Survey Monkey surveys

I have checked my results in Survey Monkey for both the general and workshop surveys, and the number of results are disappointing. I have had 11 completed for workshops and 4 for the general satisfaction survey. In workshops, I distribute handouts that have the link on them and tell the students at the beginning and end of the workshop that they will be entered to win a $50 Target Gift Card if they fill out the survey. I have signs in the library promoting the general survey along with slips of paper on the tables and on my desk with the information. What are you doing to get students to fill out the survey?

ESL Article

I found a great article through WebJunction (but published elsewhere) that discusses how some libraries are reaching out to Spanish-speaking populations. Most of the libraries are public, but I think they include some good ideas - and all of the suggestions could work for other non-Spanish ESL learners.

http://www.criticasmagazine.com/article/CA6606945.html?nid=2712&rid=reg_visitor_id&source=title

Successes

I did an "Intro to the Library Resources" for one section of Success Strategies last week and I implemented a couple of new items we talked about at our team meeting.

1. There were ~ 18 students. I had them sit in tables according to the School of their program. They were curious as to why there were more at the table of the School of Allied Health. I took the opportunity to let them know that 50% of the school's students were in that school.
   
2. After showing how the books were organized, I had them in their groups physically take books off the shelves and look at what they had to offer. I've never done this specifically before, and it proved to be a huge success! I gave each one a self-check out form, and I had more than 3/4 of them check out books! A HUGE boon to my circulation statistics. I will expand upon this next quarter and have every introduction workshop have this same sort of component.
   
3. I used Dennis' "half-sheet response' and was delighted to read them afterwards. I will continue doing this type of assessment for me.
   

Collaboration!

I wanted to share with all of you a recent experience working together with faculty. Earlier this week, one of my English Comp. instructiors had both of her classes watch "An Inconvenient Truth," and after a break, I came in to do a workshop on finding/using library resources. I structured the class around the topic of environmentalism and climate change, and showed the students very specific places to conduct their research. I narrowed their resources to three types - Books, Articles, and Websites - and demostrated how to find resources on environmental issues in all three.

I first showed them the difference between keyword and subject searches in the online catalog, using "global warming" and "climate change" as my examples. Then, I showed them Points of View, which has an entire category of "Earth and Environment." Last, I explained Ma.gnolia, and showed them how the tag "environment."

I also used a hybrid of Dennis's half-sheet response and Amy's workshop quiz to gain feedback.

I noticed that many of the students (most of which had already attended a workshop) started to understand the different types of resources, once the topic had already been chosen for them. I got responses such as "I learned about Ma.gnolia for the first time" and "I learned how to navigate the system," even though I know that this class had received such information before. I think the success of the workshop stemmed from a combination of: 1) having a topic area already selected for them; 2) showing them specific examples of finding information on that topic; and 3) choosing a topic that many people have an opinion of already. I also think that the quiz/response kept them on task and forced the students to think about the ideas I was presenting.

My workshop story

As some of you may know, I have a business instructor who I call the "Passionate Professor." He brings his classes to the library on field trips and has workshops for every single class. Today I had my fourth workshop for him. I decided it was time to change things up since many of the students had been in other workshops with me this week. There were only 7 students in the class. I went in and passed out note cards. I asked the students to write down what they wanted to get out of the workshop. I told them if they didn't list anything that we would go back to the same old PowerPoint. So everyone listed things except for one student who couldn't come up with anything. She said she knew enough and that she used Noodlebib all the time. So, I invited her to teach Noodlebib at the end of the workshop. She was open to it and it was great! Afterwards, I used Dennis' idea of the half sheet response. All of the responses were positive and everyone said that they had no unanswered questions. One student wrote, "If I have questions, I'll just go see Cynthia in the library." After the workshop, many of the students remained in the lab working on their research and I was able to stay for awhile to help.

Using movie reviews to teach students how to evalutate websites

I used one of the assessment ideas that was discussed at our team meeting. I had students do this assessment in Success Strategies.

It was a great success. I picked out 2 websites about the death penalty. One is a blog with an anonymous author that calls himself "The Exterminator." The other site is a government site with statistics about capital punishment. I explained the Who, What, When, Where, and Whys of evaluating websites, and most students did a great job deciphering if the websites were credible. See below. Notice the stars :). After the students completed the evaluating exercise, I had the students enter these websites into Noodlebib and print out a reference page.

I am going to load this document into Google Docs.

ALA

I am excited about the chance to attend ALA. So much so that I have already checked the web for the dates....July 9- 15 and talked with my husband and family about attending. I am wondering who is planning on going and how is everyone planning on getting there?

Half-Sheet Response a Full-Blown Hit!

I'm so grateful for finding out about the one-minute paper ("Half-Sheet Response") from Dennis. It is a terrific assessment tool for workshops. I had a workshop last night and all 16 students in attendance filled it out. (And no, I did not get any comments about my hair or the state of the world...)

I did get helpful responses for the teacher and me. One student wrote: "I'll probly (sic) end up forgetting all this. Can I come in + ask anytime?" That made me glad I always tell the students the different ways they can reach me and our team.

I'll be using this tool often; it is great.

Traditional vs. Entrepreneurial Libraries

In October I attended the annual meeting for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). Marshall Keys, the keynote, spoke about Entrepreneurship and Risk in Libraries. He compared the traditional library to the entrepreneurial library, stating that most libraries are traditional. The goal is to be entrepreneurial. It appears that RCLS is on the right track.


Characteristics of Traditional:
• Statute and rule directed
• Hierarchical
• Specialized responsibilities
• Centralized control
• Accountable for rules
• Focus on what’s best for organization
• Emphasis on programs
• Quality defined by professional standards
• Cost focused
• Monopoly service
• Dependent on external funding
• Try to be all things to all people

Characteristics of Entrepreneurial:
• Mission directed
• Team oriented
• Integrated responsibilities
• Decentralization and empowerment
• Accountable for outcomes
• Focus on what’s best for customer
• Emphasis on performance
• Quality defined by meeting customer expectations
• Value focused
• Multiple choices
• Self-supporting
• Niche focused

* These lists Adapted from Jim Thalhuber National Center for Social Entrepreneurs

Gen Y - Those rascally Milennials!

These are the comments that made up the large Y we created during our Systems Meeting.

When working with Gen Yer's use:
Interactive activities & videos/media rich/treats and rewards/tell them why the information is important to them/they need to be successful so build activities they can succeed at/make them feel special/entertain them/repetition is good/explicit instructions/customize/Use Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook/humor/group work/electronic resources and RSS feeds/have students teach/choices in activities and assessments/divided tasks into short intervals/hands-0n learning/

They really aren't the "dumbest generation". We just need to change our teaching styles to match their culture!

ALA Chicago- Poster Session Proposals

Call for poster sessions for ALA Annual in; the deadline is January 31st-

http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/ala/

Great academic skills videos

These videos are pretty cool. Peer-review is explained in the Database module.

Chains part two

We had a nice response to our Chains of Diversity. One of my tutors graciously volunteered the make the chains. So I gave her all of the ballots that didn't have names on them. During our Diversity Committee meeting last week, the committee members made chains from the ballots that had students' names on them. We are leaving the chains up through the end of the quarter so that there is that visual representation of diversity. I uploaded the pictures of the continuing chain to Flickr if you want to see more.

Delighting the Customer: It's the Little things that Count

Happy Monday, everyone. As we slide into Week 5, just a week away from our Annual Team meeting, I wanted to take this opportunity to focus (myself) on customer service.

I'm a big fan of the Tom Peters Weblog. He provides small nuggets of inspiration each day to my Google Reader, and when collected with the other 200 or so feeds that I receive in a day, make a fine bit of meditation reading. Today's gem was about customer service:

"As I said, now, more than ever. I suggest, for example, that you devote most of your "morning meeting" or "weekly phone call" to the "little" things—from clean restrooms to deliveries made or missed to thank-you calls to a customer for her business after an order ships.

Keep on each other over those basics—and be liberal with the kudos for those who go an extra millimeter to do a "trivial" job especially well."

The basics are incredibly important. Let's look at it from the perspective of a customer. Do you get easily frustrated or disappointed when someone is late for a meeting or misses a call with you? What if they don't show up for the meeting at all, even though they'd already said they'd come? Have you waited on an e-mail for weeks without response?

Have you ever visited a library and been upset because the thing you wanted was in the wrong location? Or, gone to a store that was a mess? Does uncleanliness, poor service, or disorganization stress you out?

Now, turn a critical eye to your own services and practices. Do you return calls and respond to e-mails within a 24 hour period (this is not only good business practice, it's also our service policy to students). Do you respond in this time frame JUST to students? Remember that your fellow librarians, as well as staff, faculty, and community members are your customers, too.

How does your library look today? Is scratch paper available for folks to take notes? Are the printer trays full of paper? Are chairs neatly pushed in and trash off of the floors and tables? Have you dusted lately? Are your books neatly organized or do they look hap-hazard?

Turn a critical eye to your desk. If a patron asked you for a form, a pencil, a business card, or a handout, could you immediately pick it up and hand it to them?

Do you turn in your reports on time? Remember that the people who ask for the reports aren't just collecting them for fun; the data is used for assessment and meeting additional deadlines/responsibilities. Do you attend calls and meetings on time, and take good notes?

Do you smile to patrons and welcome them to the library as they walk in? Do you say goodbye as they leave? How do you answer the phone? Are your e-mails courteous or do you merely answer the questions asked as briefly as possible?


I'm not saying that I'm perfect in any of these areas: in fact, I've caught myself not paying attention to these basics many times over the past few days, which prompted this post.

What other basics do we need to follow to delight our customers?

-Emily