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Friday Finds

Today’s Library… and Tomorrow’s Library

I recently came across a fantastic Pinterest board with library design ideas assembled ten years ago by the Inver Hills Community College Library as they planned a remodel. Wouldn’t it be inspiring, I thought, to create an updated version of this?

Next year, my library building celebrates its 30th anniversary. From the outside, it still looks contemporary and appealing. This plot of land has come a long way since it was home to a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant!

The PCC Shatford Library at Pasadena City College

Much has changed, though, since the library was built in 1993. The year of our grand opening, a student might have walked out the door of our sparkling new edifice with a backpack full of books, a ream of photocopies, or a stack of printed articles accessed via CD-ROM databases. Today, students can access sources and get online research assistance without ever setting foot in the building, but the many who do come in expect a robust WiFi connection, power for their devices, easy access to help, and spaces for both quiet study and group work. (Yes, and books, too.)

Birthday cake celebrating Shatford Library 20th Year in 2013
Our 20th anniversary cake in 2013.
Next year, another photo cake?

How has our building kept up with the times? Some areas have been successfully repurposed over the years. For example, the Periodicals room gave way to our “Research Zone” computer lab. The copy room is no more – in fact, our photocopiers have all made way for book scanners and networked printers. We have plenty of computers for students, the WiFi is generally stable, and we’ve installed a phone locker that sanitizes devices with ultraviolet light while they’re charging.

However, our wish list is growing. We need more outlets throughout the building to accommodate students’ needs, but that wasn’t foreseen in 1993, and we’d have to dig into the concrete floor to run more power. Shelving that once housed a massive and aging reference collection and a wide range of print periodicals now begs to make way for collaborative space for students, but the only lighting in that area was built directly into the top of the shelving itself. Oops.

Hey, let’s build all the lighting into the shelves!

Our faithful Reference Desk is an island set apart from the imposingly large Circulation Desk – the pinnacle of 1993 library services planning. We’d love to see a combined services desk giving us more flexibility, and students less consternation. Now we’re talking demolition and construction.

You may approach.

We librarians are a scrappy bunch, and we’re always dreaming/devising/proposing ways to update our 30-year old building. When infrastructure isn’t adequate, we find a workaround when we can. But the wish list, it keeps growing. And planning is made even more challenging as we wonder whether pandemic-era changes have made a lasting impact on library use.

How old is your library building? Has it kept up with changes in use? What were the best changes made over the years, and what do you want or wonder about for the future? Maybe you’ll stir a colleague reading from across the miles to propose something new. May today’s Friday Finds lead us to find some inspiration!

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Thursday Thoughts

Thursday Thoughts

I am almost through the first month of Fall Semester and am already looking forward to our winter break. For some reason, the start of this academic year has felt busier than usual. Perhaps this is partly due to being back on campus and having our library fully open for the first time since mid-March 2020. We have been providing services and access to our building during most of the pandemic, but it has been appointment based and our doors remain locked. On Tuesday, September 7, we unlocked those doors, stopped requiring appointments, and welcomed our community college back in with a few restrictions. Masks are required. Cleaning and sanitizing protocols remain in effect. When possible, the six feet of physical distance is maintained. Some materials are still quarantined upon return. People entering the building are required to either show a wristband indicating they’ve went through a screening elsewhere on campus or use our station if they haven’t. Plexiglass protects staff at our service desks. And staff are mostly working hybrid schedules still, with at least two days on campus.

Yet, things feel more “normal” than not. Our student needs for support and assistance have never changed no matter if we are helping them in a virtual or physical space. Our Fall Rally took place on campus this year with students and employees seeing what each table had to offer, and enjoying some hotdogs and other treats. The library is a busy space again with students coming in to use computers, check out books, or find a quiet place to study.

If anything, these past eighteen months have demonstrated how much many of our students value what the library has to offer. No matter what else changes in our world, I don’t think that will.

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listserv-results

The Framework: Love It or Hate It?

Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Love It or Hate It?

by Lindsay Davis

What’s it like to live in a post-Standards world? Do you love or hate the new Framework  (sorry, we’re capitalizing on Valentine’s Day)?

In January, the CJCLS listserv had a lively conversation regarding the “Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education” and the rescinding of the “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.”

Troy Swanson, Teaching and Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College, shared his article “Sharing the ACRL Framework with Faculty: Opening Campus Conversations.” In the article, Swanson outlines a professional development course for faculty that he designed with librarian Tish Hayes. The course was focused on introducing faculty to the Framework. Faculty who participated made a variety of connections to the Framework from their own disciplines. The experience also allowed for discussion about how the general education information literacy outcome might be approached at Moraine.

Heather Craven, Learning Resource Center director at County College of Morris, also shared her opinion piece “ACRL and Community College Libraries: We’ve been Framed!” Her article discusses the Framework/Standards issue as it affects some community college libraries.

Sharon Weiner, Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy at Purdue University Libraries, also shared a citation for her and Lana Jackman’s opinion piece “The Rescinding of the ACRL 2000 Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education…Really??” Jackman is President of the National Forum and the principal and founder of Mélange Information Services, Inc.

You may also want to check out “The Framework is Elitist,” a viewpoint essay by Christine Bombaro, Associate Director for Information Literacy and Research Services at Dickinson College, and “Is the Framework Elitist? Is ACRL?,” a response to Bombaro’s essay by Meredith Farkas, Faculty Librarian at Portland Community College.

Check out the CJCLS listserv archives for more on this topic.

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Fundraising

#GivingTuesday

#GivingTuesday

By Lindsay Davis

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. #GivingTuesday is upon us!

Does your community college do a fundraising campaign for scholarships? Does your library participate in some way?

I’m now at a university, and I’ve been looking over the scholarships the university is highlighting for this year’s giving event. I know many of us make monthly deductions from our paychecks to our community college communities. Some may give in other ways, too. At the community college I was at previously, the faculty, which includes librarians and counselors, would raise money to purchase Thanksgiving turkey dinners for students in need. In our local communities, many of us are probably involved in our local public libraries in some way, which often includes holding office or membership in the local library’s Friends group.

One thing that I hadn’t realized about Giving Tuesday is that it is more than making financial donations. It’s also about donating your time, goods, or voice. As librarians in public education, we constantly advocate for issues facing our students, campuses, communities, profession, and the information landscape. Giving Tuesday can offer another avenue for raising awareness about these and other related issues via social media.

For Giving Tuesday, I do plan to donate money for a scholarship, but there are many other ways to give. I also plan to raise awareness of other library-related organizations I am involved with in my personal channels. Is there something you plan on doing?

Categories
Collections Programming

Global Literature in Libraries Initiative

Global Literature in Libraries Initiative

By Lindsay Davis

The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign isn’t just for school libraries or public libraries. Community college, college, and university libraries also need diverse books. When I attended the National Diversity in Libraries Conference, I attended a great lightning round program, Academic Libraries Spearheading Diversity and Cultural Initiatives on University Campuses. In that program, the University of Cincinnati Libraries discussed their Reading Around the World book club.

What is your community college or community college library doing to highlight materials from other parts of the world? Do you have a collection of translated works from your international students’ home countries? Do you have a book club focusing on books from around the globe? How do you learn about books from other countries?

The Global Literature in Libraries Initiative (GLLI), newly founded by Rachel Hildebrandt, works to raise awareness of world literature:

…for adults and children at the local, national and international levels. We intend to do so by facilitating close and direct collaboration between translators, librarians, publishers, editors, and educators, because we believe that these groups in collaboration are uniquely positioned to help libraries provide support and events to engage readers of all ages in a library framework that explores and celebrates literature from around the world.

We want to increase the visibility of international works in English translation so that more readers can enjoy the amazing diversity in these books and the perspectives they present. And we would like to do this by increasing cooperation between literary translators, international literature advocates, and librarians, who are already experts at guiding readers to new titles. Whether you are a children’s librarian or a YA blogger, a rural library director or a teacher at a large urban school with a diverse student population, we would welcome your insights as we explore collaborative opportunities to encourage readers to explore beyond the boundaries of their own culture and language.

Goals & Projects:

  • Book lists and guides tied to major translation awards and library themes

  • Programming ideas for various library user groups: children, teens, college students, adults, English Language Learners, etc.

  • ALA conference involvement: workshops and sessions, networking through various ALA units and offices to explore the best ways to provide information and services to librarians

  • Joint webinars with various ALA offices

  • Publisher and journal lists organized by vendors/distributors to help librarians more easily acquire books in translation

  • Advocacy on behalf of small publishers to increase their visibility on the review platforms that librarians commonly use for their acquisitions decisions

  • General education efforts to help librarians understand more thoroughly the value of translated literature and of contemporary foreign-language literature

  • Pan-publisher catalogs crafted specifically for librarian users, as a form of “one-stop” shopping to learn about new works coming out in translation

  • Exploration of ways in which non-US publishers of English translations and non-US, non-English-language publishers can more easily promote their works among libraries (Global Literature in Libraries, “About,” 2016)

If you would like to get involved with GLLI, please contact Rachel Hildebrandt at rehildebrandt@gmail.com. GLLI also have a Facebook group, which you can find here.

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Uncategorized

Instruction for Diverse Populations Bibliography

by Lindsay Davis

Now that it’s mid-October, many of us are in the thick of teaching research skills in the classroom and at our virtual and physical reference desks. How do you help create an inclusive learning environment? How do you learn about reaching diverse populations in your instruction?

In August of this year, several of us from the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Instruction Section committee on Instruction for Diverse Populations (ISDivPops) presented a poster at the National Diversity in Libraries Conference (NDLC) at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), “Reading About Diversity: Developing and Reflecting on Inclusive Instructional Resources.” The poster outlined the work we did in the 2015/2016 academic year, which consisted of updating the Instruction for Diverse Populations bibliography.

Instruction for Diverse Populations Bibliography Poster

The ISDivPops committee’s charge is “[t]o support instruction librarians in providing instructional services to diverse populations. The committee reviews, researches new content, updates, and promotes the ‘Multilingual Glossary’ and the ‘Library Instruction for Diverse Populations Bibliography’ bi-annually, focusing on one document per year” (“Instruction for Diverse Populations Committee”). The bibliography includes print and electronic resources key to development of effective methods and materials for providing library instruction and teaching information literacy competencies to diverse student groups.

In spring 2015, the committee moved the bibliography from a static PDF document to a Zotero bibliography that utilizes collaborative and dynamic features. In fall 2015 and spring 2016, the committee added new student populations, including veteran students, and also worked on adding tags and new content. The committee focused on adding resources written primarily within the last ten years that specifically describe teaching diverse groups within an academic library context. In 2016/2017, the committee will continue to update the bibliography and will also be updating the Multilingual Glossary.

If you come across an article, book, website, or another resource you think would be a good addition to the bibliography, do let us know in the comments. Ernesto Hernandez, Teaching and Learning Librarian at University of California Irvine, is the chair of the Instruction for Diverse Populations committee this academic year.

Stay tuned later this week for a resource not yet in the bibliography that I discovered while at the NDLC.

“Instruction for Diverse Populations Committee.” ACRL Instruction Section, www.acrl.ala.org/IS/is-committees-2/committees-task-forces/instruction-for-diverse-populations. Accessed 17 Oct. 2016.