EMBEDDED LIBRARIANS & FACULTY

COLLABORATE TO DISH OUT INFORMATION

LITERACY SKILLS

Serve it up!

Objectives

MISSION CURRENT SITUATION PILOT

EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN

EXPERIENCE

PILOT SUCCESS & OUTCOMES

NEXT STEPS

Tips for Successful

CollaborationsWrap Up

THE MISSION

The mission of Mohave Community College is to be a learning-centered college, serving all constituencies, inspiring excellence

through innovative learning methodologies and empowering students to succeed.

Information Literacy

Professional Association of

Academic Librarians

Dedicated to Serving Higher Education

Information Needs

Dedicated to improving Learning, Teaching, and

Research

ACRL

Information Literacy

MCC as a learning-centered organization

Why Information Literacy?

What does Information Literacy mean to students?

What is Information Literacy?

Find Retrieve Analyze Use

THE SITUATION

ServicesM

CC L

IBRA

RIES

Computers

MCC

LIB

RARI

ES

Media

MCC

LIB

RARI

ES

Journals

Campus-Based Librarian & Staff

F2FPersonalized Assistance

Point of Need

Services

Library Website

Equitable Services

Personal Assistance

Access to Portal of

Information

Quality Resources

Nursing, Allied Health, & Medicine

English Multidisciplinary Research Tools

Library-Centered Information Literacy

• “…distance learning students need library resources just as much as traditional students…”Access and Equity

• “…discerning quality information and resources on the Internet is not an innate skill…”Education

• “…the closer the link between course assignments and library resources to help these assignments, the greater the likelihood that students will access library information…”

Targeted Information Resources

Point of Need Services

Resources

Point of Need

Ask A Librarian

Personal Contact with library staff

Research Portal What’s missing?

Stakeholder Support

AACC

MCC President

Governing Board

THE PILOT

Buy In Through Collaboration

Faculty EL Coordinator

Specialty and expertise in the socialization of online

learners

Included faculty in the decision-

making process

Clarified the role of the ELs within ANGEL courses

Worked with ELs in past positions & was chosen to

spearhead the pilot

Constant communication

with online faculty

EL Initiative Strategy

Information maze

5 EL Assignments/Lessons

Direct Connection to Coursework

Expected Outcomes of Collaboration

Better Papers Paradigm

Improved Information

Literacy Skills

Understand Purpose of

Academic Library

Know Where to Find Research

Help

Learning Activities & Course Objectives

Pre and Post Test

Communication via Forums

Communication via Forums

Student

EL

Target:English 101

Library Activitie

s

Reinforcement of EL

Initiative

Ask A Libraria

n

THE EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN EXPERIENCE

Embedded Librarians in the Online Classroom

Lake Havasu City

Columbus, Ohio

Dover, Arkansas

Oakland, CA Bullhead City

Online

Student

Variety of Online Services in Fall Semester 2010

Academic Integrity

(Plagiarism)

Primary & Secondary Resources

Popular and

Scholarly/Peer

Reviewed Resources

Evaluation of

Websites, use of

Wikis, etc.

Services in the Online Classroom

Assisting Students with Library Basics

Sample Question:

“This may be a stupid question, but could you tell me what OPAC stands for and where I can find it?”

The OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) is the Library’s catalog.

You can use it to search for materials that the Library owns. Go to mohave.edu/library and type in one or more keywords to find books on your topic.

Services in the Online Classroom

Sample Question:

“My teacher said I can’t use Google to research my topic. Where else can I find information?”

You can find a great deal of trustworthy information through the Library’s online databases. Go to mohave.edu/library and then click on the “Library Online Databases” link. Click on the link for “Academic Search Premier” and then you can type in your key word(s). If you click on the box next to “full text” on the left side of the screen, your results will only include full-text articles.

Services in the Online Classroom

Throughout the Semester Students Learn:

How to use the Library’s catalog to locate both print and electronic

books.How to evaluate websites to

determine if the information presented is trustworthy.

How to brainstorm for key words that will help them find

the information that they need (and not just give up

after one or two tries).

How to search the Library’s online databases in order to find reputable articles from

legitimate journals and magazines.

The importance of proper

citations and the cost of plagiarism.

Skills that lead up to research that is focused, credible and credited using MLA format.

Resources that Specifically Help the Online Student

Students who can’t visit an MCC campus can sign up quickly for a “virtual” library card through our

webpage.

MCC provides many ebooks that are available through the

OPAC.

In addition to calling or emailing an Embedded Librarian, students

can now “Text-A-Librarian” for help.

MCC provides access to many of the EBSCO databases and has recently

added Gale Virtual Reference Library and Opposing Viewpoints in context.

Librarians are working to develop additional instructional materials,

such as LibGuides, screencasts and video tutorials.

Helpful Links and Video Resources

Students are Actively Utilizing the Resources

“…My search returned over 2000 articles in the LegalTrac database. After I refined my search further with key words of

‘constitutionality’ and ‘civil unions’ I found at least two articles that are very informative and appropriate for my paper…”

Problems and Solutions

Students need completion deadlines

for the Library assignments

The assignments are designed to lead the student through different

researching skills.

Since the assignments are

based on having the student use their

skills to find information for

their final essay, it makes sense for the student to complete

the assignments throughout the

class.

Some students waited until the last week to finish all of their assignments at

once, sometimes long after they have

researched their paper’s topic, and

so they did not benefit from

building research skills.

The skills that they develop in one

lesson will lead to the next.

Problems and SolutionsFaculty need to assign grades to the EL assignments soon after each completion deadlines.

When the teacher assigns a grade to the completed assignment it sends a message that the assignments are an important aspect of the course and should be taken seriously.

Faculty need to read the students’ assignments and the Librarians’ responses before they assign a grade. If the teacher also provides a comment, the student benefits even more.

If the teacher does not take the time to read the assignments and responses, then he/she has no idea if the student actually completed the assignment correctly.

If the student sees that he/she will receive full credit for each assignment, regardless of how well or poorly they did, then they will feel that there is no real reason to complete the assignment properly.

We saw many shoddy assignments that we responded to in order to get the student on the right track, only to realize that the students either never read our responses or didn’t take them seriously.

Problems and SolutionsThe assignments need to be designed so that

the student can’t progress to the next

one before the teacher has had a chance to

grade and/or comment on the previous one.

We encountered a number of students

who completed multiple

assignments in one sitting.

If they had problems with the concepts in one, and didn’t take

time to read our suggestions about how

to improve, then the time we put into our

comments was wasted.

The student has also wasted his/her time

completing assignments that do

not improve their research skills and

critical thinking abilities.

Librarians sometimes need more than a one day turnaround when

responding to students. Although we

aim for a quick response, we can’t

always accommodate the timetable.

Issues to address

The Librarian and Instructor need to discuss:

Who will design the Library assignments for the online class? The best design will come from a collaboration between the instructor and

librarian.

Who is expected to grade the EL assignments?

What are the assignments’ point values?

Are they informal posts or graded assignments?

Does the instructor understand the purpose

behind each assignment?

PILOT SUCCESS & OUTCOMES

Student Feedback

“… it was nice to have another outlet to have

questions answered…”

“…I [hope] that other students take advantage of this fantastic

idea…”

“…having a librarian

available for additional

assistance is a great help!”

“…the embedded

librarian was very helpful…”

Online Faculty Feedback“… I didn’t realize how much this was truly needed…”

“…my students tell me they found the activity helpful; they didn’t know the electronic library existed…”

“…I am pleased it will be going into ENG 102 for the spring…”

What We DiscoveredFaculty

supported the idea of involving

an Embedded Librarian, but many of them didn’t really

understand how we could help the students

become critical thinkers and

better researchers.

We had to do a better job

explaining how the assignments would result in better essays.

Students were initially

confused and overwhelmed

by the assignments.

The assignments

were generally seen as

unnecessarily hard “busy work.” We needed to

simplify the instructions and be clearer about

why the assignments

would actually improve their

research.

Since there was some confusion

between the instructors,

librarians and students

regarding the purpose of the

assignments, we needed to be sure that the

faculty understood that

treating the assignments seriously was

the first step in getting the

students to take the research process more

seriously.

Partnership Experience

•Providing a conduit between the e-librarians and online faculty•Leading the collaborative assignment development process•Developing the pre- and post- tests for assessment•Hosting training webinars for all participants•Ensuring that the collaboration is consistent and continuous throughout the semester

Resident DE faculty has been

key

NEXT STEPS

Distance Education Collaboration

Expansion •MCC’s resident campus librarians with Wendi Birkhead and Matthew Pierce as ELs, monitoring up to 5 courses per session.

Broaden the reach of the EL

Initiative

•500 to 600 students for spring 2011

English 101 and 102 all online

sections

•Psychology•Humanities•Sociology

Include other courses, both on

ground and online:

Expansion

Continued Development

Consistent Assessment Modifications

Tips for Successful Collaborations

Students• Provide

instructional materials: research guides, web links, videos

• Communication• Explain purpose

of a ‘personal librarian’ &

• How to access EL assignments

Resources• Develop FAQs• Describe

services• Provide

contact information

• Explain how to obtain library cards

Faculty• Communicate about

how the EL Initiative will be introduced to students

• Write a brief welcome statement for students explaining role & purpose in the course

• Communicate weekly with faculty to ensure ‘same-page-ness’

• Include faculty on all email communication with students

Wrap Up

CONTACT US @ Mohave Community College