![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2019\/09\/IMG_formerstillwaterpubliclibrary-300x200.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nWhen I was in college I worked in a public library.\u00a0 I have always loved libraries – every time I return to my hometown I drive by the old public library where I worked and I remember not only my work there, but the summer book clubs and story hours that I participated in growing up.\u00a0 When I drive by the old public library, I still recall the feeling from childhood that walking through those doors meant I was entering other landscapes full of exotic and interesting people.\u00a0 Here’s a picture of that old library (which is now retail property).<\/p>\n
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I love libraries – did I mention that?\u00a0 I especially love public libraries for their democratic mission, and community college libraries for their central role in our educational mission.\u00a0 The Institute for Museum and Library Services, in conjunction with Ithaka S+R, has produced a report on the impact that community college libraries can have on the success of their students.\u00a0 You can read about this research in Inside Higher Ed<\/em><\/a>, The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> <\/a>(paywall access only), the Library Journal<\/a>, and the Ithaka S+R<\/a> blog.<\/p>\n There are a lot of insights to be gleaned from this research, but here are two or three.\u00a0 First, students’ needs outside the classroom ARE academic needs because they can have a significant impact on their academic success.\u00a0 We know this – we know that a student who struggles to pay the rent or get her car repaired with likely struggle with her school work.<\/p>\n Second, students view college as a means to an end (a good job) but ALSO as having intrinsic value.\u00a0 They highly value both their attainment of knowledge and the advancement of their career as a result of their community college experiences.\u00a0 And they see the library, academic advising office, and tutoring center as important service providers in addressing unmet information needs, both curricular and non-curricular. For students, in-person services to help them find information for navigating college, completing coursework, finding child care options, paying for food or housing, or gaining access to social services could all flow from their college library.<\/p>\n From the Chronicle<\/em> article:<\/p>\n “Institutions often look at graduation, transfer, and job-placement rates to gauge success, said Christine Wolff-Eisenberg, manager of surveys and research at the nonprofit group Ithaka S+R and a co-author of a report on the survey\u2019s findings. She said the group wanted to better understand how students themselves characterize success.<\/p>\n \u201c’What we saw was students equally valued their learning and mastery, and their being able to grow as people through the educational process,’ Wolff-Eisenberg said.”<\/p>\n The central idea is to see libraries and librarians as the connective tissue between instruction and student affairs, supporting students’ learning and mastery and growth as individuals.\u00a0 \u00a0The goal of the research is to strengthen “the position of the community college library in serving student needs.” (Ithaka S+R)<\/p>\n Libraries are accessible.\u00a0 And libraries are central to student success – they always have been central to the success of our students, and they will continue to occupy this central place.\u00a0 This current research provokes additional thinking about how we partner with our libraries to best meet the needs of our students today.\u00a0 So be sure to send your students to our libraries<\/a> (either online or in person).\u00a0 Be sure to say “thank you” to the next librarian you see.\u00a0 And join me in celebrating the great and good work of our libraries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was in college I worked in a public library.\u00a0 I have always loved libraries – every time I return to my hometown I drive by the old public library where I worked and I remember not only my work there, but the summer book clubs and story hours that I participated in growing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}