This article describes the ongoing impact of a class project on the library’s work to improve its curriculum materials center (CMC) and the students’ reflection on the impact of project-based learning (PBL) on their work as preservice teachers. Arcadia University’s Landman Library houses a Curriculum Lab, which provides materials and space to support the School of Education. Use of the space and collection was low, and many materials were outdated. An education professor and the liaison librarian partnered with students enrolled in the Designing Learning Environments course (ED411) to develop a plan to improve the Curriculum Lab. This real-world redesign project created an opportunity for students to apply and transfer theories they were learning about in their readings to an actual educational project. The students wrote a mission statement, drew up a blueprint, and gathered ideas for their vision of the Curriculum Lab. Students then presented their work to university administrators. Though the class has since ended, students still contribute to the project through a volunteer advisory group.
This article describes a local study that seeks to illuminate first-year college students’ prior experiences with research and information literacy (IL) during high school. A small, suburban university surveyed and conducted interviews with librarians at the university’s feeder schools. The high school librarians rated students’ levels of proficiency in IL skills and described their school’s IL programs. Overall, librarians rated students’ IL levels as less than proficient and described several challenges to helping students improve these competencies, including teacher resistance, assignment design, and students’ habits around information. Opportunities exist for academic and school librarians to collaborate to improve IL instruction as well as to emphasize IL in teacher education programs.
A journal club is one means for those in similar professions or practices to read, discuss, and keep up with professional literature with colleagues. Journal clubs are most frequently associated with the medical professions; however, many professionals, including librarians, can benefit from the reading of research and the subsequent discussions and camaraderie that a journal club can elicit. This article describes the launch of a statewide virtual journal club for librarians in Pennsylvania. Now in its third series, the Pennsylvania Library Association (PaLA) College & Research Division (CRD) journal club has given those who’ve participated the opportunity to designate time for professional reading, reflect on personal practice, discuss and exchange theoretical and practical ideas, and connect with librarians across the state.
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