Teaching 21st century digital students

Lara Karpenko and Lauri Dietzb recently wrote “The 21st Century Digital Student: Google Books As A Tool In Promoting Undergraduate Research In The Humanities” for the Journal of Effective Teaching.  Within the article, they discuss training issues:

2. Collaborate with Librarians.

Whether in a training course or in other training venues, such as orientations and inservices, bring in librarians to train writing fellows in how to locate primary sources in databases such as Google Books. I have found that these types of one-time trainings can be particularly helpful if a portion is focused on trouble-shooting. What are strategies that experienced researchers use when they face challenges or barriers to their research? What are the best practices for performing successful searches?

Librarians are also key allies for writing fellows to stay in communication with throughout the process because they typically have discipline-specific knowledge that writing fellows, who are often generalist tutors, do not.

Here is the citation to the article. Karpenko, L., & Dietz, L. (2013). The 21st Century Digital Student: Google Books As A Tool In Promoting Undergraduate Research In The Humanities. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 13(1), 89-106.

Surprise–a 21st Century Librarian needs to have collaboration skills

How To Become a 21st Century Librarian by Meredith Schwartz in Library Journal.

Before deciding librarianship is right for you, make sure you understand what today’s librarians do all day. If you want quiet and lots of time to read, think again. Today’s libraries are full of collegial, and sometimes even downright noisy, collaboration, creation, and community activities, and are as much about technology as print on paper.

Three new documents and reports from some repositories

Here are three new reports that came in under my radar.

“‘Seeing’ the elephant: Assessing the impact of library-composition program collaboration on first-year student learning” by Erin E. Rinto, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Poster paper presented at the 32nd Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience.

Though university libraries and composition programs have historically collaborative relationships, these partnerships can take a variety of formats, including single course period library sessions, teaching-the-teachers, and librarian-driven assignment models. A hybrid of these collaborative approaches was implemented Fall 2012 at UNLV in an effort to provide first-year composition students with a more systematic information literacy experience in the required ENG 102 course. A two-pronged assessment method was used to evaluate the impact of the collaboration for both first-year student learning as well as to implement programmatic change.

“Libraries as co-working spaces : understanding user motivations and perceived barriers to social learning” by Mark Bilandzic and Marcus Foth (2013) Library Hi Tech, 31(2). (In Press).  This manuscript is hidden in the repository until March 15, 2013.  One can still request the article from the author or get it from the publisher.

This paper aims to inform design strategies for smart space technology to enhance libraries as environments for co-working and informal social learning. The focus is on understanding user motivations, behaviour, and activities in the library when there is no programmed agenda. The study analyses gathered data over five months of ethnographic research at ‘The Edge’ – a ‘bookless’ library space at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, that is explicitly dedicated to co-working, social learning, peer collaboration, and creativity around digital culture and technology. The results present five personas that embody people’s main usage patterns as well as motivations, attitudes, and perceived barriers to social learning. It appears that most users work individually or within pre-organised groups, but usually do not make new connections with co-present, unacquainted users. Based on the personas, four hybrid design dimensions are suggested to improve the library as a social interface for shared learning encounters across physical and digital spaces. The findings in this paper offer actionable knowledge for managers, decision makers, and designers of technology-enhanced library spaces and similar collaboration and co-working spaces.

“Learning beyond books: Strategies for ambient media to improve libraries and collaboration spaces as interfaces for social learning” by Mark Bilandzic and Marcus Foth (2013) Multimedia Tools and Applications. (In Press) The manuscript is hidden until December 2013.  One can still request the article from the author or get it from the publisher.

With the advent of digital media and online information resources, public libraries as physical destinations for information access are being increasingly challenged. As a response, many libraries follow the trend of removing bookshelves in order to provide more floorspace for social interaction and collaboration. Such spaces follow a Commons 2.0 model: they are designed to support collaborative work and social learning. The acquisition of skills and knowledge is facilitated as a result of being surrounded by and interacting with a community of likeminded others.

Sharing research data involves collaboration

This article noted below was published in JASIS&T last year.  Christine Borgman also posted her article to a repository.

Christine Borgman. 2012. The Conundrum of Sharing Research Data. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology 63(6):1059–1078. (Subscription required to read the full text.)

From the full text:

WHY SHARE RESEARCH DATA?

As is evident from the above discussion of the purposes and approaches to handling data, investigators (and their collaborators, students, and staff) devote massive amounts of physical and intellectual labor to collecting, managing, and analyzing their data and to publishing their results. Data are the lifeblood of research in any field, but just what are those “data” varies by purpose, approach, instrumentation, community, and many other local and global considerations. Some of those data may be in sharable forms, others not. Some data are of recognized value to the community, others not. Some researchers wish to share all of their data all of the time, some wish never to share any of their data, and most are willing to share some of their data some of the time. These competing perspectives, the array of data types and origins, and the variety of local circumstances all contribute to the intricacy and difficulty of sharing data.

Information Handling in Collaborative Research

From LIBER Quarterly, an article by Ellen Collins and Michael Jubb.

UK public policy makers have a growing interest in collaborative research, where academics work with public, private or third sector partners on a joint project which supports the partner’s aims. This paper reports on the findings of five case studies, looking at how information is sourced, managed, used and shared within collaborative research projects. It finds that researchers within collaborative projects have similar information management issues as are known to exist within academia more broadly, but that the specific conditions which govern research collaborations mean that interventions to improve or support information management must be carefully tailored.

http://liber.library.uu.nl/index.php/lq/article/view/8107/8709

Libraries partnering with outside organizations as experiments in engagement

See how libraries in Colorado and Kansas are building new relationships in order to strengthen their roles in their communities.

http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/2/15/Bringing-new-voices-to-the-public-library/

Cambridge and Oxford – rivals joining forces to save Jewish history.

Cambridge University Library and the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries announced that they will join forces to purchase a collection of 1,700 fragments of Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts from the 9th – 19th century. http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/news/historic-rivals-join-forces-to-save-1,000-years-of-jewish-history

Volume 4, Issue 4 is now ready

This looks like a great new issue.

Vol 4, No.4 (2012): Volume 4, Issue 4 Table of Contents

Editorials

The Collaborative Shift Has Happened!	PDF
Valerie Horton	130-131

Scholarly Articles

Co-Teaching Relationships among Librarians and Other Information Professionals	Abstract PDF
Ann Medaille, Amy W. Shannon	132-148

Team-Based Ingenuity Supporting 21st Century Learners	Abstract PDF
Sarah C. Hutton, Robert C. Davis, Carol Will	149-164

By and For Us: The Development of a Program for Peer Review of Teaching by and for Pre-Tenure Librarians	Abstract PDF
Jaena Alabi, Rhonda Huisman, Meagan Lacy, Willie Miller, Eric Snajdr, Jessica Trinoskey, William H. Weare, Jr.	165-174

Extending Access to Electronic Resources of a Merged Community College and University Library	Abstract PDF
Angela Dresselhaus	175-182

From the Field

Innovation & Leadership Through Collaboration – The Orbis Cascade Alliance Experience: An Interview with John Helmer	Abstract PDF
John F. Helmer, Stephen Bosch, Chris Sugnet, Cory Tucker	183-185

Tribute to a Cooperative Pioneer: Bill DeJohn	Abstract PDF
Cecelia N. Boone	186-187

Viewpoints: Technology Matters

The Golden Ratio and Community	PDF
Lori Bowen Ayre	188-189

Reviews

Review of “Social Networking Tools for Academic Libraries”	PDF
Alison Hicks	190-191

Aim for “less scary” collaboration

Yes, indeed. Take a look at this article from the new C&RL News.

Making assessment less scary: Academic libraries collaborate on an information literacy assessment model

Information literacy (IL) is widely recognized as a necessary skill for the information age, and post-secondary institutions and libraries spend large amounts of time and resources on information literacy instruction (ILI) programs. With tightening post-secondary budgets and increasing emphasis on meeting institutional learning outcomes, there have been continued calls from librarians, educators, academics, and library organizations to assess ILI.

This other article in the same issue may also be of interest.

Making an IMPACT: Campus-wide collaboration for course and learning space transformation

Most of us would agree that the roles of librarians have been changing with an almost mind-reeling rapidity. While this can be challenging, it also can provide excellent opportunities to support our students in their academic endeavors in new and meaningful ways.

At Purdue University such an opportunity arrived in the shape of a provost-initiated, campus-wide course redesign program called Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT). This initiative aims to bring active-learning to foundational courses traditionally taught through lectures.

Collaboration in Digital Humanities

This is a great article by Bethany Nowviskie in the Journal of Digital Humanities. It is “Evaluating Collaborative Digital Scholarship (or, Where Credit is Due).”

She noted:

…I’ll spend my time today addressing human factors: framing collaboration within our overall picture for the evaluation of digital scholarship. I’ll pull several of the examples I’ll share with you from my contribution to the Profession cluster that our workshop organizers made available, and my argument will be familiar to you from that piece as well. But I thought it might be useful to lay these problems out in a plain way, in person, near the beginning of our week together. Collaborative work is a major hallmark of digital humanities practice, and yet it seems to be glossed over, often enough, in conversations about tenure and promotion.