3. TEACHING, LEARNING AND RESEARCH
3.1 Undergraduates
In order to provide relevant support services for UG students, the library needs to align itself closely with institutional initiatives and develop relationships with faculty and equip library staff with necessary competencies. The following are some of the activities pursued in 2017.
3.1.1 Draft Library Teaching and Learning plan
To foster better alignment of library thinking with the overall goals of the UWC Teaching and Learning plan, a draft Library Teaching and Learning plan was developed with the Snr Librarian: Information Literacy. The vision was to avoid the ad hoc nature of library reports to the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee and to elevate the Library’s contributions to the overarching goals. However, during a special meeting of the faculty librarians and the Library Director, it became apparent that the plan could have been overly ambitious. Although it was intended as a five year plan, it would be necessary to break down the goals into more digestible chunks with steady developmental input from ourselves and others in the T&L specialist group. Unfortunately, the draft plan was not pursued in 2017 but will become a focus for gradual, supported implementation in 2018.
3.1.2 Orientation 2017
Phase 1 of the 2017 Library Orientation programme was attended by 2614 students over 5 days. Provision was made for 10 sessions per day. First day was set aside for parent orientation; 200 parents attended in 5 groups. An additional programme was run on Saturday 25th for 290 part-time students. The session includes a video tour of library facilities and services and spot prizes for questions on the video. Printed booklets are distributed and made available on the library website. Phase 2 of Library Orientation involved twice-daily walk in training sessions for learning how to use the Library discovery tool named SmartSearch. Flyers with the roster of these sessions were distributed to students. Post-Orientation evaluation recommended a more blended approach for Orientation, retaining the face to face session but also developing online resources.
3.1.3 First Year Experience FYE
Responding to the DVC Project, Operation Student Success, the library began reaching out to potential partners on campus. The Snr Librarian met with faculty first year coordinators and worked with Student Support Services (CSSS) to coordinate a morning workshop for 40 late registrants on 20 April In preparation for Orientation 2018, work on a series of short videos commenced in the last quarter of 2017. We met with the Director: Writing Centre to explore ways in which we might work more closely. An idea to jointly roll out a series of faculty-based lunchtime workshops timed for the period when students receive their first assignments did not find a favourable response. Generally, there is a tendency to avoid generic workshops in favour of more meaningful, contextualised partnerships with specific groups. This ties in with the Library’s desire to form closer partnerships with lecturers. After attending the UWC workshop on First Year Experience in October, we realised that the library will need to gain more credibility and foster relationships in order to win the space and support for its initiatives.