Library Faculty Newsletter: Summer 2016

Walden Library’s New Liaison & Outreach Manager

Information Literacy & the Walden Library

Doctoral Student Referral Form

ScholarWorks Archived Webinar

Library Lab Suggestions

New Part Time Librarians

Student Appointment Feedback

Upcoming Library Labs & Webinars

Featured Library Resource

TED Talk: A Free Digital Library

Faculty Feedback Corner

The Walden Library welcomed Nykol Eystad to our management team in April filling the position of Liaison & Outreach Manager. Nykol has been a Liaison Librarian with the Walden Library for five years. Having met the information needs of the Schools of Psychology, Counseling, Social Work, and Human Services, she comes to the position with a wealth of relevant experience and knowledge. We are so happy to have her take the lead in further developing our liaison team and initiatives.

Nykol earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota and her master's degree at the University of Pittsburgh. She has been working as a librarian since 2003. She briefly worked at a public library where she learned that she enjoys working in academia far more, even though there was a coffee shop attached to the library. Following the public library, Nykol spent three years at Alabama State University, a year of that was working as the liaison to the business programs. ASU made her appreciate the virtual library, which is not susceptible to fires, floods, or bird invasions. On the other hand she learned firsthand the importance of having disaster plans!

Currently, she lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two cats. Nykol enjoys photography, baking, a wide variety of music, and salvaging and reviving odd, old furnishings and other unloved bits and pieces. She’s most recently commenced training as a stained glass maker with only minor injury so far.

Nykol will be attending the National Faculty Meeting in July.  Email or IM are the best ways to reach Nykol. She is on Skype for Business and her email is Nykol.eystad@waldenu.edu

As defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries, information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." Information literacy also is increasingly important in the contemporary environment of rapid technological change and proliferating information resources.

It is part of the library's mission to equip the Walden community with skills and tools for finding, retrieving, analyzing, and using information to create and support information literate, lifelong learners.

This mission is meant to enable learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning.

An information literate student will be able to:

• Recognize the breadth of research needed
• Locate the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and resources critically
• Integrate the information into one’s knowledge base and research
• Comprehend the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

Do you have a student who needs assistance with any of these skills? Feel free to refer them to the library at Ask a Librarian or, for doctoral students, see the information below for the Doctoral Student Referral Form.

If you have a doctoral student who is struggling with research, information literacy, or any other library related skill, please fill out the form on the Faculty Toolbox page. The Student Referral Form is for faculty members who would like to refer a doctoral student to a librarian for more in-depth assistance. We will reach out to the student and do our best to assist them. 

This webinar provides an overview of ScholarWorks and what it offers for faculty. 

Is there a research topic you feel your students are struggling with? Or an assignment that requires intense and in depth research? Perhaps there's a resource that students are struggling to navigate? Please provide us with some suggestions for library lab topics you'd like to see us cover and we'd be happy work with you to create it.

We've recently welcomed two new part time Reference librarians. We would like to introduce Meghan Testerman and Emma Covelli!

Meghan Testerman

Before joining the library staff, Meghan worked for Walden University for seven years on the Institutional Review Board, where she reviewed Masters and Ph.D. level researcher proposals for ethical soundness. She has also worked with two US Army Europe Libraries, the Providence Athenaeum, the Audubon Society of Rhode Island's Hathaway Library, and was recognized by the Archivist of the United States for her work with the Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection housed at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Meghan lived in Heidelberg, Germany for 7 years and hopes one day to return.

Emma Covelli

Emma lives in Denver, Colorado and has been working in academic libraries since 2000. She made her start with a Library IT student worker position to various Librarian positions after she earned her MLIS from San Jose State University in 2008. Emma has worked in reference, instruction collection development, acquisitions and e-resource management in her work experience. When she isn't working, Emma likes to go exploring and camping in the mountains and cook up new and yummy recipes. Emma also volunteers at the local public library and animal shelter as work schedules permit and has two fun little cats of her own at home.

Feel free to encourage doctoral students to visit the Library Guide to Capstone Literature Reviews and schedule an appointment with the Library for one-on-one assistance by going to the Library Appointments guide.

Our appointments are 30 minute blocks of in depth research assistance with a Subject Liaison librarian by phone or Google Hangout. Students have provided very positive feedback post appointment and we are committed to helping each student with their individual needs.

Here's what some of our students had to say in our survey post appointment:

• "Nykol helped me to navigate the library with more ease.  Her suggestions on finding articles was very helpful."
• "Audrey introduced me to the general business database and helped me to understand how I can enter multiple words to drill down to articles that better suit the needs of my research."
• "Lajmar provided valuable advice on how to use key words to explore the literature."
• "Erin provided me with guidance on databases, search terms, and library services."
• "Anne helped me to locate sources for my current KAM.  She also walked me through finding additional areas of the library pages that I had not used before."

Please feel free to share these library labs with your students!

Finding theorists and their works is a challenging process!  The Theorists and Theories guide serves to assist you or your students with the exploratory process of identifying theorists, finding what they have published, and acquiring it.

Brewster Kahle is building a truly huge digital library — every book ever published, every movie ever released, all the strata of web history ... It's all free to the public — unless someone else gets to it first.

Please provide us with any suggestions about the newsletter or any other ideas you may have!