Wednesday, January 09, 2008

hands-on library training for admissions team

Today I met with our campus admissions team and DOA in a computer lab for about an hour so I could properly introduce them to our library. I began by thanking them for being library advocates when they give tours and for introducing me to prospective students. (That helps combat library anxiety, I think.) I told them that I wanted to show them exactly what it is they’re promoting when they tell students we have “a phenomenal online library.” Then we worked our way across the library webpage in a hands-on, interactive way.

• FAQ
• Ask the Librarian (that's why I got the Who is Joe Jones question)
• APA handouts
• NoodleTools (they all set up accounts and made a sample reference page)
• Library catalog and ILL possibilities
• NetLibrary
• Academic Search Premier

The team members and DOA expressed their appreciation for the workshop, and they commented that they learned a great deal about what our library offers. (Somone even e-mailed herself an article she found during the session.) I think it will have a positive impact on what they tell prospective and new students about our library and the tools and resources we provide.

4 comments:

Amy Springer said...

wow! what a great idea!

LisaS said...

Good idea, Chandra! I am not sure how the admissions teams here in Mankato would react.

Kate Bessey said...

Nice work! I actually ended up doing something similar last night... I held an open workshop and 2 reps decided to come in to learn a little bit more about what the library has to offer and the basics of APA and Noodlebib. They said they were very happy w/ what they saw and learned. I'm sure they will definately advocate more for the library now.

Chandra said...

Kate, that's great that they attended an open workshop. Just their presence there really communicated support for what you do.

Amy, can I talk you into sharing with everyone how your event today went?