When a Veteran is a Novice: A New Constituency and a New Opportunity
1. When a Veteran is a
Novice: A New
Constituency and A New
Opportunity
Diane Campbell, Associate Professor-Librarian
2. Rider has an enthusiastic veterans’ program.
In 2009, the Rider Veterans Association was started to better
support our student veterans. In 2013, two veterans put a flag in
the campus mall for every soldier who has died since 10/7/2001,
more than 6,800 of them.
3. Veteran Entrepreneurial Program
Goal is a complete business plan
Open to all veterans
The program is longer than most others
In-person classes
4. Program Structure
Two three-hour workshops
Six weeks of classroom training
One year of mentoring
Class size is limited to 15 students
5. Best Practices Research
“The only thing that continuing education students and
instructors have in common is that they have nothing in
common; their diversity creates unique information literacy
challenges.” (Lange, Canuel,& Fitzgibbons, 2011, p. 70).
“Perhaps the biggest challenge is working with a population that
has greater or different needs than those commonly served by a
university library. The range of educational backgrounds and
academic preparedness is wider than in a typical university
course.” (Hoppenfeld, Wyckoff, Henson, Mayotte,& Kirkwood,
2013, p. 301).
6. Best Practices
Embed the librarian
Active learning (hands-on)
Explicit recognition of diverse backgrounds
and library anxiety
Detailed resources online
7. Our Veterans
Twelve men, two women
Ages 24 to 59
Seven African-Americans, 3 Hispanic-origin,
4 White, non-Hispanic-origin
One High school grad, 5 “some college,” 2
Associate’s, 3 Bachelor’s, 3 Master’s
Eight have owned or do own their own
business
8. Business Research Workshop
Scheduled the week before classes began
Three hours, 6:30 to 9:30 pm with 1
scheduled break
Cover material that is normally covered in 7
1.5 hour instruction sessions
Handout & Research guide
9.
10.
11. “What is most valuable about this
workshop?”
-hands on going through the different tabs
-the guide that was built along the lines of the course, the
amount of material was perfect
- although information overload, great source of information for
business/plans research
- the instruction was excellent and easy to grasp and the
computer classroom made for an excellent enrollment to explore
the material
- access to all the research sites and the ability to reach out to a
professional that is willing to help
- information is power and this was an excellent source of
information. These are invaluable lessons for market research
- all of it
12. “What is least valuable about this
workshop?”
- n/a
- the cold room
- n/a
- n/a
- a lot of information in a short period of time
- too much to learn in too little time. Enough
time for fundamentals though.
- everything was valuable
13. “What other improvements would
you recommend in this workshop?”
- maybe breaking the class into two night sessions versus one
- more time
- perhaps this workshop should have been 1 hour longer
- resource videos of instruction would be helpful, not only as
prep for class, but a resource to visit on any occasion to polish
materials
- maybe adding an additional session in order to get into more
detail about research
- I just needed more time to learn the system and ask questions
- Longer, at least 6 hours
14. Lessons Learned
Create tutorials, these are motivated learners
Timing of the session needs to be during
rather than before classes
Or embed into class sessions
16. References
Hoppenfeld, J., Wyckoff, T., Henson, J., Mayotte, J., & Kirkwood, H.
(2013). Librarians and the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans:
Helping disabled veterans with business research. Journal of Business
& Finance Librarianship, 18(4), 293-308.
Lange, J., Canuel, R., & Fitzgibbons, M. (2011). Tailoring information
literacy instruction and library services for continuing education. Journal
of Information Literacy, 5(2), 66-80.