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Centering Community Voice in Service-Learning

Posted on Thursday, October 5th, 2023

After a summer & early fall hiatus, Service-Learning Librarian is back with a guest post from Dr. Julianne Gassman: Director, Office of Community Engagement and Professor, Recreation, Tourism & Nonprofit Leadership at University of Northern Iowa. We hope you appreciate Julianne's take on how to ensure our institutions center the community part of community engagement, with support from service-learning librarians.

Article summary: A rubric to assess service-learning support in academic libraries

Posted on Friday, June 11th, 2021

Libraries have been involved in service-learning for years through instruction for service-learning courses, displaying and archiving related course projects, and providing assistance in finding and conducting research necessary for community-based work. But it’s only recently been moving toward a more systematic and programmatic approach. One tool that can assist libraries is the Self-Assessment Rubric for Development of Service Learning Programs in Academic Libraries, developed by Katherine Kott.

Extending our reach: the inaugural colloquium on libraries & service-learning

Posted on Thursday, August 1st, 2013

I’m pleased to announce that I’m on the planning committee for a new one-day library colloquium about libraries & service-learning!  Details forthcoming.  For now, save the date!  It will take place on Monday, August 11, 2014 at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California.  Spread the word to your colleagues.  The conference is for those new to service-learning and service-learning veterans.

From Research to Action: Pairing Information Literacy and Service-Learning

Posted on Monday, April 15th, 2013

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.

The Citizen Solution

Posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

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.

Service-learning presentation at ACRL 2013

Posted on Friday, February 1st, 2013

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.

The reflection question that may never be removed from my arsenal...er very carefully crafted list of guided reflection questions

Posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

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-learning course.  She pr

Unique information needs in service-learning courses

Posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

This summer, I'm working on several projects that will support several service-learning courses with which I will l partner beginning fall semester.  As I've said many times over, service-learning students and community partners often need local or otherwise unique data - outside of the usual "find some scholarly articles" kind of assignments.

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