Libraries and
learning centers working together
Expert
Deese-Roberts faculty acknowledgement recipient
By Carolyn
Gonzales
Susan
Deese-Roberts, director of the Center for the Advancement of
Scholarship in Teaching and Learning (CASTL) and associate professor
in the UNM General Library, was recently honored as the faculty
acknowledgement recipient from the General Library.
Since becoming
CASTL director, Deese-Roberts retains only a one-third time
position in the library, however as library faculty she has
served in various fulltime capacities including director of
Zimmerman Library Public Services and director of the Center
for Academic Program Support (CAPS).
Deese-Roberts
presentation, Libraries and Learning Centers: Collaborations
for Student Success, addresses the commonalities between
libraries and learning centers, like CAPS. She says, The
mission statements for each are very similar. Take out the research
and scholarship component for the library and they parallel
one another. Both address the out-of-classroom learning
that takes place at the university level. Students go
to libraries and learning centers when they want to study and
learn. They might meet with a librarian or a tutor, she
says.
While working
with the library instruction program, Deese-Roberts began to
realize that students come in when they have a paper to write,
a project to complete or an exam to study for. The library
gives them the material and the learning center gives them assistance
with developing a final product, she says.
Students
show up at the CAPS writing lab not differentiating between
the research that goes into a paper as something separate. Students
see it as one assignment, writing a paper. So, we provided the
tutors with structured practice in using library tools so that
they could help the students better, she says.
As a result
of her parallel experience in libraries and learning centers,
Deese-Roberts has worked as a consultant to other libraries
considering the addition of a learning center.
Many libraries
are now relocating collections to remote storage or putting
in compact shelving. This makes it possible to develop
more public service space, study space, in the library. New
buildings are being designed to include it. Old buildings are
being retrofitted to provide for it, Deese-Roberts says.
University of Nebraska at Omaha is including a learning center
in its new library and North Texas State is planning one right
inside the front door of its new library. In South Carolina,
at Clemson University, theyre placing materials in remote
storage and moving a learning center into the library facility,
she says.
The
collaboration between libraries and learning centers is what
is relevant here, not just space, Deese-Roberts says.
She says that library space consultant Jay Lucker concurs. He
noted on his recent visit to UNM that out-of-classroom learning
needs to be accommodated in the library. Its not
about space, she says, its about service to
the students.
Deese-Roberts
says that as UNM and other universities look to reform undergraduate
education, retain freshmen, engage tenured faculty in teaching
undergraduate courses, integrate technology into the curriculum
and establish smaller classes, learning centers and libraries
are taking on a central role. Librarians are information
literacy reform activists, she says. Librarians
used to have a support role, now they are partners with faculty
and learning centers in retention programs.
In CAPS,
the calculus lab, located in Centennial Science and Engineering
Library (CSEL), helps the greatest number of students, Deese-Roberts
says. While in Zimmerman Library, the writing lab is busy. Other
subjects students get help with include chemistry, physics,
algebra, writing, statistics and foreign languages. Tutoring
is available for almost every undergraduate course, she
says.
Recently,
CAPS started offering math tutoring in the Hokona Cellar. And
were expanding to online tutoring, Deese-Roberts
says.
Taking
tutoring programs to the students in the SUB or dorms,
for example is another component of the learning centers,
although a central locale for offices and administration still
needs to be considered. At UNM, one idea has been to move CAPS
into a renovated Mesa Vista Hall, should it be renovated with
a student services focus. Even so, says Deese-Roberts, the writing
lab could logically remain in Zimmerman Library and the calculus
lab in CSEL.
CAPS
should not move just for more library space, services and programs
should be considered. CAPS serves between 4,000 and 5,000 students
each year. They are the stakeholders. We need to provide a safe,
effective environment for them and the student tutors,
Deese-Roberts says. I am sure that whatever decision is
reached on the CAPS location it will be a good one made in collaboration
between the library, CAPS and its users, and other campus stakeholders.H