Library News »04/22/2013

 

UI to participate in study linking libraries and student success

 

A team lead by the University of Idaho Library will investigate how the library contributes to retention of first year students in the nationwide study “Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success.” The program, sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in partnership with the Association for Institutional Research and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

The U-Idaho team is one of 75 teams chosen for the first cohort of the newly created, three-year program. Teams representing all types of academic institutions from 29 states and three Canadian provinces were selected to participate.

The focus of the U-Idaho team’s study is “Retaining First Year Students: The Impact of Information Literacy Instruction at the University of Idaho.” Team members will collaborate to gather data that demonstrate student learning from library instruction and identify the library’s role in campus learning assessment efforts and its connection with the revised and restructured General Education program.

The campus-wide team consists of professionals who work with first year students: Team leader, Diane Prorak, U-Idaho Library instruction coordinator; Professor Rodney Frey, General Education director; Suzanne Billington, U-Idaho Career Center director; Dean of Students Cori Planagan, Orientation coordinator; and Diane Kelly-Riley, in-coming Director of Writing.

“The top applications were distinguished by the team composition, their readiness and the quality of their project goals. We also looked for strong institutional support to help the teams see their projects through to completion.” said Terri Fishel, vice chair of the ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Committee. “The application reviewers sought action learning projects with the greatest potential to contribute to the greater library and higher education community.”

Project results will be disseminated publicly through final reports from team leader librarians, who will also prepare and deliver a poster at the 2014 American Library Association Annual Conference.