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.
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.
Someone at the Research Academy last week suggested the following book (which has also been added to the Recommended Reading section of this blog), The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service-Learning. It's a fantastic resource that explores the service-learning relationship from the perspective of the community partner. Having worked with two community partners for the EDT 110 course, I became even more mindful of how stretched-thin small nonprofits and NGOs (nongovernment organizations) can be. One chapter is written by the director of a small nonprofit, Amy S.
The facilitators at the Service-Learning Research Academy last week encouraged participants to develop and/or refine projects that could translate into high quality research in the field of service-learning. I'm really excited to get started on my project. Breakout sessions provided opportunities to refresh knowledge or get familiar with the basics of qualitative and quantitative research. Then, participants broke into small groups to discuss possible research questions and methods.
I am in Indianapolis at a Service-Learning Research Academy hosted by IUPUI & Indiana Campus Compact. The goal is to gather together faculty and staff interested in furthering the research in service-learning - in particular, "high quality" research. It's been a whirlwind few days - a lot of it is over my head, honestly. Quantitative and qualitative research methods, etc. At any rate, it's been highly stimulating. It's also non-stop - we even have homework at night.