Library Publishers as Educators: Crafting Curriculum for Undergraduate Research Journals

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Library publishing programs continue to play an increasingly important role in educating their constituents. In particular, library publishers that support undergraduate student journals often provide guidance to students on both mechanical and conceptual issues related to publishing. This article presents a case study for developing a one-credit-hour course to support an undergraduate student journal publication, the Indiana University Journal of Undergraduate Research (IUJUR), at Indiana University Bloomington. DESCRIPTION OF COURSE The course is offered every fall as a mechanism for onboarding about thirty new undergraduate editors. The course was developed and taught by a librarian and an undergraduate student in consultation with IU's Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. Course curriculum touches on topics that scholarly communication and information literacy librarians alike can adapt for a variety of educational contexts, including authentic activities for understanding peer review models and applying publishing innovations. ASSESSMENT The article details both the formative and summative assessment strategies the instructor utilized to gauge student understanding of key publishing concepts. The summative assessment utilizes pre-and post-tests and extends previous library literature to evaluate students' actual understanding of publishing concepts in addition to their perceived understanding and confidence. LIMITATIONS AND NEXT STEPS The course curriculum will continue to grow and change in order to accommodate students' misconceptions and interests.

Library Publishing Research Agenda

“…Much of the literature in the second camp, assessment of existing programs and their impacts, focuses on assessment of student outcomes related to involvement in publishing programs (Davis-Kahl & Seeborg, 2013;Weiner & Watkinson, 2014;Hare, 2019). Published examples of and instructions for assessment of publishing programs more broadly exist but are rare.…”

Reimagining Scholarly Communication through Experiential Learning: Merging Theory and Practice for MLIS Students

“…This is accomplished in large part through assignments and activities directly related to ELIP. As discussed in the growing body of literature on student publishing and course journals in particular, student-run journals provide ample experiential learning opportunities (see, e.g., Bauer et al, 2009;Hare, 2019;and Shuttleworth et al, 2019). Moreover, grounding scholarly communication topics in real-world activities helps to avoid pitfalls that arise in relation to MLIS research methods courses, which have been criticized for failing to prepare students "to responsibly consume and competently produce research" (Mandel, 2017, p. 200).…”

Course Journals: Leveraging Library Publishing to Engage Students at the Intersection of Open Pedagogy, Scholarly Communications, and Information Literacy

“…Academic libraries have been steadily growing into this role by supporting student journals (Buckland, 2015;Davis-Kahl, 2013;Marken & Dawson, 2017;Spiro, 2015); encouraging students to deposit their work in the institutional repository (Buckland, 2015); hosting undergraduate poster sessions or research and writing contests (Hensley, 2013;Jones et al, 2011;Jones & Canuel, 2013); and offering for-credit scholarly publishing courses (Gilman, 2013;Hare, 2019). These initiatives provide students with the opportunity to refine their work, gain recognition for their scholarly contribution and skills, and develop confidence and expertise in the publishing process (Buckland, 2015;Caprio, 2014;Davis-Kahl, 2013;Gilman, 2013;Hare, 2019;Jones et al, 2011;Jones & Canuel, 2013;Spiro, 2015). This paper will introduce course journals, an approach to student writing and publishing that involves students in the production of an online, open access journal within a structured classroom environment.…”