The Collaborating Librarian:Partnering Across Campus to Assist Assessment Efforts

ACRL Poster Session -- 2011

Beth L. MarkBeth M. TransueMessiah CollegeGrantham, PA

Background:We became collaborating librarians and campus stakeholders through initiating projects that simultaneously assisted assessment efforts across our campus (2800 FTE undergraduates). We cultivated partnerships, coordinated the projects, and presented the results to our partners: the Provost, Academic Policy Committee, schools, and academic departments.

Previous Assessment Efforts Library competency test for first year students (administered yearly following library

instruction sessions in First Year Seminar classes). Collaboration partners: First Year Seminar faculty and with General Education Committee.

Assessment of First Year Seminar papers (content and bibliographies). Collaboration partners: General Education Committee.

Assessment of honors and other departmental papers (bibliographies). Collaboration partners academic departments.

Campus-Wide Assessment Projects

Phase I: Syllabi Analysis Project Meeting with Provost

Provost was interested in budget and library resources usage Enthusiastic about the project Granted us access to the syllabi database (only). We could not directly contact faculty. Provost and Assistant Provost asked us to extract data of interest to their office. This was

expanded to other campus groups (Writing Center, Learning Center, Disabilities Office)

Syllabi Analysis Oveview Objectives:

o Evidence of information literacy in library-related assignments

o Collection development data (types of resources required)

o Data for other offices and department

Method: Accessed all 2007/2008 syllabi in campus database, extracting a range of data.

Findings from 1401 syllabi (2007-2008):

Findings for Provost and Other Officeso 96% included course objectives

o 44% included academic integrity policy

o 69% included ADA or college disabilities statement

o 64% included some kind of grading scale

o .3% required use of Writing Center; 9% recommended it

o .1% required use of Learning Center; 8% recommended it

Library – What We Looked foro Library and library instruction

o Information literacy

o Reserves

o Websites and Databases

o Citation styles

What we Found about Library UsageSyllabi were not adequate for complete assignment or collection development information.

Solution

Syllabi by School

15%

20%

20%

22%

15%

8%

Arts

Humanities

Education & Social Sci.

Health & NaturalSciences

Math, Engineering &Bus.

General Education

o Collect separate assignment information

Unplanned Benefitso Appreciation of Provost and other administrators

o Request to present data to Academic Council

o Subsequently, presented to two Schools

o Raised visibility of librarians as campus stakeholders in assessment

o Prepared the way for expanded project (assignment analysis)

Phase II: Library Assignment Analysis Project (2009-2010)

Meeting with the Provost – Take IIo Provost approved the library assignment collection project

o Asked us to present the proposal to school deans for their buy-in and for them to

be the communication channel to department chairs

Meeting with School Deans, Spring 2009o Deans agreed that the project had value

o Recommended time line and changes in wording of memo prepared for faculty

o Agreed to communicate the project, with a time line, to department chairs

Processo One dean suggested creating a form that faculty could fill out in lieu of submitting

written assignment directions (librarians created forms for each department – see Appendix below for example).

o September 2009, Deans asked department chairs to send the request for

assignment information to their faculty (for AY 2010)o About half of the departments submitted assignments by spring 2010

o With follow up reminders, the total return was good

o Extracted library reserve data by course

o Summer, 2010, data entered by students

Results (see following tables)

What we Learned from the Assignment Assessment Projecto In cases where forms only were submitted, some narrative information that would

have benefitted the librarians was losto However, the forms provided information that was not included in some written

assignmentso Individual follow up provided opportunities to raise awareness of faculty

regarding unknown library resources

What we envision o Will use data to demonstrate use (or not) of library resources for class

assignmentso Will provide liaison librarians with a good picture of what their department

faculty are assigning – possible opportunity for discussion of information literacy and collection development

o Will continue to be invited to the table as a campus stakeholder

Becoming a Stakeholder – A Snapshot “[The Provost] was quite taken with your preliminary report. Is it alright with you if he shows it to others? He would also like to invite the two of you to present at a future Academic Council meeting. … Messiah’s syllabus policy will be on the agenda this spring and he thinks your work is highly relevant to that discussion.”

Appendix

Library Assignment Collection Project Checklist – History

NOTE: You may submit an assignment description that you have already created OR complete one of these checklists each assignment which calls for use of library resources, either within the library or remotely (e.g., use of Library databases, etc.)

Course name ____________________________________ Course number_______

Assignment name ________________________________  [e.g., paper on .....]

Project type:  __ paper  

__ speech 

__ multi-media presentation

__ other (please describe):_____________________________________

Do you require books? Yes___ No___ Number of books required (if specified)___  

Do you require journal articles? Yes___ No___ Number of articles (if specified) ___

Are websites allowed as a resource?  Yes___  No___

Other resource required? Please specify _______________________________________

Approx. total number of sources expected/required____

If a paper, approx. number of pages expected/required ____

If a bibliography, approx. how many items? ____

Specific databases required/recommended?  Yes__   No__

If yes, which databases? ___ Access Newspaper Archive___ America: History & Life___ Asia Studies Humanities___ Asia Studies Full-Text Online ___ Early American Imprints (Evans)___ Early American Imprints (Shaw-Shoemaker)___ Early American Newspapers___ History Reference Center___ Historic Documents___ Historical Abstracts___ JSTOR___ WorldCat (books)___ Other: ____________________________

Other comments __________________________________________________________

Contact information

Beth L. Mark, Instruction Coordinator, bmark@messiah.eudBeth M. Transue, Collection Development Coordinator, btransue@messiah.edu