Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gender And Scholarly Publishing: What Students Need To Know, Lucretia Mcculley

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

As women and gender studies students emerge as citizens of the world, how can we educate them on scholarly communication issues? What role, if any, does gender play in successful scholarly publishing? How is open access publishing affecting global access to scholarship on gender? How do students’ lives on the Web influence their understanding of copyright?

Women and gender studies students need to understand the economics and legal aspects of scholarship, both as consumers and content creators. They need to be able to thoughtfully discuss who owns information, who controls it and who has access to it. Students also need …

Understanding Academic Patrons’ Data Needs Through Virtual Reference Transcripts: Preliminary Findings From New York University Libraries, Margaret Smith, Jill Conte, Samantha Guss

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

New York University (NYU) Libraries has an extremely high-volume chat reference service. This popularity presents a unique opportunity for gaining insight into library patrons’ conceptualizations of their data reference needs and how these needs are changing. Through analysis of three years’ worth of chat transcripts, we began to explore user needs and familiarity related to locating secondary data and statistics, performing data analysis, and using existing data services. Ultimately, we focused our analysis on requests for census data. This article discusses, in detail, the methods, preliminary results, limitations, and proposed next steps of our investigation. Our final goal is to …

The Personal Librarian Program At The University Of Richmond: An Interview With Lucretia Mcculley, Lucretia Mcculley, Cy Dillon

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

In the fall of 2010, two well-known liberal arts institutions, Drexel University in Philadelphia and Wesleyan University of Middletown, Connecticut, began programs that provided “personal librarians” for incoming freshmen. This apparently new idea received some notice in higher education news feeds, and was even featured in Library Journal’s Newsletter.

Academic librarians are always inquisitive, of course, and a national discussion about the history of such programs began quickly in a variety of listservs. Within a few days it was revealed that the concept was far from new, and that the first successful version was still flourishing at the University of …

Taking The Best Of Both Worlds: Success And Challenges With The Hybrid Model Of Library Instruction, Lucretia Mcculley

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The University of Richmond (UR) is an independent, privately endowed institution, with a total student body of around 5,000 students. Undergraduate and graduate degrees are offered in the liberal arts, business, law, and leadership studies. Library instruction has been an integral part of the university libraries program since the 1970s, initiated by a five-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities College Library Program and the Council on Library Resources. During the past thirty years, the program has continued to grow and reinvent itself. Overall, the instructional services program can be described as a "hybrid library instruction model," emphasizing …

Connecting With Aim: The Search For A Virtual Reference Niche, Lucretia Mcculley, Olivia Reinauer

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Launching virtual chat reference services at Boatwright Library at the University of Richmond has been an interesting challenge of “trial and error” over the years. After trying several different software programs and staffing options, librarians have finally found a niche with AOL’s Instant Messenger service. The first section of the article describes a path of experimentation, including early collaborations with the computing services help desk, staffing patterns within the library, technical and financial challenges with virtual reference software, and attempts to get students to use reference chat services. The second half of the case study will describe the great success …

Enhancing Women's Studies Action Research Projects Through Technology, Lucretia Mcculley

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This article describes how library and Internet technology enhanced an action research assignment in a unique women’s studies program, Women Involved in Living and Learning (WILL), at the University of Richmond. The Women’s Studies Liaison Librarian and the Director of the WILL Program collaborated to provide a meaningful assignment that incorporated the use of online databases and the Internet. The main objective of the assignment was to provide a research opportunity whereby the students would learn to use electronic women’s studies resources and actually utilize the information into some type of social action, such as writing a letter, volunteering in …

Feminist Empowerment Through The Internet, Lucretia Mcculley, Patricia Patterson

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The University of Richmond's upper division Political Science course, "Women and Power in American Politics," has several ambitions. Among these is an exploration of the power of information technology to foster political research by and about women and to advance feminist political aims.

Linking Secondary School Students With College-Level Resources: Guidelines For Borrowing Privileges And Library Instruction, Lucretia Mcculley

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Boatwright Library at the University of Richmond has developed a cooperative program with high school librarians to provide service to local high school students. The Library grants limited circulation privileges and offers library instruction for assignments that require university-level library resources. The program has reduced inappropriate library behavior by high school students and may help the University attract additional students. Future plans include closer cooperation with high school librarians.

A Model For College Library Visits, Lucretia Mcculley, Christine Campbell

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Describes how classroom teachers and librarians at J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico County, Va. worked together with librarians at the Boatwright Memorial Library of the University of Richmond to make a research project beneficial to the students.

Catching Diverse Users In The Library Instruction Web, Lucretia Mcculley

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The 1988 LOEX (Library Orientation and Exchange) Conference challenged our instructional staff to think beyond our traditional instruction program for our university students. With a well established freshman and upperclass student program, what other groups did we need to focus on? Four librarians from the University of Richmond (UR), including three reference librarians and the Director of Public Services, attended the LOEX Conference in Bowling Green, Ohio in May of 1988. The conference theme was "Reaching and Teaching Diverse Library User Groups" and it concentrated on atypical groups within a college or university community such as international students, high school …