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The Friends of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement breakfast is one of my favorite days at Wright State.  Students, staff, faculty and community partners celebrate come together to celebrate service-learning and raise money for our Citizen Scholar certificate program.  There are awards, a silent auction, a celebration of our community partnerships and impact statements from our campus AmeriCORPS VISTA members.  The best part about this morning, for me, was that four friends from Athens County with whom we partnered on the alternative spring break trip made ... Continue reading

Those of you familiar with the service-learning literature have likely seen the name Dr. Andrew Furco.  He's responsible for, among many other publications, an often-cited figure that lays out the "distinctions among service programs."  It highlights the fact that service-learning mutually benefits the student (service provider) and the community partner (service recipient).  The figure also points out that service-learning is NOT the same as community service or internships and other types of experiential learning. I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Furco two weeks ago on ... Continue reading

Last week, hundreds of instruction librarians gathered in Columbus, Ohio for the biggest LOEX conference ever.  I was thrilled that the planning committee included a presentation about service-learning in the program.  Chris Sweet, Information Literacy Librarian at Illinois Wesleyan University, presented a case study of a course with which he was involved at his institution.  He was embedded in an environmental studies senior seminar that employed service-learning pedagogy.  The students in the course identified their own community partners and sustainability problems ... Continue reading

Last Friday, I co-presented at the Michigan Library Association Academic Libraries conference.  My co-presenters, Suzanne Gray (Eastern Michigan University), Shannon Zoet (Michigan Campus Compact), and I spoke with about 35 Michigan academic librarians.  We spoke about how pairing information literacy and service-learning can advance the library's impact on the curriculum and the community. Here's our handout. I gave a similar presentation in Ohio last fall and we only drew about a dozen attendees.  So, I was quite pleased to see so many faces in the crowd on Friday! Thanks ... Continue reading

Dr. Andrew Furco, service-learning and civic engagement expert, will visit Wright State University in early May.  He will present "Exploring the Value of Service-Learning for College Student Development and Faculty Scholarship" on Tuesday, May 8 from 2:30-4.  The visit will be funded by a grant from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The event is co-sponsored by the WSU College of Liberal Arts, College of Education and Human Services and the office of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement.  

The new issue of LOEX Quarterly is out and part II of my article is published.  It isn't posted in Wright State University's CORE (Campus Online Repository) yet, but it will be there soon.  Check back here next week, perhaps: http://core.libraries.wright.edu/handle/2374.WSU/5843 Barry, M. (2011).  Librarians as Partners in Service-Learning Courses (Part II).  LOEX Quarterly: 38(2), Article 4.

The ethic of inefficiency is a phrase that we discussed on our spring break trip quite a bit.  It's hard to define in concrete terms. I can give you an example, though.  Imagine that you are the only handyperson in a group of 5 volunteers that are trying to build some porch steps for a neighbor.  Although you know that you could get the job done quicker if you just do it yourself, you take the time to teach the other 4 volunteers how to use the nail gun.  You sacrifice time for the experience of working alongside your fellow volunteers, to build relationships with those ... Continue reading

This installment will feature some photos that I couldn't load from my phone while we were away.  I have also gone back to my previous posts about the trip to add photos.

The Village Bakery lends books (many about local food) to the community

The sign of some hard, dirty work!

This week will be the first installment of a new feature here at Service Learning Librarian, videos of interest.  Today, I'd like to share two videos.  First, is the video snapshot of how I spent my alternative spring break with a Wright State class: http://youtu.be/_lqSuRkl6ZM Second, this video about service-learning composition courses at George Washington University is also worth watching.  One of the faculty members, Phyllis Ryder, featured in the video partnered with librarian Jennifer Nutefall to incorporate information literacy in her service-learning ... Continue reading

As you may know, I have been an embedded librarian for a course this quarter:  Social and environmental sustainability in Appalachia.  We leave tomorrow morning for our service trip to Athens County in southeast Ohio. So what have I been doing with this class all quarter?  I met with each student to help them find sources for their research papers (during weeks 3-5 of the quarter).  I also had the rare opportunity to see the students' final papers, and examine their bibliographies!  Their sources were (mostly) beautiful!  The citations, on the hand...were ( ... Continue reading