Library partners with writing center. (Butler Library)

We began a collaboration with the University Writing Program in Fall 2007 in which consultants from their Writing Center work with students at the Butler Reference Desk. Librarians are included in the consultation if the student requires more research on a particular topic or help with finding particular sources. The outcome of this collaboration is increased activity at the Desk for both librarians and for Writing Consultants. Students see their peers working behind the Desk and want to take part as well. It created a buzz of excitement and draws more people to ask reference questions and to request appointments with the Writing Center. Librarians join in the consultation or refer the student to the appropriate librarian for additional library consultation.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/uwp/wc/main/main-page/index.html

Goal:

• Improved writing and research skills.

Assessment:

To date, informal assessment for the University Writing library instruction outreach has been conversations with the Writing Instructors, “debriefing meetings” with the Writing Program Directors, informal feedback from UWP students to librarians during reference, individual consultations, or follow-ups to class presentations. Quantitative data includes the number of instructors and students receiving in-class instructions; the number of students seeing a Writing Center specialist; the number of individual consultations for University Writing students.

History majors critically appraise primary and secondary sources in special collections. (Butler Library)

History Lab is a for-credit class (worth two units) aimed at Columbia junior and senior history majors. History Lab develops student skills in accessing and critically appraising primary and secondary sources used in historical research and argumentation. There are six formal sessions, and one week for individual conferences with the faculty instructor or graduate-student preceptor. Four of the six weekly classes take place at Butler Library, with specialized librarians demonstrating the access and use of resources and providing advice during student hands-on exercises. The four library sessions cover: Secondary Sources; Published Primary Sources; Unpublished Primary Sources--Archival and Manuscript Collections; and Oral History. The introductory and closing session are taught by a History Department faculty member and a graduate student preceptor, each of whom attends all sessions and contributes briefly to the library sessions. Students post their assignments to discussion lists in CourseWorks. In their assignments, the students: propose a research topic; identify secondary and primary sources they would use in exploring it; and describe their experience of the research process. The discussion list postings are monitored by all instructors. The final product is simply a refined research proposal including a bibliographic listing of sources identified as useful, with annotations as needed. This proposal can be formulated in conjunction with an actual history paper that is being done or will be done for another class. History Lab is a for-credit class aimed at junior and senior history majors; and it is worth two units. In the academic year 2007/08 three sections per semester have been taught, with a rough average of 15 students per section.

Goals:

• Students understand how to propose and refine a meaningful topic for historical research.

• Students understand basic processes for identifying, accessing, and assessing the likely relevance of primary and secondary sources.

• Students understand some basic aspects of working with published sources in a special collections environment.

Assessment:

• Students completed detailed evaluations that asked the same set of questions for each week of instruction. Thus we were able to ascertain their response to the specific content offered each week. The evaluations from Fall ‘07 were used in rethinking the class for the Spring.

• The History Dept. faculty member and graduate preceptor also evaluated the overall progress of the students based on their final assignment, class participation, and their weekly postings on the CourseWorks discussion lists. Faculty member and graduate preceptor discussed their assessments with the librarian coordinating History Lab.

Library Tutorials

Library Essentials, a series of self-help, web-based library tutorials, is being implemented in Spring 08 semester. These research skills screen casts are developed with Camtasia. They will be modular, existing both as an index page on the Library website and also to be used independently on various library or CourseWorks pages. Examples of tutorials that exist or are envisioned: How to effectively search the online catalog using advanced keyword searching; searching the catalog by title, author, subject, journal title; placing a recall or requesting an item from Offsite; finding E-Images using the online catalog, the E-Resources page on the library website, ArtStor, Columbia Image Bank, and Google Images.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/workshops/essentials/index.html
Also an Undergraduate Chemistry tutorial http://www.columbia.edu/itc/chemistry/chem-tutorial/

Goals / Assessment:

NA

Writing program research guide embedded in large scale courses.

Course management system development and integration - selector-authored Library Research Guides delivered in Columbia's CMS - Spring 2008 400 courses using these guides which range from general introductory level for a range of courses to course-specific guides. Guides include resources, links to librarians, and will include brief online tutorials "Library Essentials." Beginning Fall 2007 we have embedded a Library Research Guide in the Course Management pages (CourseWorks@Columbia) of the University Writing Course, a required writing and research class for all first-year students in Columbia College, School of Engineering and Applied Science and General Studies. (about 60 sections per Fall and Spring semesters) The Guide is accessible from any page of that course’s CourseWorks page, i.e. from the Syllabus page, the Assignments page, the Class Correspondence page, etc. The Research Guide provides the student with contact information and links to our online catalog and the primary databases that will get them started on the research process at any time of day or night as well as a section on library services. It gives the student an introduction to library collections and services without the pressure of having to go to the physical place as well as email access to the appropriate librarian who can assist them further.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/subjects/ENGL/ENGLC1010.html

Goals / Assessment:

NA

Digitization of special collections materials targets items of high interest.

Integration of special collections into active learning environments where digital representations of otherwise difficult-to-circulate material can be tagged, collected, and annotated. Examples of educational projects fed this way include
Havel at Columbia, http://havel.columbia.edu/
the Harlem Heritage Project,
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/portfolio/culture_and_society/harlem_heritage.html
and Mapping the African American Past.
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/portfolio/culture_and_society/maap.html
Delivery of library-curated data, selected by librarians for custom educational environments that allow students to substantiate analysis with data visualization. Example: Sacred Gotham. see below
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/portfolio/culture_and_society/sacred_gotham.html

Goals / Assessment:

NA