New Horizons for Academic Library Collection Development: Creating a Community-Curated Collection Through Student Empowerment

 

MacRae, Alisdair

Heisserer-Miller, R., & McAlister, L. R. (2023). New horizons for academic library collection development: Creating a community curated collection through student empowerment. Journal of Library Outreach & Engagement, 3, 119–135. https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jloe.v3.1157

Summary

This article offered two interesting solutions for academic libraries to engage student, faculty, and staff users in the form of student selection projects and grants awarded for purchasing materials related to their given area of focus. Responding to declining enrollment, shrinking budgets, and the needs of marginalized users, these programs enhanced services for users while also maintaining collection development. The Kent Library at Southeast Missouri State University is not large, with five staff for every 1,000 students, and consisting of twelve librarians and eight staff. The library had operated under a collection development model driven by faculty, so librarians had very little involvement. Equating student engagement with student success, the decision was made to establish opportunities to participate in collection development. The students gladly accepted the invitation, and while faculty might not necessarily approve materials selected by students in some cases, the solutions showed how vital student participation is for academic libraries, as well as the increasing opportunities for diversity equity, inclusion, social justice, outreach, and partnerships.

Evaluation

I found this article really exciting in terms of academic library collection development. While the university at the centre of the project might seem small and perhaps not well funded, I believe these solutions could be applied at institutions of any size, and even in non-academic library settings. The literature review supported the idea of student success through engagement, but also the potential pitfalls due to inconsistent and complex methods used to engage students, and how the student collection development process was eventually selected. The authors provided data and analysis around the engagement with each opportunity for collaborative collection development. While they noted the limits of the programs due to COVID ,they were also very honest about how interest may have been bolstered through signage, posters, free candy and coffee shop gift cards, and promotional writings in the student newspaper. Promotion may be seen as critical to making the collection development projects successful rather than imparting bias given how students are busy, and may have been under the impression that they may have little input into library operations. Overall, the project did not have exorbitant costs, with $4,000 devoted to the purchase of student nominated resources between 2019 and 2020, and $7,000 for the student group grant program between 2019 and 2021. I believe the article offers a good example of connection development through its collaborative aspects, and it would be interesting to try a similar project at another library.

The Power of a Leisure Reading Collection in Academic Libraries

Rodriguez, Olivia
Susan Hurst, Dominic Marsh, Dean Brown & Shona Forbes (2017) Cats, Comics, and

Knausgård: Promoting Student Reading at a U.K. Academic Library with a Leisure

Reading Collection, New Review of Academic Librarianship, 23:4, 442-452, DOI:

10.1080/13614533.2017.1371612.
Summary: This article looked at promoting student reading in an academic library by creating a section for leisure reading with a display and newly acquired high-interest books. Concerns for creating this collection addressed budget and staff issues. Fortunately, “staff felt collections benefited their users by offering a means of relaxation and stress relief and saw them as a way to encourage patrons into the library and introduce them to new ideas” (2017, Hurst et. al., p. 442). Book selection was also critical to creating a well-used collection; decisions were made to purchase relatively new books, published in 2016, but also popular series books were also added to the list as well. Book selection was also influenced by a student survey both in print and online in order which produced additional student buy-in. After 2 months of studying the use of the new leisure reading collection, the authors found that out of the 578 books in the collection, 352 were circulated. In addition the article referenced the study by Bosman that found that “the promotion of reading for pleasure could change student perceptions of the library” (2017, Hurst et. al., p. 451). If students are reading high interest books, this can only help the overall use of any library.
Evaluation: This article discussed the well-researched idea that leisure reading provides an escape for stressed students and offers them a “break” from academia. It also addressed the effect leisure reading has on individual reading comprehension reading skills and I really enjoyed reading this article. Since universities are in the business of research and knowledge, I think sometimes students are overwhelmed and stressed and I loved that this university decided to offer students a reprieve from their day to day life of studying, working, and analyzing.

Building Library Community Through Social Media

Zatko, Ruzena

Young, S. H., & Rossmann, D. (2015). Building library community through social media.

 

          Information Technology & Libraries, 34(1), 20-37 18p.

 

 

Summary:

 

          This article demonstrates how building a social media following and engagement with patrons is good for the library. Young and Rossman used Montana State University Library for this study to see the impact and benefit of a Twitter account for the library. For a library to have a social media presence, its able to reach a vast audience and build a community. Twitter keeps everyone in the loop and the patrons who are subscribed can be up to date with current happens at the library, surveys, book reviews, etc. The results concluded that the more the library posted, the more followers and interactions that were promoted. However, most of the engagement was kept on a local scale.

 

 

Evaluation:

 

          This article made some great points for a library to be trendy and create social media accounts for the library in order to reach even more people. Aside from businesses and other, libraries come in third with twitter activity followed by student accounts. Another observation from the article is the more tweets that were posted the more followers it generated. So keeping an active Twitter account it a vital component in order to gain a larger following.

          It would have been nice to see how Twitter is doing when compared to the other social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Another element that could be helpful is knowing the age demographics of the followers that they are generating. This in turn would allow them to know how to reach the demographics that are lower Twitter users. and this way create an approach for them for outreach and to keep them informed.

The Role of the Academic Library in Promoting Student Engagement in Learning

Roscoe, Whitney
Kuh, G. K., & Gonyea, R. M. (2015). The Role of the Academic Library in Promoting Student Engagement in Learning. College & Research Libraries, 76(3), 359-385.
Summary:
Kuh and Gonyea have undertaken a massive study in their article that spans 19 years.  The study surveyed more than 300,000 students from the years of 1984 to 2002, with the aim of evaluating students' experiences with academic libraries and how libraries contributed to student learning.  The survey was composed of 166 questions, from questions inquiring about the student's background to how often they use the school library and for what purpose. 
Evaluation:
Due to the rise of popularity of computers, students are using databases and indexes now more than ever before.  The study also proves that when students perceive that their university places a value on information literacy, they are more likely to foster better information literacy skills.  A better understanding as to how students learn and study can provide valuable insight as to how to better develop the library collection to foster an environment that is current with the times.