BCU summer conference presentation
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The document discusses the Birmingham City University library's student mentor program. It provides background on the program, which was piloted in 2012-2013 and involves student mentors providing peer support to other students. The mentors receive training and ongoing support from library staff. The goals of the program are to engage students and support learning through an iterative, personal, and partnership-based approach. The library hopes to formalize and expand the peer support initiatives in the future.
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BCU summer conference presentation
- 1. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Library and Learning Resources Supporting learning and teaching through student engagement Pritisha Patel – Student Library Mentor Helen Ryba – Assistant Liaison Librarian (Learning & Teaching) Phil Stant – Liaison Librarian (Learning & Teaching) Christiana Titahmboh – Lead Liaison Librarian (Learning & Teaching) Felicia Towobola – Student Library Mentor
- 2. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Background Student Academic Mentoring Student Academic Partners Student Entrepreneurship and Collaborative Projects Student Jobs on Campus
- 3. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Library Pilot 2012/13
- 4. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Bids Selection & Appointment Induction & Training Promotion Report Feedback & Evaluation Partnership Working On-going Support Method
- 5. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Results
- 6. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity City South Campus Mary Seacole Library • Iterative • Personal • Specific • Partnership
- 7. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Iterative • Better not (necessarily) bigger
- 8. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Um, actually…
- 9. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Personal • Engagement - what does it mean and how can it happen? • It’s about individuals • Peer - to - peer
- 10. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Specific • To fulfil the needs of the students at this campus: – Health students placements short of time use databases
- 11. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Partnership • Guidance • Ownership • Peer-to-Peer
- 12. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity@MyBCU www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Library and Learning Resources Student Mentors City North Kenrick Library
- 13. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity@MyBCU www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity
- 14. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity@MyBCU www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity
- 15. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity@MyBCU www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity
- 16. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity@MyBCU www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity
- 17. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity@MyBCU www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity
- 18. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Student Mentoring: Experience oExpectations oGoals oAchievement oSkills gained
- 19. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity In Action • http://youtu.be/Oz5QlPQ4KXM
- 20. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity Moving forward Formalizing peer support Provide the right partnership and training Students will become advocates for the library
- 21. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity • Consolidate the various Library-student partnership initiatives • Put structure in place for an early start Student Rovers Student Researchers Student Mentors Student Shelvers
- 22. Find us @bculibrary www.facebook.com/birminghamcityuniversity …and a lot more of this
Editor's Notes
- The purpose of the Student Academic Mentoring Partnership: To encourage students to take advantage of peer to peer support. Design an initiative through equal partnership between staff and students to address areas within the activities of the university where students could benefit from supplemental support Support to be delivered by Student Mentors The aim is to enhance the learning experience and to create a sense of ownership and pride in the University
- One on One Academic Assistance Mentoring/Coaching with the aim of : Creating a partnership between Library staff and a competent year 2/3 Health student Delivering 1-1 student-student mentoring on using library resources for year 1 students who need this extra support.
- We put in the bid and it was successful. Advertised and held interviews for a highly knowledgeable and competent student mentor who is able to use the range of printed and electronic library and information resources available at the Seacole Library; willing to provide peer-peer support and available for 2 hours a week. The support will take the form of a 1-1 tutorial with a student in the basics of library searching skills Training and staff introductions were provided for the appointed student Online booking system was made available Student created a promotional leaflet and contributed to a blog. The sessions were advertised through plasma screens, Library iCity pages. Part of the partnership includes ongoing support and improvements through reflection, feedback, monthly meetings between the Mentor and Librarians. Students seen were encouraged to complete the feedback sheet which together with the mentor’s reflection and evaluation of the project formed part of the final report which was submitted. The process was repeated again for the 2013/14 academic year.
- 100% satisfaction Very encouraging feedback
- The project has continued for a second year, both in the Mary Seacole Library for the Faculty of Health and at the Kenrick Library which serves many subjects. At the Mary Seacole Library a bid was submitted for increased hours and mentors.
- Now in the 2nd year, the Library student mentor project has had some positive feedback and some points to develop – not all of which we are able to act upon but some improvements have been made with increased flexibility of the sessions for example. We also now have two mentors each with the same hourly allocation. In applying for 2 different students it was envisaged that two individual students would be available at different times. We opened it up to students outside of the Health Faculty in order to avoid placement issues and increase availability.
- Bigger can be better. You do need the support of the institution and the cross fertilization of different projects. Student partnership schemes have been running at Birmingham City university since 2009. A lot of opportunities to compare projects across the university with monthly workshops and an internal conference. These schemes appear to work best when run in conjunction with an academic course.
- Many research papers demonstrate that student engagement improves student experience and this develops on an individual level, so behind the NSS scores are the individual experiences on which to concentrate efforts. Personal responses are expressed in the feedback sheets: how students feel.
- During the pilot project the fact that Health students have specific needs became more apparent. They go on placement for weeks at a time. They require very specialist information and in our faculty many of the courses have a requirement or are developing a requirement, that the student need to become familiar with searching the specific health databases – most notably Cinahl via Ebsco in their first year. They are in general good library users throughout the year with short courses and several intakes. There are currently around 7,000 students in the faculty. The Library can get over 70 enquiries per week and up to 25 hours of requested tutorials so there is a genuine need for mentors.
- There are many partnerships: between the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and the Library; a partnership between the student mentors/employees and library staff and partnerships between the student mentors and mentees. To offer money and opportunity to mentors so that they can offer advice to mentees. The advantages for the mentees can include working with an experienced peer mentor. For mentors the advantages include payment, training, and enhancements to their CV. Other features to bring forward from this project include the examine increasing promotion of the scheme through academic courses in the faculty and also increasing the ownership of the project by the student mentors as to how they may wish to promote themselves and engage further with the mentees in terms of booking/roving etc.
- Setting up Mentors at City North
- Similarities and Differences from MSL
- Their remit
- Publicity and how the system works
- Roving and One-to-Ones
- The Feedback
- My experience as a student mentor has been an extreme rewarding experience. Few things I can note: The opportunity to pass on the general knowledge and skills I had gained over the three years of my psychology course. I had the opportunity to increase my own knowledge about the resources available to me from the library, and how to access and utilise these resources. It enabled me to develop my communication skills; to be precise and effective when giving information out. I enjoyed the benefits of being a member of staff as well as a student. I have developed the desire to help people achieve the best they can within education; potentially discovering the area of psychology I may want to pursue. I have strengthened my ability to related with peers and colleagues both in a professional and casual manner. As a result of the experience, new doors of opportunities have opened up to me. For example, I am now mentoring students within my faculty in preparation for exams taking place during summer time.
- Students have always informally consulted with each other and sought advice from each other and will continue to do so. The piloting of student library mentors has shown that there is a place for a more formalised approach to the student – student peer support. This formalised approach ensures that provided with the necessary training and the right partnership students are able to support each other better through the sharing of more accurate information on how to make the best use of the library and its resources – paper, online and staff resources. Furthermore, Student mentors will become advocates for the library when they are both on and off duty. Student mentors will develop those sought after transferable and employability skills and the exposure gained from attending and presenting at conferences such as this one is invaluable. In addition, the pilot has opened up other student engagement possibilities which were not considered before. These include the use of student shelvers, rovers, researchers and involving students in Library outreach initiatives.
- Future plans are to consolidate our initiatives for partnership working with students so as to better manage and to make the most of these partnerships Offer students the opportunity to gain employment with the library and to support the day-to-day operation of Library and Learning Resources. This support will be provided through library stock management work and assisting library users in the Library by: providing support with the management and tidying of the stock, assisting library users in the library and referring to other sources of help where necessary; providing feedback to library staff on the students’ perception of Library & Learning Resources services; and providing feedback and contributions for making the service an effective service. The main lessons learnt from the pilot are: having a structure in place as early as possible at the start of the academic year and…
- promotion, promotion, promotion We are already working on these issues for 2014/15.