Faculty/Staff Library Newsletter

In this issue:

Research Back When
Do you recall your experiences doing research in college? Was it hard to find information? Did you know where to get help? If you started your studies before the digital age, information might have been challenging to come by. As a result, the library was likely your go-to place for research. It had quality information and people to help you. It still does, but the environment has changed. 

Research Today
Today’s students are growing up in a world where information is not hard to find. New information is readily available in greater quantities than ever before, and from all kinds of sources. Additionally, students have grown up with Google as the go-to place for answers to any sort of question. It is jarring when they encounter their first college assignment requiring them to find and use scholarly books and/or articles. Suddenly, they discover their research strategies need to change.  
 

This can be a significant challenge for today’s students, and research by Project Information Literacy tells us that students frequently associate such assignments with terms like:

However, research doesn’t need to feel this way. As educators, we can change this experience and help students build their information literacy (IL) skills throughout their time at GCC. Many faculty are already working in their departments and with the library to address students’ IL needs, but more can be done. 

Next Steps
Please take advantage of the several ways you can learn more about the IL needs of students and how they can be addressed:

• Visit the library’s new Information Literacy Knowledge Library website. This single destination offers everything you need to know about the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL)’s Framework for Information Literacy and how you can include IL skill-building in your classes.
• Read the upcoming series of articles in this semester’s newsletters that will walk through each of the six frames of the ACRL framework.
• Have a conversation with one of our instruction librarians, Amy Lister or Kim Marks. They can answer questions or talk with you about particular needs of your students.
• Participate in the Information Literacy Interest Survey below to describe the IL needs of your classes so that the library can identify ways to help.

Microsoft Surface Hubs in the Library

We are celebrating “Hubruary” in the library this month to promote the Microsoft Surface Hubs! 

These interactive screens are available for students to use as a large-screen display, digital whiteboard, meeting platform, collaboration tool, and more. Last spring, librarians Kim Marks and Gretchen Maxeiner completed a research study exploring student use of this technology involving student and faculty input. Here are some key findings.

• The Surface Hubs are most often used for collaborative work, such as class projects or group studying. This is done chiefly in-person, although some students are utilizing the videoconferencing capabilities.
• Brainstorming/digital whiteboarding is the most common use and often serves as a “gateway” feature, attracting students to the technology and serving as a starting point for exploring other features.
• Most student Surface Hub users believe the technology benefits them now or for the future, potentially improving their learning and/or coursework or preparing them for future education and employment.
• Faculty envision collaboration as the top Surface Hub use for students for both formal learning and co-curricular settings, closely followed by brainstorming/project planning.
• Many of the faculty surveyed are considering incorporating Surface Hub usage into their curriculum. Over half indicated they would possibly or definitely adjust future assignments or lesson plans to integrate Surface Hub usage, and almost half felt that the Surface Hubs might open new avenues for student learning activities.

The library’s Surface Hubs are increasingly popular with students, and this technology is also factoring into plans for other campus spaces, so it is one to keep on your radar!

For more on the research study, see:
Marks, Kimberly, and Gretchen Maxeiner. "Exploring Student Use of Microsoft’s Surface Hubs in an Academic Library." Computers in Libraries, vol. 44, no. 1, 2024. pp. 8-12.

I Love My Librarian Competition Update

In September the library ran a social media campaign rallying support for our nomination of librarian Kim Marks for the national I Love My Librarian award. Unfortunately, Kim did not win, but it was wonderful to see so many votes of support and testimonials from college faculty, staff, students, alumni, and even Kim’s neighbors! Thank you for sharing all of the positive ways just one of our library staff has helped with your research, answered questions, instructed classes, and supported initiatives all over campus.

Here are a few comments:

"Kim is always so helpful! Whenever I have a question, no matter how dumb I might feel asking it, she always answers with grace and enthusiasm. It is a pleasure to have her at the college." – Current student

"Kim is very knowledgeable! You can tell she truly wants to help you succeed, and she is willing to dig into a topic and look at it in unique ways that inspire innovation." – Former student

Miss the campaign? Start following the library on Instagram and Facebook!

Love is in the air with Valentine's Day almost upon us! Enjoy a sweet novel in the spirit of the season.

Therapy Dogs in the Library

Who was that bringing comfort and joy to GCC students on Study Day? The therapy dogs! Everyone loved visiting with the pups, and students used a fun interactive chart to track the impact on their finals-time stress levels, marking a "before" and "after". According to the chart, the doggies were, well, downright therapeutic!

Study Day therapy dog visits are a Buhl Library tradition. Follow us on social media to get announcements on the next visit!

Follow Us

Do you want to learn more about the library? Follow us on our social media channels!

Faculty Book Ordering

Faculty book orders are in progress! Your selections are an important means of building the library collection. There are some changes underway in the ordering process, but you can continue to send in orders by any means until the semester deadline of March 22nd. Here are how things stand now:

• Choice Review cards are being discontinued by the company. The final batch of cards will be distributed to each department in February.
• Those cards are a convenience but aren’t the only way to learn of or request new books. Take advantage of the Choice Review website, Amazon, publisher catalogs, professional organizations, and anywhere else you might learn of new publications in your field. Then email what info you have to Barbra Munnell and/or Jill Forsythe.
• The library now has a simplified budgeting process, so departments no longer need to be mindful of a specific allocation. If you learn of titles the library should have, just send them in!

If your studies fall in the areas of communication, mass media, and related fields including business, this is a database to know! Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) provides full-text coverage for over 450 journals plus indexing and abstracts for hundreds more. These cover the breadth of the field, and many of the major journals have coverage dating back to their first issue. All entries here can also be retrieved via Discovery, but working directly in CMMC allows you to take advantage of custom features:

• The Communications Thesaurus allows you to browse for and search with field-specific language
• The Cited References tool enables you to locate articles citing a particular author or publication.

We give this database an especial shout-out to business students for its strong coverage on organizational communication. Give it a try!