Terry is fulltime library faculty who is working directly with Service Learning teams of Honors students. He has been a member of the EMCC library faculty since 1997. During his 20-year career as a librarian he has been a residential faculty member at a number of community colleges and universities, including Arizona State University-West, and Thunderbird--The American Graduate School of International Management. Terry received his B.A. in Liberal Arts at Grand Valley State University, Master of Arts Degree in Library and Information Science from Rosary College, and Master of Science Degree in Information Systems from Roosevelt University. In 2003 Terry facilitated Honors Students in producing and administering a student library survey that was used to evaluate the Library program.
Library Effectiveness Survey
The main mission of the Information Resources Division is to provide for the research and information literacy needs of EMCC. During August 2003 the librarians met to discuss the best way to evaluate the effectiveness of library services. At the meeting it was decided that the Division would conduct a Library Effectiveness Survey working with the Service Learning Program and Institutional Planning, Assessment & Effectiveness.
In September Dr. Ro Turner, Service Learning Faculty Advisor, working with the honors faculty John Frasure and Rod Freeman recruited two honors students Catarina Macias and Shawn Schmuki.
On October 22nd, the librarians met with the honor students, Dr. Turner and Rene Willikens, Director, Institutional Planning, Assessment & Effectiveness to discuss: the goals of the survey, design a survey ballot, plan for the implementation of the survey and the method of compiling the data. The areas of assessment chosen included; service quality, environmental factors, hours of operation, information literacy, availability of research materials and demographic data. At the end of the meeting we wrote a draft survey ballot.
During November the students beta tested a draft ballot. Using the recommendations from the students the survey was refined and the final ballots were printed. On December 4th the survey was given to six classes in four disciplines -- each class surveyed had an Information literacy session earlier in the semester. The survey ballots were processed and a report was generated in January 2004.
This project exceeded all our expectations! The survey met our goals of receiving meaningful feedback from students on service quality, environmental factors, hours of operation, information literacy, availability of research materials and demographic data. The report has been used and is continually being used to:
- Revise our policies and procedures
- Revise our Division Plan.
- Shape a Joint Commons Policy with Information Commons and Learning Enhancement.
- Prepare for the development of a future Information Literacy Division Assessment plan.
- Augment part of a librarians FEP.
The service learning students were valuable in both the development and execution of the survey. Their voice brought a student centered perspective to the creation of the questions and layout of the survey ballot and the beta testing element was essential in fine tuning the survey process and instrument.
The students themselves benefited by gaining a better understanding of library services and its’ mission within the institution, and learning how to develop an effective assessment tool. See student commits below:
Catarina Macias writes:
"I participated in the service-learning project dedicated to finding out
how the library is serving the students of EMCC. I thought that the
whole experience was really eye opening. I learned about the services
the library offers and about how to compile a valid and reliable
survey. I realized how much work goes into creating and giving a survey
and now have a greater appreciation for our library and our librarians."
Shawn Schmuki
“Last semester I worked on a service learning project which was aimed at
improving the current Estrella Mountain Community College library. By
constructing a survey covering current and potential library resources,
students had the opportunity to voice how well the library serves its
students. Through the application of this survey the library now has a
better understanding of how to serve its students in their learning.
In addition to learning how the library can reach out to its students
through this survey I realized that although students take the library
for granted, they are at a loss without it. I am glad I took the time to
participate in the library service learning project at Estrella
Mountain Community College.”
