Competing For Fun And Funds: The First Annual "Wake the Library 5K and fun Run
Building Value at ZSR Library
1. Examples from One Library
What ZSR Library does to build value
Susan Sharpless Smith
Charleston Conference
Charleston, SC
November 10, 2012
2. Who is Wake Forest University?
• WFU is a private co-ed liberal arts university in
Winston-Salem, NC
• We describe ourselves as a “collegiate university”
• Mid-size, under 5,000 undergraduates, total including
graduate and medical school: under 7,000
• Traditional school with a primarily residential student
population
• ZSR Library is the 2011 ACRL Excellence in Libraries
winner in the university category
• Our mission is simple: “to help our faculty, students
and staff succeed.”
4. Framework for Demonstrating Value
• Targeting WFU faculty through
– Embedded instruction
– Teaching Support
– Raising visibility through
relationships and partnerships
8. Buidling Partnerships
• Initiatives
– Digital Humanities
– WFU Digital
Publishing
– Documenting
Diversity
• Events
– Faces of Courage:
50 Years of
Integration
– Allen Mandelbaum
Memorial
– Gay Pride Parade
9. Expanding Roles
• Faculty status
opened new doors
• Liaisons: Not just
about collection
development
• Academic Advisers
10. Transforming Positions to Meet
Changing Needs
• Every open position is
evaluated and may be re-
defined if there is need
– Scholarly
Communication
Librarian
– Outreach Librarian
– e-Learning Librarian
– Digital Initiatives
Librarian
11. Increasing Visibility via Library Spaces
• Starbucks
• 118-Seat Auditorium
• Writing Center
• Group Study Rooms with
Technology
• The Bridge
• New Mac Teaching Lab
• Musicircus
Hinweis der Redaktion
WFU is a private co-ed liberal arts university in W-S, NCWe describe ourselves as a “collegiate university”. (balances the personal attention of a small liberal arts college with the breadth and depth of a large research university)mid-size, under 5,000 undergraduates, total including graduate and medical school: under 7,000Traditional school with a primarily residential student populationThis results in a reliance on the library for study space and servicesZSR Library is the 2011 ACRL Excellence in Libraries winner in the university categoryOur mission is simple: “to help our faculty, students and staff succeed.”
To us, by demonstrating value to our stakeholders, our library will retain centrality at our institution, a major goal for any academic library. However, if this was a simple matter, it wouldn’t be such a hot topic of research and discussion as it has become in the last few years!I just briefly want to show you a concept map I developed that identifies themes from the literature in higher education and illustrates the complexity of demonstrating value. These themes include: the changing role of the academic library, Thediversity of university stakeholders and library leadership influence, and library dean leadership talents/skills. I believe the key to keeping the academic library’s centrality is to learn how the library can establish meaningful value to the parent institution. I also believe that the main driver in doing so lies with library leadership. So for us, having the support of and advocacy by our leadership is vital to our ability to succeed.For the research conducted by Sage, the stakeholder focus was teaching and research staff. In talking about ZSR Library today, these stakeholders will highlighted, however, I show this map to say that we look at building value in a more global manner and feel that there are unknown and unplanned intersections between different stakeholder groups that can overlap among the groups.
ZSR Library was a participating library in the SAGE research projectWe are in good company: As noted in the results, we currently really have no systematic evidence beyond anecdotal and individual narratives to gauge impact.However, we feel that Demonstrating value can’t wait for the perfectmethod of measurement to be developed: we take a practical approach instead. Our dean says it well: “The best way to demonstrate value is to have our constituents tell the story for us. We get so many statements and affirmations through the year of students and faculty who tell us how we have helped them. So if a student or faculty membertells that story which is demonstrating the value of the library, it means so much more than if we tell that story.” I want to touch on three different types ways we demonstrate “evidence of value” to our teaching/research faculty:Embedded InstructionTeaching SupportRaising visibility through relationships and partnerships
There are a variety of models of embedment:By presence (Physical vs. virtual vs. hybrid)By Librarian role and function (outreach, liaisonship, course-integrated instruction, membership in research teams, cocreation)By Level of embedment (frequency, responsibilities)By Clientele category (students, faculty, administration)By Types of services (in-depth research/analysis, instruction in information retrieval, ready reference, current awareness, website, maintaining a print library)By Organizational structure (organized through management structure or through funding)At ZSR, we have taken advantage of available opportunities to physically embed in courses because we believe that Those librarians who embedded themselves as a vital and necessary component of the user experience will make themselves indispensableHere are examples of some of our embedment experiences:LENS (Learn, experience, navigate, solve)3 wk residential Summer program for high school students who study sustainability at WFUOfficial role for ZSR: to teach participants how to do researchOutreachCourse-integrated instructionParticipation in program activitiesDaily librarian interaction for duration of camp, including participation in social activitiesSocial stratification in the Deep South: 2 separate courses in 2007/2009 to study “social stratification in the deep south”, 2-3 wk travel trip by busServices: course documentation through website, video, images (blog, wiki, facebook, flickr creation and management); social networking interaction; research assistance, technology instruction, led 2007 service learning component (Bay St. Louis Hancock Co. PL), ready referenceRole: full participation in course activities; research instruction, co-creation of contentCourse partners, full participants!Success recognized wwith 2008 ACRL Instruction Section Innovation AwardEmbedding in SeminarsFrank Lloyd Wright Senior SeminarJunior/senior art majorsRole: fellow learner who recommended research topics and helped students to develop themBioinformatics First Year seminarTaught two classes on researching and zoteroProvided feedback on scientific writing projectsUndergraduate seminar on Renaissance poetry and materiality16th/17th century material in print and manuscript integral part classProvided and interpreted the material objects which illustrated central concepts presented in the classColocation in Residence Halls4 x’s per year, set up shop in residence hallsReady reference, establish awareness of library servicesMain goal: future business!
One of the major ways we support teaching is through our technology expertise. Teaching how to use technology and how to integrate it into coursework has been a specialty of our library since 1996, when ZSR Library was given the formal charge to teach technology to faculty and students. It has evolved from how to use applications to how to integrate it into their pedagogy. In this image (taken in 2009), students going on the South Trip are learning how to use Twitter. Over the years we’ve worked to introduce evolving technologies to faculty (including social media, tablets, wikis, blogs) and counsel them on how best to leverage them in their teaching.
Library Lecture SeriesThe Library Lecture Series features discussions that support the current curriculum, addresses current issues and events, acknowledges and accentuates the current collection, and brings together the many diverse points of view found in our community.In 2005 ZSR Library initiated a Library Lecture Series. This program has grown over time to more frequent sessions on a wide variety of subjects. These lectures allow the Library to be a crossroads of discussion on the current research and findings of the University’s local scholars and provide an opportunity to help share this new knowledge with a broader audience within the University and local community.Faculty Author DinnerThe Library also participates in honoring academic research output for the university faculty. Since 2005 it has hosted the campus reception and dinner for Wake Forest faculty who have published books or significant creative expressions in the previous year. This gives the Library the opportunity to recognize and encourage scholarship, to connect with productive faculty members, and reinforce the connection between its mission to support and archive research while still forming intimate relationships with these faculty in a conversational setting. Faculty leave these events knowing that they are valued …New Faculty OrientationThe library hosts the first day of new faculty orientation where the schedule includes an address by the Provost, an hour highlighting library services through presentations by library faculty, tours conducted by their liaisons and a luncheon. From feedback by previous new faculty, they wanted to be introduced to the library early in their WFU career.
We are always seeking opportunities to partner with academic units on initiatives and events. It is one of the best ways to raise faculty awareness of what the library can bring to their initiatives.Often the genesis of the partnership comes from the fact that our special collections holding have materials relating, we have exhibit space, and we have either technology or subject expertise….The Digital Humanities Initiative is an offshoot of WFU’s new Humanities Institute. We have membership on the faculty committee and offer technology and digitization support.The Documenting Diversity initiative seeks to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the historical records, especially of under-represented groups. ZSR’s Special Collections and Archives is reaching out to invite departments and student groups across campus to deposit their paper and electronic documents in the University Archives. We particularly encourage submissions from groups underrepresented in the Archives, such as WFU’s ethnic minority, LGBTQ, and international communities. We want to identify, locate, secure, and make accessible these important and at-risk historical records. The Office of Multicultural AffairsThe Office of Diversity and InclusionThe LGBTQ CenterThe Department of Women’s and Gender StudiesEvents:Faces of Courage,” a yearlong celebration of the historic decision to desegregate WFU and how it has shaped the University. Professor Allen Mandelbaum was an American professor of Italian literature, as well as a poet and translator. We hold his papers, have a room named after him, so were a natural choice when his memorial event was being planned.The library co-sponsored the Wake Forest float in this fall’s W-S Gay Pride parade.
Faculty statusWith new status, library faculty now participate on university committees, so we are finally “at the table.” LiaisonsOur liaisons are “full service.” In addition to collection development, they field classroom instruction needs and are the first point of contact from their assigned departments.AdvisersSeveral library faculty serve as academic advisers to first year/sophomore students (before declaring majors). This image shows Rosalind Tedford and Hu Womack with our dean, Lynn Sutton……on the day they shared the University Award for Excellence in Advising.
One of the most important things we do is to try to stay “nimble.” In regards to being best prepared to meet needs, this means that every time a position is vacated, we carefully consider how we need to transform them to meet future needs. Over the past few years, this list of “new” positions shows how we try to anticipate changing needs that will provide value to facultyScholarly Communication Librarian: Mostly works with faculty on such issues as copyright, open access, fair use, and scholarly publishing.Outreach Librarian: This position focuses on outreach activities with WFU faculty and students, as well as to the Winston-Salem community. Hu has led grant-funded collaborative projects with the public library, worked with summer programs with WFU faculty and heads an online bookclub for WFU alumni (DeacReads)E-Learning Librarian- a new position this year to support WFU’s new Masters Online Counseling programDigital Initiatives Librarian- (search underway this semester): this position is being designed to “develop, coordinate and guide a formal program to cover the wide range of needs that span the academic and administrative domains of the University. He/she will partner with both internal units and external ones, including the WFU digital humanities initiative, WFU digital publishing.
ZSR is the most heavily used academic building on campus, and systemic disruptive changes in the academic information landscape are significantly reshaping how patrons want to use the physical space. Four years ago, we began to revision our space with a goal toward transforming from a repository of materials storage into space for collaborative interaction, student study, labs and classrooms. It started with with the addition of a Starbucks and each year, we’ve undertaken space renovation and repurposing. The list on this slide shows some of the projects we’ve undertaken to bring our spaces more in line with constituency needs.We’ve also formulated a Five-Year Building Plan that systematically lays out how to rethink, refresh and renovate the building at the intellectual center of the University.