C&RL News February 2015 76 Forget about databases, e-resources, and comfy seating. Instead, create something with prospective students visiting your aca- demic library. Let us clarify. While traditional tours dis- cussing library resources and study spaces might be tempting to discuss during an introductory campus visit, quite frankly, few prospective students care.1 Students as- sume that the resources they need for class, studying, and research will be available to them one way or another. Save the specific lectures on library resources for after they decide to attend your institution,2 and, dur- ing their initial visit, do something fun with them—create! Academic library involvement in campus recruiting has only recently been discussed in the scholarly literature. The first report appeared in 2007, and since then, there have only been a handful of articles in the library literature discussing student recruitment.3, 4 Libraries’ participation in college recruitment has largely focused on traditional approach- es, such as general tours, information fairs, workshops, and distribution of advertising materials. A few libraries have started to enhance student recruitment efforts. For example, Miami University Libraries has incorporated anecdotal storytelling within its tours, and Brigham Young University Libraries lever- aged its special collections to create a series of exciting and targeted presentations within the recruitment tour.5, 6 Our take on student recruitment Over the past several years at the University of Alabama (UA) Libraries, we partnered with the UA Office of Orientation and Special Programs to provide a library activity within its Sibling Orientation program. Sibling Ori- entation is a summer recruiting program for high school siblings of entering freshman undergraduate students. Like many programs, the Sibling Orienta- tion program has changed and grown over time. During the first few years, the program was a one-day event, but now it has ex- panded to a two-day program. The agenda includes multiple tours and discussions around campus, including activities such as meeting current UA students, discussing academics and campus life, touring athletic facilities, and participating in an activity within the library. Groups of prospective students are led to each stop on the orienta- tion tour by a UA Avanti Orientation Team member. The Avanti Team is a UA student service organization that helps new UA stu- dents succeed in higher education. The Sanford Media Center (SMC), our in-house library digital media student space, was initially contacted about being part of the program because a number of the stu- Vincent F. Scalfani and Lindley C. Shedd Recruiting students to campus Creating tangible and digital products in the academic library Vincent F. Scalfani is science and engineering librarian, email: vfscalfani@ua.edu, and Lindley C. Shedd is associate professor and media services coordinator, Sanford Media Center, at the University of Alabama Libraries, email: lcshedd@ua.edu © 2015 Vincent F. Scalfani and Lindley C. Shedd February 2015 77 C&RL News dent orientation leaders (the Avantis) were active SMC users and thought that the media center counted as one of “cool places” on campus. The Sibling Orientation program is designed to show students the fun side of campus. Our goal for the library part of pro- gram was to introduce students to the librar- ies in an active way, while showing them a different kind of library service. UA Libraries has participated in approximately 15 sessions of Sibling Orientation annually since 2008. The program first began as a collaboration between the UA Libraries’ SMC and the UA Office of Orientation and Special Programs. As Sibling Orientation evolved over t h e y e a r s , o u r l i b r a r- ies acquired m a n y n e w t e c h n o l o - g i e s . A s such, these n e w t e c h - nologies were incorporated within the Sib- ling Orientation library activity. During the first few years of the pro- gram, the media center portion focused on students creating composite images in Photoshop, but as participants’ were being exposed to more technology during high school, we had to find new ways to keep them engaged. In 2011, the SMC project morphed to guiding prospective students through the creation of a one-minute video of their individual experiences throughout the two- day orientation. We used Apple iMovie to create the videos with students, as iMovie is a simple introductory video editing program that does not have a steep learning curve. The student videos incorporated pictures that students took throughout their tour of UA and also various stock video footage we provided from the libraries. Each student was able to choose the media content to include in his or her video. After editing and compiling the videos, students copied their unique video to a disc, which they could then take home. In the latest iteration of Sibling Orienta- tion, participants were guided through two main activities in the libraries: 1) in the UA Li- braries 3-D Studio, the Science and Engineer- ing librarian created 3-D printed Alabama script A logos with the students (see image below), and 2) in the Sanford Media Center, the media services coordinator continued to offer the media proj- e c t b a s e d on the im- a g e s a n d video from their visit. P r o - s p e c t i v e s t u d e n t s l e a r n e d a v a r i e t y o f s k i l l s b y working di- rectly with librarians, such as how to start a 3-D print, basic photography editing, and short clip video editing. Each student left the UA campus with a tangible 3-D printed Alabama script A object and a digital copy of his or her unique orientation video. What we learned Overall, our participation in the UA Sibling Orientation was a great success. Feedback and interest from the prospective students was very positive, and they were lively and engaged in the library activities. We were excited to be able to work with students and create both a tangible and digital product with them. However, we discovered several limitations and challenges with our participa- tion in the activity that are outlined below: • Time allotment. Our Sibling Orienta- tion library activity was limited to about one hour with the prospective students. 3-D printed Alabama script A logos that were created during a pro- spective student library tour. C&RL News February 2015 78 With only an hour to edit a video and start a 3-D print job, there was not much time for questions, informal discussions, or to provide individual help to prospective students. Moreover, 3-D printing can be a slow process that can take several hours just to complete a single print. To ensure that every student received a 3-D printed Alabama script A, it was necessary to print many of the script A’s ahead of time, which led to less hands-on time for the students. If your time is limited, offer multiple library activities, but then let students choose one activity they would like to participate in. After completing the activity, students could then be re-grouped together to discuss and share what they learned about their chosen activity. • Avanti tour guide training. We found it critical to train the Avanti tour guides with the library technology used in the activities. The Avantis were then able to participate in the activity and offer assistance to prospec- tive students. Engaged, knowledgeable, and lively, the Avantis made a huge difference in student participation and overall outcome of the activity. We recommend holding a training session for any assistants who will be present during your orientation activity. • Scalability. As the Sibling Orienta- tion program grew in popularity, scalability became a challenge. Not only were there many more sessions, but the number of students in each session became more than we could comfortably accommodate within our Libraries Media Center. This forced us to reserve a computer room in an academic building outside of the libraries. As a result, it is likely that some of the prospective stu- dents did not understand that the libraries were providing the service. We preferred to host the activities within our libraries so that students could meet other librarians and become familiar with the library space. • Internal review board approval. Ide- ally, we would have liked to research what impact our libraries orientation activity had on student recruitment. For example, how many of the prospective students decided to enroll at UA? And, are the students that participated in the Sibling Orientation li- brary activity more likely to use our library services compared to students who did not participate in the orientation? However, as the majority of prospective students were minors and their parents were not present during the activity, logistically it was not possible for us to easily obtain consent forms for data collection useful for research stud- ies. We recommend working very closely with your admissions office and IRB team to determine if it is possible to obtain the proper consent forms for research. So what can you do? Our guess is that your library likely has many exciting services or programs that not many prospective students would associate with a library. For example, libraries are now start- ing to adopt new technology services and programs such as 3-D printing, Arduino/Rasp- berry Pi programming, gaming activities, and digital media production centers. Why not come up with an activity using these services rather than simply telling the prospective students how awesome these technologies are, or, perhaps worse, overwhelmingly them with information resources? Importantly, new technology is not a prerequisite. You could use a good old computer and some software to help stu- dents design a postcard or website, graph data, create a map of the places they have visited, or maybe even create a word cloud (okay, maybe not a word cloud, those are a bit overdone). The point is, let’s show prospective students that libraries are here to help them create, and that librarians are here to help. We can save the more tradi- tional library instruction, such as databases, e-resource access, and other research skills, for later. If students view libraries as a fun and exciting place, they may be more likely to seek our help when working on their own research. After all, isn’t research simply an act of discovering and creating new knowledge? (continues on page 91) February 2015 91 C&RL News budget to underwriting the actual publishing costs across the disciplines, without the huge discrepancies and price increases that plague the current market and keep research out of the public’s hands. 3. What issue(s) about open access publishing in the social sciences do you think warrants immediate attention and action? One issue I would identify is the role of the social science scholarly societies in open access. The societies now have to consider to what degree the journals must remain profit centers for running the society. They need to explore open access models that will better serve their membership and readers, includ- ing the larger community. Let us have that open discussion about what is the appropriate economic model for scholarly communication and the society’s vital role in it. 4. What recommendations do you have for university presses and aca- demic/research libraries to further the development of open access in the social sciences? Following what I have written above, I can only recommend that presses and libraries explore alternative models of cooperative and collective action based on covering rigor- ously academic and professionally managed publishing costs. I have worked for well over a decade, and will continue to work with the dedicated team at PKP to provide one piece of this puzzle by producing the most techni- cally sophisticated and elegant management and publishing platform we can. And we’re not the only ones out there doing this. How strange it is to put free-market competitive pricing of publishing services at the forefront of a cooperative and universal model of open access to research and scholarship. We live in strange and interesting times for learning, with the potential, surely, for great things. Notes 1. Pynchon and Philosophy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). 2. Open Access and the Humanities: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316161012. 3. Open Library of Humanities: https:// www.openlibhums.org. 4. arXiv: http://arxiv.org/. 5. Knowledge Unlatched: http://www. knowledgeunlatched.org/. 6. OAPEN-NL: http://www.oapen.nl /index.php?option=com_content&view =article&id=58&Itemid=63. 7. OAPEN-UK: http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/. 8. HEFCE Monographs project: http:// w w w . h e f c e . a c . u k / w h a t w e d o / r s r c h /rinfrastruct/oa/monographs/. 9. Public Knowledge Project: https://pkp. sfu.ca/. 10. Open Journal Systems: https://pkp. sfu.ca/ojs/. 11. Library Partnership Subsidies: https://www.openlibhums.org/2014/04/07 /library-partnership-subsidies-lps/. Notes 1. E. Lombard, “The role of the academic library in college choice,” Journal of Aca- demic Librarianship 38 (4):237–41. 2. K. M. Soria, “Factors predicting the im- portance of libraries and research activities for undergraduates,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 39 (6):464–70. 3. M. D. Behr, M. Bundza, and B. J. Cock- rell, “Going for the gold: Recruiting students and engaging administrators through educa- tion and entertainment in the library,” College and Undergraduate Libraries 14 (1):1-18. 4. M. A. Hubbard and A. T. Loos, “Aca- demic library participation in recruitment and retention initiatives,” Reference Services Review 41 (2):157–81. 5. L. Miller, “The library and the campus visit, Communicating value to prospective students and parents,” College and Research Libraries News 73 (10):586–89. 6. M. G. Kopp, “Academic libraries, institu- tional missions, and new student recruitment: A case study,” Reference Services Review 41 (2):192–200. “Recruiting . . .” (cont. from page 78)