library outreach at rit: bringing the library and writing center to students
DESCRIPTION
LIBRARY OUTREACH AT RIT: BRINGING THE LIBRARY AND WRITING CENTER TO STUDENTS. Daniel Trout Sheryl Kron Rhodes 2011 SUNYLA Conference June 16, 2011. ABOUT THE ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (RIT). Founded in 1829 Private university located in Rochester, NY Nine colleges & institutes - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
LIBRARY OUTREACH AT RIT: BRINGING THE LIBRARY AND
WRITING CENTER TO STUDENTS
Daniel TroutSheryl Kron Rhodes
2011 SUNYLA ConferenceJune 16, 2011
ABOUT THE ROCHESTER INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY (RIT)
Founded in 1829 Private university located in Rochester, NY Nine colleges & institutes 17,000+ students (Fall 2010) RIT emphasizes career education
& experiential learning
ABOUT THE WALLACE LIBRARY AT RIT
Hub for research & information exchange Four floors of books, periodicals, help desks, computers & other
electronic media, individual study carrels & small group rooms Collections within Wallace Library include the Cary Collection, a
renowned library on printing history, the RIT Archive Collections, & the VIA Lab, with access to workstations, printing, image scanning, & an array of software as well as networked resources
Online access to catalog, electronic class reserves, 180+ electronic research databases, digital art collections, & librarian-selected Internet resources
Wireless access to electronic databases & full-text electronic journals
Wallace Library received 2006 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award from the Association of College & Research Libraries
“The first place to go when you need to know”
ABOUT RIT’S ACADEMIC SUPPORT CENTER’S WRITING
CENTER
Mission: To make students confident, creative, & independent writers
Free service to all RIT students No appointments necessary Instructional center: Goal is to support
students’ efforts to become better writers
ABOUT RIT’S SOL STUDY CENTER
Learning space open to all RIT students Focused on academic needs of first-year
students Located in residence hall area to bring
academic services, including the library, to students’ doorstep
Services include math, physics, & writing tutors, & library assistants
PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN RIT & UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO’S (UB)
DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION STUDIES (LIS)
Practicum requesting LIS students listed on the LIS department’s Practicum Website
Practicum request for two students per quarter, covering four nights per week (Monday–Thursday), two hours per evening
Practicum students received training on services offered at library from subject librarians
Practicum students worked at the reference desk with subject librarians as part of the practicum
HOW THE PRACTICUM WORKED
Practicum students were given name tags to identify themselves to students as representatives of the Wallace Library
A laptop was provided by the library for practicum students to use in assisting students with reference & research queries
Hard copies of reference material handouts (e.g., how to cite in APA & MLA style; maps of the library layout; how to structure research) were provided to give to students
SERVICES PROVIDED BY LIS PRACTICUM STUDENTS
Research assistance using library’s online resources (e.g., databases, catalog): Using information literacy theories & methodologies, practicum students demonstrated best practices in finding & evaluating information needed by students using the Sol Center
Assistance in finding LibGuides: RIT subject librarians began developing LibGuides to aid students in finding the best sources on a wide variety of subjects; there is both a Sol Study Center LibGuide & an APA/MLA usage LibGuide
Assignment calculator: A program to help students budget out time to write a paper; reprogrammed calculator to incorporate LibGuides & up-to-date information as part of the practicum learning experience
WORKING WITH THE SOL CENTER’S TUTORS
The math, physics, & writing tutors in the Sol Center are RIT students & thus potential links to RIT’s student body to increase outreach & knowledge of the library services in the Sol Center
Often tutors’ friends would stop by the Center, providing opportunities for practicum students to introduce ourselves & the library-related services provided
WORKING WITH NATIONAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE FOR THE
DEAF (NTID) STUDENTS
NTID was the world’s first & largest technological college for deaf & hearing-impaired students; one of RIT’s eight colleges
Different learning and teaching styles Reference interviews are conducted through an
interpreter, often one of the math, physics, or writing tutors in the Sol Center
Two preferred methods of saving information: E-mail Screenshots with cell phones
PROMOTION OF LIBRARY SERVICES IN THE SOL STUDY
CENTER
Subject librarians promoted the new services to faculty & students
Library staff distributed print flyers to faculty in the College of Liberal Arts each quarter
Advertisement within the library were done via flyers & a plasma screen ad in the library’s entrance
Library staff distributed flyers to first-year students’ mailboxes via student senators
METHODS OF FEEDBACK FOR LIBRARY SERVICES PROVIDED
A very short paper survey requesting feedback is given to each student seeking assistance
Anecdotal evidence is gathered through conversing with students & explaining what we do
CHALLENGES
Majority of the students at RIT are not liberal arts students and do not write research papers
No marketing budget for this program; advertising must be cost neutral
No Facebook or Twitter accounts for the library as methods to interact with students
RIT runs on the quarter system, so classwork is compressed into a 50% shorter period of time as compared with semesters, resulting in a rush of work at the end of each quarter; if students are not versed in planning ahead, it can be difficult to find the time required to research & write a good paper
SUCCESSES
Fall Quarter: One student Winter Quarter: Three students Spring Quarter: Three students Staffing was expanded in the Winter and
Spring quarters from two nights a week to four nights a week
FUTURE PLANS
Promote the services provided by the library in the Sol Center through the First Year Experience staff, who teach all first-year RIT students
Need to remember that this program will likely follow a similar path to that of the Math & Physics Tutoring program: initially coverage was limited to only one or two nights per week & had poor attendance, but the program now employs three tutors each evening (Monday–Thursday) for three hours each night—the program started out small & grew
FUTURE PLANS (CONTINUED) Changes in RIT’s core curriculum will require more
writing in the future, meaning an increased need to learn how to effectively search, find, & evaluate information to produce quality research papers
Continued staffing of the Sol Study Center New study center within the Global Village during
the Fall Quarter: Also sponsored by AIM (Academic Intervention
& Mentoring) Larger population of upperclass students Math/science tutors Peer writing tutors Library staffing