Since the primary role of the academic library liaison has always been and will always be providing access to information, librarians will constantly evolve their roles in order to accommodate growing information needs. The multiple, diversified roles of the academic liaison are all aimed at one factor of providing access to information, or building strong connections between the library and its users. Library liaisons act as a link in this sense, becoming the physical representation of the relationship between the two. Remaining and reinforcing a positive image for people should be a librarian’s main priority. No matter how many departments a librarian may be assigned, no matter how many classes a librarian may have to co-teach, and no matter how many consultations a librarian may have to schedule, they should always remember to reach out to every department, to meet the research needs of every class, and to personalize every interaction with individual instruction. As long as library liaisons are able to accomplish strong relationships, they will be able to better manage their collection, budget, and schedules with input from faculty and students.
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Interview with an Academic Librarian Liaison from a Larger Public Institution, Monday October 26 Sarah Dorsey, the head music librarian at UNC Greensboro, is physically embedded in the Music Building on the second floor directly at the entrance to the Harold Shiffman Music Library. Her role is a significant one as she works in the only branch library on campus. Sarah is treated like an assistant professor since she remains so close to her students. Being physically embedded in the music building allows Sarah constant access to the faculty and students needing her expertise, and her door is always open. Sarah visits the same class multiple times in order to build relationships with the students and increase the library’s use. For example, Sarah is embedded in Music 135 and has them complete three main activities during her multiple visits. The students 1. work on a bibliographic citation in Turabian style, 2. get into groups (physically) in the library to research articles on an instrument using the catalog and databases, and 3. complete citations as well as annotations for their developed thesis statement. An evolving trend that Sarah has noticed with her liaison roles is more personalization. She performs more one-on-one consultations with students and faculty, which comes from her personal goals of reaching out to more people in the department and reducing library anxiety. These consultations have allowed her to establish strong relationships with members of her department. Sarah’s liaison roles have changed over time specifically with the addition of Teacher Assistants. They have helped transform her job, the classes, and the assignments by providing fresh input and insight on the subjects of music and student needs. The Teacher Assistants encourage active learning from students through their additions to Sarah’s curriculum. Comparing Freshman in Information Literacy Sessions, Monday October 26 and Wednesday October 28 On Monday, October 26, Emmie - an instruction librarian in a temporary UNCG position who was a reference intern here previously - taught an English 101 class full of freshmen needing research help with their current assignment concerning various current issues and events. On Wednesday, October 28, she taught a freshmen seminar (FFL 100) class needing general research help on accessing academic search engines as well as the internet and how to distinguish credible sources from questionable ones. For both information literacy sessions, the librarian covered similar content with a positive and encouraging attitude, but the different responses to her teaching were astonishing to observe. The librarian kept both classes engaged during the session by introducing herself and immediately asking for a response (ex. “hi” or “good morning”); utilizing the space of the classroom through presenting on the screen, writing on the whiteboard, and walking around during the activity to answer individual questions; and assuring the new researchers that starting with Google and Wikipedia is not only acceptable but lucrative to current research. Even though both of the instruction sessions were upbeat and encouraging, each class reacted differently. The English 101 class was on time, respectful, and more responsive to the librarian’s questions. On the other hand, the communication studies class was late, acted childish, and remained quiet to almost every one of the librarian’s questions. To be honest, I’m not sure exactly why the classes were polar opposites. For the English class, the professor was present, an assignment accompanied the instruction, and many of the students had been to a library instruction session before. These circumstances lead me to believe that the English students felt more of a need for the lesson than the freshmen seminar class because the FFL 100 class was lacking a professor, did not have an accompanying assignment, and had not attended a library instruction before this day. For these reasons, I believe that librarians can be more communicative and proactive with faculty and professors about being present at sessions and promoting a respectful environment for the library and its resources. Besides, even with this extra effort to communicate the professors may not be as open to these suggestions. Therefore, I have learned from watching this graduated reference intern/instruction librarian that you have to do the best with whatever circumstances you are currently facing and continue to encourage learning, even if it is to a less-than-receptive audience. Copyright Webinar - “Copyright Essentials for the Graduate Researcher,” Wednesday October 28 This webinar was lead by Christine Fruin, a copyright assistance and administrative librarian from the University of Florida. She covered what materials are protected by copyright, what materials are not protected by copyright, how long copyright protection lasts, the differences between plagiarism and infringement, when as an author you need permission to use copyrighted works, what constitutes as fair use, and how to get permission for copyrighted works if as an author you go beyond fair use. Christine was sure to give us access to all of the information tools we needed as graduate researchers to use information fairly and correctly. The three most important aspects of copyright that I learned from this webinar are what materials are not protected by copyright, the main differences between plagiarism and infringement, and who to contact for permission for use of copyrighted works. Ideas, titles facts, processes, federal government works, and public domain (copyright expired) materials are not protected by copyright. I find this interesting because your paper, or movie, or artwork could have the same title and be based on the same idea as something else that is copyrighted, but you would not be considered infringing upon another author’s rights. In fact, infringing includes violating an author’s rights by using their work, which is different from plagiarism because plagiarism only involves the appropriation of someone else’s work without giving proper credit. I wished I had learned this difference in high school because grasping plagiarism was hard enough, especially when many of my teachers taught us that infringement was plagiarism (when in fact it is not). To avoid infringement, one only needs to contact a licensing agent. This process may take time, but there are different agencies that help with permission and terms of use: Books and Journals - www.copyright.com, Music - www.bmi.com, and Film/Motion Pictures - www.mplc.com Liaison Coffee Chat, Friday October 16 This meeting was led by Anna Craft, a metadata cataloger, who discussed NC Docks as a digital online collection for student submissions as well as a platform for professors’ professional work. The NC Docks server allows for UNCG students to submit their work under certain conditions. A faculty member must speak for the merit of the student’s work, and liaisons can act as the sponsoring faculty member. A disclaimer will also be added to the student work on an external link because there have been instances of students submitting unedited work or a broken link taking the user to a different work. The disclaimer will state that the link worked on uploaded date and any date the work may have been updates. NC Docks remains an important service for students and professors because Jackson Library no longer purchases print theses and dissertations, and NC Docks grants online access thereby reaching a larger audience on a global scale. This server allows the library to continue to add to the collection and create an easy to use online finding aid. You can also search by professor name and see a list of their published works under their profile. This profile is great for professors because NC Docks keeps track of citations by counting every time the link to their work is opened. To read more on Electronic Theses and Dissertations, or ETDs, visit uncg.edu/current/about-etd Interview with an Academic Functional Librarian from a Larger Public Institution, Friday October 16 Beth Bernhardt, the assistant dean for collection management and scholarly communications and Interim Head of the Cataloging Department at UNC Greensboro, works in the cataloging department. As a functional leader at Jackson Library, Beth tries to educate subject liaisons when advocating for scholarly communication by being the one place they can get answers. She keeps current with the education concerning scholarly communication for faculty and helps link them to that information through multiple formats. Beth creates libguides, attends webinars, and emails faculty for scholarly communication opportunities. She also works with a team of representatives for each department. When Beth first started this position at UNCG, she would meet with the office of research, the vice chancellor, and the graduate school as outreach for the library, but her role has evolved to become much more personalized. Beth has developed marketing skills as she reaches out to faculty personally, acting as a representative through the office of research and as a committee member. All of these mediums of education act as opportunities for her to discuss what the library could and can offer patrons through collection materials and scholarly communication. The main challenge Beth faces with her many functional librarian roles is time. Many libraries have more specialists to do the jobs she performs, but Beth is responsible for all three jobs - collection management, scholarly communication, and cataloging. MBA 718 Class Research Workshop, Wednesday September 23 This class, or Global Business in Practice, had as assignment on researching different countries and the demographics/statistics/cultural implications of businesses there. The librarian liaison made sure to create both a comfortable and a personal atmosphere by introducing himself as “your librarian” versus “a librarian.” Beginning with, “Hello, my name is ___ and I am your business librarian” really opened up the room to active participation. They were placed into groups and even asked to present their research findings to the class. This higher level of involvement seemed to put off the class, but they did well with constant encouragement from the liaison. The sense of direction was great for this class, and this specific workshop posed a great learning experience for me as a future librarian. The liaison was not getting the search results he wanted at a certain point, but handled it smoothly none the less. He apologized, which made him seem like less of a presenter and more of a team mate, and even utilized the search results to further research in a different direction. I learned that as long as you keep presenting, a mistake can actually be a happy accident and placed in your session through improvisation. As usual, the librarian liaison also thanked all the students for their work that day, which made them seem appreciated and feel more confident about their research. Interview with an Academic Liaison from a Smaller Private Institution, Wednesday September 30 I had the pleasure of interviewing the head academic liaison for reference and instructional services at High Point University’s Smith Library, Kathy Shields, in order to gain an insider’s perspective and experience on evolving liaison roles and trends. Kathy Shields is responsible for six different subjects at HPU and they include liaison services to undergraduate communication, education, gender studies, human relations, nonprofit studies, and sociology. The reason for these multiple departmental responsibilities and not singular subject specialists is the size of the program. There are five reference liaisons, and they all share the research and instruction duties for all departments. They collaborate very well together and have come up with some innovative ways to build relationships with their departments by setting up a liaison with a computer in the department building, having previously advertised that they would be there for a certain amount of hours on the specific day. This availability in the department building opened up new and existing relationships by giving professors the convenience of a librarian to answer all their questions and by giving the librarians a direct line to professors in order to strengthen relationships and advocate for library services. Because the library liaisons have been striving to work more closely with faculty, they have developed an evolving trend. The liaison program’s collection management decisions are almost exclusively faculty driven, but many professors struggle to spend their entire budget and limited time on picking out resources for their courses. Therefore, the library liaisons are suggesting demand driven acquisition so that they can research and choose the best resources in the faculty’s field and create a libguide based on faculty needs. Kathy Shields believes that her primary role as a liaison is discovering information needs and providing access to resources that meet those needs. Based on the program she is currently involved in and the evolving trends she is putting into motion, she is clearly upholding and expanding her roles. Kathy Shields remains able to accomplish these goals due to the training that the liaison committee undergoes. The committee meets regularly to discuss and resolve current challenges such as sharing points of contact, incorporating embedded programs, and identifying potential resources to purchase. The most important aspect of library liaison work that Kathy Shields taught me was and is the adaptable skills one must develop to thrive in this field. Reading Excerpts from Against the Grain, Thursday October 1 Against the Grain is a collections, acquisitions, scholarly communication, and publishing journal associated with the Charleston Conference.Two articles stuck out to me from this publication because they both focus on the reader/user. “Oregon Trails - The Gift of Reading” questioned many fundamental ideas I had about reading in today’s society. As a society, we try to suggest to children that reading is fun, but does it really work - especially for kids who struggle with reading comprehension? The article quotes Einstein stating that memorizing facts is unnecessary if one knows where to look for answers. This logic makes libraries invaluable, but with the introduction of the world wide web libraries and reading in general have become rudimentary. In today’s oral society, the ability to read is not a survival skill, begging the question of the appeal of reading. Literacy is constantly taken for granted by many, getting by on pictures for information such as road signs, menus, and instruction manuals. We as a society need to encourage people to read, not just children, by keeping access to information, or books, open and alive. You may not need to read to survive, but you can read to thrive as a whole new world would open up to those who could read and understand the words on road signs, menus, and in instruction manuals. “Decoder Ring - The Digital Comic Museum” discusses the extensive collection of the DCM and the even more extensive work that went into creating the DCM. The librarian/archivists went to painstaking lengths to ensure that each work, or comic, could be placed in the public domain. This process includes checking copyright laws and expirations, with acute attention to details when it comes to publishing and contract dates. These comics are both historical and nostalgic to readers, coming from the pre-1923 Golden Age era and continuing into the 1950s. To keep the DCM safe and running, you must register and create an account in order to upload and download content. The artwork and stories of comic books remain a favorite pastime of America and thanks to the hard-working librarians assigned to the DCM, it will remain a popular hobby. ENG 327 Class Research Workshop, Tuesday September 8 For this class, two of UNCG’s academic liaisons teamed up to bring level 300 English students information that would help them complete their upcoming assignment. They focused on evaluating sources, proper APA and MLA citations, and article database searching. Coming in with a copy of the 10 step criteria for identifying credible sources that the professor provided, the librarians developed a personalized lesson plan for the students. I was very impressed with this interaction of information literacy for three reasons: a relaxed atmosphere, a responsive interview process, and an incorporated activity. From the start, both librarians introduced themselves informally as friends of the professor and emphasized their desire to help the students with research both in class and one-on-one, creating a relaxed environment for the students. From then on, the librarians involved the class in the discussion of research, but they also involved the professor. They double-checked that the routes to information they were showing were appropriate for the class’s level and the assignment’s instructions. They posed questions such as “how are we doing so far” and “are we okay on time,” giving the professor some control over the interview process of the information literacy lesson. In my opinion, involving the professor made the class feel more like a normal class instead of having guest lecturers, which the librarians technically were. Lastly, the librarians incorporated two activities in the lesson in order to engage the class. These activities worked out very well, especially during times of silence, or the student’s lack of desire to participate, which seemed to force active learning in the place of quiet pauses. Open Education Resources Webinar - “Finding and adopting OER with Canvas, OpenStax, and Saylor,” Wednesday September 9 This webinar introduced and supported the idea of open education resources, or OER. Open education resources expand access to high-quality education resources such as videos, courses, textbooks, and lesson plans. These resources are for free use and re-purposing by others. The benefits of OERs are numerous, one of which includes reducing the workload of professors by reusing lesson documents. OERs come with a challenge, though, and need help with development in order to provide quality documents to the public for free. The development process would support the existing criteria and make it stronger for the next user. The most exciting feature that appeals to me is the free textbooks. The open access policy of the books published by OpenStax and Saylor give me relief that one day students could save thousands of dollars on textbooks, making learning more affordable and available to more people. HEA 307 Liaison Collaboration, Monday September 14 Two librarian liaisons came together in order to provide recent and relevant information to level 300 health students concerning their upcoming project. The most notable part of this experience, in my opinion, was the teamwork between the two librarians because their joint effort made the absorption of material much easier for the students. The leading health sciences librarian lead a virtual tour while the supporting business librarian took notes on the board of both the health sciences librarian’s steps and the students’ questions. This process allowed for a shorter presentation because it answered many questions before they were even asked and put a halt to repeating questions. They ended the class with a huge thank you to both the professor and the class, strengthening the relationship between libraries and users by accentuating the “guest” part of “guest lecturers.” To me, this class felt like more of a consultation than a lecture and I thoroughly enjoyed the light and casual atmosphere. ProQuest Webinar - “Text and Data Mining Library Content,” Thursday September 17 The academic community is currently experiencing a significant growth in the digital humanities department. In order to manage data mining, or the process if viewing databases to generate new information, in this field ProQuest has created a machine learning product much like Java’s Weka and text-pair’s PEAR that classifies words into differing topics with differing values in order to identify relationships between values. One perk of the machine learning product for the academic community is detecting plagiarism. The product can compare words with similar meanings side-by-side and determine if the order of the words indicates plagiarism by detecting textual re-use and influence. I think this product remains interesting and useful, but unfortunately the webinar was shorter than I expected. ProQuest also had an opportunity to advertise for this product, but they did not focus on this aspect of their presentation. Chapters 5-11 (and Conclusion) of Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison On top of the twenty roles I found in chapters 1-4, I discovered nine more that recent library liaisons have had to take on in the remaining chapters of the book. Those nine roles are a…
ACRL/UNC Greensboro Webinar - “Libraries and High Impact Educational Practices,” Wednesday August 26 I really enjoyed this webinar on high impact education practices because of the fact that UNCG offers these opportunities to students and the fact that I myself have taken advantage of some of these opportunities. First year seminars, writing intensive courses, collaborative assignments, undergraduate research, diversity/global learning, service learning, internships, and capstone courses are some of the many high impact practices that schools can adopt to increase productivity at their university/institution. I have personally involved myself in all of these practices, which has helped me support the essential learning outcomes for the practicing institutions I have attended - UNC Asheville and UNC Greensboro. These learning outcomes are the knowledge of human culture and the physical and natural world, intellectual and practical skills, as well as personal and social responsibilities. They have provided leadership in me as well as other students and has increased our abilities to function as responsible and global citizens in our corresponding communities. High impact practices result in higher GPAs, enhanced retention, and improved persistence. Libraries can become more involved with offering these practices to students through information literacy sessions, mentorship programs, and internship opportunities. Infogr.am Webinar, Thursday September 3 This webinar taught me many interesting manipulations of infograms, or a visual image that represents information and data, which I believe can be utilized to display and project relevant information to library patrons in a fun, interesting, and aesthetically pleasing way. This webinar broke down the “how to” process of creating an infogram into steps for beginners. Infogr.am offers many exciting features and settings that allows the personalization of meaningful data. I think the infogr.am generator remains extremely user friendly with multiple options for every entry, drag-and-drop features, and featured graphs for examples (infogr.am/featured). Librarians could use this generator to circulate information concerning the library and easily publish this information via embedded html code, link, or any social media page. Infographics may be a great tool for librarians since they are many times in charge of social media pages and need ways to keep the spread of information interesting to users and followers. My experiences in ENT 300 and MKT 426
My first impressions of these two classes are extremely positive. Both of the professors and the librarian liaison immediately introduced the students to an amazing opportunity that is the foundational role of the academic liaison - an evolving relationship, or link, between people needing resources and the people capable of finding these resources. The teachers of these classes are willing to open themselves up as a permanent resource in order to help their students. Their main concerns with both of these classes are placing the students in real-world situations and reducing calculated risks in order to transform students into business gurus. Many assignments involve detailed searches for relevant articles that show information on national and international businesses, which the professors and liaison help interpret for students to make project decisions and reduce calculated risks for real-world decisions. Chapters 1-4 of Fundamentals for the Academic Liaison The role of the academic liaison has constant additions and evolutions since the creation of the job and the integration of technology. So far, I have determined approximately twenty roles of the academic liaison and therefore the creation of academic trends in the first four chapters of this book. I am sure that I will continue to discover even more roles of the academic liaison as I continue to read more chapters. Those twenty roles - so far - are a…
This blog will share biweekly posts on librarianship and liaison services. Specifically, these posts will concentrate on the evolving trends and roles of librarian liaisons - past, present, and future. Much of the content will be experienced based, as this blog has been set up for an independent study with Marla Means (Reference Intern) and Steve Cramer (Business Reference Librarian).
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AuthorHello, my name is Marla Means and I am an aspiring librarian. The aspects of librarianship that most interest me are instruction and outreach; therefore, I am an intern in the ROI (or Research Outreach and Instruction) department. I am currently studying liaison roles and trends in librarianship. Archives
December 2015
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