User Community AnalysisGroup Presentation

Maureen RedfieldAna Carreon

Margaret WrightEmporia State University

LI813XOBob SchroederMarch 12, 2011

Referencefor

Community College Students

Maureen Redfield

Users

The community college has an “open admissions policy, [it is] designed to serve as many in the community as physically possible.”

Maureen Redfield

Students

• Traditional college age students• Non-traditional students• Students with learning disabilities• International/Immigrant/ESL students• Technical/Vocational students• Working students (often full time)• Parents and caregivers

Maureen Redfield

Students

These groups will overlap. FREQUENTLY.

Maureen Redfield

“I need to make a bibliography in MLA format.”

Maureen Redfield

“I’m looking for information on welding safety and supplies.”

Maureen Redfield

“I need help finding academic sources for a paper on climate change.”

Maureen Redfield

“What’s Blackboard?”Maureen Redfield

Rogue Community College

Ana Carreon

Joint use Libraries

Joint use libraries have been forming across the nation, for many good reasons. Ana Carreon

Sharing space is fun (sort of)

Ana Carreon

Challenges

Ana Carreon

Community college students may be juggling family, work and school. Drugs and other abuse issues could be effecting their cognitive abilities. In such cases simple questions should be answered with great care and repetition. Students who are stressed may need help first and instruction second.

(Paraphrased from an interview with Anna Grzeskiewicz)

Ana Carreon

Patience, good listening skills, and the ability to encourage students are helpful attributes to have at the reference desk at the community college. These qualities go a long way in assuaging the fears and boosting the morale of students who are struggling in the new demanding territory of college learning.

- Carolyn OatesAna Carreon

Librarians like Anna have set hours so if she is teaching a class that means the reference desk is not being staffed at that time. It also means that she has very little time to prepare for classes or answer emailed questions if the desk is busy.

Ana Carreon

Opportunities

Ana Carreon

• Electronic resources are wasted when students and faculty do not have a reference librarian to teach information literacy.

• Before the relatively recent joint-use library was built in Medford, RCC had neither a librarian nor an adequate print reference collection.

Ana Carreon

Databases are shared between three campuses

Ana Carreon

RCC had virtually no print reference books until the library moved into its new location...though few new ones are being purchased now, existing ones are still relatively current.

Ana Carreon

The future...

Ana Carreon

• Believe it or not, reference books may soon be obsolete

Moving reference to circulation

Some contemporary students here at RCC do not want books, because they are afraid that they will have to read a whole book. I tell them to use the index to find relevant information (...) Sometimes it’s a hard sell in the Google Age. ~ Carolyn Oates

Some contemporary students here at RCC do not want books, because they are afraid that they will have to read a whole book. I tell them to use the index to find relevant information (...) Sometimes it’s a hard sell in the Google Age. ~ Carolyn Oates

Ana Carreon

We do not offer chat or text message reference service. Surprisingly, we get very few reference phone calls. Almost all reference is personal contact at the desk. ~ Carolyn Oates

Ana Carreon

Community colleges like RCC do not have the staff to constantly maintain their web presence. "LibGuides" give librarians direct access to students online.

Ana Carreon

Universal Reference Issuesat Community College Libraries

Margaret Wright

Major issues with reference services for CC students: What’s Unique?

Patrons:• Very wide range of abilities, literacy and commitment levels• Incorrect sense of own abilities (over-confident or under-confident)• Demographics can change quickly

Margaret Wright

Tactics to use in addressing patron issues

• Ref librarians can help overcome patrons’ tech anxiety and stress with: – Warmth– Humor– Pacing– Repetition– Positive– Jargon free speech

• Reference encounters must be characterized by flexibility and a variety of methods.

• “Every reference encounter is an instructional one.”• Varied hours and methods of obtaining reference help (telephone,

e-mail, on-line)

Margaret Wright

Technology

Margaret Wright

An open ended survey asked, “Which part of your job causes you the most frustration?”

62% of respondents included technology-related frustration in their answer.

Margaret Wright

Doing reference work with out-of-date technology can be like “running a marathon today, clomping along in wooden clogs.”

– Osif and Harwood

Margaret Wright

Community colleges can also find themselves dealing with cutting edge technology.

This has its own problems.

Margaret Wright

Longevity?

Margaret Wright

Bureaucracy

Margaret Wright

January 20, 2011: US Department of Labor announces the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program, providing $2 Billion over the next four years to community colleges to develop open education learning resources to be shared with other community colleges across the country. Margaret Wright

Margaret Wright

Community college resources are required to meet SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) requirements for their content to be eligible for TAACCCT.

Margaret Wright

Who will help manage $2 Billion worth of educational resources in unfamiliar formats?

Community college reference librarians!Margaret Wright

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ReferencesPoole, C. E., & Denny, E. (2001). Technological change in the workplace: a statewide survey of community college library

and learning resources personnel. College & Research Libraries, 62(6), 503-515.

Powers, A. (2010). “Librarian’s anxiety”? how community college librarians feel about their reference desk service. Community & Junior College Libraries. 16(1), 54-70.

Provasnik, S., & Planty, M. (2008). Community colleges: special supplement to the 2008 Condition of Education. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008033

Simmonds, P. L. (2001). Providing quality library service to the adult learner: views of students, faculty, and administrators. The Reference Librarian, 33(69),395-406. DOI: 10.1300/J120v33n69_34

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Tolle, A. L. (2001). Reference and the community college: renaissance librarians at Pikes Peak Community College. Colorado Libraries, 27(2), 28-30.

Trupo, M., Garcia, L. (2011, January 20). US labor department encourages applications for trade adjustment assistance community college and career training grant program. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20101436.htm

Wahl, J. (2007). Front Range Community College: increasing student database use through library instruction. Colorado Libraries, 33(3), 13-16.