REPORT ON THE EMBEDDED LIBRARIAN EXPERIMENT
During Fall Semester 2006, the Learning Communities Steering Committee oversaw an experiment variously called “Embedded Librarians” or “Librarian Enhanced Sections.” In three sections of English Composition I, one of which was part of a Learning Community, a research librarian was assigned to teach the class as often as one hour a week for the full semester, and to spend as much as one hour a week in planning class material with the classroom teacher(s). The goals were 1) to increase in number and quality the opportunities for gaining information literacy; 2) to increase and deepen the contact between librarians and students and between librarians and faculty; and 3) to improve instruction directly relevant to the research paper assignment in the Composition I classes. Each class met, on the day devoted to library instruction once a week, in a computer lab with internet access. The participants were as follows:
Susan Sanders Linda Desjardins and C. J. Crivaro Priscilla B. Bellairs
Gail Stuart Ann Grandmaison Michael Hearn
On a very simple evaluation form completed by students (anonymously, by email) at the end of the semester, there was universal agreement on these statements:
v The lab activities were useful.
v My research improved as a result of the lab sessions.
v The assignments were appropriate and furthered my research skills.
v The librarian presented the material clearly and effectively.
At semester’s end, all the participants (except CJ, who was unable to attend) and Linda Hummel-Shea met to discuss the experience. In all cases, both faculty and librarians had new insights into the teaching of research. Mike and Priscilla reported on the unexpected difficulty of teaching NoodleTools, the discovery of how much students forget between weeks and how much repetition matters. Susan and Gail had an especially good class (there were three writing award winners). They did most of their planning by email. Students would have liked more in-class research time. Their best experience was in teaching students to distinguish between popular magazines and scholarly sources. Susan found the research papers were better than usual and used better sources. Ann, Linda and CJ had done a great deal of planning through the summer, but then found they were continually changing the plans. They had a difficult Learning Community group (Composition and Sociology), and found it eye-opening to know how little their students knew about computers. Linda expressed the tremendous admiration she and CJ had for Ann’s creative instruction.
Everyone agreed that we had learned a lot and that we all wanted to do it again—probably a little differently. We also agreed that we could not do it during spring semester. For some classes, it seemed worthwhile to experiment with attaching a librarian for half a semester (6-7 weeks) instead of the entire semester; this might also allow one librarian to take on two classes in one semester.
For Fall 2007, we hope to schedule 1) a Lawrence composition section which Mike can “enhance;” 2) an online section with the other Lawrence librarian assigned to it; 3) Gail “embedded” in a Haverhill composition section as before; 4) Ann working with Marcy Vozzella in a science course for ½ the semester and in a composition section coordinated with the research paper. Priority would be given to faculty members who have not previously participated. Linda Hummel-Shea also requested that Priscilla, or someone in her position, continue to recruit and coordinate the experiment.
Finally, here are three insights from the experiment:
1. Teaching the evaluation of websites is of paramount importance.
2. Connecting library instruction closely to specific assignments increases learning enormously.
3. Since not all teachers can have “librarian enhancement,” we should publicize the possibility of English classes making multiple appointment for library trips, rather than only one library orientation.
Priscilla B. Bellairs, LC Liaison/Coach
COMMENTS FROM STUDENTS
These comments come from a short evaluative form titled NECC Evaluation Library Loan Form. This was administered to all three sections, but these comments come only from the sections staffed by Michael Hearn and Anne Grandmaison. I’ve transcribed them in all their glory of spelling, capitalization, punctuation and grammar error.
From the Form:
I think the lab sessions could have been improved by:
i rally enjoy the lab section. thank you for teach me new things.
I think that anne did a great job at explaining everything and she gave us a lot of insite on the hidden greatness from the library web page.
The lab sessions helped me to learn about reliable sources. I learned a lot about conducting research and what sources to use in papers. I also learned a lot about the schools web site that I probably would not have been able to learn without the lab sessions.
I thought this was a good class and was very useful, my research would not have been as good if I didn’t know how to get information from the library access.
They were great, relaxed allowed us to learn without adding stress to course load
Nothing. I feel they were very effective.
spending less time covering topics
having it be its own separate class. having it only one day a week kinda made me forget things that was taught the class before.
From my point of view the lab sessions do not need improvement. I learned what I needed to learn in order to compose well researched essays. I will definitely take what I learned during this lab sessions and apply them to any other papers I will be writing in the future. (FYI: The most useful thing I learned in the lab was the use of noodletools. Very helpful!)
I think the lab session was great! Not that many classes have that oppurtunity for the students to learn more about researching.
You [Michael Hearn] did a great job!
I think the lab sessions could be inproved by adding more lab sessions.
I think that the lab could have be improved by maybe group work, more on the mla formatting, also maybe getting us more involved.
Going a little faster through the material, especially in the beginning because most of us knew how to search things online.
Something I did not learn during the labs, but wanted to is:
i learned a lot. Mor tyhan i could of every explored by myself so either way i ahve come out of this class learning a lot
I didn’t want to learn anything specific.
nothing really…i learned a lot that i didnt know. i will be able to do more things with research and writing papers now because of the labs we went to through out the semester.
I have enjoyed this lab very much. Without it I would have had a difficult time with the research paper. This lab will help me in English Comp 2 without question.
It was great work!
Thanks so much!
When will we have to use a works cited format other than MLA. Will our future teacher’s notify us in what type of format we should be using or are we supposed to know them all?
I learned everything I wanted to.
well since i didnt know about ebsco and all that stuff if there are more useful tools I would love to learn them. they definitely come in good use.
I would have like to learn more about mla formatting. i had a hard time with that one my research. I didn’t do that bad but i would have like to learn more how to do that.