As librarians, we know that research is an exciting endeavor, a puzzle to unravel, a mystery to be solved – how can we engender this type of excitement in our students? What kind of research methods course works to instill the skills of information literacy but also excites and motivates students? Two quarter-long courses taught at different universities both shared the goal of engendering enthusiasm for research while instilling in students the basic principles of information literacy. Both courses focused on primary source research in the field of history but took different routes

Primary Sources from the inside out ( Oregon ) focused on the fundamentals of archival research, students learn about primary sources by working directly with unpublished material and reading sources from both an archival and a historical perspective. Researching 1918 ( Washington ) used a game motif where each student became an archetypical character in 1918 (a soldier, a conscientious objector, a munitions worker, etc.) and researched their lives through primary sources.

Discover how these different approaches fared – what worked well and not-so-well, how did students react to these less traditional approaches to library research classes, and what the future holds for these two courses. And most importantly, can these different approaches instill the enthusiasm for research that is the hallmark of a historian?

Speaker biographies

Heather Ward is a Humanities Librarian and subject specialist for history and medieval studies at the University of Oregon where she has worked since 1997. In working with faculty in her subject areas and patrons at the reference desk, she has noticed an increasing interest in finding and using primary sources over the last several years. In 2003 she teamed up with Heather Briston, University Historian & Archivist, to create and teach a four-credit course on primary source research. Heather’s leisure time is heavily spent on French classes and competitive Irish step dance.

Theresa Mudrock is History Librarian at the University of Washington where she has worked since 1990. Over the past few years of teaching a 3-credit history research methods class, she has been experimenting with new ways to engage students in the research process.

Leza Madsen and Hazel Cameron, Western Washington University

This session highlights the characteristics of the newest and biggest wave of library users. It looks at the myths and the reality surrounding Millennial library users examining their library use and behavior through collection analysis, reference desk experience and information literacy classes. What’s true, what’s not, and most important… how this knowledge can help you plan and market library services for them.

Speaker biographies

Leza Madsen is a Reference and Instruction Librarian at Western Washington University . She has worked in academic libraries in Alaska , Hawaii and Washington .

She has a special interest in communication issues receiving a master’s in applied communication research from Stanford. She has been a presenter at ALA , PNLA, HLA, AKLA, this is her first ACRL conference.

Hazel Cameron is Librarian for Business and Economics at Western. She has also held academic library positions in California and Canada , and has worked in the telecommunications field. She has published and presented at professional conferences on a variety of topics including Pre and Post Testing for Library Instruction, academic job search skills, and more.

John Holmes, University of Washington Seattle
Mary Ann Goodwin, Spokane Fall Community College
Sarah Leadley, University of Washington , Bothell and Cascadia Community College
Kelley McHenry, Seattle Central Community College
Jeff Purdue, Western Washington University

In this session, facilitators from both two and four-year institutions will assist small groups brainstorm the following two questions:

a) What competencies should students have acquired by the time they enter their major curriculum at a four year college or university?

b) In the event that no administrative or legislative mandate will support and scale our efforts to reach the goals described in question a, how might we cooperate (between 2-year and 4-year institutions) to achieve them and what can we do to motivate faculty to work with us?

Each group will report their best four ideas to the entire group. There will be a discussion summary and question/answer period.

Panelist biographies

John Holmes, moderator of the panel discussion, is a librarian at the University of Washington . He has been Coordinator of the UWill Project at the University of ashington Libraries since April 2000.  He is the principal investigatorfor UWill, a grant-funded, Web-based information literacy projectdesigned to make it easier for instructors to integrate informationliteracy objectives into their courses by providing templates for onlinetutorials that may be customized from the desktop and linked to course Webpages. John has been a reference librarian at the Odegaard UndergraduateLibrary at UW since 1996, has served as Coordinator of the user educationprogram, and has been the instructor for both LIS 560: User Education andInformatics 220: Research Strategies in International Studies in the UW Information School. 

Mary Ann Goodwin is the Assistant Dean for Library and Distance Learning at Spokane Fall Community College and a member of the LMDC, Library-Media Directors of community college libraries.

Sarah Leadley is Head of Reference & Instruction Services/American Studies Librarian University of Washington , Bothell and Cascadia Community College .

Kelley McHenry is a librarian at Seattle Central Community College .

Jeff Purdue is a reference and instruction librarian at Western Washington University in Bellingham . He has an ongoing interest in Information Literacy and other issues relating to library instruction. He also co-edits an online journal, Habits of Waste: a Quarterly Review of Pop Culture.

Anna Salyer, University of Washington Tacoma
Anne Davis, University of Washington Seattle

Increases in the numbers of classes, students, and faculty have created a demand in libraries for longer hours and more services. To meet those demands, two UW Libraries - the Tacoma Library and Odegaard Undergraduate Library have implemented unique approaches to providing services.

Anna will present UW Tacoma's Research Docent Program. The session includes the history of this volunteer reference service and the foundations of service learning (previously known as volunteering). Methods of the instructional/training components, the pros and cons of the program, and plans for the future will also be discussed.

Anne will discuss how Odegaard Undergraduate Library operates 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, providing circulation and collection access, computer lab access, copy center services, and study space with limited staff.

Please join us as we look at two programs that successfully provide alternative ways to meet service demands in our changing times.

Speaker biographies

Anna Salyer received her MLS from University of Washington and an MEd from the University of Alaska Southeast . She has been a Reference Librarian for 15 years and at the UW Tacoma Library since 2003. Her interests in reference and education are a great match for UWT’s Research Docent Program and she has thoroughly enjoyed re-developing this program.

Anne Davis has a MLIS from University of Washington and an MEd from Western Washington University . She has worked as the Evening Access Services Librarian at Odegaard Library since 2001. Her 2pm-midnight schedule allows her to supervise both day and overnight shifts and she gets to see two very different sides of the library.

Cecilia Poon, Margaret Fast, and Dr. Keith Hyatt, Western Washington University

In the 21 st century, academic librarians are educators, information specialists and experts in collecting, organizing and evaluating library collections in all formats. In the present age of constant changes to information technology it is essential that librarians forge many partnerships with faculty members to advance collaboration between the library, academic departments and the university. This panel presentation will focus on examples of successful partnerships at Western.

Librarians and faculty members collaborate in many areas such as information literacy, collection development, scholarship and services. Western librarians partner with faculty on all levels of education. Librarians collaborate with faculty members to develop library-related assignments, integrate information literacy skills into the curriculum, team teach in bibliographic instruction and credit-courses, create library guides, websites and develop teaching portfolios. One example is a linked library research tutorial with an East Asian Studies research course which is team-taught by a librarian and a faculty member. In collection development, faculty members of Woodring College of Education (WCE) serve on the WCE Library Acquisitions Committee, participating in journal review and collection evaluation projects and materials selection in all formats. In the area of scholarship, several librarians have collaborated with faculty in producing an encyclopedia. At the national level, a librarian received a Sasakawa Fellowship to attend a one month submersion course, attended by faculty from across the country, on incorporating Japanese culture into the curriculum. In the service area, Western librarians actively participate in other departments and university-wide committees. For example, the WCE librarian serves on the WCE Diversity Committee and another librarian serves on the International Programs Advisory Council.

Both librarians and faculty will offer their perspectives about these partnership experiences. Following the panel, there will be a question & answer/discussion session.

Speakers biographies

Cecilia Poon is an assistant professor and the Education Librarian at Western Washington University . She has bachelor degrees in English Language and Literature and in History. After earning an MLS degree from Indiana University , she worked as Reference Librarian and Chief Librarian at the American (USIS) Library in Hong Kong . Her career as an academic librarian includes Hong Kong Baptist University , SUNY College at Oswego , University of Arizona , and the University of South Florida . Her current research interests include leadership, diversity and the Asian American experience.

Margaret Fast is an associate professor and the Librarian for Art, East Asian Studies, History, Linguistics and Modern & Classical Languages at Western Washington University . Her professional experience includes several years as the Humanities Librarian at the University of Utah and Germanic Languages Cataloger at Brigham Young University , in addition to being the Humanities Librarian and the Serials Cataloger at Wichita State University . She holds a bachelor degree in Art and German, a masters degree in German language and literature and a MLIS from SUNY Albany. Her current research interests include collegial management and information literacy.

Dr. Keith Hyatt is an assistant professor of special education at Western Washington University , and his current interests include early childhood special education, inclusion, and special education law. He earned a BS in business education and a MS in special education at the University of Idaho . He earned an EdS in special education with an emphasis in school psychology and his EdD in special education at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas . Prior to working in higher education, he taught special education at the elementary and secondary levels, worked as a school psychologist, a behavior interventionist, and an elementary school principal. His current research is focused on cross-cultural parenting practices and views of disability.

Kathleen Collins and Damien Koemans, University of Washington Seattle

At the University of Washington ’s Seattle campus, the University Libraries and the campus general access computing group, Catalyst Client Services, have joined forces to staff and run a computing commons in the heart of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library (OUGL). The Commons, with close to 400 workstations, provides a place for students to access information technology while simultaneously tapping into the libraries’ research collections. Research assistance, computer help, and printing functions are combined in a single co-staffed service desk, providing students with "one-stop shopping" for their information and computing needs. This presentation examines the thriving collaboration between the Libraries and campus IT staff by offering a dialogue between the manager of reference services and the manager of computing services at OUGL. We will recommend strategies for successful library/IT collaborations, diagram the working relationships between librarians and IT staff in the Commons, talk frankly about problems encountered in implementing a combined service desk, and address the challenges and opportunities that come with the merging of library and IT cultures. Many other articles and presentations about collaborative computing facilities feature either exclusively the library’s view or exclusively IT’s view of the facility; this presentation emphasizes friendly collaboration and presents views from both sides of that collaboration. The question-and-answer period will be a chance to share tips and best practices from other Washington and Oregon libraries that have experimented with co-staffed facilities.

Speaker biographies

Damien Koemans is the Manager of the Odegaard Computing Commons at the University of Washington . In his eight years working for the University, he has managed several long-term projects, primarily in the areas of community and scholastic technology and their relationship to access and the digital divide. Currently he is developing several new technology spaces that promise to enhance the educational experience for students at UW. The focus of these spaces will be on exploration, collaboration, evaluation and dissemination. Damien is very active in his community and is the Chairman of the Seattle Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board.

Kathleen Collins is a reference and instruction librarian and the coordinator of reference services for the Odegaard Undergraduate Library at the University of Washington . Her current professional interests include collaborative partnerships; on-call models of reference desk staffing; chat and email reference interviews; marketing of library services; and research orientations for first-year university students. Kathleen is also the selector for the Children’s and Young Adult Literature Collection at UW, and she thinks everyone who likes the Harry Potter books should read Diana Wynne Jones as well.

Is there an identifiable core collection of resources required to support
undergraduates, particularly at the first and second year? Do library
materials need to support differing pedagogical goals and developmental
needs at the lower-division? In the seeming absence of national guidelines,
what is driving purchasing at the undergraduate level? In an interactive
session, panel members will share their experiences developing
lower-division collections in a variety of environments, discuss emerging
needs and trends, and moderate an open conversation on the topic.

Speaker biographies

Natalie Delker Beach has worked for the University of Washington , Bothell (UWB) since 1998 and serves as the library Collection Coordinator for both
UWB and the collocated Cascadia Community College . Ms. Beach is an active member of RUSA CODES, and has been interested in undergraduate and interdisciplinary collections for twelve years. She earned her MLS from Rutgers University and has an MA in the History of Ideas from the University of Texas at Dallas .

Jennifer Sundheim is the Collection Coordinator for the University of Washington , Tacoma (UWT) Library. Before working for the University of Washington Libraries , she served as a librarian at Pierce College and Seattle Public Library. Jennifer earned her MLIS degree from the University of Washington Library and Information Science program the year before it became the Information School .

Emily Keller, University of Washington Tacoma

Academic libraries are replete with complex, unfamiliar tools and search concepts that are difficult to communicate to students. Metaphor and analogy in library instruction can be powerful tools for connecting with learners and help librarians leap past the frustrations of trying to explain sources and techniques using our profession’s often cryptic terminology. Metaphor and analogy can also help librarians shift from an emphasis on conveying tool-based information to teaching concepts and strategies that are applicable to a variety of research tasks.

In this presentation and workshop, participants will explore the possibilities for using metaphor and analogy to enhance teaching and student learning in the classroom, at the reference desk, or in any instructional communication. Participants will discover how and why the connections between metaphor, analogy, teaching and learning are so practical and effective. Participants will learn approaches for generating metaphors and analogies for library instruction, and will create a collective toolbox of metaphors and analogies that we already use.

Speaker biography

Emily Keller is Reference Librarian and Coordinator of Instructional Development at the University of Washington , Tacoma . A graduate of the Information School at the University of Washington, she is very active in teaching and learning improvement on a growing campus, and developed and taught the campus’ credit-bearing course, Research Strategies for the 21 st Century.