Faculty Workshop

My first faculty workshop was held this morning and I think it went fairly well! Three faculty members were in attendance (there were only 4 on campus) and they all seemed interested and engaged. The session was informal and purposely conversational.

I began by showing them the library's page on CHIPSnet and the guides we've created, which they seemed to appreciate. Next, I had fun showing them some of EBSCO's advanced features, such as the Visual Search, Subject Headings, the Index, and the Advanced Search tab. They were super impressed with the visual search, and agreed with me that there are visual learners that may be more comfortable with databases if presented through the visual search.

We also spent some time looking at the features in newspaper databases and at some subject specific databases. Our Massage Therapy instructor was very impressed with CINAHL and the Evidence Based Care Sheets - we agreed that her students have no excuse for not finding reliable information!

Some pointers and things I will keep in mind for the next faculty workshop: 1) Offer one session on a Friday or a day when most faculty are available - offering several sessions provides too many options and then no one attends! 2) Food might be something nice to offer faculty - although one would hope it's not a requirement! 3) Hold separate sessions for each major discipline or subject area. I found that I wanted to go much more in-depth on each database, but lacked the time because I was attempting to show too many subject-specific databases.