Current Issue: October 2019
Increasing student engagement
Tattoo design competition at Texas State University’s Alkek Library
The Albert B. Alkek Library is part of the University Libraries system that serves Texas State University (TSU) in San Marcos, Texas. University Libraries has a Promotions Team to increase student ...
Assessment and social change
Empowering underserved students to reimagine their future through STEM outreach
Using a STEM conference model is a method for creating social change among underrepresented student populations. Through outreach to local schools ...
The library’s role in building campus conversations
Extending academic discourse
Higher education lives on the academic community established by and for its faculty. [The Campus Conversations in Standish speaker] series drives that community by sharing our expertise, building intellectual networks, and ...
Once upon a time in streaming video
A community college’s adventure with Kanopy’s PDA model
A recent survey found that 51% of Internet users in the United States watch online video content every day. In 2018, adults aged 18 to 34 spent a weekly average of 105 minutes watching video content on their smartphones. For better or worse, streaming video is here to stay and so is the expectation for access to it. Despite shrinking budgets, academic libraries are spending valuable funds on streaming video resources to meet these new demands.
Kanopy, a streaming video provider that features titles from arthouse to Hollywood hits, has recently been a topic of ...
Quality management for today’s academic library
During the 1990s there has been a mad dash toward the implementation of quality management in academic institutions, including libraries, with a corresponding proliferation of books, journal articles, and step-by-step workshops on the topic. This wave of interest has been met by a concomitant degree of skeptical resistance from many academic administrators and librarians who view it as just another fad, or who doubt its practical utility in a nonprofit setting. Despite success in improving the quality of Japanese and American automobiles and other products, can quality management principles succeed equally in academe? Is it essentially different from current management models (e.g., participatory management ...
Perspectives on the Framework
Pick your battles
Re-examining the Framework for community colleges
Information literacy is a valued skill in almost every academic discipline, and increasingly valued by employers in the workforce. This point is of particular interest to librarians and faculty at community colleges, where job-ready skills and practical concepts are the priority for our students. However, reception of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education has been lukewarm among community college librarians. Many librarians who work in community colleges believe the Framework is meant for four-year schools and research-based institutions. By closely re-examining the Framework and recognizing student needs, community college librarians can use ...
