Social Media and Free Speech: A Featured Controversy from Issues & Controversies
Featured in Issues & Controversies: Social Media and Free Speech: Should Social Media Companies Do More to Combat Disinformation and Extremism on Their Platforms? Should social media companies do more to combat disinformation and extremism on their platforms? Be sure to check out Issues & Controversies’ complete and unbiased coverage of this divisive issue. Here […]
Serving Veterans During the COVID-19 Crisis
It’s likely that your college or university is suddenly holding many classes online that were previously in person. The switch doesn’t affect all classes evenly—some classes were already online, for example, so the “new normal” won’t be as new for them. Just as not all classes are affected in the same way, not all students […]
Navigating Our New Normal…in a Not-So-Normal World (Tips for Teaching from Home with Kids)
You may have seen the recent social media post that encouraged parents to describe what their kids were doing but call them their coworkers. The responses were humorous—kids must not have gotten the memo on appropriate “workplace” behavior. In my case, my “coworker” is making it hard to type since he insists on sitting on […]
Celebrate Money $mart Week in Your Library!
April 4–11 is Money Smart Week (MSW)! Co-sponsored and promoted by ALA and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, this national campaign aims to help consumers manage their personal finances and develop financial literacy skills. Many libraries participate in this effort by promoting financial trainings and resources to students and the general public. It is […]
Five Library Activities to Support National Poetry Month
Since 1996, April has been designated National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate poetry through greater awareness and public engagement. Your library can support and highlight National Poetry Month in a variety of ways, which can serve as a fun way to engage your students and cultivate the type of interactive relationships essential for first-year […]
ICYMI: Tools and Resources for Libraries
Online learning is now critical in supporting students and educators. I spoke with Ide Thompson, a college senior majoring in English and history at the University of the Bahamas to see how he has been responding to the pandemic. Thompson said, “The virus has forced all of my classes to convert to online instruction. While […]
Looking for a Teaching Resource? Check Out Creating Data Literate Students
Thinking of ways to teach or integrate data literacy into your library instruction? Data literacy is defined as the ability to read, interpret, understand, and create data as information. There’s an open access publication called Creating Data Literate Students (2017) edited by Kristin Fontichiaro, Jo Angela Oehrli, and Amy Lennex. Supported by the University of […]
Helping Transfer Students Succeed: Tips & Strategies for Academic Librarians
Have you done outreach to your transfer students? If not, then you may want to consider transfer students as another important student group to support. We’ve covered orientations for first-year students and international student events, and in this post, we’ll cover outreach services to transfer students. Late last fall, a colleague and I attended our […]
Collaborating with Student Affairs for Student Success
I often get emails from other academic librarians asking how they can increase their outreach efforts serving first-year students. (Thank you for your emails!) One way to enhance your student services as an FYE librarian is to engage with your student affairs or student services division directly. Typically, this division supports all student-related matters from […]
Library Orientation Kick Off: Sampling Different Types of Orientation Engagements
The academic school year has started for many universities and colleges. If you had planned for something or will be planning for something soon, think about some creative ways to engage with students. From photo booths to scavenger hunts, you can showcase library resources and giveaways to attract your new learners and introduce them to […]
More Creative Assessments for the First-Year Experience
In a previous post, we covered different assessment activities that you can adapt in your instruction program. We find that FYE librarians need to continue shaping their instructional and assessment methods for first-year students. Instructional assessments are important to measure students’ learning and your own instruction performance. Here are some additional ones you can consider doing! […]
Creative Assessments for the First-Year Experience
Thinking of creative ways to assess your first-year students? Assessment is such a hot topic in academic librarianship today. There’s an assessment program for user experience, instructional services, collections usage, and more. Librarians should always be thinking about new ways to assess their users and information-seeking needs. One way to identify future trends in services […]
