Faculty--The local version of the ITHAKA Faculty Survey is still available for your completion through Wednesday, May15th. Please take this opportunity to contribute to this national study of faculty perspectives in scholarship, publishing, and the role of libraries.  Make an impact on the future of scholarship and teaching in an increasingly digital environment by participating in the survey by ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization that includes JSTOR and Portico. Your input will support strategic planning and help us better understand how the electronic revolution looks from a faculty standpoint.  The results will enable us to invest wisely in electronic technologies to support research and teaching at DePaul.  

All faculty were sent an email with a link to the survey, which is anonymous and takes about 20 minutes to complete.  We need a large corpus of faculty to participate in order to compare our results to the national aggregate. 

In the coming months, the Library will be moving to a new system for managing course reserves called Ares.  Ares allows us to automate and simplify the reserves process, making it faster and easier for you to put resources of any type on reserve for students to use as well as for students to quickly access their course reserves anytime, anywhere on the Web.

Key functionalities of Ares include:

•    the ability to upload and manage course reserves from any web browser
•    new copyright workflow behind the scenes for a faster permissions process
•    online delivery of course reserves in any format, including electronic books, articles, music, and streaming media
•    course management system integration allowing students to view and access course reserves directly from D2L
•    statistical reports on reserves use for instructors and librarians, helping us make informed decisions together on research resource purchases in the future
 
We expect to implement Ares beginning Fall quarter 2013 following successful pilot of select courses this summer.  Initial and ongoing training will be provided by the university's Media Production & Training group (MPT) in conjunction with the Library implementation team.  

Visit the Media Production and Training website to view upcoming training events and reserve a time to learn more about Ares.  

Web Applications Librarian and system implementation lead, Jim LeFager, is also available to answer any questions you have about the new system, training opportunities, or joining the summer pilot test group. 

Rev. Edward Udovic, C.M., DePaul University’s Vice President of Teaching & Learning Resources, Senior Executive for University Mission, and Associate Professor of History, won the Center for Research Libraries’ (CRL) Primary Source Award for Teaching this year for his Chicago Quarter class, “The Lincoln Park Neighborhood: Then and Now.”

CRL is an international collective of university, college, and independent research libraries whose mission is to support “advanced research and teaching in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences by preserving and making available to scholars the primary source material critical to those disciplines.”  CRL presents the annual award to recognize teachers who encourage the innovative use of primary sources on behalf of their students’ educational experience.

According to the award announcement:

“Providing a structured introduction to urban, local, and educational history, as well as museum and material culture studies, Udovic’s course ensured that first-year students at DePaul engaged with primary source materials from their first days at the university, and developed an initial awareness of the role that special collections, archives, and museums may play in their undergraduate education.”

Udovic’s course makes extensive use of primary source materials available at the Chicago History Museum and DePaul University Library’s Special Collections and Archives. Noted Udovic, “Over the years DePaul’s archive has purposely built a Lincoln Park collection that illustrates the neighborhood’s long and interesting history. These collections provide the backbone of the course’s pedagogy as do intensive neighborhood walking tours.” In addition to garnering recognition from CRL, the course’s focus on primary sources has also been well received by another key audience: DePaul students. “Students always react positively and enthusiastically when directly engaged with a wide variety of primary source materials” Udovic reflected. “For many of them it is the first time where history hasn’t been mediated to them through textbooks.”

The library would like to congratulate Fr. Udovic, for receiving this award and encourage faculty to consult with our archivists on how to incorporate DePaul’s diverse archival collections into their courses.

More information on the award and on Fr. Udovic’s course is in the Spring 2013 issue of the CRL “Focus” newsletter available at http://www.crl.edu/focus/article/9267

An additional example of a course that draws on DePaul University Archives and Special Collections is available at (http://news.library.depaul.edu/news/post/2010/03/Warren-Schultz-takes-students-back-to-1930e28099s-China.aspx).

Over the past few months, a Strategic Planning Task Force has led a planning process across the DePaul University Libraries to identify strategic goals aligned with the university’s Vision 2018 (V2018) strategic plan. While the V2018 plan for the library is not yet complete, we are able to share a number of initiatives on which we hope to focus in the coming years in support of the strategic goals of the university.

In support of the V2018 goal of enhancing academic quality and supporting educational innovation, for example, the library will design and deliver programs providing support for faculty seeking to include information literacy instruction as part of the implementation of the Undergraduate Learning Goals and Outcomes, and will design and deliver programs promoting the innovative use of primary source materials, print and digital, in undergraduate education programs.

Further, in support of the V2018 goal of deepening the university’s distinctive connection to the global city of Chicago, the library will collaborate with colleagues in the Chicago Collections Consortium to design, deliver, and assess programs aimed at enhancing popular and scholarly use of resources and expertise relevant to the study of the City of Chicago, and will collaborate with colleagues at the Chicago History Museum to promote the use of complementary collections and expertise by students and faculty in the Chicago Quarter.

Finally, in support of the V2018 goal of strengthening our Catholic and Vincentian identity, the library will collaborate with colleagues in the Catholic Research Resources Alliance to design, deliver, and assess programs aimed at enhancing popular and scholarly use of resources and expertise relevant to Catholic and Vincentian studies, and will collaborate with the Catholic Schools Initiative to develop and implement an outreach program to Chicago Catholic schools supporting school library programs, and focused on information literacy instruction as a component of college readiness and lifelong learning.

While this is only an introduction to the full range of strategic goals that library staff have endorsed, it may provide you with an idea of the range of ways in which the DePaul University Libraries may be able to partner with your academic programs to pursue areas of mutual interest in support of Vision 2018.Please look for a complete version of the library’s Vision 2018 strategic plan in the coming months, and please contact Scott Walter, University Librarian. If you would like to learn more about the library’s strategic plan or the ways in which you or your students can benefit from our upcoming programs and initiatives.

 

If you have visited the Richardson Library this spring, you may have noticed the work being done in preparation for the second phase of the library’s renovation, including the relocation of the reference collections, curriculum collections, and more. For the most up-to-date information on what is moving where during construction this summer, please watch for updates on the library Web site and on our “renovation guide.”

The first floor of the Richardson Library, to be re-dedicated in the fall as the “Information Commons,” will provide a vastly improved experience for our users, including new furniture, enhanced capacity for technology use, collaborative workstations, and easy access to core collections, including the Unwind the Mind Recreational Reading Collection, Chicago Collection, and the DePaul Faculty Publications Collection. For faculty planning their fall courses, however, it will also provide access to two new service programs designed to directly support your teaching and research: the Learning Commons and the Scholar’s Lab.

The Richardson Library Learning Commons will be a collaborative effort between the DePaul University Libraries, the Division of Academic Affairs (e.g., The Writing Center, The Science and Math Learning Center), and the Division of Student Affairs (e.g., Office of Multicultural Student Services). With support from Caryn Chaden, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, faculty and staff currently working in these areas have spent the past several months planning for the launch of the new program and for the introduction of Learning Commons services to new and returning students through orientation programs, instruction associated with the Chicago Quarter, etc. Bringing together existing library services such as research assistance and information literacy instruction with existing partner programs already housed in the library (e.g., Supplemental Instruction), the Learning Commons is envisioned as a “one-stop shop” for learning support for DePaul students in all schools and colleges. We hope you’ll visit the Learning Commons in the fall to learn more about what it can offer your students.

While visiting the Learning Commons, you will also be able to see the Richardson Library Scholar’s Lab, another new program to be housed in the Information Commons and one dedicated to supporting teaching and research that bring together scholarly content, data sources, digital content, and technology tools. A collaborative effort between librarians and academic programs exploring opportunities for teaching and research in areas such as digital imaging, textual analysis and text mining, social science data, and digital humanities, the Scholar’s Lab will provide a new resource to DePaul faculty and students in all schools and colleges interested in exploring innovative approaches to teaching, learning, and research, and will promote engagement between faculty and librarians working with the next generation of digital, scholarly content.

The library is currently recruiting an Information Commons and Student Engagement Librarian, who will serve a key role in coordinating and promoting the services to be provided through the Information Commons and its associated service programs. If you would like to learn more about these programs during the spring and summer, please contact Terry Taylor, Associate Director of Libraries for Research and Information Services.

Related story: Lawler, E. (2013, May 6). Pardon the dust. Newsline, 46 (8). Retrieved from http://newsline.depaul.edu/Pages/library_renovation.aspx 

DePaul University Library has been selected as one of 75 institutions to participate in the first year of the “Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success” (AiA).  As the project leader for DePaul University, Heather Jagman, Coordinator of Library Instruction, will lead DePaul’s team in the development and implementation of an action learning project examining the impact of the library on first year student success.

Incorporating input from key University departments that provide First Year Program support services, Jagman, in partnership with Lauri Dietz (Center for Writing-Based Learning), Lisa Davidson (Office for Academic Support),  and Jodi Falk (Center for Students With Disabilities) collaboratively developed an “Academic Success Skills” Common Hour lesson plan for delivery by the student mentors to Chicago Quarter students. This lesson plan, in keeping with the group’s instructional goal of exploration and self-advocacy, includes an assignment designed to help students consider what they are interested in studying, utilize our library discovery tool, and explore our physical spaces. Students then compose a reflective essay on their process.

The team proposes to develop and apply a rubric to examine the reflection essays for indications of discovery or behavior change, and also hopes to learn more about how the academic units represented can work together to further our understanding of the impact that our support services have on student success.  Caryn Chaden, associate vice president for Academic Affairs and associate professor of English, notes that, “With the rise of the internet, many entering freshmen have little experience actually working in a university library and may not be aware of the many services provided there. And since a third of our students are first-generation college, the need to be explicit about available resources and present them in an engaging way is especially important. The project proposed here, introducing students to library resources in a manner designed to tap into their own interests and asking them to reflect on that experience, will contribute to their transition from high school to college and help present the library as a supportive environment for learning. In so doing, this approach promises to contribute to students’ success in subsequent class, whether they explicitly or tacitly require library resources.”  

In addition to furthering the DePaul’s understanding to of the Library’s impact on first year student success, the AiA program has three broad goals:

•     Develop the professional competencies of librarians to document and communicate the value of their academic libraries primarily in relation to their institution’s goals for student learning and success.

•     Build and strengthen collaborative relationships with higher education stakeholders around the issue of library value.

•     Contribute to higher education assessment work by creating approaches, strategies, and practices that document the contribution of academic libraries to the overall goals and missions of their institutions.

For more information on the Assessment in Action Program, please visit http://www.ala.org/acrl/AiA .

Jamie Nelson comes to DePaul University from Augustana College, where she integrated special collections materials into the curriculum to introduce students to increasingly complex concepts and materials matched to their specific course level, discipline and instructors’ assignments.  
 
Reflecting on the special role that archives can play in student learning, Jamie noted, “Special Collections provide a way to engage students with the history and identity of the college while exercising and improving their writing skills.”  Nelson worked with students to complete research projects in several courses before they embarked on their two-term long senior capstone research projects in Special Collections.  With regard to integrating special collection materials into the wider curriculum, Jamie noted the importance of working closely with faculty, including "supporting faculty research in the collection, pro-actively engaging new faculty, and encouraging faculty who are designing new courses to consider adding a special collections component, and explicitly tying special collections instruction to information literacy and discipline-specific learning goals.”
 
Jamie graduated from the University of Washington with a self-designed major in American Studies, and a minor in Women Studies. She completed her MA in Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa, with an emphasis on archival administration. Her own use of special collections materials as an undergraduate led her to pursue librarianship, with a desire to support active learning with unique primary sources.
 
Her continuing interests in the field include instruction, assessment, and dialogue about the digital representation of archival materials. Faculty who are interested in discussing the role special collections materials can play in their teaching and their students’ learning are encouraged to contact Jamie at jnelso56@depaul.edu.
 
A reception to welcome Jamie to campus and to introduce her to some of our most active patrons of DePaul University Special Collections and Archives will be held Thursday, May 23rd, from 2:30 – 4:30 pm in the SPC&A Reading Room located in room 314 of the John T. Richardson Library. Food and refreshments will be served and all are welcome to attend.