Lets Get It Started

1
Lets Get It Started ( Stopped)

• Start/Stop at ULM
• presented by Megan Lowe

2
Session Overview

• A Little About Me
• A Little About ULM Library
• First Study Overview
• Second Study
• Conclusions

3
A Little About Me

• Reference Librarian (at ULM, obviously)
• Former Liaison for Arts Sciences
• Now Art, Music, Theater, Dance, Communication
  Studies, English
• I do a lot of instruction
• Focused on information literacy
• Always on the lookout for new ways to do things
  that are more efficient

4
A Little About ULM
5
About ULM Library

• 5 Floors (plus 6 7 admin and conference
  center)
• Our own bibliographic instruction classroom (with
  wireless laptops)
• Over 600,000 print volumes, including 195,605
  state and federal documents, 2,941 serial
  subscriptions, and 564,623 volumes in microformat.

6
More About ULM

• Reference is composed of 5 dedicated reference
  librarians (though one is head of govdocs) we
  all do instruction
• Several other librarians work in various depts.
  (ILL, Tech Services, Special Collections), but
  they dont do instruction
• We serve 8,000 students and 350 faculty

7
First Study Overview

• I was looking for a quick easy way to
• Assess the effectiveness of the presentations
• Not kill myself trying to assess
• Avoid traditional surveys
• Examine self-reported behavior
• Search of the literature was frustrating, until I
  found an article by Flaspohler (2003),
  Information Literacy Program One Small College
  Takes the Plunge.

8
First Study Overview

• The article details the Start/Stop essay at the
  end of an instructional session, students are
  asked to describe two habits they intend to start
  using and two habits they intend to stop using.
• This allows the students to report their own
  behavior, which gives us insight into their
  perceptions of research.

9
First Study Overview

• Study was conducted over the summer sessions of
  2006.
• 5 classes produced 58 essays.
• I generated keyword phrases from the essays
  (trying not to change the substance of the
  self-reported behavior) 49 Start, 52 Stop.
• Results demonstrated that students didnt always
  follow instructions.

10
First Study Overview

• Conclusions the study had a two-fold purpose at
  its foundation assess instruction (and avoid
  stats and surveys) and look at student
  perceptions I would say it succeeded on both
  counts.
• I decided to conduct a more broad search use the
  essay in Fall 2006 and Spring 2007.

11
Second Study Overview

• In this study, 24 classes produced 486 essays a
  significantly higher number than the last
  go-round.
• The majority of classes came from the fall
  semester in the spring, I did less instruction.
• Focused on English classes.
• During the first study, all classes did the
  essay not so much this time.

12
Second Study Overview

• Classes that did the essay were selected based on
  some simple criteria
• Had to be an English class
• There had to be time at the end of instruction to
  write the essay!
• No demographics were gathered no percentages
  were generated. The focus of this study is to
  gather further examples of self-reported behavior.

13
Second Study Results

• From the 24 classes and 486 essays
• 129 Start keyword phrases
• 116 Stop keyword phrases
• Whew thats a lot of misspellings, grammatical
  errors, incomprehensible sentences!

14
Second Study Results

• But its also a lot of illuminating and
  encouraging information, too
• start using library resources is top of the
  list (160 hits)
• start using databases follows second (156 hits)
• Following third (68 hits) is being more timely
  (my summary phrase) starting early,
  immediately, sooner
• Organization takes fourth with 45 hits.

15
Second Study Results

• Asking librarians for help is in the top 30
  (18), as is Asking for help (13)
• Other encouraging habits include using outlines,
  narrowing searches, using the catalog, keyword
  searching, and using Google Scholar.

16
Second Study Results

• My favorite starts include
• Using a good 3-4 items instead of just 3-4
  items
• start asking the librarian questions instead of
  walking around with my head cut off.
• Start using the librarys glorious resources

17
Second Study Results

• The Stops were full of bad habits students wanted
  to stop
• Procrastinating ranks at the top, followed by
  relying on web sources
• Apparently, procrastinating has a little identity
  problem
• procastinating
• progastinating
• procasting
• procastanating

• procrasnate
• prograstinating
• procrasinate
• procrastonating

18
Second Study Results

• Stop using Google for everything is another
  stop at the top.
• Dealing with feelings of anxiety, stress,
  frustration, fear, aggravated (AKA aggrivated)
  also ranks in the top 30.
• Students also indicated that they would stop
  thinking that the library was a waste of time,
  and they would stop avoiding it, now they felt
  better.

19
Second Study Results

• My favorite stops include
• Thinking that people from Mississippi are
  stupid
• Stop not setting the microwave clock so it will
  stop flashing 1200
• Using BS websites
• I also learned not to let water moccasins in the
  library
• Stop sneaking drinks in the library

20
Second Study Results

• Students frequently indicated that they would try
  to start and stop certain habits, especially when
  it comes to the Internet.
• Some did not take the assignment seriously, which
  of course is irritating.

21
Conclusions

• The start/stop essay has proven itself to me I
  have found it to be a wonderful assessment tool
  and a great review assignment for the session.
• The problem, however, is time. There were many
  sessions in which there simply wasnt time for
  students to do the essay and I wasnt willing
  to sacrifice instruction for assessment.

22
Conclusions

• This is perhaps not the best attitude, but since
  its like pulling teeth to get some students in
  the library, Id prefer to focus on the chance I
  have to show them how easy and useful the library
  is in the research process.

23
Conclusions

• I would recommend the start/stop essay to
  anybody trying to understand their students
  better, as well as using a different kind of
  assessment.

24
Q A Time!
25
Resources

• Flaspohler, M. (2003). Information literacy
  program One small college takes the plunge.
  Reference Services Review, 31(2) 129-141.
• Lowe, M. (2006, Fall.). The Start/Stop essay in
  instruction and information literacy at
  University of Louisiana at Monroe. Louisiana
  Libraries, 69 (2)  7-11.

26
Thanks for coming!

• Please feel free to contact me via email at
  lowe_at_ulm.edu !