About Article on Finding Legitimate Scholarships

Students wanting to attend college can look for scholarships to fund their education.  There are many legitimate scholarships available; however, many scholarship offers deceive individuals into sharing personal information or sending them money.  Allen Grove writes a good article on avoiding such scams on About.com.  Titled "Scholarship Scams: 10 Signs that a Scholarship Isn't Legitimate" it emphasizes the importance of not sharing credit card information, sending money, giving personal information, and believing claims that sound too good to be true.  In most cases they really are too good to be true.  Avoid clicking on those links.

I liked this article, because it calls on individuals to be critical thinkers and develop their information-literacy skills.  Remember to evaluate the information you find.  Increasing its own credibility, the article identifies an author with a link to his credentials.  The easy road may consist of accepting information uncritically in life.  Be careful of taking that road.  Who knows where it may lead you.

"Sunrise on the Great Alpine Road." or Français: "L'aube se lève sur la Great Alpine Road, dans le Victora (Australie)." by Flagstaffotos

 Are you still baffled about how to find real scholarships?  It will require some work and searching, but the article listed at least four websites worth looking at in order to find potentially applicable scholarships.

• Cappex.com 
• CollegeBoard.org
• FastWeb.com
• Scholarships.com

Evaluation Form for a One-credit Information Literacy Course

Last year I taught a one-credit, information-literacy course for the first time.  As an experimental course it was sponsored by ISU's Student Success Center. It was titled ACAD 1199: Information Research and ran during the last eight weeks of the semester, meeting twice a week.  In the first semester I created a student evaluation form to gather information from the students to understand how much work they put into the course, how effective the professor was, and how useful the course was overall.  This was an important thing to do as it gave me firsthand feedback directly from the students.

It is a bit lengthy, but I wanted to get a lot of information from the students before they left.  Have you created your own evaluation form, or do you administer one created by your institution?

Teaching Non-Traditional Students in the Library

Non-traditional students can be the most rewarding ones to teach in the library.  They often have more questions, are more lively, and seem to be more grateful for library instruction.

This week I taught a class full of non-traditional students.  I uploaded my outline presentation to Slideshare and titled it "Library Research" on the presentation, though the more accurate title may be: "TGE 0199: Library Instruction for Non-Traditional Students."  These students, most of them anyway, had to earn a GED in order to make it to college. This class was helping them transition into college.

See the presentation below:

TGE 0199: Library Instruction for Non-Traditional Students

View more PowerPoint from Spencer Jardine

We used the Cephalonia Method during our tour.  The questions given to students were color coded to correspond to the different floors of the Library.  I printed out call numbers to specific books and maps that helped to answer some of the questions; these I handed to students and coached them in finding the materials along the way.

How do you teach non-traditional students?  Do you ever teach classes that consist only of non-traditional students?  What are their strengths? 

On the whole I enjoye teaching the non-traditional students, because they seem more attentive, ask more questions, and are glad to learn in most cases.

Clickers, Participation, Assessment Outcomes, and Library Instruction

Clickers, or personal response systems, may encourage participation and help students enjoy library instruction more.  Emily Chan and Lorrie Knight, from the University of the Pacific,  conducted a study that discovered this to be true.  They also learned that assessment outcomes may not necessarily improve as a result of using clickers. 

Published in Communications in Information Literacy, their article "Clicking with Your Audience: Evaluating the Use of Personal Response Systems in Library Instruction" first identifies the makeup of college students participating in their study.  They belong to the Millennial generation who "tend to share these main character traits: feeling special, being sheltered, having confidence, preferring team or group activities, favoring the conventional, feeling pressured, and needing to achieve" (193).  They make the following claim: "Library instruction, often delivered through one-shot sessions, may seem out of touch to Millennials if it does not incorporate technology in a meaningful and entertaining manner" (193).  With this premise as their foundation, they propose the usage of personal response systems (PRS or clickers) to engage students.

Through their look at the literature they show that others have found that professional use of PRS helps students be involved in the classroom, promotes conversations, and enhances learning among students (193).  They note that PRS make the lectures and class activities more lively and less "stagnant" (193).  As mentioned elsewhere, clickers allow instructors to adjust in the moment they are teaching.  They can understand what the students know.  Therefore, an atmosphere of active engagement and learning may be easier to establish with clickers (193). 

Not enough has been written about the PRS and actual learning outcomes, so Chan and Knight worked to look at this with their study.  They cite Anne C. Osterman's 2008 article that identifies library instructors' two greatest fears: (1) boring students and (2) teaching above their heads.  At this point they refer to another article when they write: "The use of clickers can prompt greater classroom interactivity through an assessment of students' understanding of IL concepts" (194).  Additionally, they found another article that states the finding that clickers increase student involvement in the classroom as well as their usage of resources in the library (194).  To repeat myself once more, this study looks at student enjoyment, engagement, and achievement as they relate to the implementation of clickers in the classroom.

As with other studies, they prepare the reader by defining the constituents involved--in this case freshmen at the University of the Pacific--and explain the course objectives of the freshman seminar courses and the library evaluations gathered before the study took place.  "At the end of each library session, students completed a brief evaluation measuring their achievement of learning outcomes.  The Assessment Office tabulated and analyzed the results, which proved to be inconclusive" (195).  Librarians convinced their library dean to fund a second instruction room equipped with more technology, such as a smart board, a computer for all participants, and clickers.  This allowed the librarians to conduct an experiment to see if the technology influenced student learning outcomes. 

Surprisingly enough, they found that the classes without clickers scored slightly better than the ones with them.  They write: "The students in Classroom NC (non-clicker) scored significantly higher in the assessment than the students who had their library session in Classroom C (clickers) (P value < 0.001)" (197).  That is not to say that there were no positive outcomes for students taking the instruction with the clickers.  Chan and Knight write: "The students in the technology-rich Classroom C found the library sessions to be more enjoyable, organized, well-presented, and participatory" (197).  Perhaps these positive results would continue to justify the use of clickers in the classroom.

No doubt the authors must have been perplexed that the technology did not increase content retention; however, they offer some reasons why the students in technology-rich classroom may not have achieved higher scores on the assessment measures.  They do so by noting potential benefits of a paper assessment:

1. Able to use the paper assessment as a resource
2. Allows the student to self-regulate order and pace during the test time
3. Lets them to see all the questions from the start (this is similar to reason #1 above)
4. With paper exams students can review and correct their answers before turning them in to be graded
5. A paper test gives students the opportunity to judge how they use their time; they are more in control of this than if the test is offered with technology, especially if the instructor changes the questions (198)

If librarians use the clicker technology to assess learning, these reasons may be worth remembering. 

Boulder Chain Lakes area in White Clouds of Idaho.  Lakes in photo may be of Sliderock Lake (l) and Shelf Lake (r) .  Photo by Spencer Jardine.  2010.

Here are a few other things worth mentioning from this article.  Classes with clickers seemed to enjoy the instruction more, felt it was more organized, well-presented, and participatory than those that did not have them (199).  Millenials may expect and want technology to be used.  Indeed, Chan and Knight also mention another study that suggests "the use of clickers can restart the attention span of students" (199).  Sometimes this is necessary to bring back students to the subject at hand. 

The authors see clickers as useful tools to invite participation, adjust to student needs, and as a means to get things going at the beginning of library instruction sessions.  They write: "With the clickers' ability instantly to poll the audience, library faculty used warm-up questions as icebreakers in order to foster a more collaborative and engaging environment" (199).  They had wanted the clickers to increase content retention, but the non-clicker classroom student out-performed their peers in the classroom with clickers.  Naturally, other researchers, just as the authors mention, should look to see how learning outcomes are influenced by the use of technology in the library instruction classroom.

Chan, Emily K., and Lorrie A. Knight.  "Clicking with Your Audience: Evaluating the Use of Personal Response Systems in Library Instruction."  Communications in Information Literacy 4.2 (2010): 192-201.  Print.

Effectiveness of Clickers in Big, Intro to Psychology Classes

A group of researchers from the University of Delaware, in a study that looked at the effectiveness of personal response systems, found that modest use of "clickers" increased exam performance.  They did not see evidence that clickers actually increased engagement in their study.  In a reference to the literature they write: "According to some researchers, students like clickers, and students also believe clickers make them feel more engaged" (45).  As far as their own students went, however, they note: "Although Dr. B reported that students 'got a kick out of them,' clickers had only marginal effects on self-reports of student engagement, attendance, and reading in this study--effects that may be attributable to Type I error" (48). 

Freshmen students at the University of Delaware, at the time of the study that is, mark which classes they want to take their first year, and a computer assigns their schedule.  Morley, McAuliffe, and DiLorenzo mention more than once that this made their study more reliable and random, due to the random nature of the process.  Students personal preferences did not determine when they took the psychology class.  Morley explains that the teachers used the clicker system only minimally:

Both professors taught using an interactive lecture style.  Both professors taught the earlier section without clickers ('traditional' sections) and the later section with clickers.  In clicker sections, at the beginning of class, the instructor posted five multiple-choice, fact-based questions, based on the day's required reading.  Students earned extra credit for answering these questions correctly.  Later in the class period, if relevant, the instructor would briefely elaborate on a clicker question that most students had misunderstood.  Other than this change, instructors taught the two sections identically.  (46)

 Data gathered from the exam results did indicate that "exam scores were higher for clicker sections than for tratidtional sections" (47).  This occurred regardless of the teacher; there were two teachers who taught two sections of large, introductory psychology classes.  Morling et al. summarize it in more formal language: "Our data suggest that using clickers to quiz students in class on material from their reading resulted in a small, positive effect on exam performance in large introductory psychology classes" (47).

Further studies might consider looking at teaching methods used in conjunction with the technology.  For example, they suggest looking at concept inventories, group discussions, and Just in Time Teaching (JiTT), which could all be joined with clickers to see how they might enhance learning (48).  For more clarification, the authors write: "In our study, the instructors used clickers very minimally--to administer quizzes, publicly display the results, and quickly correct any widespread misunderstandings" (47-48). 

Moreover, the article addressed the possibility that some students cheated while taking the reading quizzes, though they concede that this may have actually promoted a cooperative learning environment, which would have improved their engagement in the class (49).  Overall, this was a good article, as it found a positive result of using clickers via a scientific study, rather than relied on anecdotes or the fact that the technology was trendy at the time.

Works Cited

Morling, Beth, Meghan McAuliffe, Lawrence Cohen, and Thomas M. DiLorenzo.  "Efficacy of Personal Response Systems ("Clickers") in Large, Introductory Psychology Classes."  Teaching of Psychology 35.1 (2008): 45-50.

Stowell, Jeffrey R., and Jason M. Nelson.  Teaching of Psychology 34.4 (2007): 253-58.

College Students and Information-Literacy Realities

Some of the YouTube videos on information literacy topics are quite fascinating.  Every once in a while I re-discover them again.  Project Information Literacy at the University of Washington still has some great videos up.  These are create by the Information School Here are a few that I enjoy watching

1. "PIL InfoLit Dialog, No. 1: Wikipedia"
2. "PIL InfoLit Dialog, No. 2: Procrastination"
3. "PIL InfoLit Dialog, No. 3: Frustration"
4. "PIL InfoLit Dialog, No. 4: Strategies"
5. "PIL InfoLit Dialog, No. 5: Context"

These videos may be good ways to start a class discussion about information literacy or the topic of the day.  They might also be good for starting discussions with library instructors, campus faculty, administrators, etc. 

Have you seen these videos?  How have they been useful?  What do you think of them?

"Information Literacy Toolkit."  by heyjudegallery

Scholarships for Undergraduate Students

Earning and maintaining scholarships can be a full-time job.  Students should treat their college studies as a full-time job.  The benefits can be huge.

Today I attended an open forum on scholarships.  The presenter talked about finding them, applying for them, and offering thanks for them.  The ISU Scholarship Office put on this forum.  They suggested that students talk with parents and grandparents to see if their workplace offers scholarships to their children.  Additionally, students can ask their departments of scholarships of which they may know of already. 

Many scholarships can be found on the internet.  Again, the Scholarship Office updates a list of outside scholarships, or rather websites that focus on searching and finding all kinds of scholarships available to anyone and everyone.  If you are a college student, consider a visit to your college's scholarship office and dedicating an hour a week to researching and writing scholarship applications.

In the library, you might look for The College Blue Book (LA226 .C685) to see what it can tell you about scholarships, grants, and fellowships.  This titles gets updated yearly and usually resides in a reference collection.  For this book there were two subject headings that looked relevant to this topic:

• Scholarships --United States --Directories.
• Student aid. 

Other titles worth considering:

• The College Board scholarship handbook.
• College student’s guide to merit and other no-need funding
• Scholarships, fellowships, grants and loans.

The library provides books that can help you write a good application as well.

Embedded Librarians in Course Management Systems (CMS)

Bernd W. Becker's article "Embedded Librarianship: A Point-of-Need Service" defines "embedded librarian" in the following terms:

Embedded librarian describes any librarian that takes an active role inside the online CMS classroom (237).

CMS stands for "course management system," which I have also heard as LMS or "learning management system."  These two acronyms describe the same thing, as far as I can tell.   Becker states: "The CMS provides a structure in which a librarian can become a part of the course" (237).  Using Moodle or Blackboard has become a more common method for reaching out to students for librarians.  Becker lists five reasons why the embedded librarian has been a bit more successful.  He argues that "this approach is addressing many of the learning style characteristics of the current generation of students," including the fact (Reason #1) that

1. "students start their research by looking on the Internet"
2. "library resources are typically remotely accessed"
3. "students expect library resources on the Web to be ranked"
4. "students are more likely to use a database if it is made familiar to them, and"
5. "students and faculty are interested in a point of need, practical approach to library research" (238).

I am working to embed myself in a few English composition classes this semester.  With the instructor's permission, I have added a research forum where students can ask me questions to get help with their research.  In the past, this has not inundated nor swamped me with requests, but typically there are one or two students who contact me for assistance, which has been very manageable.

In some sections I have proactively worked with students, offering suggestions on what they might do with their topic and which resources might prove useful.  In this instance, the instructor asked students to post a paragraph with complete sentences that described what they might be interested in writing about.  Knowing their topics, allowed me to conduct some preliminary searches in the catalog and sometimes in the databases.  Suggesting sources or potentially useful keywords for searches can be well received by the students.

Below is the full citation of the article:

Becker, Bernd W.  "Embedded Librarianship: A Point-of-Need Service."  Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian 29.3 (12 August 2010): 237-40.

"Sokollu Mehmet Paşa Camii" by Bradamant on Flickr.com

Studies about College Students, Libraries, and Information Literacy

A friend of mine, who used to be the library director here at the ISU Library, shared the following link to an article from Inside HigherEd: "What Students Don't Know."  It confirmed a lot that I already knew, experienced, or suspected.  Students hardly know where the Library is, rarely ask for help from a librarian (even though it would help them immensely, ease their anxiety, and increase their efficiency), often overestimate their (re)search skills, rely entirely too much on Google, apply Google search statement logic to database searching, do not search Google effectively, and do just enough research to get by or to "satisfice."

The article mentioned that librarians and faculty are partly to blame.  Librarians sometime overestimate the "digital natives" abilities, sometimes intimidating them further.  Faculty look at librarians as good for finding sources but not good at conducting research.  Steve Kolowich writes a good article here, citing several studies that back up the claims listed above.  He writes: "The most alarming finding in the ERIAL studies was perhaps the most predictable: when it comes to finding and evaluating sources in the Internet age, students are downright lousy."  What can we do as librarians to help students?  How can we get them to ask us for assistance beyond locating the restroom?  We can help students with research.

Students could benefit from instruction on how to use Google, so they can understand how it differs from the academic databases:

Throughout the interviews, students mentioned Google 115 times -- more than twice as many times as any other database. The prevalence of Google in student research is well-documented, but the Illinois researchers found something they did not expect: students were not very good at using Google. They were basically clueless about the logic underlying how the search engine organizes and displays its results. Consequently, the students did not know how to build a search that would return good sources. (For instance, limiting a search to news articles, or querying specific databases such as Google Book Search or Google Scholar.) (Kolowich)

Perhaps we can ask that classes come to the Library for more instruction, maybe we can visit their classroom, share contact information and handouts, or maybe we could even ask to be embedded in the course management software, i.e. Blackboard or Moodle.  Moreover, we can smile more frequently at the reference desk and be more approachable. 

With more students working another job and/or dealing with family responsibilities, librarians need to be practical in working with students.  Librarians can tout their skills to students by telling them they can teach skills and strategies that will help them save time and become more efficient with their research.  Give some tips that will make the research process less frustrating.  Kolowich references one of the studies to support the claim that librarians are more relevant than ever: "The evidence from ERIAL lends weight to their counterargument: librarians are more relevant than they have ever been, since students need guides to shepherd them through the wilderness of the Web."

If you are a librarian, read this article.

What can librarians do to garner more trust from students and faculty?  What can we do to increase the information literacy skills of the students?

"Shepherd and Baby Lambs." See FreeFoto.com. by Ian Britton.

LearningExpress Library: Great for Skill Development & Test Preparation

Here's a Prezi presentation I created to help people understand what kinds of great resources are made available through the LearningExpress Library.  All residents of Idaho may access these resources.

We often see students who wish to prepare for the GRE, the LSAT, and other graduate entrance exams.  Additionally, international students come looking for materials to help them get ready to take the TOEFL test, and it is nice to have easy-to-reference materials we can recommend that speak to all of these tests.  The Idaho Commission for Libraries has secured funding for the subscription of this resource over two years, so this subscription ends in November 2012.

LearningExpress Library Demonstration on Prezi

It also offers many computer, math, and reading tutorials.  Anyone interested in becoming a U.S. citizen can also prepare for the necessary test(s) with resources here.

Quotable Quotes: Information Literacy, Investigators, and Imagination

Mary W. George's book The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know seems to be very readable.  It ought to be a great textbook for freshmen and college students in general.  She works to make the research process less intimidating and convince students that it is doable, which it is.

"Most people tend to panic and falter in a formal setting such as a class- or work-related project imposed by an authority figure.  This is a variant of the fight- or flight instinct, the urge to understand versus the urge to duck.  Since the point of education is to learn and apply, it follows that ducking is not an option, whereas understanding is. Any discomfort you might feel with library research is perfectly normal--but so is your innate ability to master the tools and process" (14-15). 

Students do encounter moments of trepidation, speaking from personal experience, else why would procrastination continue to thrive as such a time-honored traditions?  How can students and researchers overcome their fears about research?  A simple answer is that we just need to go to work, discover the questions, and seek viable solutions.  George encourages a positive perspective--looking at it as a game.

"Whatever their characteristics, all research projects require imagination and the ability to turn an assignment into an investigation, a topic into an inquiry" (15).

I tend to think that students would enjoy reading this book, but I am a librarian who enjoys reading and thinking about this kind of thing, so take that for what it is worth.  George's writes this book better than most of the authors of my library science textbooks at any rate.  She helps to demystify the process with a relaxed style--definitely not formal and stiff.

With my Spanish-speaking background, I traveled to Guatemala as a BYU student one summer to conduct some research.  One of the gentlemen I met there had cable television, so he was rather well-to-do, and he was even working on a university degree at the time.  Anyway, he would call me "Spencer, el investigador" after the TV show more commonly known as "Spenser: For Hire."  Yeah, I got that a lot in elementary school when the TV show aired originally.

Still, I like the idea of approaching research as a private investigator.  A problem comes up, a solution needs to be found, so questions need to be asked.  Sometimes it helps if you can develop strategies for solving certain types of problems, and sometimes the informants (databases, for example) are reluctant to divulge information they have.  Knowing how to ask questions (construct search statements) proves to be valuable, yielding desirable results.

Incidentally, no relevant results from the TV show came back when I searched for images labeled for reuse within the Google Advanced Image Search.  Check out some of the following if you are interested:

• spencer for hire Google images search
• spencer for hire Google search

Tragically, I do not recall having ever seen these TV shows, so I did not even know the main character spelled his name with two s's. 

Statistical Abstract: Great for Students Who Need Statistics

In helping a student at the reference desk a few days ago I could not find some statistical information.  He wanted information on cruises, like how many people go each year and how that has changed in the last four years.  I could not find the information he needed, but when I asked a colleague they were able to pinpoint some information rather quickly.  This government documents librarian googled "economic census" +cruise, which returned some good results. 

The Statistical Abstract of the United States added a table on the cruise industry a few years ago, so it shows data from 2003 to 2007.  Sometimes it's good to be reminded of this great resource.  Other sources that might be useful regarding cruises:

• Data Detectives
• Cruising: It's All About You--Market Research
• Census Bureau: 2002 NAICS Definitions (483 Water Transportation)

Information Literacy Textbooks for Undergraduates

I am in the process of proposing an experimental information-literacy course. Part of this process entails choosing a textbook. Following are some candidates for an information-literacy textbook:

   1. Badke, William B. 2008. Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog. 3d. ed.  New York: iUniverse. Table of Contents: Welcome to the information fog -- Taking charge -- Database searching with keywords and hierarchies -- Metadata and the power of controlled vocabularies -- Library catalogs and journal databases -- Internet research -- Other resources and case studies in research -- Learning how to read for research -- Organizing your resources to write your paper -- Tips on research writing. (213 p.)
   2. George, Mary. 2008. The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Table of Contents: Introduction to research as inquiry -- From research assignment to research plan -- Strategy and tools for discovery -- The fine art of finding sources -- Insight, evaluation, argument, and beyond. Description: xiv, 201 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
   3. List, Carla. 2005. Information Literacy and Technology, 3d. ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
   4. Mann, Thomas. 2005. The Oxford Guide to Library Research, 3d. ed. New York: Oxford.
   5. Palmquist, Mike. 2003. The Bedford Researcher. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
   6. Quaratiello, Arlene Rodda. 2010. The College Student's Research Companion: Finding, Evaluating, and Citing the Resources You Need to Succeed. 5th. ed. New York: Neal-Schuman. Table of Contents from 4th edition: Mastering research basics -- Decoding database searches -- Locating books -- Finding periodicals -- Exploring reference sources -- Selecting electronic resources -- Navigating the World Wide Web -- Preparing a flawless bibliography. Description: xvi, 168 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
   7. Taylor, Terry. 2007. 100% Information Literacy Success. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar.
   8. Tensen, Bonnie L. 2007. Research Strategies for a Digital Age, 2d. ed. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.

Other information-literacy books that might be worth looking at, particularly for librarians and for those needing to understand legal research:

• Susan E. Beck and Kate Manuel.  2008.  Practical Research Methods for Librarians and Information Professionals.  New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
• Cohen, Morris L.  and Kent C. Olson.  2007. Legal Research in a Nutshell, 9th ed. St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West.

If you know of any other information-literacy books worth using, please share them in the comments box.  Do you use any of these titles?  Which ones?  Why?  Let me know what you think.

Teaching Instructors and TAs How to Incorporate Information Literacy in their Classrooms

Esther Grassian, a respected and well-known information-literacy librarian, at UCLA, has created a Libguide to help instructors and TAs teach their students to become information literate.  The Libguide offers exercises and information that can be used directly in the classroom--see the tabs on the Libguide.

She has also co-authored two editions of the following book with Joan Kaplowitz: Information literacy instruction : theory and practice.  The ISU Library has this book: Call Number ZA3075.G73 2009. 

Ms. Grassian, thank you for your dedication to information literacy and librarianship.

Need a Shorter URL?

 For so many, this is old information, but it still comes in handy on occasion.

Do you ever cringe at seeing interminable website addresses (URLs)?  If you ever need to shorten up a URL, just go to Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/.  It will assign a shortened website for you that you can share more easily with others.  You do not even need to sign in or pay for this service.  By the way, URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. 

How have you found the Tiny URL to be helpful?  When do you use it?  Have you ever found it problematic?

I have seen instruction librarians stick a tiny URL to the back of their business cards that they then hand out to their classes, especially if they have created a specific resources (pathfinder or Libguide) page for that particular class.  It diminishes the amount of confusion for students, and they can find the page again later--as long as they don't lose the business card, I suppose.  : )

Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities in the Information Literacy Classroom

Ted Chodock and Elizabeth Dolinger's article "Applying Universal Design to Information Literacy: Teaching Students Who Learn Differently at Landmark College" discusses some ideas for helping students with AD/HD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities. The define their terms upfront and explain how Universal Design (UD) can apply both to architecture and the classroom. To them active-learning strategies facilitate UD in the classroom: "Instead of simply engaging students and breaking up lectures, active learning methods become a way to reach the variety of learners in the classroom" (30). This makes sense.

Of worthy mention, they explain and provide examples of nine Universal Design principles in their article. Let me highlight just a few. First, "equitable use" in the classroom could mean that a course guide be provided in an online format as well as in print. "The Web-based version allows students with dyslexia and others who learn better aurally to use a test-to-speech screen reader to access the content." It also allows visually impaired students to increase the font size (28).

"Principle 2: Flexibility in Use" encourages active-learning methods, which can help those with attention difficulties. Mix things up with group, demonstration, lecture, and independent activities. To get their attention, also try previewing and viewing an agenda periodically throughout the class, noting when certain objectives have been accomplished. Goals that correlate directly to an assignment give students more reason to engage (28-29).

Spelling search terms can also even things up for those with dyslexia, not to mention a large number of students who have always had a spell-checking function available to correct their mistakes. Along these lines, the authors suggest that handouts, printed or otherwise, be written in a sans serif font, such as Arial or Trebuchet, and that any writing on a blackboard or whiteboard be done with print letters. Cursive or fancy writing may be particularly difficult for those with dyslexia. Besides, the large majority of students will be able to interpret print letters more readily (28).

Finally, "Principle 4: Perceptible Information" deals with clear communication. They make some good points:

Two other applications of principle 4 are using few words in giving directions and presenting information in multiple formats. Just as including too many databases and search strategies can be counterproductive to memory, so can giving detailed instructions that assume a shared knowledge base. Instead, succinct instructions using fewer words provided in sequential order are more effective. Finally, examples of presenting material in multiple formats include using online video clips to illustrate concepts, emphasizing the increasing availability of audio and video content in databases and other electronic resources, and linking multimedia screencasts to Web-based course guides. (29)

It seems that academic librarians spend a lot of time adopting or looking into new technology. Understanding the why's and wherefore's can be useful, and this article begins to address some of these reasons. They also talk about why half to a third of an instruction session should be given for students to practice searching the resources just demonstrated. Students benefit from this opportunity to search, make mistakes, and ask for help from an expert (29).

Consider reading this article and coming back to discuss it here:

Chodock, Ted, and Elizabeth Dolinger. "Applying Universal Design to Information Literacy: Teaching Students Who Learn Differently at Landmark College." Reference & User Services Quarterly 49.1 (Fall 2009): 24-32. Print.

New Books in the Library

Most academic libraries buy books. Yes, they often buy lots and lots of books in order to support ongoing research. Depending on the discipline, some fields of study publish more books than others. For example, hundreds of titles get published in English, history, art, philosophy, political science, and so on. Generally speaking, the hard sciences, such as biology, medicine, engineering, mathematics, do not publish quite as many books. These disciplines tend to publish their research findings predominantly in scholarly and peer-reviewed journals.

In many cases, patrons of academic libraries can browse some of the new books in a reading room. (Admittedly, not all new books go onto the "New Books" shelf. Typically, the most attractive or eye-catching titles go on the "New Books" shelf.) Some professors like to view the recent acquisitions in the Library, especially if they have helped with the selection of the titles.


New books can also be browsed online in many library catalogs. Below is a link to a tutorial that shows how to browse new books with the Eli M. Oboler Library's catalog:
New Books in ISU's Oboler Library. Another link to this tutorial can be found on the Eli M. Oboler Library Tutorials site.

The tutorial suggests that students can browse new book titles to discover potential research projects. It seems that deciding on a topic remains one of the biggest problems students face in the research process. If they wait too long, then they will not have enough time to research the topic, they will not become as interested, and they final result may not be quite as polished.

On the other hand, browsing the new books might introduce them to a subject that piques their interest. If they go and check out a new book, then they may only need to go and find a few more sources, thus saving them time. This strategy could save them time, especially if they utilized the list of references (the bibliography) within the book. A simple title search could save time, where a keyword search might take a bit longer. Additionally, like I often express in teaching situations, if they find a "new" book they like, they can go to the shelf where that book will be located after it is no longer "new" and look around to see other books on that same topic, thus expediting the search process even further.

Embedded Librarian: Working in the Course Management System

For the first time, I am working as an embedded librarian this semester. I met the class on the second day they met. I have given them instruction in the Library. Now I am offering assistance with research by monitoring a discussion forum with their course management system (CMS). (We use Moodle.) My first post alerted them to recent multimedia tutorials I had created, as well as some older ones. In checking the forum today, no student had asked me any questions about research or asked for help, so I decided to offer a quick search tip, which appears below; this post.

Students tend to wait until the last few days before an assignment is due, before they really begin their research and writing. When this happens they do not have time to ask for assistance, or they might be embarrassed. Sometimes librarians have gone home for the day or the reference desk has closed already by the time they think to ask for help. Perhaps some of these tutorials and tips can be useful for them, since they can be accessed at any time. As long as they think to look at some of these resources, it could be useful for them.

Like other CMS software programs, Moodle allows the instructor to send a mass email to everyone in the class. Perhaps I should take advantage of this function to alert students to the resources they have available to them. Who know? Maybe they will be appreciative of a reminder to conduct their research and actually get an earlier start on it.

Do you have time-tested techniques for reaching students at their point of need? What do you do?

Tip: Did you know you could expand your results with an asterisk or a question mark? This can be helpful if you need more results.

For example, if I were searching for information on prescription drug abuse, I could "truncate" each word to get more results. Ex: prescri* and drug* and abus*. This tells the database to search for variations of the different words: prescribing, prescribe(s), prescription, drug(s), druggie, abuse(s), abusing, abusive, etc. When your search returns many results, this strategy is not recommended, but when you are getting too few results, then it may be helpful.

Note: the asterisk (*) is the truncation code used in the majority of databases (Ebscohost, LexisNexis, ProQuest, etc.). The question mark (?) serves as the truncation code in the Library catalog. Therefore, pigment? would return records with the following words: pigment(s), pigmented, pigmentation, pigmenting, etc. Truncating back to "pig*" would not be so helpful, since it would return results about "pigs" the animal, about humans acting like pigs, about guinea pigs, about skin pigments, etc. in addition to painting with pigments, etc.

Teaching Undergraduate Students--Attitudes

Before a recent class I asked the students what their instructors do to make their classes more interesting. One student at the back of the class piped up: "They let us out early." Perhaps I should have laughed and joked along, but this answer deflated me a bit and did not seem to help improve my attitude regarding teaching on that day.

Admittedly, in the last month I have felt more pressure and taught more classes, which may have contributed to my too-serious attitude. Yet, classroom experience is not always positive for one reason or another. Following is a list of possible reasons why library instruction sessions may not always be so wonderful:

• Library instructor is not adequately prepared.


• Librarian feels overworked = not enough librarians or staff.


• Library instructor is trying out some new activities or methods.


• Students evince negative attitudes regarding library instruction.


• Student(s) have already received instruction in the library and know all there is to know already.


• Students have not chosen a topic for their research project.


• Students and/or instructors have not had enough sleep.


• Class takes place at a time when many are low on blood sugar = lunchtime.


• Class period occurs when many are drowsy (afternoon) or just waking up for the day.


• Students do not like reading, researching, and school in general. They may not value education or understand why they are still going to school.


• Students may only be around to get the degree, rather than learn.


• Student may be experiencing personal or family problems.

It seems that focusing on the negative really breeds a downward spiral as far as performance and attitude goes. Sometimes I sense negative feelings from individuals in the classroom, and I let it get to me more than I ought to do. What should a teacher do? Should they ignore negative comments? Students can and sometimes do sabotage instruction.

Last weekend I heard someone talking about teaching--that teachers need to have positive attitudes. I needed to hear this, because I had begun to focus on students and all of their perceived faults. While some students may have less than desirable attitudes, that does not mean instruction should suffer. Consider some of the following suggestions to remain positive during the class:

• Smile. : )


• Look around the classroom and make eye contact with as many as you can.


• Move around the classroom. This helps students pay attention more easily and show you are not afraid of them. Don't hide behind a podium or lectern.


• Insert some appropriate humor periodically.


• Ask students to explain to their neighbor something you have taught. Let them ask questions afterward.


• Find a friendly face or two and feed off of their positive energy.


• Share examples of how the content can be applied to life or various situations.


• Tell students how the content will be useful to them in their lives. This sounds the same as the previous point, but I believe it's slightly different. Telling students what they will learn at the beginning of class can sometimes be useful--just make sure you teach them what you said you would. Sharing examples throughout the class can make it come alive.


• Do something you like during the class. If you like music, literature, or sports, maybe you can find opportunities to demonstrate a search on a topic of your interest if that is what you are doing.

Anyway, in my office I have a whiteboard with Post-it notes on it. It adds some variety with the different colors, but that is beside the point. In workshops I have taught on active learning or teaching-related issues, sometimes I like to ask participants to write down descriptors of their favorite teacher. Invariably, one or more participants (usually the majority) says their best instructor was enthusiastic about the material. Sometimes they use the word "passionate" or some other variation of the idea.

Other students will say the teacher that impacted their lives the most cared about them. All instructors, including library instructors, need to remember these things once in a while, especially if they intend to make a difference in student lives. Yes, I definitely need a reminder once in a while.

Facilities as Recruiting Points

A week or two ago I learned about a study that discovered the importance of facilities in recruiting prospective college students to campus. I needed that information again today, so I thought I'd share it with other in case they had not heard about it already:

The Impact of Facilities on Recruitment and Retention of Students
by David Cain, Ph.D. & Gary L. Reynolds, P.E.

Yesterday I attended a workshop on creating an emergency survival kit for the workplace, and the presenter happened to be one of our campus recruiters for the College of Technology. In fact one of his other recruiting colleagues also attended. As the Coordinator of Instruction I am also involved with outreach and coordinate tours and instruction for students in local high schools. Anyway, I thought to share one of our promotional brochures on the Library with him and all the other campus recruiters, reminding them not to forget about the Library in their conversations with prospective college students. Additionally, I invited them to work with me to schedule tours of the Library. Student opinions of the Library can influence their enrollment decisions as suggested in the above-mentioned article.

It interests me that attending a workshop introduced me to new people who gave me some new information and ideas on how I can help recruit college students, plus some tips on emergency kit items.