ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries CSRL News ■ October 2000 / 789 COMMUNITY & COLLABORATION Reaching out to the community Models that work by Julie Todaro C oncern for community, collaboration, and partnership in higher education is not new. Higher learning environm ents ha been working with and within their neigh­ borhoods and com m unities for decades. Goals and results (exclusive of the educa­ tion-driven programs, such as research con­ sortia, internships, etc.) have varied, but pro­ grams typically on-campus over the years have included: • admissions criteria, curriculum design, and scheduling designed to meet the needs of the community member or “non-tradi­ tional” student; • campus resources opened up for the public, such as fine arts productions, art ex­ hibits, and sports, food, and recreational fa­ cilities made available for community use; • special programs, such as enrichment classes for alumni and retirees and camps for children; and, • special use of expert staff and resources, such as unique hospital programs (testing, diagnosis, and critical care) and use and bor­ rowing privileges for campus libraries either in general or limited to certain times or cer­ tain days. Students, faculty, and staff have also reached out into community life. • Student social and service groups adopt neighborhood projects. ve • Student groups, such as athletic or the­ ater groups, perform off campus for enter­ tainment or fundraising. • Faculty members guest lecture for com­ munity groups and often work with local service groups on a consulting basis. These projects and programs are both al­ truist and good business. Colleges and uni­ versities have long seen the benefits of forg­ ing strong relationships with their alumni but there are also great rewards from “doing good.” Strong ties result in strong recruitment, support from the business community, “pro” votes during any community vote needed, and enriched resources, collections, and re­ search possibilities. The old and th e n ew Because some or many of these projects and programs exist in higher education environ­ ments today, the new or revolutionary ideas of collaboration or partnerships may easily be dismissed or overlooked because the feel­ ing may be that “w e’re doing that.” The reality is that there are so many m ore possibilities w here relationships can be designed to increase student research and learning, to enrich teaching, to attract a new generation of students, to interest older or returning students to retrain or retool, to becom e eligible for outside/in- About the author Julie Todaro is dean o f Library Services a t Austin Community College, e-mail: jtodaro@austin.cc.tx.us mailto:jtodaro@austin.cc.tx.us 790 / C&RL News ■ October 2000 To embrace newer coilaborations or partnerships is not a matter of exduding or discontinuing exist- ing ones. In fact, many of the newer projects and programs are expansions or enhancements of those in progress. creased funding, and to enrich the life of the community and the campus in gen­ eral.1 To embrace newer coilaborations or part­ nerships is not a matter of excluding or dis­ continuing existing ones. In fact, many of the newer projects and programs are expan­ sions or enhancements of those in progress. Instead, Colleges and universities and com­ munity partners should look at the differ- ences or the shifts between the old and the new. Typically older projects and programs con- centrate on expanded access to the campus and campus resources and activities, addi­ tional but similar work for existing staff, bring- ing existing programs and curriculum to new audiences, more short-term and sporadic ac- tivity, and little or no specific commitments of dedicated dollars. New coilaborations and partnerships, while including older methods, also can mean research into identifying the needs of audi­ ences, possibly serving new constituents, in- vestigating and implementing new ideas/cur- ricula to meet specific identified needs, and often working differently or with groups in­ stead of just working or doing for new groups. In addition, new projects and programs can mean economic and efficient use of existing dollars, attracting outside dollars reserved for coilaborations and partnerships, and line item and targeted budgeting for an ongoing com- mitment of dollars. The following examples are primarily li­ brary and information-related.2 Although the underlying theme of many of the examples listed here includes information literacy, many of the projects and programs clearly go be- yond the topic both in content and in ben­ efits. Duke University-Durham Public Schools This program, funded by AT&T, is designed to match technology mentors from the uni­ versity library staff with public school teach- ers, offering both formal classes for teachers with one-on-one mentor sessions in the use of educational technology. University of California Berkeley- Oakland and San Francisco Unified School Districts The goal of this project, funded by Depart­ ment of Commerce-TIIAP Grant, is to bring Internet technology to K -12 schools in the Bay area. The current library grant covers de­ velopment of sample lesson plans based on the California Heritage Collection, a digital library of archival resources on California history, and work within the schools to pro- mote the integration of the Internet and pri- mary sources into the curriculum. University of Maine at Farmington This project provided 3 teacher in-service workshops and 20 sessions for area school children, grades 3-12. Completed as a for­ mal collaboration with the local school dis- trict, it was funded through a Bell Atlantic Excellence in Education award. The grant project was written by the library director in collaboration with the area superintendent of schools. University of California Irvine The University of California Irvine (UCI) Li­ braries received a University of California School-University Partnership Program grant to establish a two-year pilot program that will lay the groundwork for long-term collabora­ tion between the UCI Libraries and targeted Orange County high schools. The School Part­ nership for Instruction, Research, and Infor­ mation Technology (SPIRIT) Program objec- tives are to develop partnerships to teach life- long learning skills to high-school students and to help increase the number of students that meet and exceed UCI admissions require- ments. Link 2 Learn Project (http://www.l2l. duq.edu/contact.html) Duquesne University, Gannon University, St. Vincent College, and other cooperating insti- http://www.l2l C&RL News ■ O ctober 2000 / 791 tutions propose to address the development o f the skills of information problem-solving, generally known as information literacy in the high-school population for librarians, teachers, and high-school students in the 21 cooperating schools in the Western Pennsyl­ vania region. These partners have or are in the process of identifying information problem-solving lit­ eracy prerequisite skills for high school teacher-librarians and developing appropri- ate Professional development opportunities for these teacher-librarians to enable them to serve as catalysts and resources for the Pro­ fessional development of faculty in their schools. The Link 2 Learn Web page states: “In­ cluding information literacy components into the curricula in all content areas is the longer- term goal of the project. To this end, literacy skill development workshops will be devel- oped and provided, initially to the teacher- librarians then through the teacher-librarians to teaching personnel in their buildings, and finally to students through the teaching per­ sonnel working closely with the teacher-li- brarians.” Oregon State University Staff from the university, the public library, and local school district media specialists are working to establish and implement instruc- tional guidelines for information literacy in the community at large. SUNY Oswego University librarians and school library ad- ministration and media specialists have es- tablished a formal arrangement in the uni­ versity library. They have a representative who attends all Schoo l Library System Council meetings and acts as a liaison b e­ tween the school libraries and the univer­ sity library. The librarians use this fairly close rela- tionship with the school libraries and the high-school librarians to bring the classes in for instruction in the use o f a College library. University of Cincinnati The university library has created a soft money position for K -12 outreach in the Cin­ cinnati community of schools. University of Michigan The university regularly holds workshops where high-school librarians visit the univer­ sity libraries to look at existing resources to see what they could use in their work with students in area high schools. In addition, the Cultural Heritage Initiative for Commu­ nity Outreach (CHICO) is based at the Uni­ versity of Michigan School of Information. CHICO includes participants from the School of Information, University departments in the arts and humanities, and area K-12 schools as well as local, regional, and national muse- ums and public libraries. “The goal of CHICO is to make cultural heritage materials acces- sible to a broad array of audiences. Through our pilot projects with area partners, we are creating online multimedia resources with a strong multicultural focus, and are developing personalized services and programs to assist in the use of online technologies and resources. Our projects incorporate images, sound and Video to enrich museum visits, classroom in­ struction, and independent research.”3 University of Nevada The Leaming Resource Center (LRC) is housed in the College of Education at the University of Nevada. The LRC is staffed by three school district employees and three university em- ployees. The Center was founded ten years ago to assist the students and professors of the university, while assisting the teachers and Student teachers of Washoe County School District. The Center provides media services and resources, including instructional Sup­ port and curriculum enrichment. Teachers and administrators in surrounding school dis- tricts are invited to use the center’s resources as well as staff and faculty from private schools and other school districts. University of Washington The University of Washington has exciting plans for university/K-12 initiatives for the coming years. This initiative discusses the hands on teaching of children, technology partnerships through the TLT program, a brain and research center and a K-12 leadership initiative.4 Other general project and program col­ laboration and partnership ideas include: • Expanded use of conference and for­ mal research forums for discussing partner- ships and coilaborations.5 792 /C&RL News ■ O cto b e r 2000 There is no one model th at w orks for every group. Work is under- way, however, to establish the elem ents of existing successful information literacy partnerships and coilaborations . . . • Design of virtual/digital environment for community members housed on College and university Web sites, such as small business help and curriculum pages. • Design of community Web sites through work with instructional design classes and community freenets to offer local and small organization Web presence. • Expanded internship/mentor roles be­ tween junior-high and high-school students and College and university staff in info-tech rich learning and teaching environments. • Expanded “show and tell” of learning environments between and among K-12 and higher education, including visits of K-12 fac­ ulty to Colleges and universities and visits to K-12 environments by College and univer­ sity staff. • Expanded multitype consortia for e-re- sources. • Cooperative design of user education modules for both electronic consortia prod- ucts and generally used print materials. • E xp an d ed form al n etw o rk in g o f multitype library and information science Pro­ fessionals in communities (general, theme- related, or problem solving). • Expanded use of existing of uniquely designed Standards and guidelines for user education/information literacy in communities. • Expanded use and Standardization of link- ing education and community Web environ­ ments to aid users in easy transitions among and between resources and environments. There is no one model that works for ev­ ery group. Work is underway, however, to establish the elements of existing successful information literacy partnerships and coilabo­ rations that determine what elements must be present to ensure higher measures of success. Although upeoming issues of C&RL News will feature a number of columns highlight- ing unique and successful partnerships and coilaborations, interested or active partners and collaborators should read and contrib- ute to Nancy Kranich’s Information Literacy Community Partnerships Initiative at http:// www.ala.org/kranich/literacy.html or to ALA Special Presidential Committee Information Literacy Community Partnerships Initiative at http://lrs.austin.cc.tx.us/staff/lnavarro/ CommunityPartnerships/Toolkit.html. Notes 1. For additional benefits see Betsy Wil­ son, “Community and Collaboration: The Year Ahead,” C&RL News 6 l, no. 8 (September 2000): 698-701. 2. These examples were taken from the Exam ples o f Partnerships F ocu sed on In for­ m ation Literacy section on ALA President Nancy Kranich’s Web site (http://www.ala. org/kranich/examples.html) and from the ALA Special Presidential Committee Com m unity Partnerships 7oo/faY(http://lrs.austin.cc.tx.us/ staff/lnavarro/Community Partnerships/ Toolkit.html). 3. Visit the CHICO site at http://www. si.umich.edu/CHICO/. 4. The University of Washingtons initia­ tives is outlined by the UW President at http://www.washington.edu/president/ articles/K-12speech.html). 5. For an example visit “Invitational Con­ ference on K-12 Outreach from University Science Departments” held in North Carolina in February 2000 at http://www.ncsu.edu/ s c i e n c e _ h o u s e / I n f o r m a t i o n F o l d e r / BWconference.html. ■ ( “A cadem ic librarians a s advisors ” con tin u ed fr o m p a g e 782) first and foremost, ed u cators who are skilled in listening, providing information, and work­ ing with students to accomplish their aca­ demic goals. These skills are extremely use­ ful in advising students about choosing courses and career plans. Being involved with students’ lives and helping them make important life decisions is a very rewarding experience. Serving as an academic advisor gains the respect and admiration of a group of people who will always remember and appreciate the time taken by that one person who cared about them enough to help them plan for their fu- ture. ■ http://www.ala.org/kranich/literacy.html http://lrs.austin.cc.tx.us/staff/lnavarro/ http://www.ala http://lrs.austin.cc.tx.us/ http://www http://www.washington.edu/president/ http://www.ncsu.edu/