February 2011 Articles

I will give a presentation next Monday, March 7 at the Librarians Association of The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill  (LAUNC-CH) Annual Conference, Service Learning:  Keeping the library engaged in the curriculum and the community.  The presentation description is: Librarians are uniquely positioned to support faculty members as they create service learning courses to engage students with curriculum and forge vital community partnerships. Using projects implemented at Wright State University as a starting point, the presenter and participants will explore the connections…

Don't miss the ACRL Instruction Section virtual discussion "Service-Learning and the Academic Librarian."  This email just came across the ili-listserv yesterday: The IS current topics discussion, “Service-Learning and the Academic Librarian” will be held online Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 1 PM ET (12 PM CT, 11 AM MT, 10 AM PT) via the Elluminate platform. Convened by Gabe Gossett of Western Washington University, this virtual discussion will be an opportunity for participants to learn how service learning is becoming an important issue for academic librarians. For those already…

Since our service learning experience (the book sorting activity) was cancelled yesterday, we created an alternate service project for our students.   And with only 3 weeks left in the quarter, we consulted with Dr. Sarah Twill to craft an acceptable alternative.  She offered the following project that she has used in her own classes.  This is worth 14 points, as was the original project (book sorting).…

Flexibility is extremely important in service learning partnerships.  And anyone who teaches undergraduates knows that students often lack flexibility.  That is one of the challenges of service-learning courses. This week, we encountered an unexpected challenge.  For months, we have been planning a service opportunity for our students to go sort books at a local book distributor who donates books to Project READ, our partner, to distribute to their tutors and clients.  Unfortunately, the warehouse owner recently decided to move locations.  The warehouse will be in this midst of…

Our class didn't meet during Week 5 due to the ice storm. We have noticed that some of our students have been finding sources (for homework) that are NOT relevant to the research topic.  For example, some students are turning in citations for articles that focus on computer literacy skills (rather than reading skills), or they find articles that address reading skills among college students (rather than K-8, as Project READ needs).  We spent a lot of time in classes 4 and 6 going over the topic and discussing how articles they found for homework do or do not address their research…