Tag: collaboration

Categories
Tech Tuesdays

Chat Training Resources

One of my favorite parts of my job is doing virtual reference. My library participates in a collaborative of Michigan libraries called Research Help Now. When I first started doing chat, fifteen years ago, I found every chat I picked up very stressful because I thought I had to quickly find an answer and was intimidated to try to help students on unfamiliar websites. Now, when I pick up a chat, I see it as a fun challenge and view myself as a partner with students as we work through their research questions together. I often get ideas for improving my library’s website by helping students do research on unfamiliar websites. Sometimes I find problems with my own library’s website by browsing chat transcripts. 

Here are some virtual reference training ideas: 

  • Librarians can choose one of their own transcripts to review and think about what went well and what could have gone better. Or all librarians can review the same transcript and share observations. This can work for an online meeting using a shared Google Doc. If you’d like, use virtual reference best practices to guide the discussion.
  • In our Michigan collaborative, we have a yearly best transcript competition. We use a rubric to evaluate transcripts and choose winners to recognize for their excellent work. I learned a lot about doing chat well by volunteering for the committee to review transcripts.
  • Organize a panel of experienced chat librarians for a local or regional workshop. A colleague and I invited best transcript winners to speak on a panel at our Michigan Academic Library (MiALA) Conference, Celebrating Our Successes, Improving for Our Future: Best Chat Transcript Awards. It was a great opportunity for librarians to share virtual reference strategies. The session was recorded and I share the recording with new chat librarians at my institution.
  • Here are additional chat training ideas that participants brainstormed during a workshop I facilitated with a colleague, Trust Me: Collaborative Chat Training for Uncertain Times.

What tips do you have for doing virtual reference? What training resources do you have to share?

Categories
Collections Events Leadership Research

Upcoming Events about Community College Libraries

CJCLS Section Events

Diversity & Collection Development – Friday, March 18, 2022 from 2-3pm ET

Coffee & Conversations: Accessibility in OER – Monday, April 4, 2022 from 1-2pm ET

Ithaka S+R Events

Join an upcoming virtual convening organized by Ithaka S+R.

Learn more and register: Conversations on Community College Library Strategy and Collaboration

  • Emergency and emerging technology programs at community college libraries – Tuesday, March 22, 2-3pm, ET
  • “When in doubt, go to the library”: Navigating the community college ecosystem – Tuesday, April 5, 2022 from 2-3pm, ET
  • Assessing the evolution of community college library mission – Tuesday, April 19, 2022 from 2-3pm, ET
Categories
listserv-results

From the CJCLS Listserv: Open Educational Resources

Open Access Week 2015

By Kristy Padron

With the end of Open Access Week, the cjc-l listserv had recent discussions regarding librarian involvement in Open Educational Resources (OER). One member noticed that libraries were not included in his state’s OER report:

I just finished scanning Opening Public Institutions: OER in North Dakota in the Nation, 2015 and can’t find any mention of librarians. Librarians need to be assertive and have a place in discussions regarding OERS on our campuses, by state legislators, and in other settings.

Some members of the listserv described the OER initiatives taking place in their institutions and regions:

Librarians are very active on The Community College Consortium for Open Education (CCCOER) for sure! Over 250 colleges participate in this consortium.

Librarians have been leading the way for OER initiatives at my institution. At Lansing Community College, we hosted the successful Open Educational Resources Summit last September with the movers and shakers of the open education movement as our speaker. I led the effort in implementing our OER strategy on campus including the creation of an OER LibGuide. We’re still at the early stage but it is very encouraging. I’m also very active in the CCCOER and I’m part of the Advisory Group.

The project Openstax College has specifically targeted libraries as a partner.

We’re trying here in Florida. See the exciting theme for our fall meeting of the Florida Association of College & Research Libraries (FACRL).

An international conference will soon be held in Vancouver in November, which some librarians said they would attend:

The 12th Annual Open Education Conference will have numerous examples of how librarians and libraries are leading the way in discover, adoption, use and assessment of OERs.

What are some OER activities taking place at your library or in your area? Feel free to share in your comments!

(Image Source:  International Open Access Week 2015, used with permission from Creative Commons Attribution License.)

Categories
Uncategorized

Student Services and Your Library: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship?

by Amy Waldman

I joined the CJC-listserv not long after starting library school in 2008. At that point, I’d been running the Displaced Homemaker Program at Milwaukee Area Technical College for five years. Student Services didn’t have a lot of interaction with the library, so the listserv gave me a window into some of what might be happening over there.

Early on in my MLIS program, I knew that getting some work experience in a library while in school would be invaluable. I also knew that there was no chance that would happen– I had a full-time job already and graduate school was like having another full-time job.

Something else did happen, though.

As a Student Services professional, I knew a lot about our students and their needs. As I learned more about what the library had to offer, I was able engage and collaborate in ways that would never have happened had I not had a foot in both worlds.

So, from a Student Services perspective, here are a couple of things that happened because I went to Library School that might be of use to some of you.

  1. Bibliographies
    1. In 2010, the Displaced Homemaker Program teamed up with a community organization to host a morning-long conference on accessing mental health services in the area. The library prepared a display and created a bibliography that was handed out in the conference materials.
    2. When author Shauna Singh Baldwin spoke about her book “The Selector of Souls,” at a college community event in 2012, the library prepared a bibliography of resources on intimate partner violence.
  1. Energy Assistance Sign-up
    1. Many of our students are low-income and qualify for energy assistance, but the only way they were able to access the program was to stand in long lines at a local agency, thereby missing classes. If they didn’t sign up and were unable to pay their electric bills, their power was shut off in mid-April, just as they were gearing up for final projects and exams. In conjunction with the library and our Office of Student Life, I arranged for the agency to come to MATC and see students by appointment at the three of our four campuses within its service area. The library co-sponsored and hosted. More than 200 students (many who had never set foot in the library before) signed up for appointments. The event has continued on an annual basis and is now hosted by the library.

3. The Affordable Health Care Act

One morning, while meeting with one of our program counselors about a student, an adviser walked in and handed him a sheet of paper. It turned out that large numbers of students were asking for information about the Affordable Care Act. I got back to my office and called our library manager.

“Do you have a LibGuide about the Affordable Care Act?”

“No,” he said. “But that’s a really good idea.”

When it was complete, Counseling and Advising was notified. The department now provides students with a link to our library’s LibGuide.

These are just a couple of examples of successful collaborations between Student Services and the library. Please share yours!