The Embedded Librarian: Engaging Students in Library Research

1. The Embedded Librarian: Engaging Students in Library Research Julie Gilbert, Assistant Professor & Academic Librarian Christopher Gilbert, Professor of Political Science Gustavus Adolphus College Minnesota Library Association Conference October 24-26, 2007 Mankato, MN

2. Study Outline • POL 200: Analyzing Politics, Spring 2007 • 3 library sessions focused on specific library skills necessary for assignments • Data collection • Survey investigating student research approaches • Analysis of annotated bibliographies • Results compared to control group (POL 200: Analyzing Politics, Fall 2006)

3. “But I’ve heard this before…” • Significance for the librarian • Design library instruction sessions that are directly relevant to student research • Convey the idea that there’s always something new to learn about research • Expose students to the wealth of information available through the library • Relate the library more closely to the classroom & research experiences

4. “I’m not sure what to do with my topic…” • Significance for classroom faculty • Devote more attention to finding the best sources of published information • Give students a deeper understanding of what’s available in the library’s collections • Make students more efficient researchers – a skill that transfers to all research both within and outside of political science

5. Subject Headings Exercise

6. Part of Cited References Exercise

7. Creative Library Exercises – Group Discussion • You are teaching a library session on a specific assignment for an undergraduate class. • Brainstorm creative ways of teaching students how to use the library to complete the assignment. Possible discussion questions include: • What research/library skills do students need to complete the assignment? • What unique approaches could you use to teach research/library skills to students? • Have you taught a session on this assignment? • What worked? What didn’t work?

8. Major Findings of Our Study • Spring students utilized more forms of research assistance • Spring students used better sources and a greater concentration of high quality sources in their annotated bibliographies • Confidence levels for fall and spring students end up virtually identical

9. Forms of research assistance • Spring students were three times more likely to consult a reference librarian (50% vs. 17%) during their research process • 88% of spring students used 3 or more sources of assistance (Fall: 77%) • Spring students spent less overall time finding sources for bibliographies

10. Better sources • Spring students used more high quality sources on both AB papers, more so on AB2 (6.0 HQ sources vs. 5.2 for fall) • Spring: 86% of sources classified as high quality, vs. 80% for fall • Spring students used fewer web resources in AB2 (14%) compared to AB1 (21%) (fall students constant at 15%)

11. Confidence in research skills(percentages)

12. Further Collaborative Ideas • Brainstorm about other ways for librarians and classroom faculty to collaborate: • What’s worked? • What hasn’t? • What would you like to try? • How to initiate these collaborations?

13. Additional Information • Handout with data results, practices • Slides on MLA website • We very willing to share examples of exercises & data methods with you – our contact information is on the handout. THANK YOU!