ALA TechSource Workshop: How to Build a Sustainable Embedded Librarianship Program
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This document discusses how to build a sustainable embedded librarianship program. It begins by outlining common complaints about traditional one-shot library instruction programs, such as not reaching enough students or not having enough impact. Embedded library instruction can address these issues by integrating librarians into courses throughout the curriculum. The rest of the document discusses different models for embedded librarianship, including librarian discussion boards, building course content, tutorials, and high-touch co-teaching. It also addresses challenges such as the time commitment required and how to negotiate expectations with faculty. Overall, the document promotes embedding librarians strategically within the curriculum in meaningful and well-designed ways.
![CHESNUT, MARY TODD, THREASA L. WESLEY, AND
ROBERT ZAI. "ADDING AN EXTRA HELPING OF
SERVICE WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE A FULL PLATE:
BUILDING AN EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN PROGRAM."
PUBLIC SERVICES QUARTERLY 6.2/3 (2010): 122-129.
“We modified our traditional ‘just in case’ desk service
by reducing the hours librarians would be available by
20–25 hours a week. Each librarian had his/her service
schedule also reduced by three hours per week to
encourage more production of Bb [Blackboard]
Librarian resources and to increase interaction with
students within Bb.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/techsourceembedfarkasfinal-150423145021-conversion-gate01/85/ALA-TechSource-Workshop-How-to-Build-a-Sustainable-Embedded-Librarianship-Program-89-320.jpg)
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ALA TechSource Workshop: How to Build a Sustainable Embedded Librarianship Program
- 1. HOW TO BUILD A SUSTAINABLE EMBEDDED LIBRARIANSHIP PROGRAM MEREDITH FARKAS PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOR ALA TECHSOURCE http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/wa/WAVASbike_kevf.jpg
- 2. HI! I’M MEREDITH CURRENTLY: FACULTY LIBRARIAN AT PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE 2011-2014: HEAD OF INSTRUCTION AT PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY 2008-2011: HEAD OF INSTRUCTION AT NORWICH UNIVERSITY 2005-2008: DISTANCE LEARNING LIBRARIAN AT NORWICH UNIVERSITY
- 3. I ALSO DEVELOPED AND TEACH LIBR 220 EMBEDDING THE LIBRARY INTO THE FABRIC OF HIGHER EDUCATION FOR SAN JOSE STATE’S INFORMATION SCHOOL
- 4. COMMON COMPLAINTS ABOUT LIBRARY INSTRUCTION PROGRAMS • There is no way we can reach the number of students we need to given our staffing • We feel like what we are currently doing is not having enough impact on students’ information literacy • We feel like there’s no intentionality to our instruction program
- 5. ALL OF THESE CAN BE ADDRESSED BY EMBEDDED LIBRARY INSTRUCTION https://www.flickr.com/photos/liamngls/413522957/
- 7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/imgeorge/4810034948/ Not our students
- 13. IS A COLLECTION OF ONE-SHOTS REALLY AN INSTRUCTION PROGRAM AT ALL?
- 14. MATTHEW, VICTORIA, AND ANN SCHROEDER. "THE EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN PROGRAM." EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY 29.4 (2006): 61. • Librarians embedded in the LMS • Discussion board in the classroom • Contributing instructional content • Being available to our students in the classroom, at their points of need
- 15. MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH EMBEDDEDNESS • Created a librarian discussion boards in first classes in the Masters of Military History and Masters of Diplomacy programs • Offered timely instruction/tips • Provided research assistance • Expanded program after a semester • Limitations of the technology made monitoring a nightmare • Shunted majority of reference traffic to me • Only a few classes had really active discussion boards
- 16. BEING THERE ISN’T ENOUGH…
- 17. BEING THERE… AT THE RIGHT TIMES AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE CURRICULUM
- 18. DEWEY, BARBARA I. "THE EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN: STRATEGIC CAMPUS COLLABORATIONS." RESOURCE SHARING & INFORMATION NETWORKS 17.1-2 (2005): 5-17. • Embeddedness = deep collaboration • Partnerships with faculty and staff in other units across campus • Librarians getting out of the library and being a more integral part of campus life
- 19. CHARACTERISTICS OF EMBEDDED LIBRARIANSHIP • Proactive instead of waiting to be asked • Relationships with faculty; shared goals • Librarians as partners • Customized, high-value contributions to the curriculum • Being where our patrons are • Deep understanding of patron needs & curriculum
- 21. BEING EMBEDDED DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN… BEING PRESENT IN THE CLASS THROUGHOUT THE TERM CO-TEACHING BEING ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS IN THEIR CLASSROOM VIA DISCUSSION BOARD IT IS ABOUT MEANINGFUL, WELL-DESIGNED LIBRARY PRESENCE AND/OR INSTRUCTION AT JUST THE RIGHT TIMES IN THE CURRICULUM.
- 23. WHERE CAN WE BE MOST VALUABLE IN THE CURRICULUM? HOW CAN WE SCAFFOLD THE DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS THROUGHOUT THE CURRICULUM?
- 24. FIRST STEPS TOWARDS EMBEDDEDNESS • Build relationships with faculty • Get to know the curriculum • Get to know students and their “pain points”
- 26. ARE WE PARTNERS? ARE WE “AT THEIR SERVICE?”
- 27. HOW I’VE BUILT RELATIONSHIPS • Being present • Being useful to faculty • In ways not necessarily related to info lit • Building momentum with low-hanging fruit
- 28. PERCEPTIONS TAKE TIME TO CHANGE
- 29. LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE CURRICULUM • Talk to faculty and department chairs • Collect syllabi and research assignments • Serve on faculty committees • Curriculum mapping
- 30. IT CAN’T JUST BE ABOUT YOU
- 31. SEEK OUT OPPORTUNITIES TO COLLABORATE ON COURSE/ASSIGNMENT/CURRICULUM DESIGN • Program review • Curriculum redesign • Course redesign • Frustration with student performance in x class • Grant opportunities where we can pay instructors to collaborate
- 32. ADVANCED DESIGN PROCESS • Led by Center for Online Learning instructional designers for individual departments • Focused on backwards design • Library gets four hours • 2 hrs. integrating library resources in classes • 2 hrs. research assignment design
- 35. AFTER THE ADVANCED DESIGN WORKSHOPS • Positive feedback from participants • Lots of subsequent collaboration with faculty who participated in the workshops • Quarterly library workshops on assignment design for faculty • Hampered by low attendance
- 36. GET TO KNOW YOUR STUDENTS • Assessment of library instruction • Assessment of student work in key courses • Reference desk transactions • Focus groups
- 37. REDESIGN OF HI 209 HISTORIOGRAPHY @ NORWICH • Saw lots of students coming in with this Paris Peace Conference project where they had to represent the interests of a particular country at the talks • Started conversations with faculty teaching it. • They were moving it to the sophomore level and wanted to redesign the curriculum • Taught information literacy in partnership with the museum and the archives over the course of four well-timed sessions with embedded assignments that allowed them to practice what they learned
- 38. IS EMBEDDED LIBRARIANSHIP ABOUT KILLING THE ONE- SHOT? • Yes and no • Putting instruction into the right places in the curriculum • Making sure that instruction is built upon and reemphasized/repeated
- 39. IS EMBEDDED LIBRARIANSHIP ABOUT DOING A LOT MORE TEACHING? • Maybe • Many other options too • Tutorials • Building course content • Train the trainer
- 40. IF THE GOAL IS TO EMBED INFORMATION LITERACY INTO THE CURRICULUM, OUR INVOLVEMENT MAY SOMETIMES BE INVISIBLE
- 41. TUTORIALS • Videos • Guide on the Side • Interactive tutorials • Online worksheets • Can be used instead of or in addition to face-to-face instruction
- 53. BUILDING COURSE CONTENT OR SUPPORTING ITS DEVELOPMENT • Lectures (in online classes) • Lesson plans • Activities • Assignments • Train the trainer
- 55. HIGH-TOUCH EMBEDMENT • Co-teaching • Teaching many sessions to the same class • Being present in every class session
- 56. VAN EPPS, AMY AND MEGAN SAPP NELSON. "ONE- SHOT OR EMBEDDED? ASSESSING DIFFERENT DELIVERY TIMING FOR INFORMATION RESOURCES RELEVANT TO ASSIGNMENTS."EVIDENCE-BASED LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PRACTICE 8.1 (2013): 438- 449. "Frequent, short library instruction sessions produce an increased use of high-quality content. Similarly, the sections with multiple library interactions show more use of periodicals than websites."
- 57. BOWLER, MEAGAN AND KORI STREET. "INVESTIGATING THE EFFICACY OF EMBEDMENT: EXPERIMENTS IN INFORMATION LITERACY INTEGRATION."REFERENCE SERVICES REVIEW 36.4 (2008): 438-449. "As the level of librarian embedment increased students' performance on the research component of the rubric increased as well." "Although the improvement in IL among students in WMST 3305 was astounding in some ways, the resource cost is not sustainable. Unless resourcing approaches are found to permit that kind of sustained, immersed embedment, we would recommend that type with caution."
- 58. REASONS TO DO HIGH-TOUCH EMBEDMENT • Key course in the curriculum • Political reasons • To sell the idea of embedment, show what is possible • To train the faculty member to cover the same content in the future
- 59. QUESTIONS?
- 60. GETTING IN THEIR FLOW
- 61. IF THIS IS THEIR CAMPUS...
- 62. IF THIS IS THEIR CAMPUS... Library
- 63. MANY LEVELS OF “EMBEDDING” • Macro-Level Library Courseware Involvement* • Micro-Level Library Courseware Involvement* • Molecular-Level Library Courseware Involvement • Embedment in the curriculum itself • * From Shank, J. D. and N. H. Dewald. 2003. Establishing our presence in courseware: Adding library services to the virtual classroom. Information Technology and Libraries 22(1):38-43.
- 64. MACRO-LEVEL LIBRARY INVOLVEMENT • One library presence for distance learners in the learning management system • An external web page • A presence in the LMS • A course shell in the LMS in which every student is enrolled • A module/widget in every classroom • Could be a link or embedded content. • Could be in every course or on the LMS home page
- 67. MACRO-LEVEL LIBRARY COURSEWARE INVOLVEMENT • Pros • Easy to maintain • No collaboration with faculty needed • Good for universally-useful information, learning objects and resources for online students • Cons • Generic, not tailored to specific courses or programs
- 68. MICRO-LEVEL LIBRARY INVOLVEMENT • Library presence targeted to specific courses or programs • Program/subject-specific presence or guide • Course-specific presence or guide • Learning objects to support specific programs
- 69. MICRO-LEVEL LIBRARY INVOLVEMENT • How does the content get into the classroom? • One library presence that links to subject-specific content embedded automatically into each classroom (through the LOR) • Subject/course-specific content embedded automatically into each classroom • Faculty member must link to subject/course-specific content • Librarian is given course-designer access
- 81. MICRO-LEVEL LIBRARY INVOLVEMENT • Pros • More targeted to student research needs • Can put more of a human face on the library (subject librarian) • Cons • Requires significantly more effort to build and maintain • Depending on the approach, may require significant programming and/or significant librarian involvement to embed the content into the LMS • Sometimes requires more collaboration with faculty
- 82. BEST PRACTICES FOR EMBEDDING IN THE LMS • Don’t make faculty lift a finger • Make it visible • Develop close relationships with the staff who administer the LMS & who support online teaching • Depending too much on the LMS can cause issues when the institution adopts a new one • Try to put a human face on the library (personal connection)
- 83. LIBRARIAN DISCUSSION BOARDS IN THE LMS • Two models • Generic “Ask a Librarian” discussion board • Librarian in the main class discussion board • Strategies for decreasing time commitment • Maybe not all term • Save questions and answers for later use or FAQ • Monitor via RSS or email alerts • Faculty members must highlight or integrate the ask a librarian board • In studies, even students who didn’t use the discussion board found it a positive addition
- 84. OTHER PLACES TO PROVIDE REFERENCE/INSTRUCTION • Department offices • Student centers and other places students work on- campus • Tutoring centers, writing centers, computing centers, etc. • Residence halls
- 86. ISSUES WITH EMBEDMENT • Takes a long time to achieve such a collaboration • Time-consuming • Doesn’t scale • Choice of deep vs. broad • Often leads to increased reference traffic (Bennett & Simning, 2010) These are not terrible problems to have, but they’re still problems
- 87. HEARN, M. R. 2005. EMBEDDING THE LIBRARIAN IN THE CLASSROOM: AN INTENSIVE INFORMATION LITERACY MODEL. REFERENCE SERVICES REVIEW 33 (2): 219-27. “It is essential for the librarian to be able to set aside blocks of time so that proper attention can be given to these course requirements. Reducing the number of hours assigned to reference desk coverage or other scheduled duties should be considered prior to starting an embedded collaboration. While any change in schedule or duties will have an impact on other members of the library staff, the benefits of an intensive collaboration to the students, the library, and the campus will need to be weighed against these stresses.”
- 88. BARTNIK, LINDA, ET AL. "WE WILL BE ASSIMILATED: FIVE EXPERIENCES IN EMBEDDED LIBRARIANSHIP." PUBLIC SERVICES QUARTERLY 6.2/3 (2010): 150-164. “Her full-time presence ceased in fall 2007 when she was promoted to head of the Reference Department… She believed initially that maintaining an office and scheduled office hours in both buildings would be possible. It was not. The loss of consistency, of reliable office hours and presence, damaged the relationship developed between librarian and both faculty and students over the previous three years.”
- 89. CHESNUT, MARY TODD, THREASA L. WESLEY, AND ROBERT ZAI. "ADDING AN EXTRA HELPING OF SERVICE WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE A FULL PLATE: BUILDING AN EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN PROGRAM." PUBLIC SERVICES QUARTERLY 6.2/3 (2010): 122-129. “We modified our traditional ‘just in case’ desk service by reducing the hours librarians would be available by 20–25 hours a week. Each librarian had his/her service schedule also reduced by three hours per week to encourage more production of Bb [Blackboard] Librarian resources and to increase interaction with students within Bb.”
- 90. IF YOU’RE COMMITTED TO EMBEDMENT WHAT WILL YOU STOP DOING?
- 91. BEST PRACTICES FOR EMBEDDED LIBRARIANSHIP • Get administrator/supervisor buy-in • Communicate with colleagues • Focus on high-impact places in the curriculum • Try out some services as a pilot first • Still difficult to stop a pilot service
- 92. BEST PRACTICES FOR EMBEDDED LIBRARIANSHIP • Clearly negotiate the librarian’s role with the instructor • Moderate expectations with instructor & students • Plan ahead for busy times (ebbs and flows) • Assess, assess, assess
- 93. Selective Bibliography Baseema Banoo Krkoska, Camille Andrews, and Jim Morris-Knower. “A tale of three disciplines : embedding librarians and outcomes-based information literacy competency in business, biology, and communication.” In Kvenild, Cassandra, and Kaijsa Calkins, Ed. Embedded Librarians: Moving Beyond One-Shot Instruction. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2011. Bennett, E., and Jennie Simning. 2010. Embedded librarians and reference traffic: A quantitative analysis. Journal of Library Administration 50: 443. Booth, Char. “Project Curve Part 4: Mapping Concept to Curriculum.” Infomational. http://infomational.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/project-curve-part-four-mapping-concept-to-curriculum/ Bowler, Meagan, and Kori Street. “Investigating the efficacy of embedment: Experiments in information literacy integration.” Reference services review 36.4 (2008): 438-449. Brasley, Stephanie Sterling. “Effective librarian and discipline faculty collaboration models for integrating information literacy into the fabric of an academic institution.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 2008 114 (2008): 71-88. Brower, Matthew. “Chapter 1: A Recent History of Embedded Librarianship: Collaboration and Partnership Building with Academics in Learning and Research Environments.” in Kvenild, Cassandra, and Kaijsa Calkins, Eds. Embedded Librarians: Moving Beyond One-Shot Instruction. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2011. Del Bosque, Darcy, and Kimberly Chapman. “Your place or mine? Face-to-face reference services across campus.” New Library World 108.5/6 (2007): 247-262.
- 94. Dempsey, Lorcan. “In the Flow.” Lorcan Dempsey’s Weblog. 2005. http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/000688.html Dewey, Barbara I. “The embedded librarian: Strategic campus collaborations.” Resource Sharing & Information Networks 17.1-2 (2005): 5-17. Farkas, Meredith G. 2008. Embedded library, embedded librarian: Strategies for providing reference services in online courseware. In The desk and beyond: Next generation reference services., eds. Sarah K. Steiner, M. Leslie Madden, 53-64. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. Fister, Barbara. “Fostering information literacy through faculty development.” Library Issues: Briefings for Faculty and Administrators 29.4 (2009). Hoffman, Star and Lilly Ramin. “Best practices for librarians embedded in online courses.” Public Services Quarterly 6.2-3 (2010): 292-305. Matava, Tobie, Dan Coffey, and Jeffrey Kushkowski. 2010. Beyond library walls: Embedding librarians in academic departments. Public Services Quarterly 6: 165. Moser, Mary, et al. “A More Perfect Union: Campus Collaborations for Curriculum Mapping Information Literacy Outcomes.” ACRL Conference. 2011. http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/national/2011/ papers/more_perfect_union.pdf Shank, J. D., and N. H. Dewald. 2003. Establishing our presence in courseware: Adding library services to the virtual classroom. ITAL: Information Technology and Libraries 22 (1): 38-43.