March 12, 2007 Meeting of User Education Committee

Agenda not yet available.

Members Present: Lisa Hinchliffe (ex officio) – Chair, Susan Avery (ex officio), Paula Carns (09), Dawn Cassady, Lori Carroll (07), Merinda Hensley (ex officio), Karen Hogenboom (07), Emily Love (ex officio), Lori Mestre (ex officio)

Members Absent: Melody Allison (08), Christopher Hamb (06), James Kelly (07)

Additional Attendees: Stephanie Atkins, Jamie Fuller (Information Literacy GA)

1. Additions to the Agenda

None

2. 2006-2007 Meeting Schedule

• April 9, 10-11
• May 14, 10-11
• June 11, 10-11
• July 9, 10-11
• August 13, 10-11

3. Updates

Community Outreach Planning Group

Stephanie reported the first meeting was held in February. They discussed community programs that are currently active and the areas of interest of each member. K-12 outreach and information literacy efforts for school children were high areas of interest. Susan suggested reaching out to teachers through in-service days. Stephanie has obtained a list of Champaign-Urbana district coordinators to talk to about this rather than going directly to teachers. Other specific areas of interest were high school Spanish classes, a portal of free electronic resources, workshops for the upcoming census, and other outreach opportunities to high schools and businesses. Lisa suggested informing Nancy O’Brien when the group begins contacting schools.

The next meeting is Thursday, March 15 at 9 am. The group will be brainstorming further and discussing what immediate actions and planning can be implemented. Stephanie requested User Education Committee approval to add Claudia Alcala Iniguez to the group. The Committee approved this addition. Stephanie will send the meeting minutes to Jamie Fuller to post online.

Outreach Innovations Working Group

This group has not held another meeting since the last User Education Committee meeting.

Graduate Student Information Literacy Needs Assessment

Lisa reported the group met on February 27. They reviewed documents about different projects and each member was given specific articles to read and summarize for the group. The next meeting will be held March 27 and they will begin planning the needs assessment and how to gather information.

Professional Development for Teaching and Learning

This group has not met formally. Scott is talking to someone at GSLIS about an additional course related to instruction. Lisa announced that Emily Love and Nikki Wright were both accepted into CARLI’s Illinois Immersion Program.

Online Tutorials and Interactive Learning Working Group

Susan reported that this group will meet March 15 at 1:30 pm.

Services for Students Webpage

Paula reported that his group met on March 1. They reviewed the services pages that have been created and began choosing links to be included on the Services for Students page. The group decided it should be a gateway to other pages, including parts for everyone, additional resources for graduate students, and a section on getting help. Many of the links will be to Undergraduate Library pages. Paula will send out a reminder to the group of pages to review. This group will work through email, with a meeting after many of the links have been established. Paula will create the page and then send it to Jamie to load within the next two months.

Awards

This group is still on hiatus pending direction from Scott Walter.

International Education Week Working Group

Emily reported that there will be an international film night on March 13 in the Undergraduate Library. This has been advertised on the International Education webpage. They will be showing Honey Moccasin, Seoul Train, and Science Wages War on Hunger. The group and Area Studies have also been working together to create international exhibits. The Undergraduate Library currently has a display on international restaurants in the area. There will soon be a webpage chronicling these events. This group will continue to exist after International Education Week in order to brainstorm ideas for next year, such as possible displays in the main foyer of the Marshall Gallery, sending announcements for the events to LibNews, etc. Lisa also asked the group to join with Area Studies in brainstorming ideas for the Fall Festival global information resources table.

4. New Working Group(s)

Event Calendaring and Registration
(with Staff Development and Training)

Lisa proposed a joint working group with the Staff Development and Training Committee to re-examine calendaring and registration needs and write up specifications for a new system. The events calendar has an upgrade for sale which could be examined and compared to other possible options. One such option is the campus WebTools calendar, yet this service does not offer the calendar view, only a list of events. Karen suggested this could be improved by simply having the day of the week listed with the date. An advantage to using the WebTools calendar is that User Education events could be automatically fed into the campus calendar as well as the calendar being created by CITES Educational Technologies, the Library, and the Center for Teaching Excellence featuring events related to teaching and technology. The goal is to find a service, test over the summer, and implement in the fall.

This joint working group will be Joe Zumalt, Beth Woodard, Lisa Hinchliffe, and Merinda Hensley.

5. Committee Budget Proposal

Lisa received instructions from Rod Allen stating that if the Committee is requesting the same budget received last year, the Committee only needs to submit a statement that they are requesting the same as last year. The Budget Group reserves the right to ask for justification at a later point in time but if no increase is requested no justification is needed at this time.

Lisa explained the three parts of the User Education Committee budget are the Fall Festival, other instructional materials and resources, and program development travel. The third part is to assure that the University of Illinois has a presence at the three major instruction conferences: LOEX, LOEX of the West, and WILU, as well as higher education conference related to teaching and learning. This demonstrates the University Library’s commitment to information literacy and student learning. Because of this effort, librarians at other institutions recognize the University Library’s leadership in this area and also invite the Library to be part of national projects.

Lisa proposed that the Committee request the same budget amount as last year. The Committee approved this.

6. Preparation for AUL for Services Committee Visit

Scott Walter will attend the User Education meeting on April 9. He has asked for a list of subcommittees, members, charges, etc. Scott’s purpose is to gain a better understanding of what the Committee does. The Committee had many questions about the meeting that Lisa will pass onto Scott in her bi-monthly meeting with him on March 27. She will email any additional information Scott provides about his purpose to the Committee.

7. Announcements/Discussion

Susan stated that a future discussion topic in the Committee could be how to connect to people who are doing user education in different divisions. Lisa suggested having a “Program of the Month” in which someone, who may or may not be a member of the User Education Committee, would give a ten minute snap-shot of their specific program and then be part of a discussion with the Committee. The information literacy program as a whole could benefit from more people knowing what each part is doing. Karen stated that it would also be beneficial to know how each person manages in order to implement and maintain their programs.

Lori asked if it was possible for alumni to have access to RefWorks. She had recently heard an announcement from RefWorks about the idea of a service for alumni. Lisa and Merinda have recently discussed this because Arizona State University has purchased a subscription for their alumni. Lisa wrote to Tina Moir at RefWorks and is hoping to speak with her at ACRL to explore options such as buying a subscription for alumni or whether alumni could receive a discount on their personal account fees. Lori will forward the announcement she saw to Lisa.

The Committee discussed the University Library’s involvement in the upcoming ACRL conference. Members who are attending will be asked to share information with the Committee at a future meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Jamie Fuller