Articles

Thanks to those of you who may be visiting this blog because you attended the session "From research to action: Pairing Information Literacy and Service-learning" at the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) conference last week.   My co-presenters (Dr. Maggie Stevens, Executive Director, Indiana Campus Compact; Jennifer Nutefall, University Librarian at Santa Clara University and Dr. Sarah Twill, Associate Professor of Social Work at Wright State University) and I were thrilled to have such an engaged audience with good questions and general enthusiasm for ... Continue reading

My copy of Harry C. Boyte's "The Citizen Solution:  How you can make a difference"  just arrived.  I requested it because Boyte is coming to my campus in April, and I plan to go hear him speak.  I'm only on page 15, but I've already found a passage that resonates very deeply for me. "Government can generate leadership, resources, tools, and rules.  But officials are not the center of the civic universe, nor is government the only location for democracy.  Democracy is a way of life rooted in living communities; it is a work in progress." How do we teach our ... Continue reading

Purdue University has recently published a free online Service Learning Reflection Journal.  This could be a very useful tool, particularly for those new to service-learning.  It offers some reflection prompts and exercises to assign for students.  Reflection is an integral piece of the service-learning experience, as it often ties the service to the learning for students. The journal is available for download here. Sass, M. (2013) Service Learning Reflection Journal. Purdue University Learning and Service Engagement series. Center for Instructional Excellence: West ... Continue reading

Every once in awhile, I'll check around to see if there are any new examples of libraries or librarians partnering with service-learning projects in higher education.  What I've noticed is that quite a few libraries provide a service-learning libguide (research guide, for you non-librarians...and even that may not make sense!).  This seems to be the most popular example of library support for service-learning.  In most cases, these are guides to support faculty for finding articles, books, etc. about service-learning.  Some librarians have created a guide that collects ... Continue reading

Of course I knew that I wasn't the first librarian to travel with a class, but I'm still excited when I find a new article that describes another librarian's adventures as they travel with students. Today, I discovered this article by John Eric Juricek:  Embedded in Shanghai:  A librarian accompanies students to China. And I thought going to Appalachian Ohio was "extreme."

Academic librarians:  If you're going to the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) conference in April, I hope you'll consider attending the panel presentation:  "From research to action: pairing information literacy and service-learning."  I will be co-presenting with my friend and co-instructor, Dr. Sarah Twill, a Wright State Social Work professor, my friend and fellow service-learning enthusiast, Jennifer Nutefall, University Librarian at Santa Clara University, and Dr. Maggie Stevens, Executive Director of Indiana Campus Compact. We invited a faculty ... Continue reading

Fifth Street Brewpub from Reinvention on Vimeo. This video, produced by some very talented Daytonians, explains my absence from blogging better than I can in writing.  Please watch it and learn about an innovative neighborhood project with which I am involved. I had been using some of my free time to maintain this blog, but my free time of late has gone to this very worthwhile project in my neighborhood.  At least I'm "walking the walk" of being civically engaged.  I'm modeling good behavior for my students, right?  

I recently attended a workshop about how we can deepen students' reflections, which was led by one of Wright State's experienced service-learning instructors, Karen Hayes.  I came away with a new reflection question to include in my arsenal.  In fact, I love this question so much that it may never be removed from my arsenal.  The question was posed by my colleague, Stephanie Dickey, in our small group discussion during the workshop.  She suggested that we should challenge students to think about their role in relation to the problem or issue addressed by any service- ... Continue reading

The new issue of LOEX Quarterly is out, and my article is finally published!  Thank you, Brad Seitz, Managing Editor, for your patience and guidance while I was working on this article.  Part II will be published in the next issue. Barry, M. (2011).  Librarians as Partners in Service-Learning Courses (Part I).  LOEX Quarterly: 38(1), Article 5. Check it out if your library belongs to LOEX! According to the LOEX Quarterly site:  "Only the most recent four electronic issues (i.e., the most recent year) are password-protected. For the ... Continue reading

I've been struggling with this blog lately.  I'm burned out.  But Writing Boot Camp is saving the day today in a couple different ways!  First,  I'm actually writing a post for the first time in quite some time, and although it isn't my best effort and it isn't on the topic of service-learning, I'm getting words on the page, so to speak.  And second, it's providing me with a topic about which to write.  This is a timely topic, writing boot camp is, because I'm sitting in it as a I type these words.  Writing boot camp is co-sponsored by the Writing Across ... Continue reading