November 12, 2001 Meeting of User Education Committee

Agenda not yet available.

Members Present: Sue Searing – Chair, Paul Callister, Linda Ackerson, Cindy Ashwill, Bob Burger, Lori DuBois, Frances Harris, Karen Hogenboom, Sarah Reisinger

Members Absent: Chris Quinn, Lynne Rudasill, Jane Wiles

1. Teaching Assistant (TA) Workshops

Efforts were initiated with OIR last year to give workshops to TAs as part of the TA teacher certification program. OIR requested that one-hour workshops be scheduled for 5:00 p.m. weekdays or during the lunch hour. The Committee needs to work out the details and determine the content. Discussion followed concerning target audience demographics, subject areas the TAs represent, etc. A hands-on workshop in a computer lab might not be the best use of the time.

There was a strong sentiment to offer discipline-based workshops which would cover the range of library instructional services and include an interactive component. Each workshop should have two instructors. Volunteers for teaching these workshops are:

• Karen and Paul — social sciences and law
• Linda and another volunteer (possibly Lura Joseph) — science and math
• Sarah and another volunteer (possibly Chris) — humanities

Discussion concluded with the following general format for the workshops:

• 1. Show resources that are available to the TAs as teachers – the library workshops, the Learn to Use the Library web page, the general layout of the Library web pages, etc.
• 2. A practical exercise, such as presenting sample assignments that could be tweaked to include true information literacy competencies.

The Committee decided that it was probably too late in the Fall semester to offer these workshops and will instead focus on the week of January 28th. If there is a TA orientation for the Spring semester, publicity could be distributed there.

Sue will contact OIR and propose this plan. She’ll ask questions about enrollment, a registration procedure, etc. It would be very helpful to have an e-mail enrollment process so TAs could be queried about their specific interests.

2. Announcements and Updates

1. Bob Burger reported on the status of the search for the Information Literacy Coordinator. It’s still open. Bob will check on the response we’re getting.
2. Sue reported on the next event for the Teaching Alliance, which will be held on November 30 from 11:30 to 1:30 in room 509 of the ACES library. Lisa Hinchliffe will talk about designing and using electronic classrooms.
3. Lori shared preliminary statistics from this semester’s workshops. Two more article workshops are still scheduled. Numbers seem to be holding from this time last year.
4. Sue reported that she submitted the Committee’s request for the FY03 budget. Even though the budget process has been suspended, our needs are on record. Since the screen capture software is under $250, we’ll see if it can be purchased now.
5. Other instructional issues:

On Wednesday, November 28th, there will be a Voyager preview in the GSLIS lecture hall (room 126), from 10:00 to 4:00. Registration is required. Committee members are encouraged to attend.

Frances will share her web evaluation instructional materials with the group. Most of these can be found at http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/computerlit. Notes and links for a lecture, which are not linked from this site, can be found athttp://www.uni.uiuc.edu/library/computerlit/evaluationlecture.html.

3. Update on “Learn to Use the Library” Web Site

• Lynne was not present to discuss the Faculty section.
• Cindy reported that she and Roxanne feel comfortable with the Alumni and Friends information that is on the page.
• Sarah requested further information for the Visiting Scholars section.

The group discussed eligibility, net IDs, etc. and concluded that the page should be kept simple since things are in such a state of flux.

4. Action Items

• Learn to Use the Library web site:
• Frances will forward last year’s FAQ notes to Lori, who will check them.
• Karen will look at the Students – Research Process page.
• Lori will fix the Students’ one-on-one help section.

Sue will follow up on the TA workshop arrangements. The people mentioned above will teach the workshops.

Respectfully submitted,
Frances Jacobson Harris