PART 1: BACKGROUND
WHAT ARE PERSONAL LIBRARIANS?
• Inspired by Yale’s Personal Librarian program
• Create a connection between first-year students and the library
• Partnership with office of student life who had a growing program called “Living Learning
Communities” (aka LLCs]
• 1-2 librarians working with LLCs
• 14 LLCs in 2010-11
STRENGTHS OF LLCS
• Existing framework on campus, including Honors House and Women in Science and Engineering
• Improve student transition to college
• Improve success and establish a social network
• Retention
QUICK GROWTH
• New undergraduate librarian hired in may 2011
• Effort by office of student life and others to expand LLCs to all new first-year, incoming students
• Establishing librarian pipeline for new LLCs
• UU strategic initiative: Iowa promise included LLC mandate
LIBRARY GROWTH
• Fall 2010: 14 Personal Librarians and 14 LLCs
• Fall 2013: 30 personal librarians and 32 LLCs (4,460 students)
• Included in-service training, and frequent meetings between library staff and campus partners
IT’S NOT ALL ACADEMIC
Students select LLC preferences as part of their housing application. Students are housed in one of the
campus housing locations.
Examples of LLCs
• Craftastic. A good match for a knitter librarian
• Green adventures. An outgrowth of an earlier Sustainability LLC, but more fun.
• Iowa writers. Drawing from iowa’s writing tradition
• Kitchen table. Natural match for Special collections’ food and cookbook collection.
IT TAKES MANY LIBRARIANS
• Staff from Research and Library Instruction
• Digital preservation librarian
• Business librarian
• Several special collections librarians
• Public relations manager
FIGURING OUT GOALS
• Awareness of the libraries
• Help students recognize the UI Libraries as a place staffed by people who can help
• Building relationships
WHO’S ON FIRST WITH THE HONORS LLC?
• Honors department staff: Associate Director, experiential Learning Director
• Residence education coordinator (2 staff positions)
• 2-3 undergraduate programmers (new most years]
We had several staff turnover during our short period of working with honors.
Brett worked with Honors LLC and Sara worked with Honors Research LLC. We partnered on our activities
to make it more manageable.
PART 2: DETAILS, DETAILS…
THOUGHT PROVOKING QUESTIONS
• What do first-year honors students need from a library program?
• How can we get first-year honors students to come to a library program in their free time?
GOALS OF THE PROGRAM
• Encourage students to claim the library as their space, reducing library anxiety;
• Teach students how an academic library works;
• Familiarize students with the resources available in an academic library.
WHERE? AT THE SCIENCES LIBRARY!
• Raise profile of the Sciences Library, a
relatively new branch library;
• Sciences Library is smaller than Main, easier
to supervise large groups of students;
• Sciences Library closes early (5 pm) on
Fridays, students could have the building all
to themselves.
WHEN? SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
• Early in the semester: info most useful,
workload not so intense (yet!)
• Friday night: additional funding available
• After library closes: 9 pm - midnight
• For attendance sake: not a football weekend!
WHO? ATTENDEES & STAFFING
• Program open to all Honors, Honors
Centerstone and Honors Research LLC
members;
• Space is limited, capped at 50, need
registration form;
• Need enough staffing for one responsible
party on each of three floors;
Staffing provided by:
• Sara Scheib, Sciences Reference &
Instruction Librarian
• Student programmers: Sophie Amado,
Aly Olson & Virginia Davis
• 5 or 6 Resident Advisors
BUDGET
• Each LLC has a small programming budget to be shared for all programs through Student Life.
• Covered the prizes for the Scavenger Hunt.
• Late Night Programming funds – to encourage fun, non-alcoholic late night activities.
• Covered the food and beverages.
PROGRAMMING
• Scavenger hunt
• Food! Pizza, popcorn, soda, candy
• Movie screening: Star Trek Into Darkness (released September 10, 2013)
• Wii gaming: Wii Sports, Mario Kart (Provided by Honors Program)
• Board games: Operation, Mousetrap, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Sequence, Phase 10, Simpsons
Trivia, Worst-Case Scenario Survival Game.
SCAVENGER HUNT
• Library literature is largely dismissive of
scavenger hunts in the context of in-class
library instruction, especially when
developed without consulting librarians.
• But what better way to teach students how to
use an academic library and what resources
can be found there?
So… we did it anyway.
• Star Trek-themed
• Six teams – 5-10 students per team
• Six questions:
• Locations and call numbers provided
• Need library resources to answer questions
• Question order changed for each team
PROMOTION
• Student programmers created flyers and
signage for posting in Daum (Honors House)
• Promotional materials also distributed via
Honors/Honors Research LLC listserv,
Facebook page and Twitter feed.
PART 3: SO… HOW DID IT GO?
ATTENDANCE
• 36 students registered
• Over 40 students attended. Not including
Student Programmers and Resident
Advisors.
• Some students did not stay for the entire
evening.
SCAVENGER HUNT
• Students enjoyed competitive aspect.
• Concerns about teams hiding items was
unwarranted.
• Duration: ~ 20 minutes
• Team Kirk was first to finish, but had 1 incorrect
answer. Team Spock won 5 DVD movies from
Student Life.
• All participants received a Sciences Library
stress ball.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Wii Gaming
Board Games
Star Trek Into Darkness
Some initial interest
Only a few chose to play
Vast majority of students chose to watch
the movie
FOOD
• There was PLENTY of food. Including pizza,
soda, popcorn and candy.
• Several students were able to take full boxes
of pizza back to their rooms.
LESSONS LEARNED
• More adults for set-up, supervision and tear
down.
• Set up and test all technology equipment
well in advance.
• Fewer activities?
• Less food?
• And…
NEVER POP POPCORN IN THE LIBRARY!
We were forced to evacuate about 30
minutes into the movie.
Most students chose to wait about 20
minutes to reenter the building.
The firefighters were very nice about it.
FEEDBACK
“This was awesome! Love Star Trek! You
guys should do more events with fandoms
(like Doctor Who, Sherlock, Harry Potter…)”
“Thanks for the pizza, fun & everything! ”
“It was fun. The fire ‘drill’ was adventurous
to say the least. Made for a memorable
night.”