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Library Instruction Toolkit

This guide is intended as a tool-kit for instruction librarians.

WE'D LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK

Please email OLibTeL with any comments or suggestions for improving this guide.

Membership Information:

  • Sarah Bender
  • Rachel Callison
  • Melanie Gainey (Past-Chair)
  • Lauren Herckis
  • Taiwo Lasisi
  • Amy Perrier
  • Charlotte Kiger Price
  • Ethan Pullman (Ex officio)
  • Emma Slayton
  • Ashley Werlinich
  • Sarah Young (Chair)

Library Instruction Essentials

We use Springshare's LibInsight to record instructional activities & analyze instructional data.

Recording Instructional activities:

To enter instructional data, use this form and log-in, if you are not already.  This form is an alternative to, and replaces, the LibInsight interface; it features a one-column format, and a simpler submission method - one button and one record at a time, with the ability to review the data you entered directly after submission*

 

Editing or Analyzing your instructional data:

If you need to correct a record or get statistics for your instruction you will need to do that in the LibInsight interface.  You should only have access to, and update your own instructional data (if you have access to data for others, please communicate any planned changes or activity to them directly before you do anything AND copy ethanp@andrew.cmu.edu as I am responsible for cumulative reporting.

Cumulative data analysis requires admin access, if you have access as admin, please copy me when reports are being run so there's no duplication and to make sure you are running the proper reports. 

Please refer to the Process tab in Instructional Statistics Explained (link provided above) for more detailed instructions on how to edit a record or generate a report.

Past instruction Stats:

Below are the annual reports of cumulative instructional data.  Filtering is enabled in these report to help you quickly view your instruction statistics for the year.  Feel free to copy the workbook and generate your own analysis.

The “menu” is a description of our teaching or instructional offerings that can be sent out to CMU instructors across departments. This menu is designed so that faculty have an idea about what teaching support we offer to them and to students throughout the semester. It also helps to guide faculty to the appropriate points of contact if they have questions about a specific service or want to collaborate with a librarian.  

Please feel free to create a PDF of our current draft of the menu and share with faculty or department contacts at your discretion. The menu can also be used to help answer questions about library instruction, workshops, or learning tools that are available.

The menu is maintained by OLibTEL. It will be periodically updated, but please feel free to suggest edits or additions for it at any time to OLibTEL (lib-olibtel@lists.andrew.cmu.edu).

Before Fall and Spring Semesters, you will receive an email from OLibTel with a call for instructors for workshops and instructions on how to sign up to give a workshop. You can, however, plan a workshop independent of that process at any time you choose, including summer. To plan a workshop, you simply need to do the following:

  1. Pick a modality - in-person or virtual. Although it is dependent on the current posture of the University, Library Leadership encourages in-person workshops unless the content is pedagogically better suited for virtual format or you are trying to attract an audience outside of Pittsburgh (i.e. one of the other CMU campuses).
  2. Enter your workshop on LibCal using the Workshop Template. Here, you can find instructions for In-Person Workshops and Virtual Workshops. Please contact Shannon Baldridge (sbaldrid@andrew.cmu.edu) if you need help with LibCal.
  3. Contact Barry Schles (bschles@andrew.cmu.edu) to reserve the Sorrells Den if you are holding an in-person workshop.
  4. Think about marketing! Any workshops that are added to the calendar at the beginning of the semester benefit from an extensive marketing plan from External Relations for the Workshop Series. If you are adding workshops mid-semester or during the summer, you might want to tweet about them or include information about them in departmental emails. You can explore more options with External Relations' DIY Marketing Options spreadsheet.

 

Here is the slide deck we use in our training sessions. Please feel free to refer back to this throughout the term or contact OLibTel (lib-olibtel@lists.andrew.cmu.edu) with any questions related to the workshops process.

In the spirit of wanting to support open educational practices, OLibTel maintains an Open Science Framework repository for publicly sharing instructional materials.  Instructional materials could be any content related to workshops, guest lectures, stand-alone instructional activities, or tabling events. All content will have a CC-BY-4.0 license which allows sharing and reuse by others.  All items will also have a unique persistent URL which will make sharing them very easy for you. 

There are many benefits to using the project to share materials publicly including:

  • Being able to easily share materials with attendees of your instructional session or internal or external collaborators
  • Pointing to instruction-related projects in your casebook documents with unique persistent URLs. DOIs can also be minted on OSF and instructors should contact us if that is of interest for specific materials. This option might be particularly useful for crowd-sourced projects.
  • Having a central place to find instructional materials created by others that you can reuse in your own departments

Please note that putting your materials in the OSF repository is optional. If you would prefer to only share them internally, you can use this Box folder for instructors. Please contact Ethan Pullman (ethanp@andrew.cmu.edu) if you need access to the Box folder.

You have two options for adding content to the repository. You can ask us for editing privileges and upload materials yourself or you can submit your materials using this form, email OLibTel (lib-olibtel@lists.andrew.cmu.edu) to let us know, and a member of OLibTel will put them in the OSF project for you. If you upload materials yourself, please use the existing organizational structure or contact OLibTel if you are unsure of where to put your materials.

Guidance on Images

Since all materials on our repository have a CC-BY4.0 license, you will need to remove images that are not licensed similarly or replace them with freely licensed CC-BY4.0 images. Here are three great resources for finding images with the appropriate licenses:

  1. Flickr search
  • Contain a license option in their advanced filters
  1. Google Image Search
  • Contains license option in the Tools section
  1. CC Search
  • Search engine provided by Creative Commons and links to all publicly licensed content.

If these options will not work well for you, please get in touch with OLiBTel (lib-olibtel@lists.andrew.cmu.edu) for guidance on alternative solutions.

We recommend that in-person workshops be held in the Sorrells Den for consistency. But if that space does not suit your needs, you can find a list of other available options on campus:

Reserving Spaces in the Library:

Instructions on reserving University Libraries spaces can be found on the UniLib Intranet pages here.

 

 

Reserving a cluster or a classroom:

You can reserve a computer cluster or a classroom space using 25Live.

Once you click on the linked image on the left, You may be asked to log in with your Andrew ID.

There you can search for available clusters or classrooms.  Be sure to read the User Guide.

Tips:

  1. Getting limited options?  try increasing or decreasing the number of attendees by a few.  Results match exact or closest but may list few options if the number of attendees is over capacity or way under capacity.
  2. Visit the location prior to teaching (or at least 15 minutes before) to verify technology.  That said, if you highlight the location link, you sometimes get a photo of the space.
  3. Select "Cluster (for an Academic Course)" if you are teaching a 50 minute session.  Select "Cluster (for Event) if you are conducting a workshop.  Other options are not suggested.

 

Other CMU spaces: 

CMU offers other alternatives for a conference/event space intended for large audience.  You can submit a request here.