May 2020
Tag Archives: librarian
March 2020
February 2020
November 2019
Amy Ward, DSW
“My librarian is always right there for my students and me. Anything I need, I go to her and she is always happy to help. ” – Amy Ward, DSW
1. Back ground
“In the past, it felt like ‘good luck,’ but it is more interactive here. With my liaison librarian, if I can’t find something, she is always there to find it WITH me.”
2. Expectations
“First, maintain good internal customer service and be approachable for students and faculty. We need to know you will be kind to us. Second, curate updated and relevant information. We expect you to be the expert in information retrieval.”
3. What Works
“My librarian and I care about each other. Collaboration is all about relationships, and if you don’t have a strong relationship, you could be the best liaison in the world and you still won’t be collaborative.”
4. Advice
“Take the library and academic discipline out of the equation and come to faculty openly to try to establish a genuine rapport. Than you can introduce how you can be useful to one another.”
Amy Ward, DSW, is the Director of the Social Work Program at East Central University in Ada, OK.
October 2019
Destany Schafer-Morgan, DSW
“Whenever I have a problem,
I immediately say ‘let’s call [my librarian]!”‘
Background
I’ve only had a librarian for 3 years, since I arrived at East Central University in 2016. I had never used a library before, but the experience here has been great.
Expectations
I need my librarian to be the bridge between me and the library at large by curating a more personalized experience and forging a one-on-one relationship. While I did not have expectations coming into this job, I definitely will for my next position, because I have been pleased with my librarian here.
What Works
My librarian and I work well together to develop accurate resources that students actually need.
Advice
Be open! What helps most is my librarian’s positivity, friendliness, and willingness to help. Her servant-leadership makes me want to collaborate.
Destany Schafer-Morgan, DSW, is the field director of the Social Work Program at East Central University in Ada, OK.
September 2019
UnCOILed 2019: Summary of the Workshop – “2 Player Mode: Level Up Your Collaboration with Faculty”
ABCs of Persuasion
- Attunement: Use empathy and recognize common goals to attune yourself to faculty’s perspective.
- Buoyancy: Take control of your self-talk to stay buoyant after negative interactions.
- Clarity: Help faculty identify problems they don’t realize they have, perhaps by asking to see student work.
From Dan Pink’s video: https://bit.ly/1nF15L8
Relationship Dynamics
- Waller’s Principle of Least Interest: The party with the least interest has the most power.
- Goffman’s Gift Giving: If a librarian feels like receiving class time to teach is a “gift” from faculty, it contributes to the power imbalance.
- Goffman’s Deference Behavior: Using deference in the form of qualifiers (“I’m sort of a co-teacher with Dr. X”) also contributes to the power imbalance.
Consider the language you use with faculty and how it contributes to the power dynamic.
Successful Faculty/Librarian Collaborations
- A shared, understood goal
- Mutual respect, tolerance, and trust
- Competence for the task at hand by each of the partners
- Ongoing communication (Meulemans & Carr, 2012, p. 84)
See the COIL blog for examples of successful collaborations.
Meulemans, Y.N. & Carr, A. (2012). Not at your service: Building genuine faculty-librarian partnerships. Reference Services Review 41(1), 80-90. doi:10.1108/00907321311300893
Level Up Your Collaboration with an Actionable Value System
Part 1
Create a teaching philosophy that answers the following questions:
- What are your objectives as a teacher?
- How will you achieve these objectives?
- How will you measure your effectiveness?
- Why do you teach?
Part 2
What requirements should requests meet? What are you willing to do?
Examples:
- Students must be working toward a research assignment.
- No “point and click” database demos.
- Instructors must provide a class syllabus and/or an assignment sheet prior to a session.
Part 3
What are common misconceptions about library instruction among faculty? How can you respond when faced with those misconceptions?
See the slides with sample participant responses to the activities at https://bit.ly/2xJH7si
July 2019
Sarah Peters, PhD.
My librarian re-energizes me and keeps
me from getting in an instruction rut.
Background
I’ve had positive experiences working with librarians since I was a graduate assistant at Texas A&M in 2003, but I really appreciate the collaborative nature of the ECU Library, which emphasizes customization, as opposed to “canned” sessions.
Expectations
- Develop information literacy curriculum for instruction sessions specific to departmental strategies
- Communicate with us about discipline specific resources
- Teach us to use unfamiliar tools
What Works
We have conversations about goals that are not just one-sided, with back-and-forth discussions about approaches and post-session reflections for improvement. We have professional respect for each other and engage before, during, and after instruction sessions.
Advice to Librarians
- Maintain open discussion and display willingness to adapt and experiment.
- Focus on evaluation techniques and embed in interactive instruction sessions.
- Try to have consistent face-to-face conversations, as faculty are overwhelmed with emails and seeing their librarian’s face helps reorganize priorities.
- Conduct brainstorming sessions with faculty to create learning goals, as opposed to focusing on specific tools.
Sarah Peters, P hD, is the Chair of the English & Languages Department at East Central University in Ada, OK.
April 2019
This is What a Librarian Looks Like: Oklahoma Edition
Description
A new digital gallery show, hosted by Schusterman Library at OU-Tulsa, displaying pictures and bios of Oklahoma Librarians. The show is created and curated by two Graduate Research Assistants who are also OU SLIS students
Inspiration
The idea for the project resulted from the collaboration of our librarians at the Schusterman Library during their annual retreat. The book by Kyle Cassidy, This is What a Librarian Looks Like, also helped inspire the exhibit idea and design.
Goals
“We wanted to use this exhibit to be an educational tool that shows what librarians do how they both embrace and defy the stereotypical librarian and how they serve the community through programs, services, and classes.”
Response
“We were overwhelmed by the positive feedback we received from the librarians who participated and how excited they were to share what they do and the programs, services, or classes they have been a part of.”
“It was inspiring to see how passionate these librarians are about their profession and how active they are in their communities.”
How to See the Exhibit
“We are currently working on a website that will display all of the contents presented in the exhibit. This way we can reach the librarians who could not make it down for the exhibit, but wanted to see the final product. We are also hoping to add a feature where librarians can add their profiles directly to the website to help expand the librarian profiles and provide a more diversified look at Oklahoma information professionals.”
“This has been an incredible opportunity that has allowed us to showcase what librarians do in Oklahoma and how they impact our community, and I am truly happy to have been a part of it!”
Tracy Ashby is a Graduate Assistant at the OU Schusterman Library with a degree in History from Louisiana State University and expected to graduate with her MLIS from OU in 2019.