The library and the common reader program: a collaborative effort to college transition

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to describe the inception and continuation of a collaborative effort between York College’s Common Reader program and the York College Library. The Common Reader program comprises academic and extracurricular activities designed to help achieve the goals of York College’s First Year Experience Program to assist in the successful transition, achievement and retention of first-year students at York College, The City University of New York. Design/methodology/approach The Common Reader Committee was initially comprising only of participating classroom faculty and Student Development staff. York College Library was invited to help with one of the extracurricular events. Subsequently, the collaboration was considered essential to the success of the Common Reader program. This paper describes the library’s role in supporting the initiative. Findings The library is an active member of York’s Common Reader Committee and is involved in the selection of the Common Reader book; publicity of the program; promotion of library resources and services; and the programming of extracurricular events. Involvement in these areas allows the library to collaboratively build a learning community, integrate information literacy skills into the curricula, nurture the practice of critical reading and help students feel connected in a new academic environment. Originality/value Many colleges have implemented common reading programs, and, in many cases, libraries have been involved in the program in some shape or form. However, at York College, there is a strategic partnership between the library and the Common Reader program. Such a partnership has made it possible for the library to be deeply involved in helping students transition to college life.

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“…We commonly depict a movement from one context to another when studying transitions (e.g., from a job to another, from university to a job, etc.). However, research on transition usually focuses on the "new setting," where the person is transitioning to (see Hebdon, 2015;Megwalu, et al, 2017;Elliott et al, 2019). A step forward to capture the complexity of transitions could be to explore the two reference points in our transition, such as school and university, for example, through a longitudinal study across educational levels.…”

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“…We commonly depict a movement from one context to another when studying transitions (e.g., from a job to another, from university to a job, etc.). However, research on transition usually focuses on the "new setting," where the person is transitioning to (see Hebdon, 2015;Megwalu, et al, 2017;Elliott et al, 2019). A step forward to capture the complexity of transitions could be to explore the two reference points in our transition, such as school and university, for example, through a longitudinal study across educational levels.…”