Connect and Communicate Presents:Working with Student Organizations to Enhance Outreach to Underrepresented Groups

August 16, 2022 at 11:30 am EST

Recruiting and retaining a diverse student population is extremely important for any college or university. Students from traditionally underrepresented groups come from a wide array of backgrounds and are able to bring new ideas and new perspectives to existing knowledge. Libraries can play an important role in helping universities welcome these students as well as provide a safe environment that nurtures their growth as researchers and practitioners. The Engineering Library at Penn State — University Park recently created a program to let underrepresented students know of our resources and services and to enlist their help in making those services better, with the assistance of student organizations whose memberships are primarily comprised of these students. Beginning in Fall 2021, we have given multiple groups a month at a time to create displays and events that showcase the contributions of their membership and alumni to Penn State and the engineering field in general, while also allowing other patrons and visitors to get a glimpse into their cultures and history. We will explain how we set the program up, our successes and failures, and where we see our outreach going in the near future.

Registration Link – August 16, 2022 at 11:30 am EST

Paul McMonigle is the Engineering Instruction Librarian at Penn State University.

As a reminder, the Zoom link will be sent approximately 48 hours before the session. We will mute participants on entry into the Zoom room. Session will be recorded and available on YouTube after the session. We will enable Zoom’s Live Transcription feature during the session.

If you would like to present with C&CS, please contact the C&CS team.