Morning Session 1: Innovative Partnerships
Session Moderator: Dr. Jane Zhang
Academic Libraries Forging Partnerships with Student Wellness Groups, by Zachary Elder, George Washington University
Libraries continue to be the information centers of campuses, and have long been hubs for academic services such as tutoring or writing center initiatives. Through hosting events and partnering with student wellness organizations on campus, the library can expand awareness of these groups and issues, increase use of these services, encourage responsible behaviors, and increase student retention. This presentation uses George Washington University (GW) Libraries' Halloween Cookout for Campus Safety as an example of a successful partnership between the Eckles Library and University Counseling, Center for Alcohol and Drug Education, University and Metro Police, Students against Sexual Assault, and other groups. Benefits and challenges are discussed, and the initiative is aligned with the strategic plan, specifically helping the GW community discover information in new ways.
Making reference personal: Student and faculty outreach through Personal Research Sessions, by Jennifer L.A. Whelan, College of the Holy Cross
While academic reference desks are seeing fewer visitors, the information environment is becoming increasingly complex. We know that students (and faculty) continue to have higher-level research needs that they are not bringing to traditional service points. At the same time, academic librarians often find themselves struggling to provide sustainable and meaningful research support. How can we reach a critical mass of students, while also respecting not only our own workloads but also those of faculty increasingly pressed for instructional time? The libraries at College of the Holy Cross are working to meet this challenge with a consultation-based Personal Research Session (PRS) program, formally launched in the fall of 2011. This program has allowed our reference staff to provide individualized, higher-level assistance to our students while reaching them in record numbers, with over 470 appointments held during the 2014-2015 academic year, in addition to our walk-in reference transactions and one-shot instruction. On a broader level, our PRS have also presented opportunities to reimagine and expand our integration into the curriculum, our collaboration with faculty, our internal workflows and communication as a reference staff, and our overall model of reference service.
Selecting Archives--Producing Original Research, by Constance Williams, Queensborough Community College
A collaboration between an English Professor and the College Archivist expanded the use of the college archives. The professor assigned ENG 101 and ENG 101 Honors students a research paper on the history of Queensborough Community College, a part of the City University of New York. The archivist prepared a folder for each student with a list of subjects housed in the Archives, an article from JSTOR detailing a historical event that occurred on the campus in the late 60’s, and the permission forms to allow scanning and photocopying. Students explored and shared their findings. Primary sources such as correspondences, diaries, news releases, photographs, old Kodak Ektochrome prints, and 16 mm filmstrips with descriptions were discovered. The students used prior knowledge in deciding how to value information just discovered. In this process, students used critical thinking skills as they carefully evaluated information. Both classes were equally involved, returning for one-on-one Archive explorations, and they diligently completed their research papers.
Morning Session 2: New Approaches to Resource Development
Session Moderator: Dr. Ingrid Hsieh-Yee
Preserving Software: Researching Software Development and Inventorying Executable Files, by Nicole Contaxis, National Library of Medicine
Software plays a key role in the ways that individuals, institutions, and governments function. Institutions like the National Library of Medicine (NLM) have a history of developing software to serve their unique needs. Preserving and archiving this software is imperative in order to ensure access to the content created with it, and, in the case of NLM, to document a long and often unrecognized intellectual and cultural history. Even before considering the technical hurdles of software preservation, it is necessary to inventory the institution’s software, and creating such an inventory presents notable challenges. These obstacles include: (1) locating knowledge sources for software projects that are long defunct; (2) locating usable copies of software, either tangible or intangible, that may not have been properly documented or stored; and (3) tracing the history of projects that may have gone through several re-branding efforts or versionings. This briefing will address these issues as they have affected the current project at NLM and will demonstrate how a properly conducted software inventory is necessary to ensure a reliable long-term software preservation strategy in an institutional archive.
Approaches to Digital Scholarship at Top Universities around the World: Scholarly Publishing in the Digital Age, by Jennifer Fagan-Fry and Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Catholic University of America
Digital technologies and innovations affect the way humans create, communicate, share, and manage information. Research and scholarship have been greatly impacted by these advances, and in an effort to remain relevant academic libraries have adopted new technologies and services to facilitate research and scholarly communication. This presentation reports on the practices of academic libraries at the top 100 research universities in the world to support digital scholarship. The study analyzes each university’s library website for the presence of discovery systems, bibliometric tools, preservation and digitization services, and other services designed to support researchers and digital scholarship. The presentation will discuss the conceptual framework of the study, data analysis methods, and findings in five major areas of digital scholarship: scholarly communications, including digital humanities and e-science; open access; institutional repositories and services; research data management and tools; and the implementation of Google tools and services to facilitate research. Additionally, the study identifies key competencies information professionals need to master in order to contribute to research and scholarship in the 21st Century.
Morning Session 3: Making Knowledge in the Library
Session Moderator: Dr. Renate Chancellor
Accessibility and the Maker Movement, by Patrick Timony and Rose Asuquo, District of Columbia Public Library
The maker movement is a cultural trend toward creativity, and the disability community can gain both accessibility and innovation solutions from the maker movement. The Adaptive Technology (AT) Program of DC Public Library provides support, training and events that bring users and developers of AT together to share information and innovate solutions. Our presentation explores the goals and recent innovations of the AT Program of the DCPL, including efforts to bring accessibility to makerspaces.
Students Making and Innovating with Technology in an Academic Library, by Jonathan M. Smith, California State University, San Bernardino
The library is the intellectual crossroads of the university, a place where students come to research, explore, and discover. It was in this spirit that a new service - an Innovation Lab - was established during the Fall Quarter of 2015 in the John M. Pfau Library at California State University, San Bernardino. The Innovation Lab is a technology-focused “Makerspace” for students that encourages creativity and inquiry, facilitates cross-disciplinary collaboration, and promotes true innovation. The lab is open to all CSUSB students regardless of discipline, skill set, or background. In addition, the lab is a safe space where students can learn to persevere in the face of failure - a skill central to lifelong learning and success in the 21st century. This presentation will share the logistics involved in implementing and maintaining the Innovation Lab. It will discuss services, policies, and technologies (3D scanning, modeling, and printing; CNC milling, virtual reality, electronics), and give a preliminary report on how well this new service is performing, whether it is achieving its goals, as well as plans for assessment.