first year, first hand lessons, or: how we learned to stop worrying and develop some collections
TRANSCRIPT
First year, first-‐hand lessons, or: How we learned to stop worrying and develop some collec:ons
Wendy Traas, MA MI Liaison Librarian
Vanessa Kitchin, MI Liaison Librarian
University of Toronto Libraries Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre
❏ What we will cover ❏ Introduc7ons ❏ Expecta7ons -‐ knowns and unknowns ❏ Collec7ons ❏ Developing a reflec7ve teaching prac7ce ❏ Outreach to Faculty ❏ Organiza7onal Life and projects ❏ Happy Surprises
❏ Who we are and where we came from
Wendy Vanessa
“...the socializa:on process of new employees involves constant encounters with differences in the job seLng” Louis, in Oud (2008)
“...the socializa:on process of new employees involves constant encounters with differences in the job seLng” Louis, in Oud (2008)
known knowns known unknowns unknown unknowns
Importance of mentoring
www.tumblr.com
“For new employees (the mentees), mentoring supports orienta:on and socializa:on, helps in fostering and adop:ng organiza:onal goals and values, helps to shape posi:ve aLtudes, and can be used to demonstrate effec:ve role modeling.” Harrington and Marshall (2014)
❏ Collec:ons
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Known unknown
“The transi:on from graduate school to a professional academic library posi:on is a challenging one, especially when facing the ini:al journey into collec:on development.” Tucker & Torrence (2004)
❏ Collec:ons -‐ strategies and support
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● Learn the curriculum ● Develop subject exper:se ● Iden:fy user needs ● Use sta:s:cs from circula:on desk ● Know publishers in your discipline ● Let go of perfec:on ● Ask stupid ques:ons ● Time management -‐ devote
uninterrupted blocks of :me to CD ● Mentorship
❏ Developing a Reflec:ve Teaching Approach
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www.9gag.com
❏ Developing a Reflec:ve Teaching Approach “Inten:onal instructors do more than communicate well or design strong assignments; they methodically consider the impact their ac:ons have on learners, understand the knowledge they possess, use evidence to support the strategies they select, and strive to improve their effec:veness over :me. An excellent method for becoming more self-‐assured is to empower yourself to understand and appreciate (or at least come to terms with) teaching through a process of systema7c planning and self-‐reflec7on.”
Booth (2011)
❏ Applied Strategies for Reflec:ve Teaching ● Build instruc:onal confidence -‐ learn from others and by doing ● Develop a community of prac:ce -‐ CTSI, SCIE ● Maintain current awareness/create a robust personal learning environment -‐ ACRL publica:ons,
journals, twiier lists & topics, RSS feeds, table of contents alerts, online learning communi:es ● Lesson plans as tools for reflec:on ● Consider scaffolding, online tutorials -‐ the true test of instruc:on is whether it creates knowledge that
can be applied in the future ● Keep it simple: especially one-‐shot instruc:on; every learner can most likely use a few straighjorward
lessons from us, not only about how to accomplish their informa:on goals with insight and cri:cal thinking but on what exactly, libraries and librarians can help them do
● Embrace unpleasant situa:ons (read: audience scru:ny) -‐ stay present, foster conversa:on with learners, invite input from faculty, humanize the learning interac:ons
● Learn in the Moment → three-‐ques:on reflec:on § what worked § what didn’t work § whether I achieved my goals
“Mirroring the best prac:ces of colleagues -‐ while adding your own pedagogical tweaks to the mix -‐ is what moves the profession forward.” Booth (2011)
❏ Outreach to faculty
“Many new reference librarians have studied database searching, reference interviewing, and even collec:on development, but most schools do not offer a course specifically on the subject of liaison work.” Stoddart et al (2006)
CC BY-‐SA 3.0 Photo courtesy of www.fyspringfield.com
❏ Outreach to faculty “Outreach and collec:on development for academic departments is an ongoing process, not an instantaneous accomplishment. Building a strong working rela:onship requires :me and effort.” Stoddart et al (2006)
❏ Outreach to faculty -‐ strategies and support ● Iden:fy chairs and relevant administra:on ● Timing of emails (request to aiend departmental mee:ngs) ● Word of mouth (especially with sessionals) ● Offer to work with TAs (especially with shortened semester) ● Establish needs & understand nuances of departments (MAM Vanessa was
involved in course commiiee -‐ met monthly; HIS course planners approached me with much less no:ce)
● Show strong interest in your department and their research
❏ Organiza:onal life
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❏ The unwriien rules of “how thing work” “Organiza:onal culture onen involves the aspects of the workplace that long-‐term employees take for granted and therefore may not think worthy of men:on to new staff. Research has found that these major sources of knowledge gaps and differences are generally not recognized or understood well by schools, workplaces, or even new graduates themselves.” Oud (2008)
❏ Organiza:onal life -‐ strategies and support There are few models outlining what an effec:ve training program for organiza:onal culture might include. In Holton’s model (Oud, 2008), there are four major areas of content that a new employee needs to learn about in a new job: 1. the individual domain (including personal aĴitudes, expecta:ons, and skills needed to adjust) 2. the people domain (including rela:onships with coworkers and supervisors) 3. the organiza7on domain (including organiza:onal culture and roles) 4. the work task domain (including job skills).
● Training and orienta:on programs should integrate and address all four of these areas in a planned way ● Mentors can help new employees interpret incidents that happen in the new workplace and therefore
gain a beĴer sense of the organiza:onal culture and how it operates in various situa:ons. ● ACRL’s White Paper on recruitment and reten:on recommends mentoring as a reten:on strategy for
academic libraries
❏ Organiza:onal life -‐ strategies and support ● Working effec:vely in commiiees ● Understanding workflow ● Mentorship very important for understanding the organiza:onal systems that
seem unclear such as the way different departments interact with the library ● Library subject liaisons play a cri:cal role in building organiza:onal rela:onships
as they are both the advocate and the communica:on conduit between library and departments/faculty
● Formal and informal mentoring ● Collegial organiza:onal culture, friendly people to ask for advice and
organiza:onal history ● Asking stupid ques:ons
❏ Happy Surprises “Library liaisons are s:ll required to provide tradi:onal collec:on-‐oriented and library news outreach, but more importantly they are now expected to have different competencies and technical exper:se. A good liaison has has people skills, designs web pages, aids faculty research, creates wri:ng department or course-‐specific resource guides, provides face to face consulta:on, informs and facilitates faculty in learning about new and emerging informa:on technologies.” Stoddart et al (2006)
❏ Happy Surprises
Thank you!
UTM-‐Library CC BY-‐SA 3.0 Photo courtesy of Stephen Uhraney -‐
❏ References Booth, C. (2011). Reflec(ve teaching, effec(ve learning: Instruc(onal literacy for library educators. Chicago: American Library
Associa:on.
Harrington, M. R., & Marshall, E. (2014). Analyses of mentoring expecta:ons, ac:vi:es, and support in canadian academic libraries. College & Research Libraries, 75(6), 763-‐790. doi:10.5860/crl.75.6.763.
Hook, S. J., Stowell Bracke, M., Greenfield, L., & Mills, V. A. (2003). In-‐house training for instruc:on librarians. Research Strategies, 19(2), 99-‐127. doi:10.1016/j.resstr.2003.12.001.
Hook, S.J. Impact? What Three Years of Research Tell Us about Library Instruc:on College & Research Libraries, ISSN 0010-‐0870, 01/2012, Volume 73, Issue 1, pp. 7 – 10.
Oud, J. (2008). Adjus:ng to the workplace: Transi:ons faced by new academic librarians. College & Research Libraries, 69(3), 252-‐266.
Stoddart, R. A., Bryant, T. W., Baker, A. L., Lee, A., & Spencer, B. (2006). PERSPECTIVES ON… ·∙ going boldly beyond the
reference desk: Prac:cal advice and learning plans for new reference librarians performing liaison work. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 32(4), 419-‐427.
Tucker, J. C., & Torrence, M. (2004). Collec:on development for new librarians: Advice from the trenches. Library
Collec(ons, Acquisi(ons and Technical Services, 28(4), 397-‐409.