Portfolio Goals & Updates, 2018
Goal 1 Accomplishments:
- Hosted a library information table at fall and spring professional development days, educating faculty about resources and ways that we can support them.
- Taught classes during professional development days on Billington Library Resources & Services.
- Hosted orientation sessions for new and adjunct faculty.
- Embedded in three online classes - 2 sections of Composition 1 and 1 section of Writing and Grammar IV hosting a week-long discussion board about library research in each class. I also tried out a new library assignment in these courses, an online spreadsheet that would take students through the steps in the research process.
- Visited faculty meetings and talked about library services and resources for the Foreign Languages, English for Academic Purposes, History and the Political Science departments.
- Worked with faculty to create and update the following library research guides:
- Created a default library resources guide that could be used in all online Canvas courses
- Created a video on how to navigate the library databases
Goal 2 Accomplishments:
- Took WEB 125, Digital Video Tools, a one credit course and learned how to use Adobe Premiere. Created 3 video projects for this class - a self-portrait, a titles and clip project, and a how-to video on how to get started with library research.
Goal 3 Accomplishments:
- Co-chairing a library outreach and marketing group which is looking at new ways to provide and deliver services to students and faculty.
- Made connections with the Marketing department, working with them and many other library faculty and staff to have a month-long marketing campaign in February. Media and outreach included:
- 3 campus front-page stories
- Open House Event on Valentine’s Day which included information about library resources and services, music, food and drink and was covered by the campus newspaper.
- Over the last two years, our marketing and outreach efforts have helped us to realize a 40% increase in student interactions in the library and a 100% increase in library instruction sessions.
Goal 4 Accomplishments:
- Completed my leadership project for the Kansas Community College Leadership Institute, which focused on library outreach and marketing.
- Attended the Summer Institute on Distance Learning and Instructional Technology
- Attended the Distance Library Services Conference, attending sessions on digital tutorial tools, learning management systems, marketing, open educational resources and change management.
- Plan on attending the Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section conference in April.
By the Numbers
Current number of LibGuides: 107
LibGuides Views this year: 27,216
Current number of active tutorial videos: 7
Video views:2,215
Portfolio Year 5 Reflections
As I close out my fifth year of my portfolio, I have a clearer view of my place in the library and the direction I want to go with my career. Though I focused much of my portfolio on distance library services, I was also able to learn more about marketing and outreach and leadership skills. Working towards my portfolio goals and being able to focus on these three things have helped me to become a better librarian.
I applied for and was awarded a sabbatical for the 2018-2019 school year. In many ways this will serve as the capstone for my portfolio. The library has a responsibility to make our resources, services, and personnel available to our users regardless of their physical location. My sabbatical will be used to analyze, evaluate and improve the library’s services to our distance users, near and far.
Though not one of my core job responsibilities, finding ways to strengthen our services to distance learners has been a key interest of mine for quite some time which is why I have made it the main focus of my portfolio. I understand the challenges our students face in spending extra time on campus outside of class and I continue to see our numbers of students in online classes increase.
The 2016 Standards for Distance Learning Library Services from the Association of College and Research Libraries lists sixteen essential library services for distance students (“Standards for Distance Learning Library Services”). We are addressing many of these items through well-developed services and policies already in place. I will focus my sabbatical on the essential services that need more development. These include developing a plan for information literacy instruction for online users, additional ways for students to access support from librarians, both asynchronously and in real-time, and ways to promote and market our online services to students and faculty.
The final products of my sabbatical will be:
- A proposed plan for library services to distance users now and in the future
- Development of instructional tools such as tutorials, learning modules, and other instructional materials for access through the Library's website and inclusion in the learning management system.
- A plan of action for offering embedded librarians and library resources in the Canvas Learning Management System as a service to faculty and students.
- A marketing and outreach plan to increase usage of online library services by both students and faculty.
At the end of this sabbatical, the library will be better able to offer services and resources to all students, regardless of their location. There will also be a plan for integrating library resources and librarians into Canvas so that more students are aware of and have access to the support that the library offers.
References
“Standards for Distance Learning Library Services.” Association of College & Research Libraries
(ACRL), 29 Sept. 2016, www.ala.org/acrl/standards/guidelinesdistancelearning .