Yarnetsky, JerryJerry Yarnetskyhttp://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/67912024-03-28T21:51:29Z2024-03-28T21:51:29ZA 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.
Effects of high school location on first-year students’ research confidence and college readinessMorgan, AbigailYarnetsky, Jerryhttp://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/66922021-02-02T18:02:01ZEffects of high school location on first-year students’ research confidence and college readiness
Morgan, Abigail; Yarnetsky, Jerry
In Ohio, K-12 public school funding models have been ruled unconstitutional four times due to the great discrepancies among districts from different economic and geographic areas. One of these discrepancies is often the availability of library services. In our research, we aimed to examine how these discrepancies may have altered preparedness for college-level research for incoming first-year students from various backgrounds. As the 2019-20 school year opened, we surveyed the incoming first-year class at a large public university. We received 117 responses in total from this survey. We first looked at this population as a whole, then analyzed responses by rural/urban/suburban areas. We found that students from rural districts were frequently taught how to conduct research by someone other than a school librarian. We also found significant differences in student confidence between students taught by librarians in high school and students taught by others. As students are now expected to learn remotely, at least part-time, potentially without the support from access to the library and library staff on campus, this research helps clarify the challenges students face in their home communities.