Search

Prior to March 2020, New Brunswick Libraries at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (RU) were focusing on two important instructional partnerships. Namely, the sustainability of a longstanding relationship with the Writing Program (WP) in the School of Arts and Sciences and the development of a new collaboration and The Equal Opportunity Fund (EOF). In the WP, each semester, there are 50+ sections of an undergraduate writing course, Research in the Disciplines, with over 90% requiring in-person information literacy (IL) instruction. Also, nearly 300 traditionally under-represented students participating in the federally funded (EOF) program were expected on campus for their First Year Experience Summer Seminar to be followed in the Fall 2020 by the RU 1st Seminar. With the advent of COVID 19 in New Jersey (the epicenter of the virus in the US) RU went completely remote. This new normal has forced us to demonstrate agility in ways not previously possible. In fact, the new environment has propelled us to achieve a type of service that had been many years still ahead of us. Prior to COVID 19 we were looking to update traditional in-person one shot IL sessions while employing the use of complementary online tutorials. Now, more flexible types of library interactions are being offered, various Learning Management System capabilities are being utilized, and librarians are able to be embedded in creative new ways. This presentation will highlight on-going efforts to design and assess this new customized virtual approach to teaching IL in these two programs.

Student employment on campus can be one of the best predictors of academic success. There are many implied benefits for students working in the libraries, including greater understanding of library resources, as well as proximity to services and people with expertise. This poster will present the findings of a study about undergraduate student workers employed at a major university Research Library. The authors surveyed approximately 350 student workers, and received 120 responses and 64 completed surveys. The survey gathered information about undergraduate student workers, including who they are and how they engage with university clubs, organizations, and partnering units, such as residence halls and tutoring centers. The authors will investigate the library contribution to the undergraduate experience of student workers. They will investigate if there is a correlation between academic success (perceived or real) and working in an academic research library. Further the authors will address whether working in an academic research library helps students form community or provides them with valuable peer networking opportunities. This project���s raw data was evaluated using Qualtrics. The results of this survey will inform new programs and activities to enhance the experience of the undergraduate library student worker and provide additional mentorship and professional development.

In response to budgetary crises, academic libraries are often forced to relegate traditionally professional librarian duties to student assistants, paraprofessionals, and other support staff. Among the newly transferred roles is collection development including the analysis, selection, and maintenance of materials and resources. Review of the literature reveals that this trend has substantially grown over past years; however, the scope and level of responsibility of the transferred projects has been limited. Additionally, the literature severely lacks mention of the roles played by graduate students working in academic libraries, while pursuing their MLIS degrees. The objective of this session is to explore the use of graduate student assistants working toward their MLIS degree in the conduction of complex collection evaluation, selection, and analysis from the perspective of one graduate student assistant and one professional academic librarian. The attendees will learn about the benefits of involving graduate student assistants in the collection development process, in terms of the need to acquire hands on experience prior to first-time professional employment, issues of current subject specialty knowledge, curatorial objectivity, and professional development in the mentor-mentee relationship.