It's Academic

I recently had to focus on year-end data and usage statistics for the noble, if tedious, annual reporting process, and among the myriad comparators and web portal visitor behavior I found something interesting. Okay, perhaps an oversell, but still, learning that 2015-2016 was the first year in which our mobile device access more than doubled our desktop access AND that there was a near even split between the six mobile platforms users by visitors was an eye opener for me. Six platforms which each bring changes, both severe and nuanced, with how our digital interface is presented to users.

Once upon a time, one only need concern themselves with the small rendering differences between AOL, AltaVista, or Netscape. Now, the number of available paths to your library’s digital front door seems to grow every day. Ensuring that the graphics stay where you put them…that the results lists render without wrapping…that your users discover and view the digital objects in the manner and orientation in which they were intended…has become a job for a small IT army, or at least an over caffeinated librarian. Sisyphus knows what I’m talkin’ about.

The answer to this new millennial conundrum is a movement called responsive design. The notion, ridiculously oversimplified, is that the overall UI of any digital site—especially the resource-heavy digital footprint of libraries and cultural heritage institution sites—should be one which minimizes the need for screen manipulation or image display for users, regardless of the device through which they access your site. I am not so naïve as to expect that all of us present digital information in ways similar enough as to suggest universal application of any one given responsive design strategy, though current trends in universal design from the big data suppliers may cumulatively affect the outcome of the responsive design best practices in days to come, but there are a number of strategies and tools available to help you begin normalizing your digital library user’s experience in large and small ways. To that end, check out the following resources to guide your understanding and first steps:

• 50 Useful Libraries and Resources for Responsive Web Design – Helpful collection of links to (often free) tools to guide your revitalization efforts
• WW3 Schools Responsive Design Guide – Another great DIY guide for optimizing your resource portal
• Google Developers Responsive Design Basics – Get the basic know-how from the corporate giant who will most likely end up showing us how to do this better than we could even approach ourselves.

In 2015, the CRD maintained a strong presence in the academic library community and provided numerous professional development and networking opportunities for PA librarians. In case you missed out, here is a brief summary of the CRD’s involvement in 2015:

PaLRaP – The CRD’s open access journal, Pennsylvania Libraries Research and Practice (PaLRaP) had two issues published, one in spring and one in fall. All issues of the journal can be viewed on the Archives page of palrap.org.

Connect & Communicate – The CRD’s free webinar series, Connect & Communicate, hosted six virtual sessions covering a variety of topics including library security, the ACRL framework for information literacy, interactive technology tools, and using elevator speeches and PA Forward for academic libraries.

LSTA funds – The CRD used LSTA funds to support several programs including regional meetings, PaLA chapter workshops, and PA Forward initiatives. For more information, visit the LSTA page.

CRD Spring Workshop – The annual CRD Spring Workshop entitled, “The Times They Are A-Changin’…Again: Exploring the New Roles of Libraries in Higher Education,” was held on May 29, 2015 at Milllersville University. Speakers included Melissa Bowles-Terry (University of Nevada Las Vegas), Nancy Kranich and Megan Lotts (Rutgers University), and a panel of PA librarians. Approximately 70 people attended. See the blog recap for a full summary or view the Past Events page to view the original workshop flyer.

PALS Sponsorship – The CRD sponsored two early-career librarians, Melissa Correll (Lycoming) and Elizabeth Kavanaugh (Misericordia) to attend the PA Academy of Leadership Studies (PALS) workshop held annually in June. Melissa and Elizabeth were also welcomed as members-at-large to the 2016 CRD Board.

PaLA Annual Conference and CRD luncheon – At the PaLA Annual Conference, the CRD hosted its annual luncheon with Maria Accardi (Indiana University Southeast) as the featured keynote speaker. Maria spoke about library instruction burnout, which is the focus of her own personal blog, librarianburnout.com. For a summary of her presentation, visit our blog recap or see Accardi’s own blog post at bit.ly/1X3sZj8. In addition, the CRD sponsored ten regular conference sessions.

CRD blog contributors – In 2015, the CRD formed a new blog team of PA academic librarians with a variety of backgrounds and interests (view the full list of contributors on the About page). Our bloggers play a large role in keeping the PaLA community up-to-date on current trends in technology, instruction, management, and outreach in academic libraries. The CRD will be looking for several new bloggers in 2016, so if you’re interested in contributing, stay tuned at crdpala.org for announcements!

Division membership – As of 2016, there are 238 registered members of the CRD, thirty-eight of which are new personal regular members.

For more information on all of the CRD’s initiatives, visit the Get Involved page and subscribe to crdpala.org for all of the latest news and commentary from the PA academic library community. We look forward to meeting new members and providing even more opportunities for involvement in 2016!

The explosion of distance education programs popping up across the traditional and for-profit education sectors has effectively pushed the reset button on how institutions are thinking about everything from curricular design to new enrollment parameters. With enrollments dropping steadily for the past few years, and statistical analysis showing a further decline looming for the future (as evidenced by demographic population data), engaging and retaining a non-traditional student population is becoming an increasingly important focus to secure the future of many institutions. But with all of the revamped ad campaigns and millions of dollars being spent on web-based educational technologies, it seems to me that efforts to ensure the academic support structures that will ultimately drive success for these students is NOT receiving the same rejuvenated approach.

Online education is a FANTASTIC opportunity for many who had thought that college level education was beyond their grasp. The flexibility of e-Learning platforms and the increasing stability of streamed and embedded media means that instructors are able to paint new vistas for these students to explore. But how do we reconcile this flexibility against the often firm margins we as librarians are asked to work within. The simple fact is that online learners don’t keep Banker’s hours…but somehow, most of us still do. So how are we to continue to play the critical guiding role for these students…many of which are completely without the competencies and academic agilities that we have previously ascribed to traditional students? The good news is that if we are able to carve a viable and replicable niche for our services within the distance learning modules, the critical role we play as a student’s tangible and accessible go-to in an otherwise digital landscape will cement the foundations of our career path and give us even more control over how information literacy and information service offerings are woven into the fabric of education.

Here are my meager suggestions toward bridging this cognitive chasm and ensuring the boon, not the bust:

• Orientation is your jam! – The first introduction many students have to the library is during tours or orientation. In many institutions, including those on my resume, the librarians were given a small portion of the program to talk about library services and offerings. While it is tempting (or even mandated) that this sort of presentation focus on how great and helpful the library services can be-in the abstract, my approach was to use this time with students to avoid this boiler-plate/elevator speech and instead think of the session as a chance to market the librarians, not the library. Use this introductory period, when they are still forming opinions about what is or is not valuable to them, to market yourself. Focus less on a guided tour of the library website and more on how the people—not the databases—are the real ally to a new student. 15 minutes devoted to demonstrating that you are as approachable as you are knowledgeable will pay off as the term progresses.
• Rage against the one-off Information Literacy session – Even in traditional classroom settings, a single Info Lit session early in the term is typically little more than an extended preview of things to come—the content of which, even with the best presenter, finds only some purchase with the students. We all know that the real Information Literacy sessions are those which happen in the lab, on the fly as a paper deadline looms. Speak to your faculty and offer a multi-session approach to Information Literacy which matches pace with the demands of the course. Having your input and evidence-based guidance as a more regular facet of a course will ease the non-traditional student mind by making clear the path to assistance—often times at hours when faculty may not be available.
• Buy Donuts for the Curricular Design Team – …or muffins…chocolates are also nice…do all that you can, through whatever channels appropriate, to garner attention to the fact that including you and your fellow librarians in course planning…even down to the way library services are positioned in the course shell…is one of the best ways to promote success for all students. You are in the trenches term after term, helping students work through assignments which have become familiar by rote, and as such are uniquely positioned to comment on how the presentation of resources can positively influence their outcomes.
• Librarian 2.0 – As our institutions and the students they serve are increasingly embracing the social and interactive Web 2.0 approach to education, we must keep pace. Non-traditional students come with non-traditional hours, and as such, so must our resource base. Many states offer virtual reference services from the state library, as do many institutions, but for those of us without such an umbrella there are a host of options for assisting that Sunday evening student query. Services such as Google+ or GoTo Meeting have a very low overhead cost and provide an accessible and dynamic platform from which to perform reference interviews through video conferencing, offer numerous tools for group exploration and highlighting of resources, provide printable logs of chats, and allow you to record the sessions in a number of formats—enabling you to start your own dynamic knowledge base which can be embedded into any given course shell. Further, starting your own blog/microblog or podcast can also serve to underscore your ability to match the evolving information services needs encountered by distance learners in a way that a Databases page off of the library website can never achieve.

As this is simply the informed opinion of one librarian, your own experience may differ—and if so I sincerely hope you will take a moment to share a note on this thread. Not only will your thoughts help paint a fuller picture, but if your experience contradicts my own I welcome the hope it will bring for all of us.