Tag Archives: outreach

Formalizing the Informal: Making Conversations with Faculty Count

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by Jenna Pitera
Instruction Librarian
Union College

My colleagues joke that I am always selling. I am an instruction librarian at a small liberal arts college that calls itself ‘very relationship based.’ When I came to Union College in Upstate New York, in a barely post-pandemic world, I had an uphill battle to climb when I tried to communicate the utility of our library to the campus. During the pandemic, the library was a rockstar amongst campus services, finding innovative ways to continue services and instruction in a remote environment, but despite my colleagues’ immense efforts, many faculty had moved to a research instruction model where they sprinkled how to find research articles into their standard lessons, using the methods they employ in their own research rather than working with librarians. “I just teach my students what I do” said an economics faculty member to me when I asked him how he works with the library. “I know how to find articles.”
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Poetry, Pizza, and Pandemics: How an Academic Library Successfully Moved a Popular In-Person Student Engagement Program Online

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Stephanie Evers Ard
Social Sciences Librarian
Marx Library
University of South Alabama

Abstract

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced most libraries to move their services online, the University of South Alabama’s Marx Library was quick to respond. The library already provided robust online services, and library workers understood their crucial role in providing remote academic support to faculty and students. However, the Marx Library also recognized that providing social support was just as essential. This article describes how the Marx Library Student Engagement Committee rallied to provide students with a much-needed sense of community by developing online programming–specifically, by moving the library’s very popular semesterly “Poetry & Pizza” open mic events online. The author details how the library successfully planned two fully virtual poetry events by identifying and collaborating with relevant campus departments and community organizations, adapting available technology to create a safe and comfortable place for student expression, and drawing upon a strong social media presence. The author also evaluates the Student Engagement Committee’s successes, reflects on the problems they encountered, and offers suggestions for other libraries hoping to plan similar online events.

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“Relaxed and Refreshed, Prepared to Learn”: Experiences With Virtual Yoga Programming in the Academic Library

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By Chelsea Humphries
Liaison & Collections Librarian
James A. Gibson Library
Brock University

Abstract

Wellness initiatives on academic campuses are growing, and they are increasingly important as mental health declines and mental health problems continue to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic libraries are the spaces in which wellness initiatives can be brought to the frontlines, meeting students in the spaces within which they study and conduct their research. As a liaison librarian and a yoga instructor, my goal has been to humanize the academic library space with yoga as a mindful movement practice supporting wellness initiatives on campus and the library’s strategic priority of supporting student success. Upon remotely starting my role as a liaison librarian during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started a virtual Library Yoga program intended to support students and the broader university community as they cope with the stresses of working remotely. I offered both synchronous and recorded yoga sessions during the fall and winter terms. To ascertain the impact and value of this program, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, I conducted a web survey among Library Yoga participants (n=14). Survey results indicate that the program reduced stress, fostered a sense of community, challenged library anxiety and misperceptions of the profession, and provided an opportunity for library outreach. It also fostered relationships among organizations on campus during a time when remote work has challenged our abilities to coalesce as a community. These investigations confirm that the library is more than its spaces and collections; it has the ability to set the tone for academic experience with its services, staff, and the community it brings together. Continue reading “Relaxed and Refreshed, Prepared to Learn”: Experiences With Virtual Yoga Programming in the Academic Library →

Necessity as a Liberator: A Decade of Creating Low-Cost Exhibits for Outreach and Engagement in a Science & Engineering Library

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By Paulina Borrego (pborrego@library.umass.edu)
Science & Engineering Librarian, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7624-6440

Editor’s note: This article presents ideas for library spaces that may be unworkable during pandemic-related closures, but may inspire creative outreach at a time of of budget and staff constraints.

It is said necessity is the mother of invention. It may also be true that the greatest gift of necessity may be the resulting liberation necessity allows. When things need to get done rapidly, there is little time to fret, over-think, or keep in line with previous conventions. Alternative avenues are explored without the luxury of dwelling on things. Solutions that might have been out of the realm of consideration are now possible.

Such was the case when the Science and Engineering Library became responsible for its exhibits. Prior to 2007, exhibits at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Science and Engineering Library were under the purview of the W.E.B Du Bois Library Exhibits Committee. The Exhibits Committee found, planned, and funded exhibits in the main library, as well as in the branch Science and Engineering Library. Due to a change in committee charge, the Science and Engineering Library found itself maintaining its own exhibits space on a modest budget with limited staff.

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Strategies for Staying Sane While Providing Research Support and Instruction in High Enrollment or Research-Intensive Programs

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By Julia E. Rodriguez
Nursing, Health Sciences & Scholarly Communications Librarian, Oakland University
and Elizabeth R. Bucciarelli
Health Sciences Librarian & Liaison Librarian Team Leader, Eastern Michigan University

Abstract

Managing the duties of an academic liaison librarian can be a challenge, especially when the liaison departments have high student enrollments. Two librarians from separate comprehensive Michigan universities assigned to the schools of Health Sciences and Nursing, representing ~4,000 students per semester and with 37 years combined experience, discuss a myriad of strategies used to provide instruction and research support both in-person and online for high enrollment programs and tips for keeping sane.

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