Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant for Collaboration Between Colleges

St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges have received a $1.4 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to increase collaboration over the next four years.

The grant will help the colleges purchase a new library management system for the two libraries, and also contribute to programs encouraging faculty to collaborate. More information can be found on Inside Higher Ed.

Collaboration with writing faculty to modify one-shot instruction methods

Revising the “One-Shot” through Lesson Study: Collaborating with Writing Faculty to Rebuild a Library Instruction Session

By Shevaun E. Watson, Cathy Rex, Jill Markgraf, Hans Kishel, Eric Jennings and Kate Hinnant

Abstract

The one-shot library instruction session has long been a mainstay for many information literacy programs. Identifying realistic learning goals, integrating active learning techniques, and conducting meaningful assessment for a single lesson all present challenges. Librarians and English faculty at one college campus confronted these challenges by participating in a year-long lesson study, a process of collaboratively planning, observing, and assessing a single lesson. By collectively identifying goals and priorities, designing and redesigning the lesson, and assessing outcomes through observation, surveys, and focus groups, librarians and teaching faculty negotiated varying expectations and demands for providing one-shot library instruction.

Collaborative Learning Center at East Carolina University

Robert Michael James. 2013. Culture War in the Collaborative Learning Center. Journal of Learning Spaces 2(1)

The transformation of the first floor of Joyner Library into a Collaborative Learning Center produced significant changes to collection and user spaces. Collaboration, in this context, includes students working together in groups and external (non-library) services relocating to the library. A Culture War emerged when faculty, displeased with these changes and the loss of the traditional library ethos, voiced their concerns about the future of the library at East Carolina University. This study is an analysis of the implementation of a commons in an academic research library with a focus on faculty criticism and lessons learned from the experience.

Report from Virginia Tech on collaboration between faculty, students, information professionals, and technologists

Hubs and centers as transitional change strategy for library collaboration
Speer, Julie; Mathews, Brian; Walters, Tyler

Libraries of science and technology universities worldwide are adapting to a changing environment where cyberinfrastructure, eResearch, and new technology-intensive approaches to teaching and learning are transforming the very nature of universities. While many have adopted new technologies and the resources and expertise to manage them, this is only an initial step. Libraries are experimenting with organizational models that will transform their work capacity and expertise. The goal of these libraries is being an entity that feeds and produces collaborative synergies between faculty, students, information professionals, and technologists.

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.

IMLS grant supports library-faculty collaboration

Librarians and faculty from Cornell, Purdue, University of Minnesota and the University of Oregon are working together to help grad students master data-management skills.

“Starting in graduate school, students begin compiling mountains of research data — but they often have no formal training in how to efficiently keep track of it, share it or organize it so that it can be preserved and used in the future.”

http://www.gradschool.cornell.edu/news/library-faculty-collaboration-helps-grad-students-conquer-data

Inspire greater student collaboration

This is from the new issue of the Kansas Library Association College & University Libraries Section Proceedings. The article “Extending the Learning Process: Using the Theory of Connectivism to Inspire Student Collaboration” by Melissa N. Mallon may be of interest.

Abstract – For years, library instruction has taken place in 50-minute class periods in the library. Librarians have traditionally demonstrated various research tools, occasionally provided students with the opportunity for hands-on practice, and then sent them back to their regular classrooms. Due to these time constraints, this method does not always allow for one-on-one instruction or interaction among students in the class. By following the underlying principles advocated in contemporary learning theories, such as connectivism, librarians can work with teaching faculty to provide students with a collaborative learning experience that extends well beyond the library classroom.

Grants to foster collaboration

I found this article through the Google Scholar alert service, “Using Internal Grant to Foster Faculty-Librarian Collaboration.” (PDF).  It is from the Chinese American Librarians Association Occasional Paper Series, May 2011, No. 9, 1-6.

From the abstract:

This paper describes a faculty-librarian partnership in a grant project to infuse international content into a revised macroeconomics curriculum. The paper presents a win-win collaboration that allows both the faculty member and the librarian to work together to build and enhance curriculum-specific resources, and to create a meaningful learning experience while improving students’ information literacy skills.

With the lead pipe….

The blog, In the Library with the Lead Pipe, has a great new post on collaboration, and it is just the first of five.

Article in Library Philosophy and Practice

This article, “Faculty Attitudes Toward Collaboration with Librarians,” by Dr. Atif Yousef looks pretty good.

From the introduction:

University libraries play a vital role in supporting their parent institutions to achieve their objectives effectively. Librarians and faculty members are both involved in teaching students how to make use of the information resources available in their campus library. Collaboration between faculty and librarians is essential to enhance students learning and research, and help them develop their information competencies.