Julia Maxwell For my second semester of the Library as Research Lab’s Assessment in Student Learning Lab, I did an independent study project, advised by Dr. Beth Yakel, surrounding some of the preliminary results of the survey that our lab conducted in the fall of 2019. This project, while giving me a chance to learn more project management and technical skills, also taught me a valuable lesson outside of these skills: the importance and necessity of patience during self-motivated research work.
Community Blogs
Learning How to Adapt & Be Flexible
Emily Sartorius, Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab The winter of 2020 was my second semester as a Research Fellow for the IMLS Grant-funded Library as Research Lab. The Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab continued to analyze the data from our survey, while starting a new interview study about evaluating information. Between adapting our previous research to inform our interview … Continue reading Learning How to Adapt & Be Flexible
Learning How to Ask Questions
Emily Sartorius, Assessment in Student Learning Lab The fall of 2020 was my first semester as part of the IMLS Grant-funded Library as Research Lab. As a member of the Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab, my team focused the semester on a survey that asked the question: How do students evaluate information before and after a library instruction session? I … Continue reading Learning How to Ask Questions
Adventures in Coding
Doreen Bradley Our Library Assessment in Student Learning Lab is undertaking ambitious work this year. We designed, conducted, and coded a student survey in Fall 2019, which had over 500 responses. In Winter, 2020, we designed, conducted and are mid-way through coding 22 individual student interviews. Both of these research efforts provided our Fellows with … Continue reading Adventures in Coding
Research in an Academic Library
Gina Genova Soon after starting on an academic librarianship track at UMSI, I learned that library science research is a component of many librarian positions in academic libraries. At the time, I was unfamiliar with the breadth of research librarians engage in, but I was interested. However, I hadn’t participated in systematic academic research as an … Continue reading Research in an Academic Library
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Mary L. Shelly One of the things that I most appreciate about my work as a student fellow in the Design Thinking for Services Lab so far is the interdisciplinary collaboration that is fostered in our lab.
Learning about Learning Librarians
Regen Le Roy This semester was very informative in terms of learning more about the work academic librarians perform behind the scenes in university settings. Developing a codebook with a group to analyze survey responses was more challenging than I expected. My mentor has been very helpful with connecting me with colleagues who have been … Continue reading Learning about Learning Librarians
Qualitative Research on Qualitative Research
Claire Myers Research was not entirely new to me when I joined the Library as Research Lab. I had previous research experience as a Community College Summer Fellow through University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) when I was a student at Washtenaw Community College. The experience that I gained in that program was … Continue reading Qualitative Research on Qualitative Research
Mentorship and Shaping of Career Values
Julia Maxwell When beginning my contribution to the Library as Research Lab project, I had a fair idea of what I wanted my career path to look like: academic librarianship, with focuses on digital scholarship and undergraduate learning. After a semester working on the project, I have found that my career aspirations are now more … Continue reading Mentorship and Shaping of Career Values
Building ongoing relationships
Jackie Freeman Some conversations can be worth having even when you don't have a clear idea of how you will pull value from them or when - if ever - they might become fruitful. I've had conversations that have led to invitations to join project teams, to new careers, and now to a new collaboration … Continue reading Building ongoing relationships