|
As research universities
explore ways to better connect undergraduates to the research process,
both within and external to the curriculum, the University Library serves
as a primary research "laboratory" for many of those research
endeavors, particularly in the humanities and the social sciences, in
which projects based on inquiry and discovery depend upon effective library
research. This session considered ways in which libraries can improve
students' ability to carry out research and scholarship,. It also posed
possible strategies for libraries to work with faculty as they develop
assignments that incorporate the use of library print and digital resources,
and to partner with other offices on campus, such as centers for teaching
and learning, instructional technology departments and service learning
offices, to support and enhance campus initiatives for expanding undergraduate
research.
Main
Points
Research libraries
contribute to undergraduate research in many ways, independently as well
as in collaboration with other academic partners on campus. Some library
services and initiatives focus on the improvement of student research
by working directly with students, other programs focus on working with
faculty and other instructors, and still others focus on working with
undergraduate research mentoring programs such as the University of Maryland's
Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP). Research libraries are
also playing leadership roles in initiating programs and services that
advance the undergraduate research agenda on campus, contributing to a
campus culture in which undergraduates are encouraged to engage in inquiry
and discovery. The session leaders and participants discussed a number
of specific examples drawn from a range of campuses. The initiatives are
described below, with links to Web sites where available.
Examples
of Effective Programs
For Students
Library
skills are basic to research and scholarship in all disciplines and there
are a number of ways in which campuses can help students develop these
skills. The most effective models integrate information literacy goals
and outcomes into core courses in the disciplines.
At some institutions,
first-year seminars or general education courses include a library component.
A librarian is assigned to work with student teams in the Project Renaissance
first-year general education courses at the University at Albany: http://www.albany.edu/projren/info/info.htm#instruct.
At Stony Brook University, the library offers hands-on workshops on
using the online catalog and searching research databases to students
in "USB 101" orientation seminars.
Writing courses
provide good opportunities to introduce students to the library, and
some libraries have developed material specifically for these courses.
The University of Maryland, for instance, created an online tutorial
for English 101 students:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/UES/engl-101.html.
Specialized general
education courses may cover library research. Washington State University
offers a one-credit, eight-week course on "Accessing Information
for Research," taught exclusively by library faculty. There are
special sections for certain disciplines and for distance education
students, and the Library plans to offer a graduate-level version of
the course beginning in summer 2003:
http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/usered/courses/300/index.html.
Library faculty
may teach or co-teach research methods courses for undergraduate research
programs, such as the University of Maryland's Discovery Projects in
Research and Beyond the Classroom Seminar in Research Experiences:
http://scholars.umd.edu/discovery/; http://www.beyondtheclassroom.umd.edu/univ369.htm.
In other cases, capstone courses may address library research methods
in the disciplines.
In addition to
formal classes, librarians may offer individualized research advisory
services. At the University of California at Berkeley, students who
would like assistance with library research projects in the humanities
and social sciences can make same-day appointments with librarians:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/RefCenter/ras.html.
Other libraries
have created online, self-paced tutorials for students to follow. One
such service is the Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT) offered
system-wide by the University of Texas to introduce students to general
research sources and skills:
http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/
For Faculty
Libraries
can offer a wide range of services to instructors who supervise undergraduate
research and scholarly projects, such as workshops on evaluating the library
research process and incorporating the library's resources into their
teaching.
Often in partnership
with other campus units, university libraries provide workshops and consultations
on such topics as designing research assignments, enriching course content
with library resources, and using library collections for undergraduate
research projects. The most frequent collaborations are with instructional
technology departments and teaching resource centers; these offices, along
with undergraduate research program offices, are sometimes physically
located within the library building, making it a focal point for educational
initiatives.
The Library is
one of the participants in the "UWired" consortium at the
University of Washington, a working group comprised of campus units
and individuals with interests in technology-enabled teaching and learning:
http://www.washington.edu/uwired/about/organization.shtml.
The University
of Chicago's "Workshop on Teaching in the College" for graduate
teaching assistants, organized by the Center for Teaching and Learning,
includes discipline-specific sessions on "The Library as a Teaching
Resource": http://teaching.uchicago.edu/downloads/workshop_schedule.doc.
Advancing
the Undergraduate Research Agenda on Campus
At some campuses,
libraries and their faculty are playing larger roles in undergraduate
research initiatives and have redefined their services in relationship
to the new emphasis on undergraduate research.
Library faculty
may serve as mentors themselves for students conducting research and
scholarly projects, or they may join or advise student-faculty teams,
as they do, for example, in the University of Maryland's Gemstone Program:
http://www.gemstone.umd.edu/.
At the University of California at Berkeley, several librarians have
been designated "program coordinators" for the Undergraduate
Research Apprenticeship Program and for specialized programs such as
the McNair Scholars.
At the University
of Maryland, a librarian serves on the Undergraduate Research Advisory
Board and the Library contributes funding to the Undergraduate Research
Day.
A few libraries
sponsor awards for undergraduate research, with an emphasis on the use
of library resources and on recognizing students' mastery of the research
process:
http://www.wtamu.edu/library/administration/competition.shtml;
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Staff/Admin/undergradawardfinal.pdf.
Some libraries
have collaborated with other campus offices to create spaces in support
of undergraduate research such as multimedia authoring studios or digital
production labs. Links to several campuses that have created such spaces
are available on the Web site, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~collab/.
An especially notable
partnership has been recently formed at the University of California
at Berkeley between the Library, the Division of Undergraduate Education,
and the Undergraduate Division of the College of Letters and Science.
The partnership's goal is to encourage and facilitate faculty collaboration
with the library and other campus partners in order to enhance students'
knowledge of information resources, connect faculty research more effectively
with classroom teaching, and provide expanded opportunities for faculty
to mentor creative student discovery and research both within and beyond
the classroom. One result of this partnership is a pilot grant from
the Mellon Foundation to create the Mellon Faculty Institute for Undergraduate
Research. The Institute, to be launched in June 2003, will provide stipends
and other direct support to faculty to redesign an existing course or
create a new course to incorporate research assignments and experiences
for undergraduates that use the Library's print and digital resources:
http://library.berkeley.edu/Staff/MellonProject/
http://lib.berkeley.edu/MellonInstitute/
Another outgrowth of the partnership is the Council of Academic Partners
(CAP), which brings together senior staff, including librarians, involved
with faculty development programs campus-wide. The Council is undertaking
a number of collaborative projects aimed at transcending the organizational
decentralization of faculty development resources.
The UC Berkeley
library collaborated with the undergraduate research office in its recent
renovation of the Doe Library Reference Hall, in order to make it more
welcoming to students and provide space for a new Research Advisory
Service where undergraduates can get one-on-one research help as well
as for an exhibit area at the entrance to the Reference Hall that will
display undergraduate research projects. An article describing the renovation
is available online at: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2002/08/21_nudoe.html.
Resources
Publications:
Association of American Colleges and Universities. Greater Expectations:
A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. http://www.greaterexpectations.org/
Association of College
and Research Libraries. Information Literacy Competency Standards for
Higher Education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/it/toolkit/standards.html
Baron, L. "Why
Information Literacy? Empowering Teachers and Students in the Classroom
and Beyond." NEA Higher Education Online, Thriving in Academe,
http://wwwnea.org/he/advo01/advo0108/front.html
Breivik, P.S. Student
Learning in the Information Age. Phoenix: American Council on Education/
ORYX Press, 1998.
Brockman, W.S., Neumann,
L.T., Palmer, C.L., and Tidline, T.J. Scholarly Work in the Humanities
and the Evolving Information Environment. Council on Library and Information
Resources, 2001. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub104/contents.html
Carlson, S. "The
Deserted Library." Chronicle of Higher Education, November
16, 2001, A35 - A38.
Farmer, D.W. and
Mech, T. F. Information Literacy: Developing Students as Independent Learners.
New Directions for Higher Education; no. 78. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
1992.
Iannuzzi, P. "Faculty
Development and Information Literacy: Establishing Campus Partnerships."
Reference Services Review 26:3-4 (Fall/Winter 1998), 97-102+.
Pew Internet and
American Life Project. The Internet Goes to College: How Students are
Living in the Future with Today's Technology. September 15, 2002.
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=71
Roth, L. "Educating
the Cut-and-Paste Generation." Library Journal, 124:18:
Nov 1, 1999, p. 42+.
Shapiro, J. and Hughes,
S.K. "Information Literacy as a Liberal Art." Educom
Review 31:2 (March/April 1996) http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/review/reviewArticles/31231.html
|
