NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 24 number 3 - Spring 2004

By Linda Saunders, Research and Information Services

North Carolina State University's First Year College (FYC) selected the NCSU Libraries' Research and Information Services Department (RISD) for its First Year Student Advocate Award 2003-2004. Linda Saunders, Amy VanScoy, and Megan Oakleaf (all with RISD), accepted the award and a plaque at the First Year Convocation on January 20, 2004.

The award is presented annually by the FYC to one individual and also to members of one department or campus group who have distinguished themselves in service to first-year students. According to the nomination form,

"Recipients of the award embody excellence in service to students, demonstrate availability and openness to students, and use their roles to advocate for policies and programs that are in the best interest of undergraduate(s)--particularly freshmen--students at NC State."

VanScoy began forging a strong relationship with the FYC in the 1990s in her previous role as undergraduate outreach librarian. As librarian for instruction and undergraduate research, Oakleaf has further enhanced service to FYC students as well as to all undergraduates. The library hosts an event every semester that is part of the FYC Forum for students. In this event, which is designed to help students learn about the services and collections of the library, students are sent on a scavenger hunt at the D. H. Hill Library.

Oakleaf and subject-specialist reference librarians also collaborate with FYC faculty to create assignments. For example, in summer 2003 Oakleaf met with three instructors to revise their two major research assignments to ensure that the second assignment built on the first, to eliminate redundancies, and to ascertain that library resources could support the questions students would be asking. Fifty-four classes have been conducted for 506 FYC students from the beginning of fall semester 2002 through fall semester 2003.

The Standardized Assessment for Information Literacy Skills (SAILS) project, endorsed by the Association of Research Libraries, is an effort to develop a standardized test of information literacy skills that can be used by all academic libraries. The FYC faculty have agreed to support the library's participation in the SAILS project by requiring their students to complete the SAILS test as an ungraded assignment.

All members of RISD serve undergraduate students at the reference desk and through online chat and electronic-mail reference services, and reference librarians provide instruction for undergraduate courses. Undergraduates are the largest group of users of the "Ask a Librarian LIVE" virtual reference service.