Stewart Library Instruction Team

 2001/2002 Annual Report

July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002

Overview

The Stewart Library instruction team has worked diligently over the past several years to develop our instruction program to comply with national standards and best practices.  Our program was selected this year by ACRL as on one of the top ten programs that model best practices in information literacy programming for undergraduates. Five participants from Weber State  will attend and participate in an invitational conference on information literacy hosted by ACRL in Atlanta in June 2002. 

Another major accomplishment of the team over the past year has been the development of assessment plans for each type of instruction provided by Stewart Library faculty and staff. In addition, a new and more authentic information literacy competency exam has been developed and implemented with assistance from the TBE ( Telecommunications and Business Education) department. Team members have been actively involved in the Web usability studies, and in the Web redesign project. Individual instruction efforts of team members during the past year has continued to support the Weber State University mission and the Stewart Library mission.  

Members of the instruction team include Carol Hansen, Brianna Beckstrand, JaNae Kinikin (beginning December 2001) Art Carpenter, Evan Christensen, Joan Hubbard,  Wade Kotter, Ruby Licona, Jill Newby (until December 2001), Kathy Payne, Peggy Pierce, Lonna Rivera, Shaun Spiegel, and Fran Zedney. The annual report is compiled from minutes of team meetings and from data supplied in the Faculty Activity Reports from faculty team members (minus FAR's from Ruby and Kathy this year.) The  minutes of each team meeting are available on the team intranet. Team member's are heartily congratulated for their active engagement in team activities and for all of their many accomplishments this year. Jill Newby left for a new position at University of Arizona in December, she will be greatly missed!

Instruction Data

The following table illustrates the data collected on instruction sessions provided:

Note: The number of instruction sessions offered for FYE and English 2010 depends on their course offerings. FYE offered fewer sections this year, and the English department offered more sections. 

Fewer subject specific and other general sessions may be due to various  scheduling complications this year including September 11th, the Olympic break, Carol's sabbatical and Jill's departure.

The data above is collected by Kathy Thiriot, Library Office Specialist, from the monthly instruction data forms submitted by instruction team members.

See also the statistical data Fran Zedney keeps on classroom use.

Information Literacy Competency Exam Data

The following table illustrates the data on exams:

This data is collected by Carole Lapine, TBE Department.

Instruction Team Goals

The team created long range goals based on the ACRL Best Practices for Information Literacy draft document at our October 5, 2000 meeting. Under each long range goal, priority action items were strategically targeted. Each action item completed this year is listed below.

The instruction team has reframed itself as an information literacy program in order to better meet  the needs of our students and the new ACRL national standards and guidelines.

1. Mission:  

   The team Mission was reframed for the information literacy program.

2. Goals and Objectives: 

   Program goals were reviewed, revised and approved by team during Fall 2001.

3. Planning: 

   	The annual report  includes priority strategic goals for the coming year.
   	Faculty Activity Records were used (except for Ruby and Kathy) to document faculty activities including professional development and scholarship.
   	Instruction data is displayed by department in order to assist bibliographers with future planning for subject specific sessions.
   	Documents describing the program and charting its evolution were developed for the Web and reviewed/revised by the team
   	Instruction staffing plan was placed on the Web
   	Teaching schedule was made available on the Web
   	Assessment plans were developed and implemented for each type of instruction
   	Assessment data is used to continually improve the program
   	Planning included a program for professional staff and faculty development. Team members attended the following continuing education programs supporting their work in instruction: National/International ACRL Institute for Information Literacy Immersion Program, New York State University at Plattsburgh, August 3-8, 2001 (Carol) American Anthropological Association Annual meeting, Nov 2001, Washington, DC (Wade) ALA Mid Winter Conference, January 2002, New Orleans (Wade, Shaun) Project SAILS Working Group Meeting, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, April 12-13, 2002 (Carol) OCLC Workshop on Creating a New Reference Librarianship, Las Vegas, NV, May 20-22, 2002 (JaNae) ACRL Invitational Conference on Best Practices in Information Literacy  Atlanta, June 12-13, 2002 (Carol, Fran, Shaun) ALA Annual Conference, June 2002, Atlanta Ga. (Wade, Fran, Shaun) Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, June 10-12, 2002 (JaNae) Regional/Statewide Eccles Info Fair, March 20, 2002 (Carol, Fran, JaNae) ULA Annual Conference, May 2002 (Wade, Art, Shaun, Carol, Evan) UALC Distance Learning Committee Road Trip, Moab, April 25, 2002 (Carol) Photoshop 1, New Horizons Training Center, March 6 and 13, 2002 (Carol) Dreamweaver 1, New horizons Training Center, February 15 and 22, 2002 (Carol) MPLA/AZLA Annual Conference, December 6, 2001, Phoenix AZ (Carol) WSU and Stewart Library SNAP Training, June 4, 2002. (Carol, Shaun, Fran, and?) Classroom Assessment Techniques, April 25, 2002 (JaNae, Shaun) Virtual Reference Teleconference, February 2002 (Wade) & April 19, 2002 (Fran, Carol Lonna) Developing Student Centered Instructional Activities, January 23, 2002, (JaNae) Introduction to Dreamweaver, CATS, November 16, 2001 (Carol) WSU Third Annual Conference on Diversity, WSU, November 2, 2001 (Carol) Strengthening Undergrduate Education presentation by Dr. Richard J. Light, September 25, 2001 (Art) WSU Online Update for Faculty, September 25, 2001 (Carol) Stewart Library Mini Information Literacy Immersion, August 23, 2001 (Carol, Joan, Fran, Shaun, Ruby, Evan, Art, Jill)
   	Shaun Spiegel planned a very successful Spring workshop on marketing library services. Approximately 15 persons attended the session, including librarians and library directors from Morgan County Public library system and BYU in Provo. (Shaun, Carol, JaNae, Evan, Joan, Wade, Fran)

4. Administrative Support and Teaching Environments: 

   The following documents were reviewed and updated this year: Instruction Services Policies and Procedures were reviewed annually by team and updated as needed. Instruction Performance Expectations were reviewed annually by team and revised as needed. Faculty Evaluation Criteria for Instruction was be reviewed annually by team and revised as needed. A new calendar for quickly and easily scheduling classrooms and instruction sessions was ordered and may be implemented Summer 2002 or we may use the software given to us by USU.  Instruction team worked with the Web Usability Committee and the Web Advisory Group to help plan the new library Web site.

5. Articulation with the curriculum:

   	A diagram of the information literacy program and our partners was developed.
   	Web syllabi for each for credit course have been put on the Web by teaching faculty.
   	Online student end of course evaluations were made available for every course by BIR. SNAP is also being reviewed as an option for this for next year.

6. Collaboration: 

   Instruction Team continued ongoing collaborations with FYE, English 2010, TBE, and through partnerships with many other departments and areas.

7. Pedagogy:

   	More assignments requiring student reflection were added to Internet Navigator modules.
   	Improvements to each of the the Internet Navigator course assignments were made and loaded for Summer 2002. In addition cleaning up of typos was accomplished for most of the modules.
   	Bibliographers have developed and updated many new and existing research guides to enhance subject specific instruction.

8. Staff:

   	We are very happy to welcome JaNae Kinikin (new Physical and Applied Sciences Librarian) and Brianna Beckstrand (from Special Collections) to the team this year.  Ruby Licona will begin as Health Sciences Librarian.
   	The instruction team assisted with the hiring of new faculty in order to to increase numbers of faculty involved in instruction team activities. By reducing involvement in Eng2010s and FYEs faculty will hopefully have more time for subject specific sessions next year.

9. Outreach:

   	The information literacy program identified its key audiences, partners and constituencies in order to best meet their needs, facilitate communication with stakeholders, and to continually improve the program. The following Web pages were completed to demonstrate the team's activities this year in the following areas: Upper Division Subject Specific Instruction Lower Division Subject Specific Instruction Instruction for the Community
   	The instruction team encouraged the development and implementation of a library wide marketing plan.
   	Instruction team faculty have demonstrated an active involvement in campus professional development and training WSU New Faculty Retreat (Shaun, Library TLA Committee member) WSU New Student Orientations (Kathy and Fran have worked with WSU Orientation and improved our existing poster display)
   	Instruction team members represented the library and the information literacy program on the following committees: Faculty Senate Constitutional Review Apportionment Organization (Evan) Admissions, Standards and Student Affairs (Art) Curriculum and General Education (Wade 2001-2002) Teaching, Learning and Asessment (Shaun 2001-2002) Faculty Senate (Jill/Kathy 2001-2002) Faculty Senate Ad-Hoc Committee for Online Instruction (Shaun) Other WSU Committees Assessment (Ruby 2001-2002) WSUOnline RFP Committee (Shaun) University Council on Teacher Education (Evan) Dental Hygiene Department New Faculty Selection Committee (Carol Fall 2001 to present) Department of Foreign Languages Peer Review Committee (Carol, Fall 2001)
   	Instruction team members demonstrated an active involvement in international, national, regional or statewide organizations supporting the further advancement of information literacy. SAILS Advisory Group (Carol) UALC Reference and Information Literacy Committee (Carol and Kathy) UALC Collection Development Committee (Wade) UALC Professional Development Committee (Art) UALC Distance Education Committee (Carol)   UALC Internet Navigator Maintenance Team (Carol and Shaun) ULA ACRL Roundtable Vice Chair (Shaun) ULA Reference and Adult Services Roundtable, member at large (JaNae)

10. Assessment:

    	Assessment plans were developed for each type of instruction in order to continually improve instruction. Each plan and much of the data is made available on the Web.
    	A Web form for end of course evaluations was made available by BIR (Carol and BIR, Fall 2001)

On Campus