Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Somewhere Between Rational And Irrational: Creativity In The Graduate Research Process And Its Implications For Librarians, Kelly Hangauer

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Scholars analyzing the relationship between creativity and graduate research have tended to be PhD supervisors and psychologists. Using qualitative research methods and personal insights, these authors have looked closely at what creativity in the research process entails, and have called on supervisors to more effectively, and explicitly, foster creativity in graduate student research. Within this scholarly conversation, the teaching and support services of librarians have been largely overlooked.

This presentation contends that librarians are ideal collaborators for the development of creativity in graduate research. What’s more, a review of the doctoral education literature reveals ample opportunity for librarians to engage. …

From Idea To Manuscript, Andrea Hebert

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Collaborations between librarians and faculty in graduate-level capstone classes are common, as is librarian support for thesis- and dissertation-level literature reviews, but librarians are situated to offer help beyond these traditional services, especially with the rise in popularity of the "three-article dissertation." At Louisiana State University, the School of Education offers a graduate-level class that focuses on current research on scholarly writing productivity (EDCI 7129 From Idea to Manuscript). As the name suggests, the course is designed to guide students through completing a writing project, including theses, dissertations, book chapters, and articles. For three years, the Human Sciences & Education …

One Workshop, Many Locations: Meeting The Needs Of Both On-Campus And Distance Students, Lisa Becksford

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

The diverse needs of graduate students can be difficult to gauge, and even when their needs are known, it can be difficult to develop programming that meets the needs of graduate students across disciplines and program levels. In spring 2018, a needs assessment survey was conducted by the graduate librarian at a large, comprehensive public university with graduate students at multiple campus locations. Based on respondents’ articulated needs for additional help in data management, research skills, scholarly publishing, and citation management, a workshop series, Research Tools for Graduate Students, was launched in fall 2019. The series sought to provide graduate …

Finding Sources For The Literature Review, Juliet T. Rumble

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

This workshop is for instructors who work with graduate students who are starting work on a literature review for their thesis or dissertation. The graduate workshop begins with an overview of the role of the literature review in a dissertation or thesis and then transitions to a discussion of the ways that writers use different types of sources to accomplish different tasks in their writing. The main focus of the session is on general strategies and resources for finding scholarly literature using an academic library. Tracking citations, locating systematic reviews, using discipline-specific databases and research tools, and identifying relevant subject …

What Happens When You Assume: Identifying Graduate Student Information Literacy Support Needs, Geoff Johnson, Abbie Basile, Mandy Havert, Matt Ogborn, Samantha Walsh

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Graduate students are expected to conduct research at an advanced level, which includes a higher degree of field-specific knowledge and autonomy than many of them experienced as undergraduates. It stands to reason, then, that they need advanced information literacy and research skills. However, while it might be true that graduate students need these skills, discussions around information literacy instruction for graduate students often assume a baseline of literacy or research expertise that they may not actually have. Many graduate students need what could be considered more “introductory” support before they can get to their “advanced” objectives for a variety of …

Cybersecurity Education: The Need For A Top-Driven, Multidisciplinary, School-Wide Approach, Lucy Tsado

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The human resource skills gap in cybersecurity has created an opportunity for educational institutions interested in cybersecurity education. The current number of schools designated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and National Security Agency (NSA) as Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) to train cybersecurity experts are not sufficient to meet the shortfall in the industry. The DHS has clearly mapped out knowledge areas for cybersecurity education for both technical and non-technical disciplines; it is therefore possible for institutions not yet designated CAEs to generate cybersecurity experts, with the long-term goal of attaining the CAE designation. The purpose of this …

News - University Of Georgia School Of Law, Rachel S. Evans

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Unraveling Identity Signifier Literacy: A Case Study Of First-Year Composition Students' Communication Practices, Bailey Mcalister

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Identity signifier literacy is defined as one’s ability to accurately read – via personal interactions or via visual, verbal, written, or digital communication – the signifiers others display in direct and indirect ways and interpret these signifiers to gain understanding of others’ identities. In this study, 22 first-year composition students were surveyed about their communication practices in order to see how their identity signifier literacies influence and are influenced by digital environments and composition. These results are meant to improve first-year composition pedagogy by making connections between students’ informal composition practices and their academic composition courses.

Roundtable: Supporting Professional Masters' Programs In Social Science And Policy Fields, Elisabeth Shields

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Professional masters programs in the social sciences and policy fields prepare participants for middle and senior positions in the private sector, government, non-profits, and international organizations. In addition to ensuring further disciplinary knowledge, programs often include components on managerial, organizational, communication, policy analysis, and similar skills. Institutions are adding programs in interdisciplinary and emerging areas to their existing professional programs in business, counseling psychology, social work, and public administration.

Librarians face distinctive challenges in supporting such programs. Faculty teaching in these programs may be adjuncts unfamiliar with their institution’s library offerings and services. Some students have just completed undergraduate programs, …

Creating Transformative Connections With Graduate Students Using A Social Capital Framework, Mary J. Markland, Hannah Gascho Rempel

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Graduate school is a transformative time for many students. It is also a time when they are part of an elite community of learners. For some students, this is an exciting adventure that allows them to explore new ideas and more fully express themselves. However, many graduate students also experience feelings of anxiety, frustration, and exclusion because they don’t feel like they really belong to this academic community. Graduate students sometimes struggle with how to navigate the new social norms, hierarchies, and structures built on many years of accumulated, implicit knowledge. These socially-based struggles frequently lead to lower levels of …

Impediments, Partners, And Proposals: Preparing Graduate Students To Start Their Thesis And Dissertation Proposals, Erin M. O'Toole

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

The proposed presentation will share the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries’ experience of creating and refashioning workshops to prepare graduate students to write their dissertation or thesis proposals. Concurrently, it will challenge attendees to consider the impediments graduate students may face at their own institutions and possible partnerships and services to enable students to complete their proposals. Highlights of the presentation will be collaboration with UNT teaching faculty and the Graduate School, the structure and content of the workshops, and the evolution of the workshops in response to student evaluations.

The Library Research Support Services Department (LRSS) works closely …

Becoming A Competent Graduate Librarian, Wendy Doucette

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

As I enter my fourth year as a graduate librarian (and my 10^th year of academic librarianship and my 29^th year of teaching), I’m struck by how my approach to graduate students continues to shift. To my surprise, every academic year has brought a new revelation concerning what our students don’t know and do need, which necessitates a corresponding revision of service on my part. Although “competence” is a relative term, I feel strongly that the needs of our graduate students—and the skills necessary for us as providers to fulfill these requirements—are similar to those at other institutions …

Panel: Serving Different Populations, Nastasha E. Johnson, Samantha Walsh, Moushumi Chakraborty, Mandy Havert, Roman Koshykar

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Meeting the needs of graduate students systematically and intentionally can be a daunting strategic initiative. The students’ interests, expertise, and career objectives can vary greatly. Understanding and addressing gaps in their knowledge can an insurmountable obstacle, seemingly, as well. Politically there may be silos to contend and barriers to perception of “what libraries can do.” We would like to propose a panel discussion where different institutions discuss the wins and losses of reaching different graduate populations. The objective of the panel discussion is to openly share the strategies that have worked for different populations, as well as strategies that can …

Using The Acrl Framework To Build Graduate Services: Librarian Experiences From Three Institutions, Jennifer Mayer, Jeff Dowdy, Mandy Havert, Stephanie Wiegand

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Description

Graduate student time for professional development is limited, tightly controlled during coursework, and must be prioritized. It can be argued that new learning happens best in context and at the point of need. One panelist will discuss how the Framework can be used as a foundation for building a graduate student inventory of research skills designed to identify areas for growth and match those needs with planned programming that is aligned with the demands of their respective programs.

Workshops and writing intensives for graduate students are typical pillars of graduate student programming at many academic libraries. Learn how one …

Supporting Scholars In Training: A User Needs Survey Of A Graduate Study Space, Juliet T. Rumble, Adelia B. Grabowsky

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

A separate study area reserved for faculty and graduate students was established at Auburn University’s Draughon Library in 2008, but, for many years, there was no formal effort to study the use of the space. In 2016, recognizing that the needs of these user groups differ in significant respects from those of undergraduates, the presenters developed a questionnaire to gather information on the faculty and graduate students using the area and the adequacy of the space to support their work practices. For two weeks in the summer and four weeks in the fall of 2016, users visiting the area were …

Cultivating Cultural Intelligence For Serving International Students, Wendy Doucette, Mandy Havert, Kyunghye Kim

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

We are proposing a 50-minute panel.

Presenters: Dr. Wendy Doucette, East Tennessee State University; Ms. Mandy Havert, University of Notre Dame; Dr. Kyung Kim, Florida State University

The number of international graduate students continues to rise at American universities nationwide. While academic librarians wish to serve this student population effectively, few of us have received formal training or meaningful exposure to this sector of our student populace. This panel will provide first-person experiences from academic librarians who are actively engaging with and researching international students. Acknowledging and encouraging cultural diversity fosters the awareness of building inclusivity into graduate programming. Rather …

Using Citation Analysis To Develop A Strategic Plan For A Campus-Wide Scholarly Communication Initiative, Scott Lancaster

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

As scholarly communication continues its digitally driven shift away from a publishing model rooted in print culture, it is essential that the academic library maintain its impact by keeping in step with rapidly changing expectations and practices. As future faculty, today’s graduate students must learn the skills to carefully evaluate publishers, consider copyright in a digital environment, use information ethically and responsibly, and avoid unscrupulous vendors and publishers who prey on those who must “publish or perish.” While they develop knowledge in their respective fields, they cannot afford to be unaware of both the opportunities and pitfalls of modern scholarly …

Indispensable: A Library’S One Stone Strategy To Improve Graduate Student Research Skills, Meet Faculty Research Demands And Contribute To Graduate Student Retention, Michelle Lang

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

At Pace University and other master and doctoral universities and colleges, Graduate Students are not usually among the systematically targeted. In the fall of 2016, I undertook to specifically target Graduate Assistants (GA’s) working for faculty in research assistantships. Securing an academic assistantship is a coveted and competitive endeavor, but if the GA does not have the required research skills they can be out after only one semester. While being aware of university retention goals and the gap between GA research skills and faculty research demands, I started a pilot project of creating GA research workshops based on the specific …

The Role Of Academic Libraries In The Carnegie Classification, Michael Doylen

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

In early 2016, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) received the news that it had been elevated in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education rankings from an R2 to an R1 institution. The “highest research activity” rating was given to only 115 of the 4,665 universities evaluated in 2014. In Wisconsin, only UWM and UW-Madison received the rating. In response to this unexpected but welcome news, the university took steps to understand how it had achieved this distinction and, as importantly, how it would sustain its R1 rating for the next evaluation period. In partnership with the campus units …

Not Just Degree-Seekers: Graduate Students As Scholarly Contributors, Roxanne Shirazi, Jill Cirasella

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Most graduate students are required to produce theses and dissertations that make an original contribution to the field of study. This requirement informs how students and faculty approach graduate research, but colleges and universities often treat the culminating works merely as student records, not scholarly contributions encompassing original research. Librarians, however, are uniquely situated to treat graduate students as emerging participants in the scholarly communication ecosystem and to help them prepare their culminating works for an outside audience. Librarians have the expertise to advise students during the submission process with questions regarding copyright, licensing, fair use, and author’s rights, as …

The Research Savvy Librarians: Boot Camp For Teaching Literature Reviews To Graduate Students, Kyung Kim, Abby Scheel, Kelly Grove

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

Writing literature reviews is among the most common assignments for graduate work, and a requirement for all theses and dissertations. Students find this often a complex and even overwhelming process as the graduate students need to identify and get eligible literature on the topic, read and evaluate literature, and take notes about trends, patterns, and the latest development of the scholarship on the topic. Writing literature reviews involves a number of skill sets from the students, but practical guidance on each step in the process is often not provided by professors. Librarians have helped the students to search databases and …

A Course Project Designed To Aid Students’ Understanding Of The Structure Of Advertisements: An Application Of The Who Says What To Whom Over What Channel With What Effect Model, Paul J. Costanzo

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The author describes a project using a classic communication and attitude-change model and explains how instructors teaching a course in promotional strategy, advertising, or integrated marketing communications can use it to help students better understand the critical elements of an effective advertisement. The author provides an overview of the research on the classic model and describes how the model is still useful today. One benefit for the instructor who adopts this project in their respective course is that students are required to synthesize knowledge of the model with information provided in the current advertising literature and then use this knowledge …

At What Cost? The Ethics Of Student Debt, Kevin D. Gecowets

The Siegel Institute Journal of Applied Ethics

This paper summarizes recent research into the cost of higher education, and specifically the effects of growing student debt loads. It explores the utility of debt related to access to degree programs, entry into the job market, and economic impact in later life. It is not an economic analysis of higher education financing, but a consideration of the costs and benefits of education financing today. The central ethical consideration of “who benefits” applied to the current state of play in higher education financing leads to the questions: With constantly rising debt loads for individual students and the general population, is …

News - University Of West Georgia, E. Lorene Flanders

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Social Justice And The Future Of Higher Education Kinesiology, Brian Culp

Faculty Articles

This article presents a rationale for the infusion of social justice into kinesiology programs for the purpose of reducing inequities in society. Specifically, the current climate for social justice is considered and discussed using examples from an university-inspired service-learning initiative, law, and politics. Of note are the following areas of discussion: (a) differentiation between social diversity and social justice, (b) public pedagogy as a means by which to inspire service action, (c) the creation of climates for speech and application of social justice, (d) modeling and socialization for equity, and (e) the neoliberal threat to inclusiveness. The article concludes with …

Can Library Research Be Fun? Using Games For Information Literacy Instruction In Higher Education, Jennifer Young

Georgia Library Quarterly

Collectively, the world's population spends about 3 billion hours a week playing video games. To reach game-playing audiences of all ages, educators, including library instructors, are embracing game-based learning to engage and motivate students the same way that games do. In looking at the collective wisdom on what makes a good game, and providing concrete examples of library gaming projects, this paper discusses the best practices for creating virtual and virtual-reality hybrid games for bibliographic instruction. The author explores the literature on gamification and games used for teaching information literacy in higher education, and provides recommendations gleaned from existing research …

The Grad Commons In The Academic Library: Reimagining Collaborative Learning Spaces And Services For Graduate And Professional Students Through Participatory Design, Michael Courtney, Erika L. Jenns

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

During the Fall 2013 semester, the Indiana University Libraries officially launched the Grad Commons, a flexible, multipurpose space in the heart of the Herman B Wells Library’s research collection stacks to provide graduate and professional students easy access to the information resources and subject librarian expertise vital to their research. As part of a much larger vision that has sought to fulfill user needs by reimagining conjoined library spaces such as the Learning Commons, a 24/7 technology-infused learning center where students work on class assignments from start to finish, and the Scholars’ Commons, designed to stimulate scholarly conversation, interdisciplinary exchange, …

Publication Trends In Library Reserves: A Quantitative Content Analysis, Denise Dimsdale

Georgia Library Quarterly

A quantitative content analysis of abstracts on the topic of library reserves in the databases Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Library Literature and Information Science Index (LLI), and Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) was conducted in order to identify subtopics and research trends over time. Seven of the most frequent library reserves subtopics were identified: electronic reserves, implementation, physical reserves, evaluation, E-Reserves software, copyright, and learning management systems. Results indicate that library reserve related topics appear slowly in the early literature and begin to drop off in frequency in 2008.

Comparing Student Assessments And Perceptions Of Online And Face-To-Face Versions Of An Introductory Linguistics Course, David M. Johnson, Chris C. Palmer

Faculty Articles

This article examines the issue of whether linguistics is better suited for a face-to-face (F2F) environment than an online teaching environment. Specifically, it examines assessment scores and student perceptions of the effectiveness of an introductory linguistics course at an undergraduate state university that has been taught multiple times in both online and F2F modes. To study this issue data was collected about the types of students enrolled in either version of the course, including their GPAs and course grades. A survey with both closed- and open-ended questions was also used to ask students about their experiences and perceptions of the …

News - University Of West Georgia, E. Lorene Flanders

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.