Library Day in the Life #7 - Friday

Disclaimer: The thoughts and ideas expressed in this post are strictly personal and do not reflect the ideas of my employer.

It's the fifth and final day (for me) of the Library Day in the Life Project... and I have thoroughly enjoyed posting throughout this week.

Today's post is a bit different in that I was traveling to the administration building with our north region for a round table event. This event covered all departments, not just the library, but it did get my gears turning with new ideas.

Our college (company) has recently made changes to implement collaboration amongst campuses by placing us all in regions. To some degree, the collaboration is almost forced because of the newly designed structure...but I see good potential with this model. Additionally, from a library perspective, we're already heavily collaborating amongst ourselves as library colleagues, but also with other departments by serving students that are outside of our campus realm by way of our virtual chat system. A librarian's nature is to collaborate and work hand-in-hand with other departments/faculty/curriculum, ensuring that our students get the full benefit of the education experience. It's what we do... and it's what we do well.

With that being said, the first item on the agenda today was a discussion about growth, leadership, talent development, adaptability, performance management, and expertise within the mission statement umbrella of our company. It was inspiring, but a downer as well - only because my campus needs a bit of work in the area of leadership and welcoming outside-of-the-box ideas and innovation. In a sense, we are crippled by the top-down effect of management. I realize this is a bold statement to make...but again, these are strictly my own thoughts - not those of my employer.

From there, the day took a different turn in a direction that I very much appreciated. In the round table discussions, much of the opinions I just voiced were able to be heard, but there were great ideas being discussed as well. We were given a set of 5 criteria that would be discussed amongst our tables that spoke to what we're doing well, areas that need improvement, and finally identifying opportunities that may be present. Below are the thoughts from my table:

1. Mission and Integrity
   Our mission statement, and the organization as a whole is very much student-centered. We would hope that we have the student's best interest at hand at all times, but more often than not on my campus, the mentality is heavily on the enrollment side of things with not a lot of focus on academics. The library systems across each campus play a huge part in student outcomes and retention, but often, our efforts aren't appreciated. 
   
2. Preparing for the Future
   The library system has been innovative and forward thinking in becoming an early adopter for Worldcat Local. This decision truly stemmed from wanting the best for our students, and providing them with the resources they need to be successful in their programs. OCLC's option gave us many options that we were lacking with our previously chosen ILS system.
   
   Additionally, the library system needed a web presence, but couldn't fund it and the IT department wouldn't allow us to piggy back on the organization domain, so we found ways around that by using Libguides as our working website. We've just recently debuted the newly designed site and it's working very well for us. We've even been nominated for the Best Of Libguides in the subcategory of CampusGuides as Website. I had the opportunity to serve on our Libguides 2.0 committee, and have spent countless hours helping to customize the framework and design by tweaking coding. So again, we're thinking outside-the-box to make a system work for us.
   
   One concept to be careful of though when dealing with the future, is the concept of change. Are we adopting new ideas just for the sake of doing something different? Are we adopting new technologies just because something new hit the market? Or are we really diving deep into the root of why there's a need for change? I have made it a personal mission of mine to be cautious with change - making sure that I'm not changing just for the sake of doing something different, but changing because there's a need and an opportunity available. I think our organization does this pretty well... but it's still something to note as a potential area of weakness.
   
3. Student Learning and Effective Teaching
   One area of weakness discussed was the Gen Ed skill set. How are we measuring our student's skill sets before entry to a program or course, and upon completion of a course or degree? How do we measure critical thinking skills - is it even measurable (it sure as heck is hard to teach!)?
   
   The information literacy course is a step in the right direction with this point. Through the course curriculum, we are providing trans-literary skill sets that equip students with a better understanding of information and technology. Not only that, they learn to retrieve information sources on a topic of choice, and then evaluate those sources with a set of criteria. By evaluating sources of information, students learn to think critically about the information they are finding...making double, triple, and quadruple sure that the information is credible and authoritative. This is huge! But it's not really being talked about. A COM instructor that I work very closely with mentioned to me on more than one occasion that she can tell the students that have been through info lit. Their reference pages and in-text citations are perfect, and the writing has gotten better because they are doing true research. This is GREAT!
   
4. Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge
   This was my favorite topic because I feel that I'm already thinking in this direction by designing and implementing a 23 Things: Learning 2.0 for Faculty Development program. Professional development is very much encouraged, but often there are funding limitations for conferences. This 23 Things program is a great way to collaborate with faculty and to provide new technologies for them to use in their course curriculum - all for free!
   
   Other thoughts included placing a higher standard of professional development in terms of publication and presenting opportunities. Lacking the tenure process has crippled us in a sense. There isn't importance placed on research for publication purposes. And for those that are presenting and publishing works of researched material, it isn't talked about or recognized.
   
5. Engagement and Service
   For this point, I would really like to see our students return to being center focus of our mission and vision. If we engage our students with better learning opportunities, and if we show our appreciation to and for them, how much higher would our rate of retention be? Some campuses do this really well... others need a bit work. Our advisory board is also a good start to gaining community input into what we're doing, but even that isn't really taken to heart.
   

The irony of all of the points above is that they are each designed to be very student focused, but in reality, the focus has shifted to being enrollment focused. I see the region change as a good thing that may help to bring back a sense of being student driven.

The final points from the end of the day were centered around these talking points:

-Define your moment (what are you doing...and why are you doing it?)
-Take risks (I think I've done that here and hopefully it won't backfire on me)
-Make a positive difference (we may be the only positive thing a student sees all day... embrace that opportunity to make a difference)
-Be passionate (If you can't tell from the writing in this post...I am very passionate about continuing to be an advocate for our library systems)
-Fall forward (think towards the future and what it holds)
-Leave a legacy (be remembered for doing something great)
-Dream big (and don't let upper management stifle those dreams)
-Believe (believe that the impossible really can happen)