Librarians go to Indianapolis!

Q: What do Augustana librarians do when they aren’t teaching library research skills, working at the Research Help desk, organizing displays and events, and contributing in other ways to the life of the campus community?

A: They travel and share their work at national library conferences!

Librarians Stefanie Bluemle, Amanda Makula, and Margi Rogal recently presented a poster, “The Joy of (Performance) Assessment,” at the biennial conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in Indianapolis. Drawing on Tredway Library’s recent shift from quantitative to qualitative assessment of information literacy outcomes in LSFY, their presentation outlined the process of prioritizing learning outcomes, designing performance-based assessments, and analyzing the results to acquire data that directly fuels improvement in librarians’ teaching. Stefanie, Amanda, and Margi advocate increased use of qualitative assessments, including performance assessment, among instruction librarians as a means to better evaluate student understanding of higher-level information literacy concepts. Their poster is currently on display on the 2nd floor of the library – come check it out!

Assessment in Action at Augustana

Augustana’s Library has been accepted as one of the initial participants in the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Assessment in Action program. The program’s goals include creating approaches, strategies, and practices that document the contribution of academic libraries to the overall goals and missions of their institutions. To that end, participants will be part of a one-year professional development program as well as carrying out assessment activities on their campuses. 75 institutions from 29 states and 3 Canadian provinces are participating in this cohort.

Augustana’s team, which consists of Sarah Horowitz (Special Collections Librarian, team leader), Mark Salisbury (Institutional Research), and Ellen Hay (Communication Studies and the CEC) will explore how students’ work with special collections materials affects their ability to think critically and develop intellectual curiosity. Special Collections works with over 700 students per year, including about 25% of the first-year class.

The official announcement is available from ACRL, as is more information about the program and a list of participating institutions. We’re very excited about this opportunity!

He-Man Ironing Contest Winners!

It was a tight race, but the judges (Professor Varallo and Chaplain Glass-Perez) awarded “best” ironer to Kenny Clay whose crisp blue dress shirt clearly stood out. Professor Chuck Hyser won “fastest” ironer, and Daniel Andon won the “people’s choice” award. The electric supply was a little spotty; who knew that irons took so much energy? But the ironers were good sports and showed conclusively that men can iron a mean shirt. All contestants walked away with a Newman’s Own organic chocolate bar. It was worth the high stakes. Someone in the crowd was  heard to say, “We have the best library ever.”

 

Eleanor Nolan won the drawing for the Fair Trade laundry basket. Enjoy it, Eleanor!

He-Man Ironing Contest

Can men iron their own dress shirts? Come to the library on Tuesday, April 16 at 4:30 p.m. to find out!

Ironers will include Dr. Chuck Hyser, Dr. Randall Hall, Greg Aguilar, Ben Humbert, Luke Scarlata, and Daniel Andon.

Each contestant will have a board, iron, and wrinkled dress shirt. Two judges will choose the “best” ironer and the fastest ironer. In addition, there will be a people’s choice award.

The contest was inspired by the current exhibit at the library, “Burning Truths: A Woman’s Work.” The one-of-a-kind art exhibit of female Catholic saints – burned into wooden ironing boards – is on display through May 17 on the second floor

Augustana Historical Society Spring Meeting

About 35 people attended the Augustana Historical Society spring program “Back to School in Special Collections” on Wednesday, April 10.  Special Collections librarians Sarah Horowitz and Jamie Nelson talked with attendees about Special Collections involvement in teaching, gave a brief introduction to the types of materials held in Special Collections, and then took the attendees “back to school” by engaging them in several exercises the librarians often do with classes.  These exercises accustom students to working with Special Collections materials, which are often in unfamiliar formats such as handwritten letters, diaries, and photographs, and show them how they can track a research question through multiple types of sources.

Attendees participated enthusiastically in the teaching exercises, and asked questions afterwards about Special Collections goals for students, the types of classes taught, how Special Collections deals with the challenge of collecting modern (often electronic) materials, and how Special Collections materials are preserved.

Special Collections works with ~30 classes and reaches over 700 students per year.  These classes range from first-year LSFY classes (about 25% of first-year students do research in Special Collections each year) to upper-level course in history, English, geography, anthropology, and other disciplines.

Library Closed on Saturday, April 13th

Due to construction, the library will be closed all day on Saturday, April 13th.  We will reopen at 10 a.m. on Sunday, April 14th.