ACRL 2013 Conference Notes: On Creating a Culture of Assessment

ACRL Panel Session
Topic: Creating a Culture of Assessment: Determinants of Success
Date: Friday, April 12, 2013, 8:30am

Since I did the preconference on assessment earlier, I figured this would be a nice addition to my learning experience. Plus, the preconference presenters did recommend it.

• On defining a culture of assessment. Definitions can vary. One idea: an "organizational environment in which decisions are based on facts, research, and analysis." 
• What it means: 
• Assessment is the norm and regular practice. 
• It is done for improvement, not accountability. 
• It is user-focused. 
• It is driven by learning and curiosity. 
• Decisions are based on the results of the assessments. 
• We hold ourselves to the same standards as other departments. 
• Assessment can be used for advocacy and to inform teaching. 
• Suggested reading: Haviland, Don, "Leading Assessment: From Faculty Reluctance to Faculty Engagement." Academic Leadership 7.1 (2009). (The citation as provided in the panel was not correct. Took some digging, but here it is.)
• Culture of assessment requires changing people's thinking. 
• Suggested reading: Lakos, Amos and Shelley E. Phipps, "Creating a Culture of Assessment: A Catalyst for Organizational Change." portal: Libraries and the Academy. 4.3 (July 2004). (I thought these authors were familiar, so I checked to see if I had read this particular article. I have not, but I read another article where they are cited, thus my small sense of deja vu. I will have to read it and write it up when I get a moment).
• A learning culture committed to learning. 
• We need administrators who are unfailing in terms of support and use assessment results in planning and decisions. Some say, however, that administration cannot be top down. 
• Librarians need to be empowered and act on what they have learned. 
• Suggested reading: Nodye, Abdou and Michele A. Parker, "Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Assessment." Planning for Higher Education 38.2 (2010). (Nice to see this one is open online).
• A couple of facilitating factors: 
• If there is a campus-wide initiative for assessment. 
• If the library gets involved in said initiative. 
• Presenters report finding that "culture of assessment" is in the eye of the beholder. Some people may report not having a culture of assessment in their institutions, but they may have some traits of it. 
• Without institutional commitment to assess, the culture of assessment is not likely to exist.
• Having faculty status (for librarians) isn't associated with culture of assessment. Some report having the culture due the obligations of tenure, or viceversa, tenure prevents assessment. 
• Of the libraries reporting clear expectations and having an assessment plan, 92% reported having a culture of assessment. 
• In the end: Having a clear understanding of, expectations for, and a plan for assessment. Having an administration that makes assessment a priority and leads by example by using assessment data. These are the most important factors related to a library achieving a culture of assessment. 

Booknote: Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook

Consider this a brief intermission from my series of posts on my ACRL 2013 conference notes. I just finished this book, and I wanted to share it with my four readers right away.

Smallwood, Carol, ed., Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook. Chicago: American Library Association, 2010.

ISBN: 978-0-8389-1006-1

Genre: Nonfiction
Subgenre: Library Science, Outreach

I think this is a book that every outreach librarian, or any librarian planning to do outreach (or had outreach dumped on his/her lap) needs to have. It is not perfect, but it is pretty close. The editor brings together 37 librarians from a diverse range of libraries and settings (such as archives) to write about their best techniques and activities for library outreach. The only reason I say the book is not perfect is because the entries do vary: some are more practical in terms of telling you how things are done (what I am really interested in to be honest) and others are a bit more "how we did good, let's all be warm and fuzzy" entries. That aside, this is a very good book full of ideas that should inspire other librarians out there. One of the things I really liked were the various essays on collaborations between schools and local libraries, be they public or academic. Working in this kind of situation is something that interests me, and that at times I have tried to accomplish back when I was doing outreach (as it was my job title and what I did), but was never able to get around to it (it was low priority compared to other more pressing things). I still think such collaborations are crucial, and for me, maybe something to explore later. So, that definitely gave me some hope.

The book answers questions such as:

• how can I better promote library services? 
• how can I work with specific constituencies? 
• learn more about partnerships, be they on campus or in your community. 
• and more. 

To be honest, I wish I had this book back when I was working as an outreach librarian. I had to learn and figure out a lot of things on my own, often with very minimal support, and seeing what others have done, and more importantly, how they did it, would have been helpful. So, if you are an outreach librarian, whether because that is your job title or by default (because no one else wants to do it), do yourself a favor and read this book. My current workplace owns it, which is how I read it. But I would say this is one I would add to my own professional book shelf. It provides both advice and inspiration, and librarians can always use both.

ACRL 2013 Conference Notes: Henry Rollins Keynote

ACRL Keynote
Speaker: Henry Rollins (links: his official website; his Wikipedia entry).
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 4:20pm.

(My notes are short on this one, but it is because Mr. Rollins is a force to reckon with, and how can you take notes from someone who moves with the force of a hurricane? Anyhow, I did manage to catch some thoughts of this excellent lecture. Down the road, I will be hunting down some of his books to read).

• Get angry about something every day, then channel your energy to do something. 
• He asks us to listen without cynicism, for he holds librarians in good esteem. 
• Describes himself as a "work slut" who will try anything. 
• Every single person you meet, on some level, are worthy of respect and have a story. 
• In punk rock, you do not blow people off. 
• Young people can be very eclectic if you give them the right material. 
• Harvesters, organizers, and protectors of information: this is what librarians are. Not everyone gets the information they need to make choices in life. 
• Punk became his soundtrack, and as his life, he worked to preserve it as it was persecuted music. Well, it was persecuted until many punks got famous. Bands themselves never thought of preserving their records, flyers, so on. So, he is building the "Henry Rollins Library" for "the next guy" to preserve the history of punk. 
• In 2013, we still experience suffocation of information, yet we are awash in information. We are facing active efforts to suppress information.
• It is our job to right wrongs in this century, and it has to be done by people willing to stand up, not waiting for someone to get elected.

ACRL 2013 Conference Notes: Contributed Papers on Information Literacy

ACRL Contributed Papers Session, Group 2
Topic: Mostly on information literacy, see specific papers.
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013 1:00pm

Whenever I attend a librarians' conference, I try to catch at least one of the sessions that offer contributed papers if possible. I do this because often these are LIS school students or librarians just entering the profession, so often they reflect recent thinking in the profession. However, these sessions can often be hit and miss when compared to panels, which usually have more "established" authorities. I did not get a whole lot of notes on these; they did not seem terribly substantial (at least during the presentation), but on the positive, ACRL has made available the proceedings (link to the general proceedings page. Links to papers below are PDF), and you can find the papers there in full. I may have to reread them at some point in the future.

I. "Melding the Nitty Gritty of Critical Thinking and Information Literacy Into English and Developmental and Composition Classes" by Mark Thompson.

• Use student learning outcomes from courses to mold your IL work and objectives. 
• Steps:
• Look at syllabi for student objectives. 
• Review current textbooks. 
• Meld, then revise assignments, and then approach faculty. 

 II. "Information Literacy as a Formative Force" by Paulette M. Rothbauer, Sheril Hook, and John M. Budd.

• (I will admit that the title did sound exciting)
• They asked students two questions: 
• What is information? 
• What is a library?
• Concept of the library as a place of knowledge. 

III. "The Almost Experts: Capstone Students and the Research Process" by Robin E. Miller.

• (This was the paper I was actually interested in from the set. Unfortunately, it is common for papers I really wanted to listen to that they were spread out, and leaving the room was not always an option. I was interested because in my current workplace, our seniors do various senior year projects and capstones, and this is an area where we have an interest in expanding our services). 
• Initial observation: They are not almost experts. 
• The paper reports on a survey and student interviews. 
• How could librarians help? 92% would like a capstone LibGuide. 35% wanted instruction on writing a literature review. 57% wanted citation management support. (For us, I think these are all areas, and more, that we could help our students). 

Overall, the session was so-so. I think, for me at least, reading the papers is more productive than listening to the speakers. Keep in mind we have come a long way from when I use to present papers, where I actually had to read the paper. Nowadays, they just toss the highlights on a PowerPoint and hope some stuff sticks.  The result is very often the speakers are rushing through the presentation, tossing out numbers, and overall, not very reflective. As I mentioned, I will be going back and reading over these, specially the Miller paper.

ACRL 2013 Conference Notes: On Course Integrated Research Narratives

ACRL Panel Session
Topic: "Visible Thinking: Using Course-Integrated Research Narratives to Engage Students and Assess Learning."
Date: Thursday April 11, 2013, 10:30am

I recently read an article on using undergraduate personal research essays for library instruction and assessment, so when I saw that there were some programs on the topic of research narratives, I knew I had to go to those programs. This is a topic of interest, and as I work on writing up a new information literacy assessment plan for our library, this is an element I want to include in the plan. So, I tried to learn as much as I could on this topic.

My notes:

• Do note that presentation handouts are available, as PDF's, on the conference website, in the schedule section. Link to the schedule here: http://s4.goeshow.com/acrl/national/2013/conference_schedule.cfm.  (I did print them out and added them to my print notes). 
• Concept based on narrative theory. 
• "...theory about what happened and why it matters" (Bruce Jackson, 2007. As usual in many presentations, heaven forbid they give a complete and accurate citation. Anyhow, based on date and some searching, I think they are referring to the book The Story is True: the Art and Meaning of Telling Stories. Sounds like something to add to my TBR list. I do remember reading bits and piece).
• Drawing on the concept of literacy narrative assignments. A story about how a person learned to read and write, how they acquired literacy. Explore the relation of individual and society in terms of literacy. 
• Develop a story to make meaning. Writer presents a theory of what happened and why.
• Modify literacy narrative to review and focus on research experiences. 
• Prompt sample (partial, can refer to handouts for others): Tell a story about an experience where you had to research something for school.  How did this experience influence your current attitudes or feelings about academic research? 
• Emerging theme: research and writing are inseparable. However, from the study, positive and negative student research experiences emerged as well. 
• Part of a sample student response. This student criticizes the research experience as a waste of time. (By the way, this is probably one of the best lines I heard at the conference, if not one of the best lines on college paper writing I have heard ever): ". . . a collage of plagiarism that people actually accepted as a real paper." 
• Applications: 
• Librarian narratives to engage students (this I found intriguing. I may try to write one out before I try it out in a classroom). 
• Narratives as meta-cognitive reflection.
• (I think we could do a pilot of this at my library and campus. When I spoke to the director about it, she said we love pilots in this place. I think we can adapt it to our General Studies program). 
• Works cited analysis can reveal diversity of sources students use in their research. It does not tell you why they chose a source or not (which is what interests me personally). Pair up citations with the narrative to see the full picture. 
• Begin with a single course and section. Leverage an established relationship with a professor who may be friendly and/or supportive of the library and information literacy. Then increase impact by involving colleagues in reading and assessing the pilot. 
• Reminder, whether on research or other writing, students are more invested if they can choose their own topics.