Post-instruction student reflection, "Name one thing you learned."
Libraries partner in the educational mission of the institution to develop and support information-literate learners who can discover, access, and use information effectively for academic success, research, and lifelong learning.
Discussion
SCC faculty librarians see their educational role as the teaching of information literacy (IL).
"Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning." (ACRL, Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education)
In 2016, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) rescinded the profession's IL Competency Standards for Higher Education which had been in place since 2000. Since then, academic librarians have been exploring our changing role as we adapt to the new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education which supplants the Standards.
The Educational Role principle discussed here emphasizes liaison between librarians and discipline faculty. While it's imperative that library instruction is student-centered, partnerships, especially those with discipline faculty, are essential to integrating information literacy into the college curriculum. Because faculty are key to infusing information literacy into student learning, SCC librarians have a strong focus on cultivating active partnerships and collaboratively designing meaningful learning experiences for students.
Performance Indicator 3.1 Library personnel collaborate with faculty and others on ways to incorporate library collections and services into effective education experiences for students.
OUTCOME 3.1(a) Librarians collaborate with discipline faculty to integrate library and information resources into students’ learning processes.
The library's 2016-17 Strategic Program Assessment (SPA) found that 56% of SCC faculty respondents stated that they link to library resources when teaching. Through small- and large-scale partnerships, SCC librarians collaborate with discipline faculty to integrate quality information resources into students' learning experiences via:
Research guides created by SCC librarians
A dynamic teaching tool, librarians use library research guides to:
Many discipline faculty incorporate guides into Canvas and some use learning objects from the guides (like tutorial videos for example) to teach students during face-to-face instruction. Discipline faculty may co-author or otherwise collaborate with librarians to create guide content for specific courses. Guides also serve non-CCS librarians each time they assist our students within the 24/7 online-chat research-help cooperative.
The four most heavily used SCC Library research guides are accessed over a thousand times a year. Other use counts vary from hundreds to tens or lower. The top ten most accessed SCC Library research guides during AY 2018-19 have been:
|
Guide Library Databases |
Number of times accessed 49,678 |
|
Novels for ESL Students |
14,375 |
|
Research Tutorials |
2,302 |
|
Writing Research Papers (includes Citation page) |
1,230 |
|
Dracula and We Need to Talk About Kevin |
938 |
|
Career & Employment Research |
704 |
|
Cultures & Countries |
512 |
|
Monsters: Frankenstein and Related Topics |
508 |
|
Literature |
428 |
|
Communication Studies |
384 |
Collaboration between discipline faculty and librarians to craft research assignments
Faculty from a variety of instructional areas collaborate with librarians to teach students how to discover, select, and incorporate information resources into their research. It’s common for instructors to require their students to utilize a variety of types of sources and to require students to use the SCC Library collection.
Librarians actively liaise with faculty to explore ways to incorporate resources into coursework and student assignments. At a department level, librarians have developed standardized information literacy programming within a handful of foundational courses (GUID 102, ENGL 101, and APLED 121) which requires that students find and use specific types of information sources. At a course level, faculty partnerships to integrate resources into student learning occurs in a variety of subject areas.
The 2016-17 Collections SPA gives evidence that faculty who use library resources of all types (books, scholarly and popular periodicals, videos, images, and audio) in their teaching report overall satisfaction with resources. Faculty reported linking to library resources in their course content, but some departments do so more than others. A large number of surveyed faculty state that they are unaware of what is contained in the library collection and how library information resources could benefit their students.
Faculty liaison informs acquisition of library materials which faculty incorporate into their curriculum
Library personnel regularly respond to curricular needs for information resources which we learn about via formal and informal liaison. Examples of recent acquisitions informed by faculty/program needs include:
OER support for faculty: Discovery, selection, and creation
Through special projects and regular support services, librarians work with faculty who are interested in exploring the use of Open Educational Resources. We can cite many instances of aiding faculty in discovering and/or creating OER to replace costly textbook resources or to otherwise enhance learning. (Examples include co-creation of OER for Spanish, Biology, Communication Studies; discovery and selection of OER with faculty from Electronics Engineering, Fire Science, and Health.)
OUTCOME 3.1(b) Faculty with whom librarians partner to teach IL report satisfaction with the adequacy of collections and services for their students’ learning needs.
Two prime assessment methods indicate that faculty with whom librarians partner are satisfied with collections and services for their students' needs:
SCC Library Assessment Log: Quarterly Instruction Surveys of Faculty (QISoF)
Each year, SCC librarians deploy a satisfaction survey and a student success survey to faculty with whom we have taught at least one library session. All respondents report that library resources are Adequate or More Than Adequate in meeting their students' information needs.
2016-17 Collections SPA and a 2019 analysis in conjunction with IR: Collection Use Correlated with Collection Rating
The majority of respondent faculty who had an opinion about the library collection rated it as either OK/Adequate or Excellent. A small number rated the collection as Too Limited / Out of Date. A significant number of faculty noted that they were unable to rate the collection because they were unfamiliar with it.
Other analysis indicates that the majority of faculty whose courses included a research component stated that the overall collection was Very Effective in meeting their student and curricular needs. Exceptions were lower ratings from faculty who teach in CTE and Developmental Education.
CCS IR and librarians' 2019 analysis of the SPA data generated the following Potential Interpretations:
Performance Indicator 3.2 Library personnel collaborate with faculty to embed information literacy learning outcomes into curricula, courses, and assignments.
SCC librarians employ a multi-pronged strategy intended to integrate IL outcomes into the college curriculum at key points in students' pathways. We accomplish this by partnering with SCC faculty and staff to:
A record of IL outcomes and instructional tools are posted on our library Information Literacy: Student Learning Outcomes webpage.
Some example IL SLOs for foundational courses: Students will...
| GUID 102 |
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Regular assessment of student learning outcomes has taken the form of student worksheets (ENGL 101), short quizzes (APLED 121 and GUID 102), and a full lab assignment (BIOL 160). SLOs and assessments for a handful of other courses are also in place, but we don't have clearly stated, coordinated, IL learning outcomes and assessments for all library instruction sessions. Within the context of special assessment projects, librarians have partnered with discipline faculty to study student achievement of other learning outcomes:
We've also partnered with CCS IR to examine whether students who have had a library session are more academically successful overall than students who have not.
On quarterly surveys of faculty with whom we teach, instructors indicate that they determine that librarian instruction met or exceeded learning outcomes for the session. Further, faculty report that having students experience a librarian-taught session increased student success in their course.
Representative comments from faculty:
"[Students'] understanding of acceptable and non-acceptable sources for a college paper is always better after [librarian] instruction, even if [I've already covered] it in class."
"Each time we work together, we understand better how to improve our curriculum and outcomes of it. [The librarian] did my intro to the library this quarter and did an exceptional job of making it fun and interactive. My students gained more from this."
"SCC has great librarians who are very knowledgeable and always enrich my efforts in the classroom."
Performance Indicator 3.4 Library provide regular instruction in a variety of contexts and employ multiple learning platforms and pedagogies.
In alignment with Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries (ACRL, 2011), librarians teach in a variety of modes including:
During each quarter of the regular school year, an average of 34 faculty from about 20 departments engage librarians to teach information literacy abilities to their students. We may teach individual instruction sessions or a series, and we may be embedded at various levels in a course.
We maintain data on the classes we teach. Our public-facing Assessment Log shows the total number of library sessions and students that librarians teach each quarter. More detailed information is logged in Office forms.
OUTCOME 3.4(a) Faculty engage librarians to provide instructional support.
Figures from 2013 to 2018 show that SCC librarians teach an average of 4250 students in 200 instruction sessions each year.
While some instructors plan a series of two to four sessions, a single 50-minute class is the norm. Instructors sometimes schedule subsequent in-library research days, providing students time to work on their own with the option of librarian and instructor support.
Slowly on the rise is the number of faculty requesting that a librarian be embedded in their online or on-ground course. We are embedded in an average of 24 classes a year.
Librarian-lead instruction is regularly requested by faculty in a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to: English, Guidance, Applied Education, ABE/ESL/College Prep, Anthropology, Art, Business, Business Technology, Communication Studies, Environmental Sciences, Geography, Hospitality, Humanities, Math, Psychology, Sociology, Allied Health, Biology, Nursing, and others. The strongest departmental partnership the library has is with English faculty. On average, library sessions requested by English faculty constitute 42% of our total annual teaching load.
SCC staff also engage librarians to teach, give brief orientations during tours, or otherwise provide introductory information about library services and resources to students who participate in welcome days, NSO, College in the High School, and similar programming.
OUTCOME 3.4(b) Faculty with whom librarians partner to teach IL report satisfaction with library instruction provided to their students.
Respondents to our Quarterly Instruction Survey of Faculty (QISoF) consistently report that they are very satisfied with librarian instruction. Faculty comments on this survey are overwhelmingly positive. These examples are characteristic:
"I truly appreciate [Librarian's] great presentation to my GUID 102 students. She offered an accessible, interesting, and very helpful approach to introducing students to the library's resources. Thank you!"
"It’s a great resource to have such knowledgeable and helpful librarians. These classes make transitioning to college much smoother and more confident for my ESL students."
"Students are aware of their resources, now feel more ownership over the library and its materials, and have a personal contact with [Name] as a reference librarian willing and ready to help them."
"On our end of course feedback/reflection, several students noted that the library section of our class was one of their favorite/most helpful units covered. They noted that this assisted them in completing research for their other courses and helped them connect with other resources (e.g., multimedia rentals and the library of things) that helped them with challenges and responsibilities that were not linked to a specific class. Several of my students also noted study time in the library and partnering with librarians for help as key study strategies too."
OUTCOME 3.4(c) Librarians provide instruction in a variety of contexts and employ multiple learning platforms.
SCC librarians teach classes in a variety of modalities including in-person, hybrid, online, ITV, and Flex. Though we are available to teach using any delivery method, most classes take place in-person. The number of online classes in which we teach is relatively low (an average of 9/year). The number of hybrid classes is greater (25/year). ITV sessions number 1-2 each quarter. Flex is new; a librarian has taught two this year.
The depth at which a librarian is integrated into a class varies. Most collaborations are a single, in-person session. Others are multiple sessions, and librarians may be embedded in on-ground or online classes over a period of time. SCC Librarians were embedded in 20 classes during the 2018-19.
The locations from which librarians teach are currently limited to the Spokane Campus and Northern Counties. When we teach from Colville or Newport, we broadcast instruction sessions via ITV to students in other Centers. Occasionally, we've used Skype at the request of an instructor, mostly for presenting workshops or other supplementary support for students. For Flex classes, the librarian-lead session is videotaped so students can view the session at any time.
Some partnerships reach beyond the SCC campus as with the Avista Start-Up Academy with which the SCC Library partners along with the Spokane Public Library and the Spokane Business Library (SPL, SCLD, & EWU) to instruct students about resources for entrepreneurship success.
Creation of learning objects: SCC Toolkit, SFCC/SCC Toolkit, and SCC Library tutorials
Until 2016, SCC librarians maintained an Information Literacy Toolkit whose structure and content reflected the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000). When the IL Standards were rescinded and replaced with the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education in 2016, we retired the toolkit, but some few portions, like the SCC Library Liaison chart, remain in use.
In conjunction with SFCC librarians and in consultation with eLearning, we've made several unsuccessful starts at creating a comprehensive, online repository of Information Literacy learning objects which could be easily shared with discipline faculty. As part of a summer 2018 grant project, SFCC Librarian, Shardé Mills, created SFCC/SCC Libraries Information Literacy Toolkit, a Canvas Commons module of learning objects which includes contributions from SCC Librarians and is intended for use at both colleges (and beyond).
Currently, our most heavily used learning objects for teaching IL reside in the SCC Library's Research Tutorials guide. The third most viewed SCC Library research guide, it's been visited over 2300 times during this academic year. Discipline faculty report relying on our library tutorials to teach IL within their courses, and they regularly incorporate them into their online and face-to-face lessons.
Better communicate the value of library resources for student learning to the college community.
Provide continued support to the college for integrating information literacy outcomes into curriculum.
Discussion
Cross-sector relationships
While feedback from faculty with whom librarians currently have teaching relationships is overwhelmingly positive and doesn't indicate major changes (as summed up by the faculty feedback comment, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."), it is clear that we could expand our instructional collaborations in some areas. Continued outreach to faculty in departments where we lack strong connections is indicated.
Identify and strengthen weak partnerships
The 2016-2017 SPA revealed plainly that a large proportion of faculty are unfamiliar with the library collection and how it may benefit their students. It also suggests that if faculty know about the collection, they are more likely to integrate resources into their instruction. The more librarians can do to communicate the value of collections and services to faculty, the more they will act as a bridge between valuable information resources and their students. Further conversations regarding library resources for curricular support are warranted, especially with faculty in CTE and Developmental Education, areas in which satisfaction was lower.
Continued attention to reaching out to SCC Rural Centers is advised. While librarians regularly visit and teach from Colville and Newport, our attention to students and personnel at the other Centers has been lax.
Support from the VP of Instruction will greatly aid us in opening discussions with all campus departments and divisions as they undergo program review and major curriculum revisions.
Develop immediate opportunities for expansion
Several campus initiatives which will significantly impact library instructional services are at hand:
A. Expansion of student success outcomes for first-year students
While the library has successfully collaborated with Guidance faculty to teach IL outcomes in most Strategies for Success class sections, we have yet to partner with faculty in BT 152, HED 103, ENGL 189, and others who teach student success outcomes within their programs. With the aid of these faculty and Angela Rasmussen, we will initiate discussions about providing library instructional support comparable to that currently in place for GUID 102.
B. Guided Pathways
Librarians are eager to partner with faculty in infusing information literacy outcomes into student learning throughout Guided Pathways. Integration of standardized ENGL 101 library instruction has already posed an urgent challenge for Fall 2019. Librarians and English faculty have begun discussions about revising ENGL 101, IL learning outcomes for library instruction sessions, and how to best coordinate manpower and scheduling to accommodate the large cohorts of Running Start students who will take Composition 1 during their first quarter.
C. Scaling-up services for ABE/ESL
New collaborations between the library and college readiness programming will require thoughtful planning and implementation so that we adequately serve students without exceeding our workload capacity.
D. Continue outreach to Rural Centers to improve library instructional support
Walk-in workshops which librarians offer to students on various campuses are consistently under-attended. Because the Colville manager communicated students’ desire for workshop offerings, we will explore ways to better serve this need.
Better communicate the value of library resources for student learning to the college as a whole.
With no one currently charged with the role of collection development librarian, we suffer from a lack of coordination of the overall collection. Outreach to faculty for curricular support is done in siloed liaison areas. We'd benefit from an overall collection coordinator who is empowered to provide balanced management of the collection as a whole as well as outreach regarding its value for student learning.
Explore ways to more sustainably track and share evidence of the library's educational role.
Both plans to increase the number of library sessions we teach and the campus adoption of centralized scheduling will add to the complexity of coordinating our instruction and recording resulting data.
It's challenging to manage not only scheduling with multiple stakeholders and recording tools, but also the logistics of making evident the outcomes and assessments which we implement in unique library sessions. Our instruction statistics have suffered from inconsistent recording, and our current assessment log has outgrown its structure. We will continue to look for opportunities to more efficiently coordinate scheduling, record data, and transparently post information about library instruction and assessment.
Provide continued support to the college for integrating information literacy outcomes into curriculum.
Seek a balance between librarian workload and our capacity to provide excellent service to the college.
When considering expanding services, librarians are ever aware of workload issues. While we can see new opportunities we're eager to pursue, our ability to take on new teaching partnerships is tempered by limited time. We aren't able to teach in every class, with every faculty member.
As SCC librarians undertake new cross-sector relationships and develop current ones, we will look for efficient ways to provide effective instruction to increasing numbers of students with an eye to striking a service/workload balance. An answer may lie in multiple approaches such as continued creation/curation of learning objects and consultation with discipline faculty in order to act as efficient partners in teaching IL.
