It's Academic

In a year when libraries were scrambling to provide greater remote access to essential resources, Villanova’s Affordable Materials Project (AMP) was beneficial. A few years ago, Falvey Memorial Library began collaborating on AMP with Villanova’s Center for Access, Success and Achievement (CASA), the Office of the Provost, and the Villanova University Bookstore.

In simple terms, the AMP committee works on identifying faculty adopted course materials that the library can acquire as an eBook which then is linked to the course in the course/content management system. The greatest advantage of AMP has been to reduce the burden on students when it comes to acquiring texts required for courses.

Evidence of the value of AMP had been mounting:

A Closer Look at How AMP Initiatives Impact the Cost of College Textbooks

Students Save Money with AMP eBooks

This past fall Villanova library staff members gave virtual presentations about AMP to enthusiastic audiences; such as “Getting Better All the Time: Villanova University’s Affordable Materials Project” ACRL Delaware Valley Chapter Fall 2020 Program, and “The Time Has Come: For More Affordable Course Materials” at The Charleston Conference.

Falvey Library’s, John Banionis, Metrics and Assessment Librarian, and Marianne Watson, Director of Resource Management and Description, also participated in a panel discussion “So Many Ways to Save: Library Access to Course Materials” at the second annual Affordable Learning PA Summit, held virtually from Sept. 9-25, 2020.

Linda Hauck from Villanova’s library and Bernadette Mania from Villanova’s bookstore presented “OER Strange Bedfellows: Panel Discussion on Bookstore & Library Collaborations” at the Affordable Learning PA, Education & Training, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020.

To find out more about Villanova’s Affordable Materials Project, email the committee at amp@villanova.edu.

See also:

OER Impact & Outcomes Research

Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER) at Villanova

OER Textbooks: Perfect for the Age of COVID-19

Join the ACRL Delaware Valley Chapter in discussing impressions, takeaways, and insights from Change the Subject, a documentary chronicling how a group of Dartmouth Latinx students were spurred to political advocacy through their experiences with Library of Congress subject headings about people who are undocumented. 

Change the Subject is available freely until December 19th, 2020 from PBS here: https://www.pbs.org/video/change-the-subject-23nbpj/ 

Please note, this is not a screening of the documentary and attendees are encouraged to watch it beforehand.

The free event — held virtually via Zoom — will include a panel discussion with three of the documentary’s creators: activist and former Dartmouth student Melissa Pedilla, librarian Jill Baron, and scholar and mentor Dr. Lourdes Gutíerrez Nájera, followed by a Q+A and discussion.

Please register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdE2KgvtIIncD1yDMNQYrtIO4xNcRT9_SPSmLM1rhAIanjDSA/viewform?usp=sf_link

This event is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, Governor.

Support is also provided by the College and Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association. https://crdpala.org/

I have previously reported back in August that the Technical Services Round Table (TSRT) was in the process of creating an experts directory where individuals could contribute their contact information should they have knowledge of particular aspects of technical services. This would allow for members of the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) to reach out to fellow librarians and library paraprofessionals should there be a question, concern, stumbling block, or an idea to bounce off of someone with more expertise. While we were unable to debut our project last month virtually at the PaLA annual conference, I am pleased to announce that the experts directory is now up and running! The form is now available!

At the moment, we are asking that only PaLA members contribute to the experts directory. This is a perk which we would like exclusively to be offered with your membership. If you know of someone, or of an institute, who is not a member of the PaLA but who would like to contribute, or if you have any questions about the directory, please contact us at expertsdirectory.tsrt@gmail.com.

The Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) College & Research Division (CRD) is looking for anyone interested in contributing to the CRD blog, It’s Academic. We welcome new and experienced bloggers, those who want to contribute frequently, or those who would rather only post once or twice a year. Contributing to the blog is a great way to get started writing about topics of interest to you, to call attention to worthwhile ideas, or to publicize important events.

What we’re looking for:

People to author blog posts on any topic relevant to college and research libraries (bonus points if it’s specific to Pennsylvania). We’ll put together a posting schedule (for the 2021 calendar year) that will let you know what weeks you’re responsible for posting to the blog. On your scheduled week, we’d like to have at least one new blog post by you go live (but you’re absolutely allowed to post more than once in the week if you want to).

Interested?

Send an email to Alexander Kirby at akirby@pennhighlands.edu. Please include how frequently you would like to contribute to the blog (once a month, twice a semester, etc.) and any scheduling issues you foresee so we know when is/isn’t a good time to put you on the calendar. If you have any questions, include them in your email.

Never has it been clearer that the rampant spreading of misinformation is a large problem in the United States. The contradictory information and messaging about the COVID-19 pandemic from people in positions of power, on social media, and from news outlets has caused, at the very least confusion, at the most extreme health risks. In the midst of the 2020 Presidential Election, we are currently seeing even more misinformation, lies, and extreme bias through news outlets and social media. We are fortunate to have immediate access to so much information, but how do we cull the authoritative information from the misinformation? More importantly, how do we, as information professionals, teach our students to critically evaluate all sources successfully?  

This year has made it even more apparent that our role in teaching information literacy has become even more necessary.  I would go so far as to say that it should be mandatory in this digital age for students to learn about evaluating web resources. I believe cultivating student’s critical thinking skills can be more of a group effort between faculty and librarians. Working together would increase student’s ability to make informed decisions and choices using authoritative sources. It takes effort and sometimes a long time to evaluate web sources, and students may give up before diving deep. I wish it was easier to determine trustworthy sources, but maybe the silver lining is that students have the opportunity to develop and enhance their critical thinking skills, which will help them throughout their schooling and careers. Though misinformation is everywhere, I hope to see librarians really focus on information and digital literacy to combat its spread, and work together with faculty to teach patience, thoroughness, and critical thinking when evaluating sources.