It's Academic

Ten ideas for library outreach to student organizations

February 1, 2019

"Everything is Connected" Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

One way to boost outreach and engagement efforts at your library is to connect with student organizations. Traditionally librarians have been liaisons to academic departments; we can adapt those same strategies to being a library liaison to student organizations as well.

The potential benefits of outreach to student organizations might include increasing attendance at library events, connecting with students outside the classroom setting, creating opportunities for student-led programming, and building new collaborations with staff in the Student Life office at your campus.

Here’s a list of 10 strategies I’ll be experimenting with this year to reach out to student organizations:

Connect with student organizations at the Student Involvement Fair.
Meet regularly with your campus Director of Student Life to stay in the loop.
Attend events sponsored by student organizations.
Promote student organizations’ events with social media and physical signage at your library.
Serve as a guest speaker at one of their club meetings.
Offer library programming in the Residence Halls.
Get a library portal on Connect, OrgSync, or whichever online platform is used by the Student Life office at your campus.
Invite student organizations to co-host programming at the library.
Serve as faculty advisor for your campus’s Library Student Advisory Board–or, if your campus doesn’t have one, encourage students to start one.
Offer satellite reference service in the HUB or Student Union building during semester crunch times.

Please share your ideas for outreach to student organizations in the comments. Thanks!

Jessica Showalter is the Student Engagement & Outreach Librarian at Penn State Altoona’s Eiche Library. Say hello on Twitter @libraryjms

Science Information Literacy and First Year Students

January 30, 2019

by Andrea Pritt

In May 2018, I was hired as the new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Librarian at the Penn State Harrisburg Library. I have always had a love of and a passion for science, which led me to a bachelor’s degree in biology years ago. I have been working in libraries for close to ten years and while I enjoy working with students in all disciplines, I have a particular, nostalgic affinity for undergraduate science students. I remember those classes, those assignments, and those expensive textbooks. It is a familiar world and one that I truly enjoyed. In my new role as the STEM Librarian on campus, I am always looking for opportunities to share my love of science with undergraduate students.

Recently our campus’s quantitative skills coordinator approached me with an idea that led to a general discussion about science literacy, diversity in STEM fields, and our shared love of science. As we were chatting, we decided to create a first year seminar presentation geared toward science majors on our campus. I am interested in science literacy and science information literacy and she is interested in studying tactics and resources for undergraduate students. It seemed like the perfect collaboration for us and over the past few weeks, we have been brainstorming our presentation together.

Admittedly, I have a few lofty questions that I consider when I work with undergraduate science students. What are their feelings about science? Do they understand science in a general sense? Do they trust science? How does this trust (or distrust) manifest in their personal lives? In their educational careers? I recognize that this first year seminar session will not be sufficient to answer all of the questions I have. However, it is a good place to start for now.

Our plan is to begin the session by discussing junk science vs. legitimate science, how to locate relevant and trustworthy information, then allowing the discussion to chart the rest of the course. With a few planned stops relating to the ACRL Framework along the way. We are also designing a science related activity in which the students will gather in groups to complete the exercise. Our current idea is to present a problem and ask the students how to work through it utilizing the library resources at their disposal. For example, let us say that the students were given the OK to create a community garden on the roof of their dorm building. What plant(s) will they choose and will they grow in Central Pennsylvania? Do they have access to electricity or a water supply on the roof? If no, how will they design a system to ensure the garden is properly maintained?

Our hope is that this activity will appeal to all of the student participants. Perhaps the student is a biology major with an interest in botany. Maybe the engineering students in the session figure out a novel way to transport water onto the roof. The math student uses her geometry skills to create the optimum greenhouse layout for the roof size. We will be asking the groups to share their findings and ideas with the rest of the class and I am looking forward to hearing all of the responses. This session may not go as planned but sharing my interest in science literacy with even a few students will be meaningful for me. A brief assessment questionnaire will be given to the participants at the end of the session. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the responses will assist me in making this one of many first year seminars geared toward STEM related library resources. Additionally, I hope it will open the gates to future discussions surrounding science information literacy on our campus.

C&CS Digital Badges will be rescheduled due to weather

January 30, 2019

by Erin B.

Update: Session is rescheduled for February 26, 2019 (Tuesday)– at 2pm.

Registration link is still available here.

Stay warm and safe everyone. With most of Pennsylvania closed due to the polar vortex and snowstorms, we will be rescheduling the Digital Badges session with Torrie Raish and Emily Rimland. Stay tuned for more information.

Keeping Your Mind Sharp in the Stacks

January 25, 2019

by blj13

Considering we just flipped our calendars to 2019 (Ok, it’s been a couple of weeks, but close enough) you probably still have your New Year’s resolutions fresh in your mind. Surely, you’ve thought of the obvious ones: Get a better job or a promotion. Read more Lose weight. Exercise more. But what about exercising your mind?

So much of what we do in the library strains our mental muscles more than our physical ones. So it should be just as important to focus on your brain to keep it, well, focused.

Here are some things you can do to keep your mind sharp and keep yourself on task as you move through 2019:

Practice Attentive Listening

When having conversations with colleagues and students, remain engaged when listening by recapping what they are saying and using connecting words like, “Ok”, “I understand”, and “Yes”. While this is a very important skill to help with reference interactions and conversations with faculty, administration, and vendors, it will also help build and maintain focus.

Mindful Mediation

Mindful meditation is a form of relaxing your mind and refocusing your attention on the here and now. Meditation can come in many forms, such as a meditative body scan, focused breathing, and movement meditation (such as yoga). It can be very helpful in dealing with the anxiety of keeping track of all the things you have going on.

Read Long Books Slowly

Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Reading a book or novel slowly may help us keep and build our attention spans. We often read so many short emails and articles online, that we often begin looking for the information we need quickly before moving on to something else. Reading a long book at a slow pace can help us move beyond basic facts and focus on more complex thoughts.

Focus on One Thing at a Time

While it may be hard to devote your attention to only one thing with so much going on, it can often be more productive. Instead of allowing yourself to be pulled in many directions, focus all your attention on completing a single task before moving on. This can often save time, and your sanity.

Take a Short Break

Even though we are often asked to do so much, there is also only so much that we can do. If you feel overwhelmed or can’t find your focus, take a 5-10 minute break to meditate, go for a walk, or just look out a window. It allows your brain to reset and recharge so you can come back more engaged and more effective.

Exercise (with your body)

Yes, this is a list about mental exercise but one of the most effective ways to keep your brain focused and in shape is by keeping your body in shape too. Studies have shown that even moderate exercise can help people ignore distractions better than if they didn’t exercise at all.

Swimming Upstream: The Streaming Media Ecosystem

January 24, 2019

by Bonnie Powers

animal-aquatic-corals-847393 Photo by Belle Co. from Pexel

Streaming media is nothing new; however, it continues to present new challenges for libraries. For academic libraries, where faculty and students prefer the ease of access streaming media provides to the constraints of placing and watching DVDs on reserve or the necessity of using one or more class sessions to view a film as a group, having at least one (and usually more than one) streaming option becomes a necessity. Streaming films can be watched 24/7 on many devices anywhere that has an internet connection.

That ease of use comes at a cost. And that cost is not always known. With subscription models like Academic Video Online (AVON), users have unlimited viewing ability with a known, yearly cost. With PDA programs, like the one Kanopy provides, licenses are triggered after set criteria are met, and the cost of triggers may add up more quickly than one expects and may easily blow a hole in the budget if not monitored conscientiously. In these PDA programs, there may be options to mediate access, which requires users to request films. But once a campus community gets used to instant viewing on demand, it may be difficult to change course midstream.

There is the added complication of home use only platforms like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime, with an individual subscription model where contract law (consumers agree to terms that permit only at-home viewing) overrides any exemption provided by the Face-to-Face Teaching Exception under the Fair Use Guidelines provided by statutory law (Netflix terms of use here). These platforms do not make any provisions for educational use, with the exception of a very short list of Netflix documentaries (see the fourth bullet below). Some of these films are exclusive to the platform and not even available in DVD format.

Another layer of complexity involves PPR–Public Performance Rights. Most films on streaming platforms commonly used in higher education come with PPR; however, we have run up against at least one exception to that rule. Also, there are always films that are not available in streaming format that are requested for campus film festivals. So in addition to paying for streaming platforms, libraries may end up paying for expensive, institutional copies of DVDs.

Speaking of DVDs, some argue that a physical format is still desirable from both a budgetary and a preservation perspective. Streaming films can be removed from platforms, sometimes without notice, and faculty can find themselves without access to a film they have relied upon as part of their syllabi in the past. Ownership opportunities for streaming films can be limited.

Last, there are films that are available to stream but only if an institution has its own platform for hosting. Vendors like Kanopy and AVON do permit hosting of local media; however, there are several requirements that have to be met. And there are always films that are just not available in streaming format, period. Faculty may ask that a DVD be digitized; however, copyright laws come into play and are usually prohibitive for whole DVDs (clips may be okay). Finally, there are films that are still only available on VHS (see the second bullet point below), although these are generally permitted to be digitized since the format is considered to be obsolete.

The ecosystem is multilayered and can be difficult to navigate. Fortunately, there are some resources that can help.

Videolib mailing list. videolib@lists.berkeley.edu. This list is a great resource for tracking down PPR, streaming formats, rights holders and engaging with others in discussions about many of the issues outlined above.
Academic Libraries Video Trust (ALVT). (From the website): The National Media Market (“NMM”) has launched the Academic Libraries Video Trust (“ALVT”), a service facilitating the preservation of audiovisual (“AV”) works in the collections of member libraries. The principal activity of ALVT is to provide a clearinghouse or repository of digital versions of selected AV works, generally works currently available only in the obsolete VHS format. The service is built on opportunities allowed to libraries and archives for the preservation and replacement of works in their collections, pursuant to Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. NMM offers this service in order to encourage the preservation and appreciation of the educational films, motion pictures, documentaries, and other works that are increasingly out of reach because of the obsolete technology.
IMBDPro. For a modest fee, users can subscribe to an enhanced version of IMBD that provides industry contacts useful for tracking down rights holders and other pertinent information about a film.
Netflix Educational Screening of Documentaries. This page sets forth the language that will be available on any Netflix film listed that permits educational screenings. Unfortunately, Netflix does not provide a definitive list. Users may look up films here to find out if the provision applies.
National Media Market. The only conference in the US that is dedicated to librarians who work with film and video.