60. References
Allen, Seth. "Towards A Conceptual Map Of Academic Libraries' Role In Student Retention." Christian Librarian 57.1 (2014): 7-19.
Anthony, Kristin. "Reconnecting the disconnects: library outreach to faculty as addressed in the literature." College & Undergraduate Libraries 17.1 (2010): 79-92.
Carter, Toni M., and Priscilla Seaman. "The Management And Support Of Outreach In Academic Libraries." Reference & User Services Quarterly 51.2 (2011): 163-171.
Cook, Jean Marie1, jcook@westga.edu. "A Library Credit Course And Student Success Rates: A Longitudinal Study." College & Research Libraries 75.3 (2014): 272-283.
Deale, H. Vail. "Public relations of academic libraries." ILLINOIS (1958).
Fowler, Paul R., and Hunter R. Boylan. "Increasing Student Success And Retention: A Multidimensional Approach." Journal Of Developmental Education 34.2 (2010): 2-4.
Graham, John-Bauer. "Outreach programs beyond the immediate university community." Library management 26.3 (2005): 113-122.
Grallo, Jacqui D., Mardi Chalmers, and Pamela G. Baker. "How do I get a campus ID? The other role of the academic library in student retention and success." The Reference
Librarian 53.2 (2012): 182-193.
Hang Tat Leong, Jack. "Community Engagement–Building Bridges between University and Community by Academic Libraries in the 21st Century." Libri63.3 (2013): 220-231.
Kuh, George D., and Robert M. Gonyea. "The role of the academic library in promoting student engagement in learning." College & Research Libraries 64.4 (2003): 256-282.
Soria, Krista M., Jan Fransen, and Shane Nackerud. "Stacks, Serials, Search Engines, and Students' Success: First-Year Undergraduate Students' Library Use, Academic
Achievement, and Retention." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 40.1 (2014): 84-91.
61. Photo Credits
20th Century Fox Television
British Broadcasting Company
Warner Brothers, Inc
Sony Pictures Television
Marvel Comics
Lionsgate Television
Pixar
NBCUniversal Television
Universal Pictures
AMC Studios
Warner Bros. Television
https://www.uu.edu/photos/21307-raw.jpg
http://www.cwu.edu/university-advancement/sites/cts.cwu.edu.university-advancement/files/featured_banner_image/logo_bg_1.gif
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/north-canterbury/9382539/Rangiora-elderly-get-tech-savvy
http://targetaudiencemagazine.com/meeting-neil-gaiman-at-the-last-book-signing-the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ericejohnson/4723738589
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/85123059
http://www.sdsmt.edu/Admissions/Information-For/Non-Traditional-Students/
http://www.bu.edu/sargent/info-for-faculty-and-staff/
http://desklers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/students-safety.jpg
http://d34yb0xxah415b.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/SocialMedia-Marketing-PaceCo-Blog.jpg
http://explorecreaterepeat.com/articles/multidisciplinary-you
http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/gallery/central-washington-university-graduation/collection_8a31bea6-b3e3-11e1-8c19-0019bb2963f4.html
http://kylecassidy.com/librarians/
Editor's Notes
Let’s start off with these 3 CWU students on move-in day. They’re young and excited for what the future holds. But statistically speaking, at least one of them won’t make it to graduation. Fewer than 2/3 of all students who start college finish within 6 years. And that number is lower for at risk populations like first generation students, minority students, non-traditional students, and low-income students.
So why is student success and retention important? Well, the administrative answer is that it costs more to recruit new students than it does to retain the students we already have and that a university’s retention rate can affect performance based funding. So student retention affects our bottom line.
But I also want to take the broader view of student success, which is that students who finish college are more likely to be successful adults who make valuable contributions to society, which benefits everybody.
With so much emphasis on student retention, there’s more and more pressure for every institution to demonstrate their value. So what role does the library play in fostering student success?
Well, there’s the obvious answer. Libraries provide students with access to the books, databases, and other resources they need to be successful in their classes.
We all know that librarians are a valuable resource for helping students with research. But as many as half the questions asked at the reference desk are unrelated to library services. Many students see the library as a safe place for asking questions about the transition to college life, such as how do I register for classes or how do I log in to blackboard?
Another obvious service that the library provides is study space. For many students, the library is the only place they can go to get away from the distractions of everyday life and really concentrate.
But the library should also provide students with a place for collaborative study. One of the biggest advantages of the library is that it’s the only discipline neutral academic building on campus. It’s a place where students can interact with people from other majors and have cross-discipline conversations that encourage students to relate what they learn in one course to other aspects of life.
The library isn’t just a place for students to interact with other students, it’s a place where they can interact with adults. One of the biggest predictors of student persistence is casual, out of class, relationships with faculty and other knowledgeable adults.
The library is also a place where students can learn study skills and information literacy skills, either through a formal library instruction course, or through ad-hoc instruction.
Students who take library instruction courses report using those skills in other courses and tend to perform better on papers, have better citations, and graduate at higher rates.
So the library contributes to student success by providing them with resources, answering questions, giving them a place to study, and teaching them information literacy, right? Well, the truth is, it’s not that simple. There have been numerous studies trying to prove that library use increases student success, but most of those studies actually only show a weak correlation between library use and academic success. Now that’s not to say that traditional library services don’t impact student success, but it’s difficult to isolate the direct impact that the library has. It’s also difficult to distinguish between correlation and causation, since academically motivated students are generally more likely to use the library to begin with.
In 1993 Vincent Tinto wrote the seminal book on student attrition, called Leaving College. His findings, which have been reinforced by countless studies over the past 2 decades, indicate that best predictor of student success and persistence is how well the student integrates into college life, both academically and socially.
Put simply, engaged students stay. Students who feel a connection their instructors and peers, who feel validated as competent learners and who are comfortable using institutional resources and services are less likely to drop out. So while the resources that libraries provide are important, the biggest role we can play in fostering student success is helping students integrate into college life. And to do that we need to show students that the library is a welcoming and engaging place.
One of the best ways to get that message across is through New Student Orientation. Orientation is crucial for student integration. It’s the time when students are learning how to navigate their new environment, and forming their initial interpersonal relationships. It’s vital that the library play a role in New Student Orientation. It’s a chance for students to learn about the services the library provides, but even more importantly, it’s our best opportunity to show that the library is a fun and welcoming place where it’s safe to ask questions.
Because unfortunately, may people still think that this is what a librarian looks like.
When in reality, today’s librarians are just as likely to be pierced, tattooed, purple hair hipsters.
To help combat library anxiety, my library started a personal librarian program last fall. Each incoming student was assigned to a librarian to serve as their first point of contact with the library. We sent out emails to all our students a couple of times a semester, reminding them about how we could help them, encouraging them to contact us, and informing them about upcoming events.
To help put a face on the library, I created these librarian trading cards to replace our traditional business cards. The back of each card includes our contact information, superpower, secret weapon, catchphrase, and origin story, as well as contact information for the library. At new student orientation, every student receives their personal librarian’s trading card, and is encouraged to contact them. We also put the cards out at the circulation and reference desks for people to take. They’ve been incredibly popular and several other departments on campus have expressed jealousy.
Another way to reduce library anxiety is embedded librarianship. By getting out of the library and going where the student are we have the chance to promote our services to students who might not be coming into the library. You might do this by actually setting up a reference station in the SURC or building on campus, or by just going to events that students are at and getting your faces seen.
One sure way to get your face seen is by plastering it all over campus. This is Geoff, our learning and engagement librarian. When he started last fall I noticed that students would ask for that guy with the beard, or people would say, oh I met your new librarian, with the beard. So I wrote a blog post titled that librarian with the beard and created this image to introduce him. It was the most popular post ever on our blog and I decided to capitalize on that popularity by developing a marketing campaign based on it.
About a month ago I created 6 different versions of this poster with 6 different questions – some funny and some more serious – and put them all over campus. We’ve gotten quite a few comments about them, but for me the highlight was 2 weeks ago when Geoff was sitting in his office and a student came in and asked are you that man…with the beard…who can help me fix my word document? I’ve also been tweeting with the hashtag beardedlibrarian and using it to promote various services – like that librarian with the beard thinks you should come to tonight’s lecture.
And don’t forget about your student workers – they’re the best ambassadors the library has. Students who work in the library generally have very high retention rates due at least in part to the fact that they learn how the library is organized and how to take advantages of the services the library is offered. They’re also likely to pass that information along to their peers. Student workers are also great for spreading the news about library events, and at my library we’ve found that having students with us at our stations during new student orientation really helped to engage the incoming students.
Now that we’ve shown students that librarians aren’t big scary monsters…
…it’s time to show them that the library isn’t just a quiet building full of books.
I think that your waffle night during finals is an awesome idea and it seems to be incredibly popular.
One of our favorite finals week activities that students really love is bringing in therapy dogs for Paws and Relax.
Last spring I was checking twitter for mentions of Adams State and I noticed that one of the clubs on campus was posting about a “surprise” pillow fight to be held in the library during finals week. It turns out the group had been asking permission to do a pillow fight all over campus and they kept getting turned down so they decided it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. Our library director contacted the organizer and told him that as long as it didn’t go on too long we’d be absolutely thrilled to let them have a pillow fight in the library. We were actually pretty disappointed that it lasted less than 2 minutes.
We also try to hold events that you might not normally associate with a library, like monthly concert performances, which are open to students, faculty, and the community at large. I’ve talked quite a bit about student engagement, and I’d like to shift gears a bit and talk about community engagement.
In his 1956 article Public Relations of Academic Libraries, H Vail Deale asserted that a good relationship between a university and its surrounding community was vital for the success of both, and that library could contribute by welcoming anyone who wished to use its resources.
A good relationship with the community is especially important when you’re in a small, rural setting like Ellensburg, where the university has such a large impact on the local economy and where much of the community is composed of either potential students or alumni, or are related to somebody affiliated with the university.
Extending academic library privileges to the community has been shown to foster goodwill both for the library and for the university as a whole.
And library use by the community supports the university’s mission of lifelong learning and creates a benefit to society
I think the fact that you have a Friends of the Library group speaks volumes both about the library’s commitment to the community and to the community’s commitment to the library. Friends groups aren’t particularly common among academic libraries, but they’re a great way to encourage community involvement and build a potential donor base.
I also think that your annual library gala is a fantastic way to get the community into the library and showcase what the library has to offer. And it looks like a really fun event!
There are countless opportunities to engage with the community. You could have lecutre panels…
Books signings (though Neil Gaiman might be a long shot)
You could start a book club which could provide a great opportunity for students, faculty, and community members to all engage with each other in a casual environment.
You could provide career and job hunting services
Connect with potential students
Or provide computer and interneaccess t to the community
My library recently began a seed library, which is one of our most community focused initiatives. The kickoff event was wildly popular and over half of the seeds have been checked out. This service is especially valuable to our community because Adams State is located in a high desert environment where gardening can be particularly challenging. The possibilities for community engagement are limitless, but when planning services and events it’s important to consider the needs of your specific users – whether you’re talking about student, faculty, or community.
So how do you find out what your users needs are? Well, you could research it and discuss it with the staff…
But I find it much more efficient to just ask people what they need. I love doing focus groups and usability tests because it gives me a lot of insight into how different people use our services. It’s always fascinating watching a student use a website in a way that would never occur to me.
I also like doing less formal market research. Each week I post a new question on a whiteboard near the reference desk. I try to balance the serious questions with the fun ones, and it’s a really simple way to get a better idea of what our students and community need from us.
Our number one suggestion is always to keep the library open longer hours, but unfortunately we just don’t have the staff or the resources. However, last spring I advocated for keeping the library open until 2am during finals week and volunteered to stay myself. We just wrapped up our 3rd finals week with extended hours and the students have been extremely appreciative.
When you solicit feedback, it’s incredibly important to act on it. Even if you can’t implement an idea you should try to follow up with an explanation. We’ve been implementing so many suggestions that I created this form and printed them up 4 to a page. Every time we add a new service based on feedback I write the service on the form and put it up. It shows that we really do value feedback, and tells people how they can make suggestions.
Those of us who work in a library know how awesome our resources are and what amazing events we have, but that doesn’t do much unless everybody else knows, too.
It’s important that we show off what we’re doing.
I’m sure by now you’ve noticed that I love to use pop culture references, gifs, and memes. I’ve found that students really connect with them and if you can throw in a little humor and entertainment people are more likely to listen to what you have to say.
Social media is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to market library events and resources. I could easily spend a whole hour talking about the social media marketing I’ve done, but since I’m already straying a bit from my original topic… Let me just say that I recently developed a social media policy with formalized goals and best practices and I’ve found it to be incredibly useful in growing our audience and engagement.
Which is why it’s important to assess all your efforts to engage users so you can be sure that you’re providing the best experience possible.
One of my specific objectives for this semester was to hold an instagram contest and increase our followers by 15%. I put up flyers asking students to take a picture of themselves studying, tag the library and tag it with studyselfie. The randomly selected winner would get to reserve one of our group study rooms during finals week. We got 6 submissions, but our followers increased by 28% in just 3 weeks.
One of the reasons I think the instagram contest was so successful was that I put up flyers in all the study rooms as well as around campus. As much as I hate killing trees, the fact is that flyers still rule on college campuses and probably will for a long time. That’s not to say that social media and flyers are the only way to market to your users, though.
It’s important to remember that different user groups: community, non-traditional students, and faculty have different needs and may connect with the library in different ways. Social media and flyers might work best for connecting with students, but community members and faculty might be better reached by email.
To recap what we’ve discussed: the library’s role in student success has more to do with engaging students than with the specific resources we offer; library use can foster good will in the community; and if you’re providing great services you need to make sure everybody knows it!
Thanks for sticking with me from orientation to graduation…
