New Library Faculty/Staff

Aaron Castle

Technology and Content Services

Discovery and Access Specialist

Abbey Jacobs

Ask Us Services

Library Assistant 3

New Books

Data Feminism

Thriving as a Mid-Career Librarian: Identity, Advocacy,

and Pathways

The Farmer's Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Firght to Save the Family Farm

Choice Words: Writers on Abortion

Computational Topology for Data Analysis

Flash Fire

The Marriage Portrait

The Book of Boundaries: Set the Limits That Will Set You Free

Essentials of Dance Psychology

Worn: A People's History

of Clothing

Dressing the Resistance: The Visual Language of Protest Through History

Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South

Research Consultation Appointments

Getting Back Into the Library:

Library Instruction in a Research Course

by Sarah Bull, Arts & Humanities Librarian

Students attend a library instruction session.

Information literacy is defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries as a set of six core competencies which lend themselves to an individual’s overall ability to understand information. These competencies, also called “Frames” include the following: 

• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual 
• Information Creation as a Process 
• Information Has Value 
• Research as Inquiry 
• Scholarship as Conversation 
• Searching as Strategic Exploration 

At the Sherrod Library, these frames are taught by Research and Instructional Services faculty via instruction sessions, course-embedded librarianship, and during reference consultations. As the summer wanes and the school year approaches, I went to speak with our Student Engagement and Instruction Coordinator about the Sherrod’s Instruction program, and the value it can add to a research course. 

Lydia Gwyn, the Student Engagement and Instruction Coordinator has a sunny office on the third floor of the building, near to the regular instruction room which can seat fifty students comfortably. Gwyn has a passion for teaching, reflected in her commitment to the instruction program, and the hundreds of educational sessions she has taught in one-shot sessions. 

These one-shot sessions are Sherrod’s typical method of performing library instruction, and they usually involve both a lesson and an activity. All sessions may be tailored to instructor needs and learning goals for their course, with collaboration between teaching faculty and librarians usually lending itself to a better session overall. 

“It’s great to work with students in a classroom one-on-one,” Gwyn said. “To get to see that lightbulb moment, when a student actually gets excited about their research and about writing their paper.” Getting students excited about research is one of the major benefits of an instruction session. Once they have the tools to do research, an entire world opens up to them. 

These experiences play key roles in a student’s academic experience. “Library Instruction Sessions at the library are so important for first year students,” Gwyn explained. “Sherrod is a big building, and it can be intimidating, but when a student is actually here, they get to see that the space is comfortable and warm.” This matters particularly when a student is living in a cramped dorm, or if they feel they don’t belong anywhere on campus when they are not in class. The library welcomes everyone.

Exploring the stacks

This is to say nothing of the value that an instruction session adds to a student's education. Often, when freshman arrive on campus, they will come with next to no pre-existing skills in information literacy. Even those who took dual enrolment courses, we have found, arrive without having used library resources for research before, never having used a database, and not understanding the meaning of “Peer Review.” 

“It is crucial for our students to be information literate,” Gwyn said. “More so than ever before. Information literacy is a life skill, not just a college skill. We are teaching students how to understand information, academic or not, and this may be the only time in their lives that they get this training.” 

Unfortunately, a lot of students end up graduating without that training. In the last academic year, the Sherrod Library hosted sixty-two library instruction sessions, of which forty were at the undergraduate level. That number is then dwarfed by the hundreds of courses that are offered with a research component, and the thousands of students that attend ETSU. “My biggest goal for this year is to see an increase in instruction requests. Our requests have been steadily increasing since returning to campus from COVID, but they still aren't at the pre-COVID levels we were used to seeing.” 

The Research and Instruction Department is gearing up for a school year filled with instruction, student-interaction, and faculty collaboration. We hope to see this year be the year that instruction rebounds from the COVID slump. If you are teaching a research course, now is the time to schedule your library instruction session. 

Library Workshops

Discover Workshop Series

This semester Sherrod Library faculty will continue the Discover workshop series focusing on research skills and databases relevant to each core area of ETSU's General Education courses. Open to all ETSU students, faculty, and staff, workshops in this series are offered monthly (except January, May, August, and September on select Tuesdays from noon-1:00pm on Zoom. Registration is required.

Below is a list the upcoming Discover workshops.

How To Workshop Series

In addition to the Discover Workshop series, the Fall semester will begin with the return of our annual How To series, which focuses fundamental aspects of the literature search process. Open to all ETSU students, faculty, and staff, workshops in this series are offered on Wednesdays September 6th through November 1st from noon-1:00pm on Zoom. Registration is required.

Below is a list the upcoming How To workshops.

Featured Resource

What is ILL?

The Sherrod Library Interlibrary Loan service provides access to materials not held in ETSU library collections to currently enrolled students, current employees, and faculty emeriti for all colleges in the University except the Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy. Libraries around the world share their collection with you!

What is Document Delivery?

The Sherrod Library Document Delivery service scans articles and book chapters owned by the ETSU library and delivers then to you via email in PDF format. Simply request using your library account.

Open Educational Resources

Open and Affordable Course Materials Initiatives

Sherrod Library, alongside the Center for Teaching Excellence, collaborates with faculty to lower costs and improve the quality of materials in courses. Check out how you can get involved!

Email questions and requests to oer@etsu.edu. 

Attend the Saving Bucs: Open and Affordable Course Materials Information Workshop

Option #1: Wed, Sept. 20 at 10:00 - 11:00 in Sherrod Library, Room 433

Option #2: Thurs, Sept. 21 at 10:00 - 11:00 on Zoom

Come learn about Open Educational Resources and other affordable course material options for your students, and how to apply for the OA Award. Stipends ($100) for attending the workshop and completing an activity are available. 

Register Today!

Apply for an Open and Affordable Course Award

Stipends ($500-$2000) are available to faculty who plan to use open/affordable (free) resources in their courses. Applications are due November 15. 

The awards can fund two main types of projects. 

• Tier I Awards provide stipends to instructors who are adopting, adapting, and/or creating open/affordable course materials in a course that is currently using materials costing students money or a course that they never taught before. 

• Tier II Awards provide stipends to instructors who have already adopted, adapted, and/or created open/affordable course materials in their course but need to make updates or substantial changes in order to keep using open and affordable materials.

Request Support for Finding Open and Affordable Materials

Complete a request for a librarian to find course materials that are freely available online for your students to use. 

Graduate Library Services

Throughout the course of their program, graduate students are faced with new and complex assignments and often fear that they have to figure out how to do them on their own. We can help--Sherrod Library has books on every aspect of the research process! 

This summer, we’ve added 40 new titles to the Research Motivation Shelf, located in Sherrod 311. These cover every type of research design and methodology, including scientific writing and literature reviews. Additional titles on how to do research are located in the main stacks. Take a look in our catalog and see what we’ve got to help you understand the process, master the details, and get motivated to write at https://libraries.etsu.edu/home 

For an individual consultation, please contact Dr. Wendy Doucette, douettew@etsu.edu.

Library News