Information Literacy

Dr. Susan Fink’s article, “The Many Purposes of Course Syllabi: Which are Essential and Useful?” is featured in the inaugural issue of Syllabus Journal, the first peer-reviewed journal that publishes college course syllabi. The article is available online. The article was developed from her dissertation work. Susan is the Coordinator of Administrative Services at Cowles Library and also teaches a First Year Seminar at Drake.

The Spring 2012 issue of Drake Blue magazine features a contribution from Carrie Dunham-LaGree, the Librarian for Digital Literacy and General Education. Dunham-LaGree, a travel lover and prolific fiction reader, shares five books she recommends that are “As Good as a Getaway”…or almost as good. See which five books she recommends to take you away on page 11 of the print issue, which is also available online.

Kris Mogle, Interlibrary Loan/Reserves Supervisor at Cowles Library will be attending the 2012 ILLIAD (resource sharing) meeting in Virginia Beach, VA on March 21-23. Kris will be part of a panel discussion on GET IT NOW. GET IT NOW is a pilot program at Drake providing document delivery 24/7 to faculty, staff, and students through the Copyright Clearance Center.

Four members of the Cowles Library faculty and staff will present at the Iowa Private Academic Libraries (IPAL) conference on Friday, April 20, 2012 at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

• Marc Davis will present Technology & Information Capacities & Expectations in First Year Students: Informing Library Technology Planning. This session reports on a survey of technology use among first-year students. The survey was developed as a joint venture between librarians and IT professionals across a number of schools and departments at Drake University including Cowles Library (the main campus library), The College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, the School of Education, and Drake Law School Library. The survey was intended to assess both university assumptions about this group’s technology needs and capabilities and whether current library computer policies and technology plans were compatible with their intended audience. 600 received responses comprised over 70% of incoming students and provided the first truly broad assessment of student experiences with and expectations regarding technology at Drake.
• Carrie Dunham-LaGree and Bruce Gilbert will present Collaborating for Information Literacy: The Drake Experience. This session will report on the information literacy skills of first year students with data collected from First Year Seminars in conjunction with the Information Literacy pilot in Fall 2011.
• Susan Breakenridge Fink will present Making the Old New Again: The Use of Special Collections & a Wiki. This session will focus on Drakeapedia.

Congratulations to all four presenters on being selected!

Digital Projects Librarian Bart Schmidt was featured in the February 16, 2012 issue of the Times Delphic, Drake’s student newspaper. Want to learn more about Schmidt’s travels, hobbies and mustache? Check out the full article, which feature a picture of the “epic ‘stache” at the Times Delphic‘s website.

At the upcoming Computers in Libraries Conference, Susan Fink and Claudia Frazer will join others in presenting “Getting First Years Off to a Strong Start,” on Friday, March 23, 2012 from 3:45 PM – 4:30 PM. They will report on their First Year Seminar: a course for first-year students to explore institutional specific resources (special collections/archives) and Drakeapedia, a wiki about, by, and for the Drake community.

Marcia Keyser, Coordinator of Copyright Services, Instruction and Reference Librarian for the Cowles Library at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, will speak to the University of South Dakota campus about copyright issues in higher education on Friday, March 30. Identical morning and afternoon sessions will be held in Farber Hall from 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Marcia will discuss current issues surrounding copyright in higher education, including the implications of the Georgia State case.

Continuing its history of supporting those new to the world of librarianship, Cowles Library welcomes two individuals who will be engaged in practice-based projects during Spring Semester 2012.

Sherrie Smith is working on a library degree from Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, CA. She comes from Marshalltown. She has a BSN in Nursing, and has library experience in Youth Services Department of the Sioux City Public Library. She also worked in the Ida Grove-Battle Grove school system in the NW area of Iowa and the Marshalltown Community College library. Her project will revolve around the Library’s government documents.

Laura Krossner is from Duluth, MN. She was a BA Music major, English minor at Drake, and played French horn in wind symphony, orchestra, marching band, and Bulldog Brass. While at Drake, she worked with Dr. Eric Saylor on band music/library issues. She in her last semester of MLS study at Indiana University–Bloomington. Her projects will revolve around collection development and electronic resource issues.

Susan Fink (Coordinator, Administrative Services at Cowles Library), who has taught First Year Seminars at Drake since 2005, recently achieved a significant milestone when she received an EdD from Drake’s School of Education. Dr. Fink’s successful dissertation was titled: “An Exploratory Study on the Purpose, Structure, Format and Use of Syllabi at a Midwest Four-Year Undergraduate Private University.”

Next week, Carrie Dunham-LaGree will travel to Dallas, Texas to attend the American Library Association’s Midwinter Conference. As one of the 2012 ALA Emerging Leaders, she will begin working on a five-month project with fellow emerging leaders. This group’s project will develop a blog for the Reference and User Services Association to foster the professional conversation about emerging trends in reference and user services. The team will continue to work together throughout the spring and present a poster session at ALA’s Annual Conference in June. This project was designed as a multi-year Emerging Leaders project.