Faculty-

Librarian

Relationships:

Partners in

Pedagogy Rhonda Huisman Assistant Librarian, School of Education/Center for Teaching and Learning Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

“The campus library

may historically be the centerpiece

of institutional life on college and

university campuses, but many first-

year students think it is largely

irrelevant to their lives” (Barefoot, 2006).

Background

IUPUI University College

Instructional Team

Defining the Librarian’s Role

Bridge Curriculum

“These seminars introduce students to collegiate-

level expectations, establish connections to peers

and faculty, and provide resources to support

student learning and engagement.” (IUPUI, 2010, p. 2).

Students will be able to differentiate between open and restricted Web sites and explain the difference. (ACRL Standard 1.2; PUL – Core Communication & Quantitative Skills, Critical Thinking)

Students will be able to evaluate a web site based on evaluation criteria. (ACRL Standard 3.2; PULs – Core Communication & Quantitative Skills, Critical Thinking, Integration & Application of Knowledge)

Students will be able to differentiate between popular and scholarly information sources and describe the characteristics of scholarly literature. (ACRL Standard 1.2; PUL – Core Communication & Quantitative Skills, Critical Thinking)

Students will be able to identify which sources are most appropriate for an assignment. (ACRL Standard 1.1, 1.2; PUL – Core Communication & Quantitative Skills, Critical Thinking)

Students will be able to describe and use basic services and resources offered by University Library.

(ACRL Standard 2.3; PUL – Core Communication & Quantitative Skills)

Students will be familiar with IUPUI’s definition of plagiarism and recognize whether a particular piece of information needs to be cited to avoid plagiarizing. (ACRL Standards 2.5, 5.2; PULs – Core Communication & Quantitative Skills, Critical Thinking, Values & Ethics)

Students will be able to identify the elements of a basic citation such as author and title for several types of resources (e.g., a book, a journal article, a web page) in order to avoid plagiarizing. (ACRL Standards 2.5, 5.2; PULs – Core Communication & Quantitative Skills, Values & Ethics)

First Year/Freshman (by 25 credit hours)

Information Resources, University Library, and Citation Elements

Relationships in the Literature “faculty attitudes about

information literacy have rarely been explored, particularly in the library literature” (McGuinness, 2006)

“almost 30 years into the modern era of library instruction, rarely does a writer in higher education discuss the educational role of the library” (Hardesty, 1999)

“develop strategies to find common ground in the instructional environment.” (Julien & Given, 2003)

“Classroom faculty often rate librarians as one of the least likely sources to which they would turn when seeking information” even when reporting high levels of satisfaction with services and relationships. (Kotter, 1999)

Faculty Perspective May not know that librarians are willing to help

May feel that librarians do not have the time to help

May feel ashamed to ask a librarian for help because it might be viewed by their colleagues, and by the librarian, as unscholarly;

May be reluctant to admit that librarians have any contribution to make; and

May be reluctant to admit that librarians actually made a contribution to their work.

(Kotter, 1999; Kraat, 2005 )

Emerging Themes Faculty and librarians have different professional

goals and foci when it comes to FYS students. Faculty may not utilize librarians or library resources

in meaningful ways in FYS.

Librarians tend to be passive in policy, professional development, and outreach in FYS instructional teams.

Relationships and collaborations between librarians and faculty should be encouraged from both parties.

Is there an “asymmetrical disconnection that exists between librarians and faculty?” (Christiansen, Stombler, & Thaxton, 2004, p.17)

Case Study

Documents: surveys, course descriptions,

syllabi, emails, and correspondence through

course management system

Interviews, observations of classes and

instructional team meetings

Tenured and tenure-track faculty who teach

a course as part of the University College first-

year seminar from a variety of disciplines

Part of an instructional team

Findings and Further Discussion

Many faculty/librarian partnerships work well at a coordination level—selecting dates for library instruction that is aligned to the faculty-designed syllabus.

Timing of the library instruction sessions (Gaspar & Wetzel, 2009)

Some librarian/faculty partnerships have moved into active collaboration, discussion on SLOs and design assignments, and/or the syllabus.

Most of the collaboration is built upon existing cooperative frameworks

Benefit: increased understanding of the demands being placed on faculty and the library liaison by existing expectations and administrative structure.

Understanding arose among team members that information literacy is a complex and, at times, difficult subject often sorely neglected in undergraduate education (Bennet & Gilbert, 2009)

Student Benefits

Felt that they learned how to do an evidenced-based review and how to critically analyze research.

Became aware of the complexity of doing library research and the effort to assure rigor in their research findings.

Communication with a librarian and the professional group was essential to quickly resolve problems

Students met the learning outcomes of the course

Increased their knowledge of evidence-based practice and became experts at analyzing research articles; confidence levels rose

Became knowledgeable consumers of library resources – life-long learners and information-literate.

(Bennet & Gilbert, 2009; Beckman & Rayner, 2011)

Development of Better Practices

Time

Connections

Implementation

Inclusion

Evidence

Assessment

Reflection

Faculty [are] “the most important

group, outside of librarians, who

need to understand and appreciate

the educational role of the

academic library” (Hardesty, 1999)

References

Barefoot, B. (2006). Bridging the chasm: First-year students and the library. The Chronicle of Higher Education, B16.

Beckman, J. & Rayner, G. (2011). Embedding academic-professional collaborations that build student confidence for essay writing: Student perceptions and quality outcomes. A Practice Report. International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 2 (2), 83-90.

Benett, O. & Gilbert, K. (2009). Extending liaison collaboration: Partnering with faculty in support of a student learning community. Reference Services Review, 3 (2), 131-142.

Bond, I., Levin, L. I., Gardner, A., & Lahoz, M. (2009, October). Collaborative cross-model for faculty and librarians teaching evidence-based practice: A future fusion recipe? [Paper 105] . Library Publications and Presentations. University of Massachusetts Medical School. Retrieved from http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=lib_articles

Christiansen, L., Stombler, M., & Thaxton, L. (2004). A report on librarian-faculty relations from a sociological perspective. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(2), 116-21. doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2004.01.003

Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions.

(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Gaspar, D.B. & Wetzel, K.A. (2009). A case study in collaboration: Assessing academic librarian/faculty partnerships. College and Research Libraries, 70 (6). 578-590.

Hardesty, L. (1999). Reflections on 25 years of library instruction: Have we made progress? Reference Services Review, 27(3), 242-246.

IUPUI University College Curriculum Committee (2010). A Template for first-year seminars at IUPUI [brochure]. Indianapolis: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Julien, H. & Given, L. M. (2003). Proceeding from the Canadian Association for Information Science. Faculty-librarian relationships in the information literacy context: A content analysis of the librarians’ expressed attitudes and experiences. Retrieved from http://www.cais-acsi.ca/proceedings/2003/Julien_2_2003.pdf

Julien, H., & Pecoskie, J. L. (2009). Librarians’ experiences of the teaching role: Grounded in campus relationships. Library and Information Science Research, 31, 149-154.

References

Kotter, W.R. (1999, July). Bridging the great divide: Improving relations between librarians and classroom faculty. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 25(4), 294-303. doi: 10.1016/S0099-1333(99)80030-5

Kraat, S. (2005). Relationships between teaching faculty and teaching librarians. Binghampton, NY: Haworth.

Kuh, G. D., & Gonyea, R. M. (2003). The role of the academic library in promoting student engagement in learning. College and Research Libraries, 64, 256-282.

Lampert, L. (2005) “Getting psyched” about information literacy: A successful faculty-librarian collaboration for educational psychology and counseling. The Reference Librarian, 89-90, 5-23. DOI: 10.1300/J120v43n89_02

McGuinness, C. (2006, November). What faculty think—Exploring the barriers to information literacy development in undergraduate education. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 32(6), 573-582.

Mello, R. A. (2005, October). Close up and personal: The effect of a research relationship on an educational program evaluation. Teachers College Record, 107(10), 2351-2371.

Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Smith, F.L., & Mundt, K.E. (2010). Philosophical shift: Teach the faculty to teach information literacy [White paper]. American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/whitepapers/nashville/smith.cfm

Taylor, T., & Stamatoplos, T. (1999). First-year learning communities: Redefining the educational roles of academic roles. In H.A. Thompson (Ed.), Racing toward tomorrow: Proceedings of the Ninth National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries (pp 2-5). Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.

For further

information:

Incorporating and

Evaluating

Information Literacy

Skills: Critical

Thinking, Research,

and 21st Century

Skills for First-Year

Students 25th International Conference on The First-Year Experience

July 16-19, 2012

Vancouver, British Columbia - Canada