Organic Alignments: Toward a More Intuitive Model for Library

and Writing Center Collaboration

Heather Urschel-Speir, Writing & Tutoring Center Director, TCC

Rachel Goon, Librarian, TCC

What We’ll Do

• Discuss Learning Commons development background

• Share process and products from our collaboration efforts

• Discuss challenges and barriers to cross-silo collaboration

• Facilitate a small group discussion exercise

The Student Learning Centers at TCC

• Library

• Writing & Tutoring Center

• Reading & Study Skills Center

• Language Lab

• Computer Assisted Learning Lab

• Math Resource Center

• “Information Commons”/eLearning Center

• CASA/MECA/TRIO

Why a Learning Commons building?

• Co-location, co-location, co-location• More space on campus for social & collaborative learning• Library building is 30 years old

But then . . .

The Challenge:How to create a Learning Commons, without a common

space?

#1 Observe potential gaps in our current provision of academic support services.

Does student use of our services circumvent the paths we’ve created around our budgetary or departmental or “traditional turf” boundaries?

#2 It’s OK to form our silo-busting collaboration(s) around existing partnerships

#3 Tie our collaboration to the College’s mission and/or other strongly supported initiatives

#1 Are students circumventing the prescribed paths to our services?

Student Words

• “…finding things about her life was definitely very easy. […] I had a lot of trouble coming up with a thesis statement that, I guess I didn’t really understand. […] But at the time, I was just, I have all this research, how am I supposed to just come up with something that’s arguable, when all of it is right in front of me?”

(Interviews from research of Barbara Alvarez, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester)

#2: Who are your likely partners? (0r turf-shredding, silo-busting collaborators?)

Writing centers

Tutoring centers

Athletic department

Libraries

Adult basic education

CASA

Distance/e-learning

ESLDeve lopmenta l reading &w riting

International student services

Teaching & learning centers

Humanities/Science/Soc. Sci. Faculty

Disability services

#3: Tie your collaboration to well-supported College initiatives

• Assessment

• Achieving the Dream

• State Board Student Achievement Initiative

• College Mission

• Other well-funded, well-supported projects?

Current efforts in this direction• Shared library one-shots:

librarian and WTC director collaborate with English/Reading 95 instructors to

teach integration of research into writing

• Cross training of tutors at the reference desk, and of librarians as writing tutors

(so far, only mildly successful – but we’ll renew our efforts this summer)

• “Digital Learning Library”an in-library-developed, open-source collection of locally-created

teaching and learning materials

Challenges

• Time & Money

• Artificial boundaries

• Personality conflicts

• Silos – we must be ever vigilant

• Re-envisioning our roles can be scary!

Looking Ahead

• Merging our services will require more peer tutor use, across the WTC/Library, and beyond

• Our collaboration will form a compelling philosophical base from which to move forward with a Learning Commons building proposal.

The challenge of collaboration

• “Collaboration in this context is an incremental and evolutionary process and does not necessarily result in a formal program or standardized curriculum. It is a process that must provide space for faculty to experiment with new approaches [ . . . ] that do not necessarily map well to existing [ . . . ] models. A certain amount of uncertainty and discomfort seem to come with the territory” (Leadley & Rosenberg, p. 70).

Exercise/Questions

• Are there ways in which students are consistently using your services in unexpected ways? Asking for services that you don’t traditionally provide?

(are these vestiges of artificial budgetary or org chart or “traditional turf” silos that are hampering your provision of academic support services?)

For discussion:Are there ways in which students are consistently using your services in unexpected ways?

Asking for services that you don’t traditionally provide?

Roger is a student in a Math 90 class. His math instructor has assigned him a 3-page research paper (his first research paper ever). He must choose a topic related to personal finance and incorporate at least 3 outside authoritative sources. The paper must be typed and formatted in MLA style.

Maria is a 50 year old Level-3-ESL student from Moldova. She needs to find information about 4th of July traditions on the internet, summarize her findings, and type them up to bring to class. Maria doesn’t feel comfortable typing on an English keyboard, let alone using a mouse, or getting onto and navigating the web, or evaluating the information she finds there.

• On your campus, where do you think Roger and Maria should go to ask for help?• Will they encounter any gaps in academic support?• Are the places they are likely to go for help the “prescribed” places?

Credits

Photo credits:http://amish4life.com/images/Barn_raising_in_Lansing.jpg (slide 4)

http://www.mises.org/images4/DollarDownArrow.png (slide 5)

Quotations:Alvarez, B. (2007). A new perspective on reference: Crossing the line between research and

writing. Shifting Points of Reference and New Directions in Higher Education, 5th ‘Reference in the 21-st Century’ Symposium at Columbia University. Retrieved May 5, 2009, from https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/cu/libraries/bts/img/assets/9337/

Columbia%20paper.pdf (slide 8)

Leadley, S., & Rosenberg, B.R. (2005). Yours, mine, and ours: Collaboration among faculty, library, and writing center. In J. K. Elmborg & S. Hook (Eds.), Centers for learning: Writing centers and libraries in collaboration. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. (slide 14)