It's week three, and I'm beginning to understand the entirety of how the relationship between the academic library, faculty, and students are in relationship together. As I mentioned before, there is a whole "behind the scenes" situation. Academic librarians connect and work along side faculty members on how to educate and support students in their research inquiries. I had a few opportunities this week with different librarians to get to know how some of the processes work.
I spoke with two different librarians, one who works in the English Literature and Writing department and does a research education piece for a writing class in the 100 level (generally freshmen) and one who works and operates in the Media/Communications part of the library. Leslie is the librarian for the writing class and she helps puts a spotlight on how to conduct research. In alliance with the professor, Leslie gives students opportunities to learn how to develop their research questions (RQ's), do a key word search in library databases, understand Boolean terms and their use, sift through results, and evaluate sources. After students are able to deliver their assignments, there is an assessment of how well the modules worked and if they need to be tweaked or reorganized for the next class. Librarians also look at student work in addition to the professor for classes like this.
The next librarian, Nia, who primarily works in Media, Technology, and Communications, needs me for a big project for her libguide website. The libguide at UWB/CC is a space of information that is specific to that librarians specialty and students can access information in this field quickly. Anything related to Communications, News, Community Resources, Media, etc are going to be listed here for students. The issue that Nia is experiencing, is she inherited this website when she took her position and it's been in need of an overhaul in formatting and updating information. I have been put to task! This will be a great hands on experience for me to put together a libguide that is intuitive, easy, and relevant for students. I've already started and so far I am finding some dead ends to links that are outdated. It will be a great challenge for me, full of creativity and new ideas.
The libguide project within the Media & Communications department at the UWB/CC library is a great way for me to dive deeper into my interest in Information Literacy. Who knows, maybe I'll find some inspiration along the way for my upcoming Capstone in the fall.
Photo Credit: www.aeseducation.com
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