Morgan, AbiAbi Morganhttp://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/66912024-03-29T07:04:02Z2024-03-29T07:04:02ZA non-trivial pursuit: Library Game Nights as a place to destress with campus partners. [Poster presentation]Calabrese, CaraJustus, RogerMorgan, AbigailYarnetsky, Jerryhttp://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/69052023-06-01T15:06:04ZA non-trivial pursuit: Library Game Nights as a place to destress with campus partners. [Poster presentation]
Calabrese, Cara; Justus, Roger; Morgan, Abigail; Yarnetsky, Jerry
Academic libraries work to not only provide access to information and support of scholarly pursuits, we also seek to provide a welcoming atmosphere for all campus constituents. One way MU Libraries does this is through our Library Game Night programming series. At these events, MU Libraries opens our spaces to host board game nights 3-5 times per semester.
We began the series in 2017 as a way to bring students a fun and stress-relieving event, as well as a way to help them see the library as a space for them, not only to study, but also gather. Since then, our Library Game Night programming has grown to include collaborations with other campus centers and student organizations, which MU Libraries has capitalized on to expand our engagement. Student partners and attendees have brought inclusive ideas to the series, including a fundraiser for a children's hospital, a game night focused on traditional Mexican games, and the purchase of gaming accessories that accommodate users of all abilities, like card holders. Faculty and staff partnerships have allowed us to hold a Made at Miami orientation event for incoming students from underrepresented populations, and we are looking forward to hosting a game night in the future with the Myaamia Center. Student feedback from our events has emphasized how much they appreciate having a way to decompress from the pressure of school.
While we have strived to make our events welcoming and inclusive, we also know that diversifying our game collection is just as important. We applied for and won an MUL DEI grant in order to expand our game collection and acquire content from BIPOC creators and games with inclusive characters such as Sparkle Kitty, One Deck Dungeon, and Jinja. For our April event, we will be working with the student group MU Meeples to showcase DEI-related games for the Universal Day of Culture.
Join us to find out how we have successfully leveraged the student organizations and grant funding on our campus to enrich our programming to create an enjoyable and inclusive events series.
When Librarians Rank Last: First-Year Student Research Readiness, Library Intimidation & High School ExperiencesMorgan, AbigailYarnetsky, JerryVerdream, Janellhttp://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/68582023-01-23T18:27:58ZWhen Librarians Rank Last: First-Year Student Research Readiness, Library Intimidation & High School Experiences
Morgan, Abigail; Yarnetsky, Jerry; Verdream, Janell
What happens when high school students don't have access to librarians? In fall 2021 we conducted a survey of first-year students at two Ohio public universities. We hoped to learn about incoming first-year students' confidence in their ability to conduct college research based on their library experiences at different types of high schools and districts throughout Ohio. For example, we found that 82-88% of rural and small town students in our survey reported they never or rarely received librarian help with their research in high school. These same students reported feeling much less prepared to do college-level research. Similarly, students reporting lack of access to library instruction due to remote learning also reported feeling a similar lack of preparedness. In turn, consistent with library anxiety literature, many of our respondents also find college libraries intimidating. While the students don't report finding library staff to be intimidating, they rank librarians as the last choice for who they would ask for research help. We will share additional findings from our survey, such as our students' understanding of how college librarians can help them. We will then discuss how our findings impact librarians’ work with first-year students in reference, instruction, and web services.
Learning Outcomes:
Describe the differences in exposure to library instruction reported by students in Ohio high schools.
Understand first-year students’ self-described knowledge of college librarians.
Develop novel approaches to overcome first-year students’ library anxiety.
Critical Consumption: Empowering Students to Evaluate Sources in a One-Shot Session on Introductory Consumer Marketing ResearchMorgan, Abigailhttp://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/68332022-07-01T13:45:18ZCritical Consumption: Empowering Students to Evaluate Sources in a One-Shot Session on Introductory Consumer Marketing Research
Morgan, Abigail
Instruction in library resources and research for the introductory marketing class is one
of the most requested one-shot sessions from the business school at Miami University,
a large public school in the Midwest, with around fifteen sessions taught each academic
year. The one-shot session outlined here is derived from these classes. Students’ main
project for the course is to create a marketing plan for a chosen consumer packaged
goods product (i.e., food or household items that are repurchased regularly); the library
session is designed to help them find the information they will need about consumers for
the project.
Hybrid by Design: New Student Orientations and the Value of AsynchronicityMorgan, AbigailHilles, Stefaniehttp://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/67732021-12-16T18:29:41ZHybrid by Design: New Student Orientations and the Value of Asynchronicity
Morgan, Abigail; Hilles, Stefanie
Covid changed our lives, our campuses, and how we connect with students. In-person activities were replaced with virtual ones and library events had to be reimagined digitally. With vaccinations on the rise and universities hopeful for a more in-person fall, what did we learn from online events that we can apply in the future? This poster will present our experience transitioning the library’s annual graduate student orientation from in-person to virtual and hybrid events. First, we will discuss how we moved orientation online in 2020 and the challenges we faced, including teaching staff how to use new video conferencing software to record accessible videos, collaborating with campus partners, and how to best present the event with existing learning management platforms and the library website. Next, we will detail how we incorporated these lessons into a hybrid orientation in 2021 that will continue to use asynchronous recordings on an event landing page. Finally, we will discuss the benefits of asynchronous orientation elements and compare attendance outcomes from 2019 (in-person), 2020 (virtual), and 2021 (hybrid) to determine which format produces the most student engagement, answering the question, “Should we continue asynchronous opportunities at new student orientations when in-person learning fully resumes?”