Good company: Previous college recipients of the Excellence in Academic Libraries Award include Carleton, Augustana, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Earlham and Wellesley.
Even in the digital age, the library is the destination of choice for students to study. The energy is palpable.
of the College’s general education program. “One of the big selling points of Elmhurst’s application was the successful proposal to integrate information literacy, including research skills and critical thinking, into the undergraduate curriculum,” says Goetsch. “They actually did it. That was an achievement.” Buehler’s mission is focused around information literacy, a strategy that enables students to make full use of the library’s resources. Information literacy prepares students to identify and locate the information they need and then critically evaluate and use it. A pilot program at the College, now in its third year, integrates information literacy into the First-Year Seminar and freshman writing courses, and into at least one course required for a student’s major. A glass-enclosed classroom in the center of the first floor hosts more than 275 classes each academic year on information literacy. Students call the classroom the Fishbowl. “The information literacy classroom is at the heart of the library,” says Susan Swords SteΩen, library director. “It symbolizes how the library is at the heart of our eΩorts to educate students to be critical analysts in an age of information overload.” In information literacy classes, librarians teach students not only how to access information but also how to evaluate and synthesize it. They also explore the ethics of information use and creation, discussing issues such as copyright, plagiarism and intellectual property. The classes include work in blogging, streaming audio and video, and electronic images. Though Elmhurst students are tech savvy, they soon learn that sophisticated research requires more than the ability to navigate a search engine. “Tech savvy doesn’t mean research savvy. Prospect/ Summer 2010
Photo: Deanna Mandarino
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Librarians, standing from left: Jessica Weber, technical services assistant; Jennifer Paliatka, reference librarian; Ang Romano, media services assistant; Linda Harding, periodicals assistant; Susan Swords Steffen, director of the library; Kathy Willis, head of access services; Sue Weber, secretary; Elaine Page, head of technical services; Lorraine Norgle, access services assistant. Seated, from left: George Woolsey, technical services assistant; Donna Goodwyn, head of reference; Peg Cook, reference librarian; Jacob Hill, reference librarian.
Students Google everything, but Google is not databases on our computers—shows that we believe that arts and culture are ingredients appropriate for everything,” says Elaine Page, as important to a true education as information associate librarian and head of technical and knowledge.” services. “We help them learn to use a library For SteΩen, the recognition from a leading database that you know is going to use reliable sources. How to do research hasn’t changed in national organization is an “amazing” tribute the last 25 years. The technology has changed.” to a library staΩ of uncommon creativity and dedication. “We have been successful in creating SteΩen says the national award a≈rms an excellent library because everyone is comBuehler’s overarching mission: to be “central mitted to flexibility, risk-taking, pitching in when to the life of the College. Libraries are about and where they are needed, and embracing connections,” she adds, “connecting people with new challenges and opportunities,” she says. information and with other people.” Long before the acrl award was announced, SteΩen says she and her staΩ work collabSteΩen had come to realize that the staΩ had oratively with student groups to explore new achieved its goal of making the library central roles the library can play in student life. For to student life. As she walked around campus, example, the library hosts computer gaming she would hear students saying to one another, nights several times each term, during which staΩ members move video game consoles onto “I’ll meet you in the library” and “See you at the library.” the first floor, organize competitions and provide a welcoming environment for players. by Rick Popely Dean Tipton notes a unique, low-tech aspect of the Buehler experience: the presence on the library’s walls of the College’s collection of Chicago Imagist art. “The fact that we have an impressive art collection on the walls of our library—as well as books on our shelves and