From One-Shot to All-In: Library Instruction for Growing Student-Community Connections

Learn how one team of librarians from both the instruction and innovation teams transitioned from one-shot library instruction to a model of scaffolded, multi-point engagement to help undergraduate seniors think critically, beyond the classroom, and into their careers. Using data visualization, active learning, and an equity lens to connect to real community initiatives, we built a collaborative relationship with faculty that empowers students to develop skills they can leverage outside the classroom and introduces resources they can access after they graduate. Teaching data literacy through data visualizations empowered students to engage their real-world constituents by understanding how and why to tell stories through data – not only for conveying information to an audience, but also for understanding the data themselves.

This series has several layers of impact. As part of the class, students are able to produce better visual stories that can be used in professional portfolios and career opportunities. Outside of the class, faculty and librarians have solidified collaborative relationships to create updated approaches and assignments, producing a way to connect with new faculty to teach the series. Students and faculty consistently engage with industry specific database research in order to initiate ideas for their target market projects. Clients have included community members of a food insecure corridor, a major sports team, and a non-profit movie theater, all of which have caused students to build a connection to research that impacts community engagement. Overall, this experience has fostered goodwill between the marketing department, the college of business, and the library. Further, this has generated an awareness of collaboration between library instructors across library departments and how the library creates deep engagement between faculty, student, and community initiatives.

During the session, the presenters will utilize brainstorming tactics and design thinking to inspire visual storytelling and ways to scale up library instruction.