Location: CJRLC Headquarters, Freehold, NJ
In Attendance: Brookdale Community College – Amy Clark; Georgian Court University: Laura Gewissler; Mercer County Community College: Martin Crabtree; Monmouth University – Lisa Coats, George Germek; Ocean County College – Gary Schmidt; CJRLC - Amy Kearns
- NJLA Conference registration is open. Early bird registration ends April 4.
- CJRLC Spring Membership meeting will be Thursday March 8 at Battleground Country Club in Manalapan. Additional details forthcoming on CJRLC's website.
- There is a program about open-source software at Princeton University on April 2. (I don't know the details about this....sorry!)
- The region's School Group Open House is scheduled for April 23, 3:30 - 6:00 pm at Princeton Day School. Linda Braun, (an expert on technology and literacy) will be presenting.
- "A Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends" Conference: August 4-5, 2008 in Denver, CO. Check out Library Garden for more details.
- There is a job opening for a Systems Librarian at Mercer County Community College. Visit http://www.mccc.edu/welcome_jobs.shtml#job5 for more details.
- The Reference Section of NJLA is sponsoring a program at Columbia High School on March 11 from 2:00 - 5:00 pm, on the Academic, School, and Public Library Collaboration Project. Contact Paul Schroeder or Lisa Coats for details.
- If anyone is interested in contributing to the CJARL blog - with interesting articles, blog posts, etc. to keep our discussion going between meetings - contact Amy Clark.
- If anyone is interested in taking over as chair of this group, effective summer or fall 2008, please contact Amy Clark.
NEXT MEETING:
May 23, 2008: Georgian Court University, Lakewood, NJ
Information Literacy Assessment Efforts:
Monmouth University Librarians shared some information about their ongoing information literacy assessment project. Pre- and post-test data collected over 4-5 semesters (with sections of a required freshman-level information technology course) is now being compiled, and librarians are conducting a literature review. Some issues identified include that depending on the section of the course, an assignment may or may not have been required in relation to the library session. The pre- and post-testing did not occur during the library session; pre-testing typically occurred the week prior to the library session and post-testing typically occurred one or two weeks after the library session.
Mercer has piloted the TRAILS test with their English 101 and 102 courses, and is now in the process of adapting the questions to best meet their needs before moving ahead with a more formalized assessment project. At the beginning of the term, students in English 101 (Composition 1), a course in which there may or may not be a library introduction, will take the pre-test. After completing 101 and 102, a research-based composition course in which library instruction is strongly suggested, the students will take the post-test. We look forward to hearing the results as they unfold!
Several institutions are preparing for, or currently going through the Middle-States process. It was suggested that since compliance with Middle-States' recommendations is on all administrators' radars, librarians should highlight Middle States' emphasis on information literacy to get buy-in on administrative levels. Amy C., who is involved with the NJLA-CUS/ACRL-NJ User Education Committee, indicated that the committee used this tact to suggest changes to the proposed state-wide General Education changes in the Lampitt Bill. The General Education core competencies lump information literacy with technological competency, and the fulfillment of this competency is an either/or proposition. Drawing on Middle-States documents, the committee drafted a proposal to separate these two categories. The committee's proposal was endorsed by the ACRL-NJ executive board, and members of the committee will be meeting with the Chair of the NJ General Education Committee to discuss the proposed document in April.
Georgian Court University has re-vamped their general education program. GCU has instituted a first-year experience program, which requires two visits to the library: one for a general orientation, and one to gather research for an assignment related to a book all freshman are assigned to read. GCU is also initiating a transfer seminar to bring transfer students up to speed with information literacy and other skills.
Cameron, L., Wise, S. L., & Lottridge, S. M. (2007, May). The development and validation of the information literacy test. College & Research Libraries, 68(3), 229-236. This article discusses the Information Literacy Test (ILT) developed and used at James Madison University.
Scharf, D., Elliot, N., Huey, H. A., Briller, V., & Joshi, K. (2007, July). Direct assessment of information literacy using writing portfolios. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 33(4), 462-478. Retrieved from Science Direct database. This details the NJIT information literacy assessment project.
Sonley, V., Turner, D., Myer, S., & Cotton, Y. (2007). Information literacy assessment by portfolio:A case study. Reference Services Review, 35(1), 41-70. Retrieved from Emerald Insight database. doi:10.1108/00907320710729355. References a UK-based portfolio assessment project.
Determining Reference Collection Use:
Most members present keep count of the number of reference books re-shelved, without noting specific titles. Some fear that super-efficient weeding of the reference collection would open up space that might quickly be commandeered by the institution for office space. Mercer will be losing some space in the reference collection area. Martin is working with faculty to determine what can stay and what can go. Previously, Mercer would collect using Books for College Libraries, but this is no longer possible due to space constraints. Other members mentioned that so much of what was reference-book material in the print-only age is now readily available online.
Portals:
The group discussed the concept of portals and subject guides. Some librarians are maintaining subject guide web pages; others are not. OCC tags websites with specific course codes in their del.icio.us account.
At GCU, librarians have created an IL course in Blackboard, their course-management system. All students, faculty, and staff are enrolled in the course. Librarians maintain subject-specific resource guides here, which include resources listed by course/course assignment. The IL course also provides general information literacy material, such as modules/tutorials about differences between scholarly and popular sources, etc. In the course management system, use can be tracked.
This approach was noted as a manageable alternative to actually embedding a librarian within every course in the online environment. Creating the IL course, and enrolling all students provides information literacy instruction materials to distance education students. It also serves as a supplemental resource for students in traditional face-to-face courses.
Jackson, P.A. (2007, July). Integrating information literacy into Blackboard: Building campus partnerships for successful student learning. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 33(4), 454-461. Retrieved from Science Direct.
Nichols, J. & Mellinger, M. (2007, Oct.). Portals for undergraduate subject searching: Are they worth it? portal: Libraries and the Academy, 7(4), 481-490. Retrieved from Project Muse.
Open Source and ILS vendors:
The group discussed the open-source movement and some of the upcoming programs about it. Laura raised the important question of who will support all of the open-source stuff? Logistically, this seems like a very big issue, although having librarians -- not the ILS vendors -- at the helm would certainly be advantageous to us.
Impact of Loss of NJKI Resources:
We closed with a discussion of how different institutions are feeling the impact of the NJKI databases. Several members' institutions have elected to pay, (through VALE), to continue coverage of some of the now-lost NJKI databases. Amy Kearns said that region directors are not concerned (at this point) that the $2 million will be cut from the budget. The state will have to determine which databases they will provide with the money available for next year. Here's an article about the "sting" of the NJKI shutdown from the Star Ledger on Friday. (Posted to the NJLA blog.)
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