PSEC Instruction Committee

Meeting Minutes

9/8/2009 In attendance: Camille Andrews, Ken Bolton, Tony Cosgrave, Laurent Ferri, Jaron Porciello, Lynn Thitchener, Wendy Wilcox, Gaby Castro Gessner (RAU liaison) 

I.      Welcome New Members

The committee introduced themselves and welcomed our new members, Wendy Wilcox and Laurent Ferri.

II.   Announcements and Updates

LIPP - Wendy Wilcox has partnered with Jill Powell. They will schedule their first meeting this semester. The committee will work on soliciting more participation in the program in the upcoming year.  Tony shared an assessment rubric he developed as part of the Information Competency Institute. It's designed for assessing student performance on an annotated bibliography assignment. Tony suggested that the committee consider creating a clearinghouse for instruction materials, using this rubric as just one example of the kinds of materials we might share. Jaron mentioned that the Business Information Group (BIG), Instruction subcommittee was also looking at developing a repository of instructional materials and suggested that the PSEC Instruction Committee and the BIG committee might collaborate to some extent. Tony attended the PSEC meeting last week (9/3). He mentioned that all library staff websites will be migrating from CommonSpot to Drupal. This will include the PSEC Instruction Committee web site.    Camille announced that there will be a workshop on developing rubrics for assessment on September 18^th, in Mann 102, from 9:00 am - 10:00 am. The workshop will be offered by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative.

III. Committee leadership

The committee discussed the need to elect a chair for the next term. Lynn nominated Tony. Ken Bolton seconded the nomination. All members were in favor. Tony graciously accepted.

IV. e-Services Fair report

We had representatives from the Fine Arts Library, Engineering, Mann, Adelson, and Olin, demonstrating various library resources and research tools. Approximately 50-60 students stopped by to visit our tables. Lynn suggested that next year we might want to look at something targeting Teaching Assistants (either in addition to the e-Services Fair, or in place of). This is an idea we may revisit next Spring.

V.   Non-libguides Course Guides

Tony announced that it was now possible to have new, non-LibGuide format, course-related guides added to the Course Guides section of the library home page. Both Tony and Camille have been trained to do this in Drupal. Creators of non-LibGuide format, course-related guides can send their links to Tony or Camille to have them added to the library home page, Library Guides page. Tony will send out a message to all of the CUL instruction coordinators to let them know.

VI. ACRL Immersion Report

The ACRL Immersion, "Program Track" is a week-long program, The program focuses on embedding Information Literacy, in both individual teaching practice through the Teacher Track and in the curriculum as a whole through the Program Track. In the Program Track, which Camille attended this year, topics included an environmental analysis, developing an impact model, and beginning by "picking the low-hanging fruit". Camille sent out her notes to the committee by email and posted them on the CUL Instruction wiki at https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/instruct/ACRL+Information+Literacy+Immersion+notes

VII.         Mission Statement and Learning Outcomes

Background: Cornell is undergoing its decennial Middle States Reaccreditation review in 2010. Several Library administrators are serving on various committees some of which are looking at Library Instruction in conjunction with other instruction by the various colleges and departments. In the spring, the Instruction Committee met with members of RAU. At this meeting, those present shared information with Zsuzsa and Gaby about aspects of our current instruction program.  There is a great deal of interest in learning outcomes and assessment.  At this meeting, the Instruction Committee agreed to draft an instruction mission statement and learning outcomes for CUL.  Tony will send out a note to instruction coordinators across the CUL system inviting their participation in this effort.  Camille, Jaron, Lynn and Tony also volunteered to work on crafting a draft mission statement and outcomes to share with all of the instruction coordinators for feedback. Additional thoughts, materials, etc. can be added to the Assessment page on our wiki.

VIII.      Semester Instruction Activities

In an instruction needs survey, technological tools and active learning were both identified as areas of interest to library instructors. The committee decided to develop a forum on active learning, shooting for an October timeline. Camille and Tony will spearhead this effort.  The committee also decided to host two of the TLT webinars - one on assessment and the other on developing rubrics.

Submitted by Lynn Thitchener
9/11/2009