirements for Participation

For Mentees – Open to all who are currently employed at a community college library as a librarian, staff, administrator, or students enrolled in or recent graduates from graduate-level Library and Information Science (MLIS) programs.

For Mentors – Currently employed at a community college library as a librarian or administrator with a minimum of 4 years of library experience.

How to Apply

Fill out the appropriate application at the link below before our March 15 deadline!

For more information, contact the Mentoring Committee Chair: Sandy McCarthy (mccarthy@wccnet.edu)

With Appreciation,

The CJCLS Mentoring Committee

Sandy McCarthy
Yumi Shin
Sabrina Dyck
Nathasha Alvarez
Robin Brown

CJCLS Mentoring Program LibGuide

Categories
Events Outreach Presentations Programming

CJCLS Events in June

CJCLS Virtual Awards Ceremony

Thursday, June 3, 2-3pm EST

Come join us as we honor our section award recipients this year! Following the award presentation, the awardees will be doing presentations on their work. Register for the Awards webinar online by June 1.

Yumi Shin of Lamar State College, Port Authur has been awarded the CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Leadership Award

Photo of Yumi Shin

Yumi will present on various leadership roles she has had, including: managing a grant to promote library services to high school students, creating a student centered learning environment, and adapting to Covid-19.

Anjali Parasnis-Samar and Alice Wilson, both of Monroe Community College have been awarded the CJCLS EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Program Award

Anjali Parasnis-Samar photo Alice Wilson photo

Alice and Anjali will present the MCC Libraries’ College Researcher Badging Program, a set of online tutorials intended to help community college students learn college-level research skills.

Please contact Laura Mondt, CJCLS Awards Chair, with any questions or concerns: lmondt@necc.mass.edu.

Scholarly Research Committee Webinar

Thursday, June 10, 3-4pm EST

Are you a community college librarian interested in publishing in LIS Journals? Want to learn more about when, where, and how to submit? Are you curious about workflows for review, editing, and publication? Register for the Scholarly Research webinar online.

Join us for a panel discussion and lively Q & A with editors from three key LIS publications. Our participants include:

  • Kristen Totleben, College & Research Libraries
  • Marianne Ryan, portal: Libraries and the Academy
  • Matt Roberts, Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement

This event is sponsored by the Scholarly Research Committee of the Community & Junior Libraries Section of ACRL (CJCLS). Free, and open to all community college librarians.

CJCLS Executive Committee Meeting

The CJCLS Executive Committee will be meeting on Monday, June 28, 2021 from 2-3pm EST. We will be reviewing the accomplishments of this last year and brainstorming plans for 2021-2022.  Please join us. 

In June, the Zoom meeting link will be shared on the CJCLS Section page.

Categories
Collections Instruction Outreach Presentations Resources

Conference Time is Almost upon us

acrl-2017

By Alyse McKeal

Are you heading to Baltimore, Maryland next month for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference?  There’s quite a diverse selection of presentations, programs, papers, panels, contributed posters and much more geared towards junior and community college librarians and libraries! Here is a sampling of the offerings. (This is by no means a comprehensive list.)

Are you heading to Baltimore, Maryland next month for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference?  There’s quite a diverse selection of presentations, programs, papers, panels, contributed posters and much more geared towards junior and community college librarians and libraries! Here is a sampling of the offerings. (This is by no means a comprehensive list.)

Fostering Diversity Through the Human Library (Poster Session)

Maximizing the Impact of the In-Person One-Shot: The Case for Targeted Library Instruction Outreach in Community Colleges (Contributed Paper)

Next-Gen Collection Policies: Developing Templates to Aid Collection Managers (Round Table Discussion)

If You Build It, Will They Come: Re-Framing Your Instruction Program (W0rkshop)

Steering Change in Liaisonship: A Reverse Engineering Approach (Contributed Paper)

The Coach in the Library: Coaching Undergraduates to Academic Success Through a Diversity and Inclusion Library Coach Program (Poster Session)

Scaffolding the Framework: Bridging the Gap Between 2-Year and 4-Year Institutions (Roundtable Discussion)

Confessions of a Teaching Librarian: Teaching Anxiety, Growth Mindset, and Resilience for Library Instructors (Roundtable Discussion)

Applying the Framework to an Online Credit-Bearing Information Literacy Course (Poster Session)

What’s Social Justice Got to do with Information Literacy (Panel Presentation)

Reclaiming Knowledge as a Public Good: Librarians Leading Campus OER Initiatives (Panel Session)

Pathway to Your Future: Roadmaps for Community College Student (Chair’s Choice Invited Program)

Casting a Wide Net: Assessment Strategies Community College Libraries Use to Stay Afloat (Panel Session)

Evolving Evidence-Based Practice: The ACRL Information Literacy Framework in Action (Roundtable Discussion)

Tending the Garden: Sharing Projects that Strengthen Communities within the Academic Library (Roundtable Discussion)

Going O’ER: Using Open Resources as the Path to New Pedagogy and Information Literacy (Panel Session)

Exploring Evidence-Based Approaches to Using the ACRL Threshold Concepts (Roundtable Discussion)

IT Security and Privacy in Today’s Connected Library (Panel Presentation)

Anchoring Instruction Through Design: Creating a Team with Diverse Skills to Transform our Process (Contributed Paper)

Diversity, Change, and its Discontents: The Role of the Library in Campus LGBTQ Transformation Efforts (Invited Paper)

From Request to Assess: Using Cloud-Based Tools for the Library Instruction Life Cycle (Poster Session)

Taking a Different Tack: Adapting First-Year Information Literacy Instruction to the Online Environment (Panel Session)

Using the Framework to Frame: Cataloging Policy and Practice as Seen Through the Lens of the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Contributed Paper)

Every Day is a Winding Road – or Our Long Circuitous Journey to Assessment (Poster Session)

Open Educational Resources: It’s Time for Libraries to Take the Plunge (Contributed Paper)

Consortial eBook Purchasing for the Rest of Us (Contributed Paper)

Turning Lemonade into a LibGuide (Chair’s Choice Invited Program)

Diversifying the Academy: Librarians Coaching Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows Through the Scholarly Research Cycle (Poster Session)

Does ProQuest Research Companion Improve Community College Student Information Literacy Competency? (Poster Session)

If possible, take advantage of the discounted, advance registration rates and register by February 10th! Enjoy the ACRL Conference and Baltimore.  We hope to see you there!

Categories
Marketing Outreach Programming

Promoting Reading

Promoting Reading

by Lindsay Davis

A couple of weeks ago, we shared this photo that was originally posted on the Vintage Books & Anchor Books Facebook page. It generated interest and shock. We also thought it might not be accurate, and we found a 2014 revision. Read this to get the inner scoop. It isn’t as “juicy” as the first version, is it? (Let this also be a lesson in verifying information and not spreading misinformation. More on that later this week…)

Here are two share-worthy resources from Pew and Gallup that paint a different picture on the state of reading.

In 2014, the Pew Research Center released “Younger Americans and Public Libraries.” In the report, 88 percent of Americans younger than 30 said they read a book in the past year compared with 79 percent of those older than 30. You can read the short version from The Atlantic’s overview, “Millennials are Out-Reading Older Generations.” In a poll that was conducted in December 2016, Gallup found that 48 percent of Americans ages 65+ read 1 to 10 books in the last year and 53 percent of Americans ages 18-29 read 1-10 books in the last year. Read more about the findings in “Rumors of the Demise of Books Greatly Exaggerated.”

How do you promote reading at your community or junior college library? Do you have partnerships with the local public library? Contests? Displays? Book clubs? Let us know in the comments.