What Faculty Tell Us about How Our Collections Support Student

Learning

2011 Charleston Conference

Marcia ThomasIllinois Wesleyan University

Getting to the Heart of the Matter:

2,100 students, 191 Faculty

Curriculum in liberal arts, fine arts, and professional programs

Schools: Nursing, Theater, Art, and Music

Liberal Arts: 25% business majors

Illinois Wesleyan University

New building 2002

450,000 volume capacity

9 librarians

Collections Librarian and Information Literacy Librarian 2009

CARLI – statewide academic consortium

Ames Library

“Tying information literacy to a library materials budget: repackaging the formula to meet learning goals.”

Jenny Rushing & Dawn Stephen, Belmont U. Charleston Conference 2009

“Changing the way libraries and faculty assess periodical collections in the electronic age.”

Jenica Rogers, SUNY Potsdam. Against the Grain Nov. 2006

INSPIRATIONS

Ensure relevant and vital collections Ensure money used to purchase or provide

access to best possible resources for users and curriculum

Long term planning for collection management

Identify “core” resources for easy and continuous access, long-term maintenance or archiving

Faculty involvement critical to aligning collections with current curriculum

Challenge librarians’ assumptions

COLLECTION REVIEW

Shift format from print to online Prioritize expenditures for budget

planning Identify candidates for weeding &

cancellation Identify “legacy” and core titles Revise collection development policy

COLLECTION TASKS

Faculty interviews Record and document interviews Synthesize/analyze data from interviews

Report to departments and administration

METHODOLOGY

Library Advisory Committee

Free lunch!

Ask the experts

TESTING, TESTING…

http://www.erialproject.org

ERIAL Project: Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries

1. What are your fields and subfields of scholarship?

2. What professional associations do you belong to?3. Do you edit or review for any journals? If yes,

which?4. Which publishers are most important for your

field and subfields? Do you receive catalogs for these or other publishers?

5. What collections (physical or virtual) do you use that are outside of our own?

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS : Faculty interests and scholarship

1. What courses do you teach regularly?

2. Which courses do you teach infrequently?

3. What courses do you have in development? Please include courses you teach in interdisciplinary programs.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: Teaching

5. What are your overall pedagogical goals when developing assignments for your students?

6. Are our collections and resources relevant with respect to assignments?

7. Are there ways in which the library might support, or further support, your

goals and the work of your students?

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: Teaching

8. Are there any particular characteristics of those resources that are important for

teaching that course, or meeting the pedagogical goals of assignments and research projects?

9. Are there any particular characteristics that are important for teaching in your discipline

and interdisciplinary programs? 10. Are there resources we don’t have that we

ought to consider? Or areas of the collection that could be improved?

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: Teaching

What did I learn? Surprises? Confirmations?

What will I report back to the departments? 

How will this data inform impact my decision making about collections

and other liaison responsibilities, such as instruction? 

LIBRARIAN QUESTIONS

RESPONSES = 87%

Video Interlibrary Loan Format Information Literacy Faculty role in collection development Faculty awareness

PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS

“I think the utility of the interviews worked both ways: the faculty were directed to reflect on the library in an engaged way, and I was directed to ask them questions that I had pre-supposed the answers to. Sometimes my suppositions were right, and sometimes they were only what I wanted to think.

For their part, I believe these discussions opened doors of communication that will allow future conversations to occur more easily. I think we planted the seeds of how the library can impact pedagogy and student research habits.”

Karen Schmidt, IWU University Librarian

WHAT LIBRARIANS SAID

Follow up:Respond to requestsReport back

Phase II:  Revise collection development policy Revisit allocationWeeding Identify core resourcesSerials and database review

TO DO

Rushing, Jenny, and Dawn Stephen. “Tying Information Literacy to a Library Materials Budget: Repackaging the Formula to Meet Learning Goals.” Belmont University. Charleston Conference 2009.

www.katina.info/conference/2009presentations/Sat1015_Rushing.ppt

Rogers, Jenica. "Changing the way Libraries and Faculty Assess Periodical Collections in the Electronic Age." Against the Grain 18.5 (2006): 38, 40, 42, 44.

Marcia Thomas email:

mthomas@iwu.edu