Shared methods for success Tracy Gabridge MIT Libraries Associate Director Research and Instructional Services tagmitedu SBU Goals Stony Brook University will implement innovative strategies to enhance undergraduate and graduate education to develop worldrenowned academic programs th ID: 412580
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Slide1
Evolving the Liaison Program
Shared methods for success
Tracy Gabridge
MIT Libraries
Associate Director, Research and Instructional Services
tag@mit.edu
Slide2
SBU Goals
Stony
Brook University will implement innovative strategies to enhance undergraduate and graduate education to develop world-renowned academic programs that foster student productivity and success.
We
will renew our commitment to excellence in research and scholarship throughout the academic enterprise and find new and innovative ways to support and reward faculty and students for research and creative activity.We will increase access to Stony Brook University, including the number of undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented minority groups, while enhancing student quality and implementing strategies to improve retention and graduation rates.Stony Brook University will have a global impact through focused and well-resourced engagements with select international partners in critical areas of education and research, and by increasing the number of students who engage in international programs.Build and maintain a state-of-the-art energy-efficient campus with outstanding facilities, student support services, an IT infrastructure and an advancement effort that meets the programmatic, physical, aesthetic and cultural needs of our students, faculty and staff.Make Stony Brook University the region’s undisputed leader in improving economic growth, health and quality of life as it becomes one of the top 20 public research universities in North America.Slide3
Guiding Principles
Promote Academic Engagement
We are committed to participating in the entire life cycle of the research, teaching, and learning process that emphasize critical thinking and innovative forms of expression. We identify priorities that guide strategic efforts to foster academic collaborations and cultivate enduring partnerships to enable student, faculty, and research success.
Build, Preserve, and Provide Access to Rich and Diverse Collections
We equip students, faculty and researchers with the means to reach their fullest potential by ensuring an equitable and balanced collection development profile that (a) reflects and anticipates the University's teaching, research and clinical requirements; (b) deploys seamless and flexible technology in discovery of relevant information in all formats; and (c) implements sustainable policies and procedures to ensure the availability and integrity of information resources now and into the future.Develop Responsive Library Spaces for Diverse User CommunitiesWe design library space to increase productivity and develop communities of learning. We benefit curricular and research initiatives with library facilities, technologies and services and we design flexible/multi-purpose spaces in a high technology environmentFoster an Innovative Culture of Learning and AssessmentWe encourage and enable all staff to contribute to the development of the library as a learning organization that acquires knowledge and responds appropriately to a rapidly changing environment. Learning organizations (a) create a culture that encourages and supports continuous employee learning, critical thinking, assessment, and risk taking and innovation of new ideas, (b) allow experimentation, and value employee contributions, (c) learn from experience and experiment, and (d) disseminate the new knowledge throughout the organization for incorporation into day-to-day workflows.Slide4
How do we, the Stony Brook University Libraries, position ourselves to deliver the expertise, services, and resources that will be differentiators in SBU’s academic work and success
?
How do we shift the focus away from the work of librarians to that of scholars and to develop engagement strategies based on the needs and success indicators of our academic
departments
https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinkinner/2200500024Slide5
A case study in two partsSlide6
Part 1
1. Developing a focus on usersSlide7Slide8Slide9
Photo diary study - 2006Slide10
Who did it? And how?
About a dozen librarians involved in design and interviews
Study design came from here:Slide11
What we learnedSlide12
What we learned
Raise awarenessReduce barriers to servicesFocus on customer service
Close the skills gaps for undergraduates
Assist with personal information managementSlide13
What came next?
Usability tests, e.g. OPAC
Standards collections survey and interview
NIH publishing study
Space utilization studiesDigital scholarship studyBioinformatics program assessmentTriennial surveySlide14
Services built after focusing on needs
Personal Content Management services
Research Data Management services
Copyright, scholarly publishing services
Renovation planningAdditional group study spacesService improvements (loan times, delivery options, etc.)…Slide15
ProfDEH
pixabay.com
Commute by bicycle = benefit multiplier by 4Slide16
User studies = benefit multiplier x 5!
Your focus is automatically outside of the libraries
You build relationships with the community
You increase their awareness of services and expertise
You learn about their needs so that you can tailor and/or evolve the services you provide The studies and results are researchhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/salforduniversity/4011208734Slide17
Activity interludeSlide18
How do you currently learn about
how research and learning is done in your assigned communities? Slide19
In pairs or threes - What assumptions do you have about how your communities create and manage
their information? Or: what would you like to know about the research of your community?
Examples:
I
believe that of all my faculty who receive funding from the NIH know how to achieve compliance and are compliant on all of their grants meeting the open access requirements. My students learn best about credible information sources when I teach them directly in the classroom. I’ve always wanted to know if the undergraduates in my community know how to find and use primary sources in their studies.Slide20
How can you challenge your assumptions about your communities?
Generate possible user study experiments Examples
:
G
et a list of faculty and NIH grants from the office that supports sponsored programs, interview faculty and their supporting staff about how they apply for funding and how they manage the requirements of the funders. Query the NIH database about their past grants and see if the requirements have been met. Slide21
Report out
one potential study per group
https://www.flickr.com/photos/umich-msis/6172745365/Slide22
Part 2
2. Supporting each other on the journeySlide23
The old way at the MIT Libraries
Engineering and Science
Libraries
Rotch Library
Dewey Library
Humanities and Music LibrariesSlide24
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildphotons/ Slide25
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefangmonster/352439602/#/Slide26
Developing a networked approach
Find commonalities across all disciplinesIdentify universal services and approaches
Make those things easy so that liaisons can concentrate on the specialSlide27
Universal supports, 1
st year
Characteristics of a successful liaison
program
New faculty toolkitSelector toolkitRegular meetings for all liaisonsCommon departmental goals, customized for each liaisonSlide28
More universal supports
Sample instructional materials, e.g. drop in slides and scripts for teaching about GIS 101 topics,
Mendeley
, open access…
Easy links to see what your community is asking via email and chatOpen access paper recruitment toolkitLists of activities that fellow liaisons have done with their communitiesMaterials used in marketingChecklists for database sponsorsDistributed blog story writers, with template emails to send to communities pointing to the story.Reducing time on service desks, streamlined processes for central collections purchases, investing in self-help documentation, knowledge bases, template emailsSlide29
Examples of engagement
Co-authoring books
Providing competitive intelligence for a research program
Teaching TAs to evaluate student assignments for information skills
Bringing together documentary filmmakers across the university to collaborateSitting in on journal discussion groups with a goal of creating a new classHelping a faculty member conceive of how to structure a database to hold the data for their projectSlide30
More…
Working with lab administrators to demonstrate the value of co-locating researchers in a single building through publishing patterns
Doing original research and writing with faculty in areas of overlapping interest
Finding sources of large data sets to be repurposed in research
Doing a technical analysis of RSS feeds to enable faculty to manipulate incoming publishing data for their researchWorking with faculty to create meaningful conference programs, identifying speakers of relevance, etc.Slide31Slide32Slide33
New faculty contact practices
100% of new faculty contacted 67% result in a face-to-face meeting61% of new faculty have contacted their liaison librarian in their first year.
92% of new faculty are aware of their liaison librarian, compared to 72% of faculty overall.Slide34
How do
CoPs
spend their time?Slide35
Liaison quote
“The … department meetings have been a valuable space for sharing information within the
department and across
the organization. It provides the broad perspective that a liaison needs to represent
the libraries to the DLCs. The Community of Practice structure works well for more detailed discussions about collections and outreach. The structured approaches to approaching new faculty, Open Access paper recruitment and other efforts supports outreach.”Slide36
Activity interlude - 2
Creating a new faculty toolkit at SBU
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbconnect/8720270495/in/album-72157633450419442/Slide37
W
hat kinds of things would you want to accomplish by contacting new faculty?Slide38
W
hat activities would help you accomplish those goals?Slide39
How could you take it up a notch – what could you do that would make your contact with new faculty truly outstanding or special?
E.g. What c
ould increase the rate at which faculty would want to have a face-to-face meeting with you?Slide40
What of these things could be systematized so that the concepts could be reused?Slide41
You’ve gotten a great start!Slide42
How do we, the Stony Brook University Libraries, position ourselves to deliver the expertise, services, and resources that will be differentiators in SBU’s academic work and success
?
How do we shift the focus away from the work of librarians to that of scholars and to develop engagement strategies based on the needs and success indicators of our academic
departments
https://www.flickr.com/photos/colinkinner/2200500024Slide43
Thank you!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/benmarvin/3552123084Slide44
MIT’s new faculty toolkit
List of new faculty provided each summerMinimum expectations set (all new faculty contacted, aim for a face-to-face meeting (try more than once), learn about them)
Email samples for initiating the contact
Things to do to learn more about the faculty member
Look at CV, check for news articles, find grants, learn about their library from their previous university, dissertation title, etc.Questions for discussion during the meeting including brief elevator pitches (e.g. responses for “I never go to the library anymore”, open access, data management, etc.)Information to take with youData gathered afterwardsContacted? Face-to-face? Any unmet needs identified?Slide45
About MIT
The community
11K students, 60% graduate, 40% undergraduate
1K faculty
9K staff/researchers~70% of students in science and engineering (problem-set focus)Highly decentralized departmentsStrong, common value systemLibraries:~170 Staff~14 FTE liaison librarians – about 27 people with liaison roles.Librarians are not on a tenure track~$24M budget