Community & Junior CollegeLibraries Section

2014 FallNewsletter0888­1405

The CJCLS Newsletter is a semi­annual publication of the Community and Junior College Section of the Association of College

& Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association; 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; (800) 545­2433, ext.

2523; www.ala.org/acrl/. It is included as part of your ACRL/ALA membership fee.

Editors: Matthew Pierce and Jill Sodt § ISSN: 0888­1405 § © 2014

NEWSFLASH:

Updates from community and junior colleges across the country

by Jill Sodt, CJCLS Newsletter Editor

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Newsflash 1

Soapbox 2

Collective Brain 3

ACRL Insider 3

Recent Research 4

Awards Flyer 5

V o l . 3 0 , N o . 1

—Central Carolina Community College recently received two grants totaling$44,985 from the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grantprogram. The program, administered by the State Library of North Carolina, fundslibrary projects across the state that advance literacy and lifelong learning,expand access to library resources and expertise, promote partnerships andcollaboration, and digitize materials important to the cultural heritage of NorthCarolina. These grants will enable the college to turn study rooms into technology-enhanced collaborative learning spaces for students.

—In Virginia, the New River Community College library hosted its first ever ComicCon in October. Guests included Kevin Sharpe, Dom Murphy, and Josh Ginter. "Wedecided to sponsor this event to promote reading, creativity and the fun of comicbooks," said Sandy Smith, NRCC's Coordinator of Library Services. "We alsowanted to encourage people to visit our facilities, both the library and the collegein general and see what we have to offer."

—In New York, the Genesee Community College Alfred C. O'Connell Library on theBatavia campus has developed an expanded Children's Book Collection thanks toa President's Innovation Award (PIA) grant. The President's Innovation AwardProgram, funded by the Genesee Community College Foundation, provides mini-grants to faculty and staff proposed projects that bring innovation to the Collegeand foster positive relationships between the college and the local community.

CJCLS ON FACEBOOK

Have you visited our Facebook page lately?

WESTCHESTER COMMUNITY COLLEGE

VALHALLA, NY

Share a pictureof your libraryon the CJCLSFacebook page!

Innovative Library ClassroomMay 12, 2015Radford, VA

The librarians at Radford Universityhave a reputation for exploringinnovative approaches to libraryinstruction. Last year marked theinauguration of a new libraryconference hosted by Radfordcalled the Innovative LibraryClassroom, which emerged from across-institutional peer-reviewproject that counts two communitycolleges among its participants.

At the 2014 conference, sessiontopics included assessing theflipped classroom, incorporatingthreshold concepts intoinstructional design, andintegrating emerging technologiesinto library instruction.

The deadline for 2015 proposals isNovember 21st, 2014.

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SOAPBOX

This is a new column where CJCLS members can sharetheir ideas regarding trends in academic librarianship.

Featured CJCLS Librarian: Matthew Pierce

The Value of Scholarly Articles vs. Scholarly Books

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a trend amongteaching faculty—and even librarians—in which scholarlybooks and scholarly articles are treated as identicalinformation packages.

Scholarly books and scholarly articles are very differenttypes of sources in several respects, and understandingthe value of each source type within the context of theresearch process should be a foundational concept ofinformation literacy. Yet, I rarely see this distinctionarticulated as a learning outcome in library instructionsessions, and it doesn’t seem to be on the radar of manydiscipline instructors.

One of the things that prompted this reflection was aconversation with an English instructor who, during adiscussion about an upcoming library instructionsession—which was being tailored around an argumentpaper—remarked, “this is a ten week class, so we don’treally have time for books. Let’s focus on scholarlyarticles.” I contemplated the interaction for daysafterward. Clearly, the instructor didn't have theknowledge gained from having helped students at areference desk. My silent questions for the instructorincluded the following: Does a student really need toread an entire book to find relevant information? Is theinstructor aware that books are divided intochapters—and contain indexes? If length is the issue, isthe instructor aware that certain types of books (i.e.reference books) contain entries that are shorter thanjournal articles—and are particularly useful for obtainingcontext and background information? (Clearly, referencebooks contain a different type of information fromscholarly articles, but they do have a specific value in thecontext of the research process.)

Cont. on page 2

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Framework forInformation Literacy forHigher Education

Draft 3 of the Frameworkwas released onNovember 12th. Thetask force revising theFramework will considerfeedback received byDecember 12th at 5p.m. Have you sharedyour thoughts on theFramework?

SOAPBOX CONTINUED

Some of my silent questions for the instructor were related to disciplinarydifferences. Is the instructor aware that in certain disciplines, such as thehumanities, monographs are the most valued forum for scholarlycommunication? Also, in the social sciences—a subject area that students tendto draw heavily upon for argument papers—scholarly monographs remain ahighly valued venue.

Certainly, the latest iteration of the Framework for Information Literacy,particularly the “Information Creation as a Process" frame, leads me to believethat our profession still agrees that understanding the differences betweentypes of sources is valuable. But we need to be careful not to let vendors—ormisguided instructors—control the conversation. For the benefit of the studentswe serve, we should use our expertise to lead this conversation. The voluntarynature of so many course-integrated library instruction programs means thatwe're occasionally reluctant to challenge the assumptions of disciplinefaculty—as I was during my conversation with the instructor who dismissedbooks—but sometimes gentle encouragement, or carefully worded suggestions,go a long way. And, of course, context matters. Now that I have an establishedrelationship with this particular English instructor, I think our conversation nextsemester will be different.

COLLECTIVE BRAIN: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CJCLS LISTSERV

Humor in the Library: 9/5-9/9

"And, while helping a student with a particularly contentious topic, rifewith controversies, he wailed, 'Isn't there any source that is infallible?'"

Educational Requirements for Library Directors: 10/20-10/21

"It seems very unusual in any educational department that anadministrator/director would not be expected to have at minimum amaster’s degree – whether library director, dean of some kind, whatever."

Group Study Room Management: 11/7-11/10

"We use the free version of SuperSaas. It has worked very well to date, isvery easy to set up, can limit use by 30 minute increments, allowsstudents to reserve rooms for themselves, can be used from any PC,makes tracking of use over time much easier, and frees up service desk

ACRL INSIDER PROFILES COMMUNITY COLLEGE LIBRARIAN

Robert Kelly, the Coordinator of Library Services at Hutchinson CommunityCollege, was featured on September 30, 2014 as an ACRL Member of the Week.

“To make real change you must get involved in leading and do so actively.Armchair complainers and saber rattlers rarely yield any success because theydon’t have any influence or control."

Read more at the ACRL Insider blog.

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RECENT RESEARCH: ASSESSMENT

by Matthew Pierce, CJCLS Newsletter Editor

BUSY BEE

From Jonathan Betz-Zall, HighlineCommunity College:

I've been working on a"white paper"explaining andjustifying the provisionof virtual referenceservices. I circulated afirst draft around CJClibraries in Oregon andWashington State andjust heard that it waspartially responsible forsaving our statewidenetwork that supportsthose services frombeing cut by the statelibrary.

From Lindsay Davis,Merced College:

Please join theAssociation of Collegeand ResearchLibraries’ new interestgroup, LibraryMarketing andOutreach (LMO). Theinterest group kickedoff with an informalmeet-up at the ALAAnnual Conference inLas Vegas thissummer, and the goalof the group is to havesimilar meet-ups withinour respective states.If you are interested inbecoming arepresentative for yourstate, please contactVirginia Alexander at:alexanva@uscupstate.edu.

Broussard, M. S. (2014). Using games to make formative assessment fun in the

academic library. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40(1), 35-42.

http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2012.12.001

Bryan, J. E., & Karshmer, E. (2013). Assessment in the one-shot session: Using pre-

and post-tests to measure innovative instructional strategies among first-year

students. College & Research Libraries, 74(6), 574-586.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/crl12-369

Fosnacht, K. (2014). Information literacy and NSSE. College & Research Libraries

News, 75(9), 490-500. http://crln.acrl.org/

Gola, C. H., Ke, I., Creelman, K. M., & Vaillancourt, S. P. (2014). Developing an

information literacy assessment rubric: A case study of collaboration, process,

and outcomes. Communications in Information Literacy, 8(1).

www.comminfolit.org/

Gratz, A., & Olson, L. T. (2014). Evolution of a culture of assessment: developing a

mixed-methods approach for evaluating library instruction. College &

Undergraduate Libraries, 21(2), 210-231.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2013.829371

Hufford, J. R. (2013). A review of the literature on assessment in academic and

research libraries, 2005 to August 2011. portal: Libraries and the Academy,

13(1), 5-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2013.0005

Jastram, I., Leebaw, D., & Tompkins, H. (2014). Situating information literacy within

the curriculum: Using a rubric to shape a program. portal: Libraries and the

Academy, 14(2), 165-189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2014.0011

Pan, D., Ferrer-Vinent, I. J., & Bruehl, M. (2014). Library value in the classroom:

Assessing student learning outcomes from instruction and collections. Journal of

Academic Librarianship, 40(3/4), 332-338.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2014.04.011

Rimland, E. (2013). Assessing affective learning using a student response system.

portal: Libraries and the Academy, 13(4), 385-401.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2013.0037

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