Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using Peers To Shed Light On Service Hours For Librarians, Hector Escobar, Heidi Gauder

Heidi Gauder

Purpose: Public service hours for many academic librarians have changed within the last decade. As reference statistics have declined, so have job descriptions changed. We often hear terms like outreach, liaison work, embedded librarianship, consulting hours, scheduled appointments. etc., for what used to be normal desk hours. With a changing service model, comes accountability. How do institutions account for these new forms of work and duties that have replaced traditional service desk hours? How does this feed into performance or merit review?

The purpose of this short paper is to shed light on the roles of librarians at medium-sized universities, …

Let’S Chat: Assessing Virtual Reference Service For Optimal User Experience, Heidi Gauder, Margaret Barkley

Heidi Gauder

Both librarians and student employees staff our virtual reference service, so ensuring consistent and quality chat transactions is important. Sample transcripts from fall 2014 were evaluated, and a fall 2015 follow-up analysis reviewed service improvement efforts. This poster will highlight how a simple scale can be used to assess virtual reference service.

Sketching Success: Assessing Learning Outcomes With Concept Maps, Heidi Gauder, Fred W. Jenkins

Heidi Gauder

Learn how one library uses concept maps to conduct both quick and in-depth assessments of student learning. This technique evolved into a more formal assessment with pre- and post-testing for both one-shot instruction sessions and semester-long research classes. After transcribing the concepts to spreadsheets, librarians standardize the terms and map them to ACRL Information Literacy Standards for more rigorous analysis and assessment. Discover how concept maps can be easily utilized for assessment.

Integrated Service Spaces: New Ways Of Assessing Collaboration., Hector Escobar, Heidi Gauder

Heidi Gauder

Many academic libraries have participated in the growing trend in creating unified service desks, where users visit one desk to get help from a variety of library and other campus services. The University of Dayton’s Roesch Library, however, is exploring a different model. It is piloting a service that lends itself to true integration with external departments. Although unified service desks offer the convenience of one-stop assistance, the various units may still act as silos. Service integration facilitates better cross-training and less confusion for students who may need multiple forms of help in one common area. The library began to …

Portfolio Power: Assessing Student Research & Writing, Katy Kelly, Heidi Gauder

Heidi Gauder

This session will describe the process and results of an instruction team’s pilot project to analyze student writing portfolios using ACRL standards. Following the English Department’s existing portfolio review methods, the team assessed portfolio samples from a class that received library instruction, as well as a second batch of samples from a class that did not. The team identified four specific learning outcomes, which were measured with a rubric. Outcome results indicated differences as well as similarities between the samples. This pilot helped refine the assessment process and it offered possibilities for changing the content of future library instruction sessions.

Mapping For Change: Re-Imagining Assessment With Concept Maps, Heidi Gauder, Fred W. Jenkins

Heidi Gauder

Facilitate student creativity and assess information skills at the same time with concept maps. Learn how to administer these easy assessments and analyze them for evidence of learning. The presenters will demonstrate how this assessment technique can be used in multiple situations and how it is possible to transform these maps into results that can be easily understood by stakeholders.

Using Assessment To Leverage Collaboration With The Campus Writing Center, Heidi Gauder, Hector Escobar

Heidi Gauder

Purpose Like many academic libraries, the University of Dayton’s Roesch Library houses a writing center. Currently located on the Library’s 2nd floor, it will soon move and become integrated with the library’s reference service. Since the writing center operates independently from the library (e.g., it is staffed by students and reports to different campus administrators), the library reference team, comprised of tenure-line faculty librarians, wanted to better understand writing center services. Given that research and writing are often intertwined, the library was particularly interested in learning how the writing center addressed the evaluation, integration and attribution of sources, tasks similar …

Write Together: Assessing Writing Center Data For Library Collaboration, Heidi Gauder, Hector Escobar

Heidi Gauder

Two academic support units, the library and the writing center, will be co-located on the library’s first floor starting Fall 2014. With a mandate to integrate services, the library was particularly interested in learning how the writing center addressed the evaluation, integration and attribution of sources, tasks similar to the work of reference librarians. Learn how we analyzed the writing center’s consultant reports in order to gain a deeper understanding of their work and prepare for a more effective service integration.