October 13, 2008 Meeting of User Education Committee

1.  Fall 2008 Meetings Remaining

• November 10, 10-11 (Library 428)
• December 8, 10-11 (Library 428)

2.  Report from Instructional Spaces for the Long-Term: At the Committee’s meeting in September we discussed what we want and need for instructional spaces in the library over the next 10-50 years. Beth Woodard (Staff Training) and Lisa both met with Woolen-Molzen to discuss the Committee’s suggestions. (Space needs for staff training and for library instruction are very similar.) Discussions are also now beginning for what we can do now, pre-renovation, to maximize instructional spaces within the library.

3.  User Education Lunches: The teaching toss will be a salad buffet pot-luck lunch with a discussion focused on teaching and learning. The Active Learning group will host the first teaching toss and active learning will be the theme for discussion. The first “Teaching Toss” will be held November 18th, the week before Thanksgiving, pending the availability of Susan Avery.

4. Library Awards Working Group: The Library Awards Working Group is a part of the Services Advisory Committee. The User Education Committee has been charged with drafting award criteria for two awards: one for student research and one for excellence in teaching (for librarians).

At the meeting, Lisa handed out drafts of award criteria adapted from the University of Washington’s Student Research Award criteria and the University of Illinois’ Excellence in Teaching Awards by Melissa.  A User Education Committee Awards Working Group was created to finalize the award criteria. Lori volunteered and Lisa will email others to see if they are interested. For now, the committee consists of Lisa, Lori, and Melissa.

The awards will most likely be announced and publicized early next fall (2009) for an award to be presented during spring semester (probably in April 2010).

Several items were discussed regarding the criteria for the student research award:

• Will we award group projects as well as individual research projects?
• Will we have guidelines regarding when the research was completed? (For example, project must have been completed in the last 12 months.)

The major item of discussion regarding the teaching award was whether it should be based on the campus-wide teaching award. If we use criteria similar to the campus award, many librarians who provide instruction will never meet most of the criteria – basically only subject specialists would be eligible. The committee recommended that the award should be made meaningful within the library and address the sorts of teaching that most librarians do, rather than trying to meet campus award requirements. The committee feels that it is more important to reward librarians within our own structure, rather than trying to get campus recognition for teaching. Lisa will discuss this recommended change in focus with Scott Walter

5. “Library In a Box”: This idea is based on the “Campus in a Box” (university staff can contact campus affairs and get a crate with all the materials necessary to set up an information booth). Many library faculty and staff have opportunities to set up information tables, and it would be very helpful to have a similar pre-packed crate with library handouts, give-aways, signs, a banner, a tablecloth, etc. in order to quickly set up a library information booth. The Strategic Communications and Marketing Committee has a budget for this and has asked the User Education Committee to take on the responsibility of creating the “Library In a Box.” Emily Love volunteered to spearhead the effort and Karen Hogenboom and Ellen Swain offered to work on the committee as well. Emily suggested that Jim Hahn from the Undergraduate Library be invited to work on the committee, as well. The main idea is to get a crate on wheels that is easily transportable, rain-proof, and big enough to hold all the necessary materials.

6. Committee Plans for 08-09
The committee discussed the various working groups and their membership. These working groups may include people from library at large – not just User Education Committee members. Working group names in bold will continue, names not in bold have been discontinued. Rather than being assigned a charge, each committee will discuss at their first meeting what their focus will be for the upcoming year.

• Active Learning – Susan will continue as facilitator and Nikki Wright will be invited to join.
• Awards – Lisa, Lori, and Melissa
• Community Outreach – has been integrated into Public Engagement Working Group. Merinda, Lori, Karen, Emily and Lisa are all on this Services Advisory Committee group.
• Classroom Improvements (e.g., UGL 291 funds remaining) – Susan and Lisa are on this committee and will add Beth Woodard, Lori, and possibly Paula Carns. This group was formed to look at classroom improvements. Its new name will be “Instructional Facilities” and its first task will be deciding which clicker system to purchase. The plan is to purchase clickers for all library classrooms, plus a check-out-able set that could be taken anywhere on campus to make an on-site class more interactive. (The goal will be to check clickers out through Library IT with other equipment.) This group will also think about proposals to put together for new spaces to teach in, such as upgrading Library 423 with a projector.
• Courseware Integration – Has lived out its life cycle and disbanded.
• Event Calendaring and Registration – Merinda suggests looking into Cvent registration program, which is free through campus. (Lisa, Merinda, Beth Woodard, Melissa)
• Graduate Student Information Literacy Needs Assessment – Group took hiatus last year. Now composed of Melody, Yoo-Seong, Merinda, and Nathan.
• International Education Week – Has become a job duty for Emily so there is no need for a committee.
• LibGuides Implementation – Has become a job duty for Merinda so there is no need for a committee. Update on LibGuides: 37,000 hits in 2007; over 66,000 in 2008. There are now approximately 230 guides.
• “Library in a Box” – Discussed above.
• Outreach Innovations Working Group – Projects have moved on to staff in web development.
• Orientation Events – No longer need a committee. Emily, Susan, Lisa, Jim Hahn, and Merinda all do various orientation events in their jobs.
• Professional Development for Teaching and Learning – Will continue from last year including Lisa, Sue Searing, Susan Avery, Merinda, and Melissa.

7. 314 Policy

• Usage Guidelines for Library 314 were handed out and discussed. The guidelines will be linked in the Information Literacy website of instructional spaces and policies.
• Requests will be made through phone calls to Marquita; this process may change in the future to an email form or an OTRS form but Jeff Schrader will need to make this decision.
• In Oracle library staff can see all library rooms and their schedules. Lisa will see if she can make “public groups” that include instructional rooms, administrative rooms, and all for easy viewing of room availability.
• Suggestions: (1) Add a notice that if teaching an evening class, the key must be checked out before 5 p.m. All remotes will already be in the room. (2) Switch the order of “Software Requests” and “Computer configurations” on guidelines to clarify what is available on the computers.

8.  Announcements/Discussion

• Melody and Lori are on an ORR working group to make the ORR more user-friendly. They will send out an email to the group for suggestions.
• The Community Outreach Working Group from 2007-2008 is holding a session with Urbana high school and middle school teachers about elections and educating voters.

Respectfully submitted,

Melissa Bowles-Terry