Service Learning Librarian

We made it!  Our students learned some crucial information literacy skills, helped solve a community problem (illiteracy) and turned in a pretty solid research portfolio to Project READ.  Yesterday, we met one final time this quarter to reflect as a group, along with Becky Garvin, Director of Project READ and Cathy Sayer, Director of Service-Learning at Wright State University.  In preparation for this reflection, the students write responses to 4 or 5 reflection prompts.  Then we discuss as a group what they have learned about information literacy, about themselves and ... Continue reading

It's hard to believe it's our last night in Hannah House, our home for the week.  I'm pretty sure that I can speak for everyone that we learned a TON this week - about social, environmental and economic sustainability and ourselves. I can't think of a better community partner for a service-learning experience than Good Works.  The principles by which they operate align perfectly with service-learning.  They believe in relationships being the most important part of service.  Just as ideal service-learning experiences focus on working WITH the community in a mutually ... Continue reading

I am very fortunate to have the opportunity this week to travel with the Social and Environmental Sustainability in Appalachia (UH 202-203) course to southeastern Ohio (Athens County).  We are learning a ton and making lots of new friends as we complete social and environmental projects in the community. We are staying at Good Works' Hannah House for the week.  Good Works is a faith-based organization that believes that relational contexts encourage transformations for those living in poverty or extreme poverty.  They provide opportunities and a support system for those who ... Continue reading

Earlier this week, I attended a book discussion about Dan Butin's book "Service-Learning in theory and practice:  The future of community engagement in higher education." One of the main arguments Butin makes is that service-learning should have a discipline-based home in the academy.  He compares it to how feminism, which began as a social movement, became women's studies within the academy. Of course, this leads to hundreds of questions.  What would this look like?  Would the focus be on citizenship in our democracy? or community studies? or something else? ... Continue reading

We're down to four students.  Three of our students dropped the course.  My co-teacher and I are disappointed by that, but we also have no control over that.  The good thing is that now all four students are one team, working towards making the best research portfolio they can create for Project READ.  Do they complain? Sure.  Do they ask, "How many sources do we need to include?"  Yep, you betcha!  In a perfect world, they would keep researching to include as many great sources as they can for Project READ...but in reality, they want to know the minimum ... Continue reading

Last week, I attended my first National First Year Experience Conference in San Antonio, Texas.  I came home with tons of ideas and little time to implement them, of course.  What I enjoyed most about the conference was hearing the perspectives of academic advisors, student affairs experts, First Year Experience staff, faculty and administrators.  We librarians were represented fairly well, too.  All of us came together with common goals:  student success and meaningful student learning. Service-learning and information literacy were both well-represented at the ... Continue reading

The quarter is drawing to a close so quickly, and we still have a lot of work left to do for Project READ. Week 6:  We spent most of our class time working individually with our students to improve their citations and annotations.  We also spent time on a pre-reflection exercise, since we were scheduled to help Project READ with a book sorting at the Look at a Book warehouse in Dayton that Saturday.  (The owner of Look at a Book regularly donates books to Project READ so they can distribute them to children and reading tutors in the area).  We issued three prompts for ... Continue reading

Any readers out there from Michigan?  If so - mark your calendars for the upcoming Academic Libraries 2012: Advancing Value Michigan Library Association Academic Libraries Annual Conference May 10-11, 2012 in Ann Arbor.  I recently received confirmation that I will be co-presenting along with Suzanne Gray, Information Literacy Librarian at Eastern Michigan University, and Shannon Zoet, Assistant Director of Campus Partnerships at Michigan Campus Compact, about service-learning and information literacy. Our presentation is titled "Service-Learning: Advancing the value of libraries ... Continue reading

During Week 4, we covered searching the catalog for books.  We sent the students to the stacks.  Many hadn't realized there would actually be books written about the topic we're researching.  We also focused on how to cite in APA style so they could  complete their homework for class 5 - to find and cite three books (or at least chapters). Week 5, we spent more time on citations.   Students submit their homework electronically Monday night before midnight so we can grade them and return them immediately on Tuesday morning in class.  Based on their ... Continue reading

I just put this new report released by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement on my reading list (which is growing ever-longer!):   A Crucible Moment:  College Learning & Democracy's Future.  Get more information here.