As with any job, there are good things and bad things in my day-to-day. Let me tell you about the best parts of my day.
Conversations.
Conversations with students, with professors, with the random person who is probably not one of "my" faculty members waiting for the elevator (and if you've ever waited for the elevator at CHS, you know it could be a while).
Take yesterday, for example. I was on the elevator with a woman carrying a vase of beautiful sunflowers. Struck up a short conversation about these gorgeous blooms and, later in the day, she was in the class I was teaching. Turns out she is the faculty member who coordinates grants for RNs going back to school to get their BSN and had quite a few students in the class I was teaching. Since she doesn't teach theory classes in at KCON, I have had little reason to find a need for interaction with her, but that small conversation we had on the elevator that morning created an immediate sense of rapport when she walked into the computer lab that afternoon.
Relationships are so important in academia. Our students, especially here at GVSU, are expected to be well-rounded individuals receiving a liberal education. We need to be well-rounded in ourselves - a university cannot provide the best possible experience for its students if its faculty and staff are sectioned off into their various silos.
As I continue my time at GVSU, I can't wait to have more conversations. They are what makes me feel alive.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Academic Library and the Local Community
Next week Monday I will be sitting at a table for most of the day with a laptop and a giant picture of a driver’s license asking people to get themselves on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry (administered through Gift of Life) for the Michigan Libraries for Life event. Why? Because I believe libraries, even academic libraries, are an integral part of the community around them.
When I was approached by a friend of mine from the University of Michigan about participating in this year’s event, I didn’t hesitate at saying I’d do my best to make it happen. This is partially because it does relate to my subject area; I work in the health sciences building. It’s also because I think that academic libraries in a general sense could be better about being involved in the local community.
This idea began to surface for me when I was in a meeting discussing outreach and found myself a bit shocked that outreach in this culture meant interacting with students, faculty, and staff. I needed to make a complete mental shift, as I was envisioning our conversation on outreach to encompass the local community - reaching outside of the university walls. This is not to say working to make stronger our relationships with university affiliates is not a noble endeavor. It is, but it is also just part of what we should be doing on a day-to-day basis as an academic library.
Perhaps the thought of our being a part of the Grand Rapids/Allendale community is not something at the forefront of our minds as an organization. Working in one of the libraries in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, I likely see more community patrons than those out at the main campus. I know the other downtown library sees even more than the health sciences library does. This, however, is part of what it means to be a library at a public university. Too often, I think the local community patrons are seen as a nuisance and not a “customer”; they are, however, customers, even if they are not our reason for existence.
The idea of the public as our customer comes as an even more important ideal as our university draws closer and closer to opening our new library. The new library has been described as the “intellectual heart of campus” and rightly so. There will be many new opportunities for intercampus interaction when we have our new space. Yet, why can’t we also think of the new library as the “intellectual heart of Grand Rapids”? We will have exhibit spaces, event hosting capabilities, and we will still be a public university library. Let the public be enriched by our resources and programming as much as our university community. We shouldn’t just let our major source of impact on our surroundings be our graduates.
While the new library’s ecological footprint will be light, I hope our footprint in the community will be deep.
Want to sign up to be an organ donor in Michigan? Register here.
When I was approached by a friend of mine from the University of Michigan about participating in this year’s event, I didn’t hesitate at saying I’d do my best to make it happen. This is partially because it does relate to my subject area; I work in the health sciences building. It’s also because I think that academic libraries in a general sense could be better about being involved in the local community.
This idea began to surface for me when I was in a meeting discussing outreach and found myself a bit shocked that outreach in this culture meant interacting with students, faculty, and staff. I needed to make a complete mental shift, as I was envisioning our conversation on outreach to encompass the local community - reaching outside of the university walls. This is not to say working to make stronger our relationships with university affiliates is not a noble endeavor. It is, but it is also just part of what we should be doing on a day-to-day basis as an academic library.
Perhaps the thought of our being a part of the Grand Rapids/Allendale community is not something at the forefront of our minds as an organization. Working in one of the libraries in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, I likely see more community patrons than those out at the main campus. I know the other downtown library sees even more than the health sciences library does. This, however, is part of what it means to be a library at a public university. Too often, I think the local community patrons are seen as a nuisance and not a “customer”; they are, however, customers, even if they are not our reason for existence.
The idea of the public as our customer comes as an even more important ideal as our university draws closer and closer to opening our new library. The new library has been described as the “intellectual heart of campus” and rightly so. There will be many new opportunities for intercampus interaction when we have our new space. Yet, why can’t we also think of the new library as the “intellectual heart of Grand Rapids”? We will have exhibit spaces, event hosting capabilities, and we will still be a public university library. Let the public be enriched by our resources and programming as much as our university community. We shouldn’t just let our major source of impact on our surroundings be our graduates.
While the new library’s ecological footprint will be light, I hope our footprint in the community will be deep.
Want to sign up to be an organ donor in Michigan? Register here.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The Library and the University
During a recent library staff meeting, it became apparent that various staff members had differing views of what role the library served in the context of the university. I think this is an issue that could surface at many academic libraries. I would almost say that we could call this a library identity crisis.
I had a bit of a pre-knowledge of this issue at my university due to my involvement in library marketing. It is very difficult to market something that has a mission or vision statement that is vague or that is difficult to translate into on-the-ground action. It’s also difficult to market something where those doing the day-to-day have differing opinions of how the work should be done.
In a much discussed recent article on InsideHigherEd, this very issue came up. Are we working to help students “satisfice” or do we strive to push them to the next level of information literacy skills? Do we give them fish or teach them to fish? Is it bad customer service to say, “I can’t just give you a list of articles, but if you come to my office, we can work out how you search for articles”? Are there different standards for undergraduate and graduate students? Should there be?
I admit, I’m probably going to raise more questions in this post than provide any answers. Part of that is because I’m young and new at this librarianship thing and don’t have the clout to say one way or the other. The other part is that I haven’t exactly decided where I stand on these issues. All I know is that the conversation must continue in order for us to be able to provide the best service possible to students, whatever that service may be.
I had a bit of a pre-knowledge of this issue at my university due to my involvement in library marketing. It is very difficult to market something that has a mission or vision statement that is vague or that is difficult to translate into on-the-ground action. It’s also difficult to market something where those doing the day-to-day have differing opinions of how the work should be done.
In a much discussed recent article on InsideHigherEd, this very issue came up. Are we working to help students “satisfice” or do we strive to push them to the next level of information literacy skills? Do we give them fish or teach them to fish? Is it bad customer service to say, “I can’t just give you a list of articles, but if you come to my office, we can work out how you search for articles”? Are there different standards for undergraduate and graduate students? Should there be?
I admit, I’m probably going to raise more questions in this post than provide any answers. Part of that is because I’m young and new at this librarianship thing and don’t have the clout to say one way or the other. The other part is that I haven’t exactly decided where I stand on these issues. All I know is that the conversation must continue in order for us to be able to provide the best service possible to students, whatever that service may be.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Marketing Your Library’s Best Resource: Librarians
There has been a lot of talk around the recent InsideHigherEd article “What Students Don’t Know” and for good reason. The experience in Illinois is not an isolated occurrence. I know for a fact that at my university, many students don’t realize the library is a resource beyond just a place where the books sit. In my social interactions with undergraduate students during my graduate program, I would say the same is true about the Big Ten university I was attending at the time.
I think that Kolowich, the article’s author, says it perfectly when he describes librarians as “academic expert[s] who [are] available to talk about assignments and hold [students’] hands through the research process” (para. 4).
So here lies my question: Why are we not marketing one of our best resources? We can talk up various databases until we’re blue in the face and students will still not be able to use them properly. If you’re thinking that in-class instruction is enough for students to understand librarians are there to help, think again. Library instruction, while necessary and a great starting point, is rarely provided at the point of need for a student and, is therefore, most often not absorbed. Library instruction is also not present in every single course every single term (nor should it be), so some students may make their way through without ever receiving library instruction. I know I only had one library instruction session during my entire undergraduate career and that session wasn’t particularly helpful to me as a student.
Kolowich has some great points about bridging the gap between librarians and students. I appreciate his candor about it not just being a problem on the students’ end, although student’s search skills are often less than adequate. The question then becomes how do we, as librarians, get students to think of us when they are in the midst of an unsuccessful search?
The solution: Put a human face on librarians. Kolowich states that “students seek help from sources they know and trust, and they do not know librarians” (para. 28). We librarians are a rare breed, to be sure, but we also are as diverse as the student body itself. Students get a whole semester to get to know their professors as real people, getting to know their interests and life outside of the classroom. Librarians don’t get that opportunity often, so we need to help expedite the process by putting ourselves out there with all our little quirks.
Next, we must make librarians identifiable in their subject areas’ departments. As Kolowich points out, teaching faculty will be essential in this endeavor, but we can help ourselves by putting up eye-catching posters or providing a PDF or image professors can put on their course management site. Something like this:
Clean. Simple. To the point. A student could see this and realize that a librarian can help them with their research. Plus, the librarian is humanized with a few random facts about her. Will knowing that I’m a Doctor Who fan make students more likely to come to me with questions? Maybe. It certainly won’t hurt. Neither will telling students you drive a supercar, love Metallica, or have a giant pet rabbit named Mr. Cadbury.
Now, of course, the services the librarian is said to offer may be up for discussion at your institution. While Kolowich does touch on it in his article, that is a hurdle for another day. For now, I’ll try to make our librarians as prominent as I can and I will look forward to reading the final ERIAL report, College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know when it becomes available.
I think that Kolowich, the article’s author, says it perfectly when he describes librarians as “academic expert[s] who [are] available to talk about assignments and hold [students’] hands through the research process” (para. 4).
So here lies my question: Why are we not marketing one of our best resources? We can talk up various databases until we’re blue in the face and students will still not be able to use them properly. If you’re thinking that in-class instruction is enough for students to understand librarians are there to help, think again. Library instruction, while necessary and a great starting point, is rarely provided at the point of need for a student and, is therefore, most often not absorbed. Library instruction is also not present in every single course every single term (nor should it be), so some students may make their way through without ever receiving library instruction. I know I only had one library instruction session during my entire undergraduate career and that session wasn’t particularly helpful to me as a student.
Kolowich has some great points about bridging the gap between librarians and students. I appreciate his candor about it not just being a problem on the students’ end, although student’s search skills are often less than adequate. The question then becomes how do we, as librarians, get students to think of us when they are in the midst of an unsuccessful search?
The solution: Put a human face on librarians. Kolowich states that “students seek help from sources they know and trust, and they do not know librarians” (para. 28). We librarians are a rare breed, to be sure, but we also are as diverse as the student body itself. Students get a whole semester to get to know their professors as real people, getting to know their interests and life outside of the classroom. Librarians don’t get that opportunity often, so we need to help expedite the process by putting ourselves out there with all our little quirks.
Next, we must make librarians identifiable in their subject areas’ departments. As Kolowich points out, teaching faculty will be essential in this endeavor, but we can help ourselves by putting up eye-catching posters or providing a PDF or image professors can put on their course management site. Something like this:
Clean. Simple. To the point. A student could see this and realize that a librarian can help them with their research. Plus, the librarian is humanized with a few random facts about her. Will knowing that I’m a Doctor Who fan make students more likely to come to me with questions? Maybe. It certainly won’t hurt. Neither will telling students you drive a supercar, love Metallica, or have a giant pet rabbit named Mr. Cadbury.
Now, of course, the services the librarian is said to offer may be up for discussion at your institution. While Kolowich does touch on it in his article, that is a hurdle for another day. For now, I’ll try to make our librarians as prominent as I can and I will look forward to reading the final ERIAL report, College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know when it becomes available.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Friday, November 5, 2010
It's official
I am a bad blogger. I do not keep up with this often enough. And I'm ok with that.
I just have a couple things to share this time around. First is a design project I did for the library here at GVSU. I created buttons for Open Access Week. They were a big hit! Here they are!
They make me smile. I have a whole set that i pinned to a string on the shelf right above my desk.
I've also been working on some tutorials. They are on my SlideShare account. Here's a teaser.
I just have a couple things to share this time around. First is a design project I did for the library here at GVSU. I created buttons for Open Access Week. They were a big hit! Here they are!
They make me smile. I have a whole set that i pinned to a string on the shelf right above my desk.
I've also been working on some tutorials. They are on my SlideShare account. Here's a teaser.
You'll have to go on SlideShare to see the rest!
Hope you all are enjoying what is possible our first snowy day of the year - I've heard reports of snow, but haven't seen any myself.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Time flies
Was it really August when I last posted? I really need to get better at this!
I'm going to try and post weekly, and I'm going to read Chris Brogan's article about how to write good blog posts to make my posts more interesting.
So, September was busy with lots of instruction sessions and the like - I only have two more this semester. Crazy, huh?
Next week is MHSLA - Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association. I'm excited to have a few social days. My cube can sometimes feel like a cave - especially now that I don't have overhead lights.
Why no overhead lights, you say? Well, I was getting dizzy and getting migraines from the fluorescent lights. I also get migraines from riding the bus. Who knew motion sickness caused migraines? I also have to get up before 8:30 everyday to avoid migraines. Bye bye sleeping in. (not that 8:30 isn't sleeping in, but there will no longer be those 9:30 or 10:00 days).
My last effort to completely rid myself of chronic headaches is an eye doctor appointment next week. I cannot wait. While I wish I could get new frames, it'd be a waste of money, so I'm going to try to get lenses in a pair of my old frames.
Lately, I've really been missing being a musician. I've sent e-mails to several ensembles in GR and am hoping to be able to audition for at least one in the near future. That means I've started practicing again and so the cats look at me funny during warm-ups. I'm hoping to regain my range fairly quickly as I'll be going to Hope College's homecoming in a couple of weeks to sing with the Chapel Choir. I could not be happier about it!!
I've also been feeling as if maybe I missed my calling a bit. I am not a huge fan of sitting in an office for most, if not all, of the day. I think the only way I could do it is if I were a graphic designer. Luckily I'm working on some awesome presentations to put on my libguide to help people be better searchers without me having to explain it every time. Don't get me wrong - I love teaching. It's the best part of my job. But it'd be nice to be able to point students to an online resource for them to use when I'm asleep and they are not because they are crazy college kids.
I've also been thinking about going back to school. Not now - I like my job fine and we are settled and I'm more than willing to stay here for a few years while we pay off loans and get some money saved up and such. Maybe I'll start taking some classes. I get to do that for free. But if I do go back, I'm still thinking about historical musicology - perhaps focusing on the political nature of music. Ties in with my paper about the sociopolitical implications of Paul Simon's album Graceland.
But I don't know. Like I already said - I love graphic design. Do they even let you go back for a bachelor's when you have a master's? A B.F.A. in graphic design would be cool. Maybe I could just be a full-time student for the rest of my life. Although I'd get burnt out. That last semester of grad school was a little bit torturous.
In other news, we've had some interesting family occurrences lately. I'm not going to go into detail, but, man, am I so stinkin' blessed! My family is AWESOME. I have great brothers and sisters and my brother by blood continues to surprise me. I think being a father has really changed his perspective in life a bit. He's become quite compassionate. And my new family as of just over a year ago is spectacular. I love Sami - she's adorable. And she's begun to really open up to me. She gives the best hugs, seriously. Dorian is cute as always and Elliott is still his cute baby self but is getting more and more personality everyday. Parents are extremely supportive and it's great to have them around, even though having them so close was a concern when we were deciding whether or not to come to GR.
And now, I will wrap up by saying that I absolutely love Grand River Church.
Oh, and if you need a photographer, you need to check out Wellington Photography! (shameless plug)
I'm going to try and post weekly, and I'm going to read Chris Brogan's article about how to write good blog posts to make my posts more interesting.
So, September was busy with lots of instruction sessions and the like - I only have two more this semester. Crazy, huh?
Next week is MHSLA - Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association. I'm excited to have a few social days. My cube can sometimes feel like a cave - especially now that I don't have overhead lights.
Why no overhead lights, you say? Well, I was getting dizzy and getting migraines from the fluorescent lights. I also get migraines from riding the bus. Who knew motion sickness caused migraines? I also have to get up before 8:30 everyday to avoid migraines. Bye bye sleeping in. (not that 8:30 isn't sleeping in, but there will no longer be those 9:30 or 10:00 days).
My last effort to completely rid myself of chronic headaches is an eye doctor appointment next week. I cannot wait. While I wish I could get new frames, it'd be a waste of money, so I'm going to try to get lenses in a pair of my old frames.
Lately, I've really been missing being a musician. I've sent e-mails to several ensembles in GR and am hoping to be able to audition for at least one in the near future. That means I've started practicing again and so the cats look at me funny during warm-ups. I'm hoping to regain my range fairly quickly as I'll be going to Hope College's homecoming in a couple of weeks to sing with the Chapel Choir. I could not be happier about it!!
I've also been feeling as if maybe I missed my calling a bit. I am not a huge fan of sitting in an office for most, if not all, of the day. I think the only way I could do it is if I were a graphic designer. Luckily I'm working on some awesome presentations to put on my libguide to help people be better searchers without me having to explain it every time. Don't get me wrong - I love teaching. It's the best part of my job. But it'd be nice to be able to point students to an online resource for them to use when I'm asleep and they are not because they are crazy college kids.
I've also been thinking about going back to school. Not now - I like my job fine and we are settled and I'm more than willing to stay here for a few years while we pay off loans and get some money saved up and such. Maybe I'll start taking some classes. I get to do that for free. But if I do go back, I'm still thinking about historical musicology - perhaps focusing on the political nature of music. Ties in with my paper about the sociopolitical implications of Paul Simon's album Graceland.
But I don't know. Like I already said - I love graphic design. Do they even let you go back for a bachelor's when you have a master's? A B.F.A. in graphic design would be cool. Maybe I could just be a full-time student for the rest of my life. Although I'd get burnt out. That last semester of grad school was a little bit torturous.
In other news, we've had some interesting family occurrences lately. I'm not going to go into detail, but, man, am I so stinkin' blessed! My family is AWESOME. I have great brothers and sisters and my brother by blood continues to surprise me. I think being a father has really changed his perspective in life a bit. He's become quite compassionate. And my new family as of just over a year ago is spectacular. I love Sami - she's adorable. And she's begun to really open up to me. She gives the best hugs, seriously. Dorian is cute as always and Elliott is still his cute baby self but is getting more and more personality everyday. Parents are extremely supportive and it's great to have them around, even though having them so close was a concern when we were deciding whether or not to come to GR.
And now, I will wrap up by saying that I absolutely love Grand River Church.
Oh, and if you need a photographer, you need to check out Wellington Photography! (shameless plug)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)