Teaching Today

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Teaching Todays StudentsWhat we learned

• Vicki Burns
• Rush Rhees Library
• University of Rochester

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• What do undergraduates REALLY do when they write
  research papers?

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http//www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/downloadables
/Foster-Gibbons_cmpd.pdf
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• Faculty Work Practice Project
• What about undergrads?
• Project Team
• Leadership Group
• Three study teams
• Reference
• Library facilities
• Web Site

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• Research begun Fall 2004
• Led by Anthropologist Nancy Fried Foster
• Used ethnographic research techniques
• Pre-study faculty interviews
• Objectives broadened to gain broad insight into
  student lives
• More than 100 students participated
• More than 1/3 of library staff involved

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• Faculty commented more extensively on the
  problems of writing and critical thinking than on
  those related to locating appropriate sources

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• Methodologies used
• Retrospective interviews
• Photo Surveys
• Mapping diaries
• Reference desk survey
• Interviews in student union
• Design workshops for web page
• Design Charettes
• Late night dorm visits

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Retrospective Interview
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Design Charrette
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Mahogany bookshelves, Old style lamps Nice cozy
feel
Computer Lounge with 802.11g WiFi With Nintendo
WiFi Connection
Movies and video games on big projection screen
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Gleason LibraryDedicated Nov 2007
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Something you couldnt live without
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Photo Survey
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Reference Desk Survey
Rush Rhees Library
Carlson Library
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Interviews in Union

• To participate, you must
• Be an undergraduate
• AND
• Working on a paper that requires you to find
  books and/or articles
• OR
• Working on a project that requires you to find
  data

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Mapping Diary
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Late Night Dorm Visits
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Design workshop for web page
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• Staff participation
• Development of interview and workshop procedures
• Video recorded and transcribing of interviews
• Co-viewing interviews
• Interviewed faculty and students
• Developed new programs Night Owl librarians,
  Orientation Breakfast

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• Retrospective Interviews
• Most had had a library instruction session
• Expected to do well
• Found articles and books fairly easily, simply
  changed topics if did not find enough
• Consulted with parents
• Found developing a thesis, organizing, and
  writing difficult
• Several had consulted a librarian

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• Reference Desk Interviews
• Students did not come to desk cold
• All had tried to find information on his/her own
• Most students knew names of databases and had
  used 1-2 of the them
• All students reported reference assistance had
  helped them
• Save time
• Learned about resources, the library, and how to
  search

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• Dissatisfaction with the technique
• Interviewed students immediately after assistance
• Librarians uncomfortable with asking questions
  and often to busy to adequately follow-up at the
  desk

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• Survey in the student union
• Felt they had enough time to do paper
• All expected to do well
• Found it difficult to narrow topic and organize
  paper
• Most asked professor or TA for assistance
• Many expected to have prof review draft
• Some uncertain about what a librarian could do
  for them

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• In summary, we found students
• Confident about their ability to find information
• Heavy users of libraries catalog and databases
• Do not take the first hits from a Google search
• Divide their research and writing into chunks

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• Often mention databases by name but also heard
  about the libraries search engine
• Look for a simple interface for them it is a
  point and click world
• Confident of their ability to find what they
  needed often if they did not find information
  they assume it did not exist and chose a
  different topic

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• Those who came to the desk
• Had tried and failed to find what they needed
• Some consulted regularly with librarian
• Most had met librarian in class or an earlier
  consultation

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• For reference/subject librarians some sobering
  results
• Lack of clarity about role of librarian or even
  what library staff had come to their class
• Equate librarians with books
• See faculty or teaching assistants as subject
  experts
• Consulted with a librarian on faculty
  recommendation

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• Brief look at library instruction at UR
• No formal information literacy program
• Integrated into courses with assignments
  requiring library research
• Library instruction in just about all first year
  writing classes
• Mixed success in other classes, depends on
  assignments, subject librarians, and interested
  faculty

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• So what have we done???

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• Strength our subject librarian/department liaison
  program
• For some, faculty interviews opened communication
• Embedded Librarians
• Course Pages
• Include faculty in decisions when feasible
• Offer more options to faculty

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• Collaboration with College Writing Center
• Built on a strong foundation of good will
• Reflects the synergy between research and writing
• Development of librarian tutors
• Working with the writing fellows
• Conducting research and presenting
• Increased presence in the pedagogy training of
  instructors

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• Critical Evaluation of teaching methods
• Meetings to focus on teaching
• Led by Suzanne Bell, ACRL, Institute for
  Information Literacy The Intentional Teacher
  renewal through informed reflection. (2006)
• Review and trade teaching techniques develop
  unique materials

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• Emphasis
• Develop clear goals with instructor
• Less lecturing and fewer demos active
  involvement of students
• Refine and limit amount of information presented
• Get the students started make certain they know
  how to get further assistance
• Creative ways to teach the basics

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• Developed theme every class has a librarian
• Course pages
• Parents Breakfast
• Scare Fair
• Appointments/ business cards at desk

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• Would we do it all again?
• Would we change what we did?
• Has it made a difference in our libraries?

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• Slides available at
• http//docushare.lib.rochester.edu/docushare/dsweb
  /View/Collection-2795