Assessing Online Reference Services through ARLIS' Information Competencies for Students in Design Disciplines - Audrey Ferrie, Information Literacy Librarian, Academy of Art University
Deeply Embedded: Library/Studio Partnerships in the Development of Graduate Design Curriculum - Michael Wirtz, Head of Research and Library Technology, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar
Embedding Outside Your Comfort Zone: Reference & Instruction for the Non-Art Side of Arts Management - Kimberly Detterbeck, Art Librarian, Purchase College SUNY
(m) iReference: Roaming, Flashing and Embedding with Mobile Technology - Liv Valmestad, Art Librarian, University of Manitoba
Moderator: Anna Simon, Research and Instruction Librarian, Georgetown University
As the parameters and service expectations of librarianship shift with changes in academia, art librarians are increasingly tasked with finding creative approaches to provide traditional services. Decentralized art departments, multi-disciplinary research extending beyond the arts, and the visual and tactile proclivities of art and art history students are just a few of the challenges dictating how services are provided. This quartet of art librarians is crafting reference and instruction services that meet students on their own terms. Audrey Ferrie and the Academy of Art University (AAU) have adapted the ARLIS information literacy standards as a basis for remotely evaluating students’ art and design competencies. Using only online reference exchanges, AAU has created a new set of benchmarks to help improve their virtual reference encounters. Michael Wirtz at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar is shaping the way services are provided by collaborating with a studio professor to re-craft a research methodology seminar in design. Wirtz is co-teaching this seminar, ensuring that information literacy is overlaid with discipline-specific critical thinking skills. Kimberly Detterbeck has adapted her reference services for the arts management program at Purchase College to include business, management, and legal support—without having institutional programs in these areas. By expanding her expertise and challenging her own perceived limitations, Kim has become fully embedded in the arts management program. Finally, Liv Valmestad, art librarian at the University of Manitoba, has fashioned herself into a mobile iLibrarian by taking her favorite apps and e-tools into the studio and projecting them onto the wall with a mobile device. This form of “iReference” allows her to tailor flash reference events and maintain a presence in the studio. Starting with traditional services and building out, these presentations offer practical techniques and suggestions on how to “hand-craft” reference and information services specific to the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s patrons.