Consideration of a wide variety of settings where print and digital media are organized in order to reach a specific audience, is certianly one of the main goals of our class discussions. Patrons of our library media centers and related environments should be taken into account before the creation of policies and procedures are put into place. Furthermore, the collection of materials, as we have stated before should be tailored to the individuals using the media center as well as those professionals who use them in their daily work and instruction. Finally, the different types of technology implemented in these settings must be governed in a way that allows the best acceptable use while still giving students the freedom to create and utilize them to their potential. The Academic Resource Center has become a very en vogue hub of a university that has been implemented to serve the specific needs of students in their core classes (Intro Math, Intro English and Arts & Sciences classes). Spearheading the concept that educational media, tutoring and profesisonal instruction can be combined to achieve the best results for interested students, the ARC can be constructed in a multitude of ways to suit the student population.
Given my past experience as both a college baseball player and head manager, I was given an inside look at the operation of a mid sized Athletic Academic Resouce Center which brings its own idiosyncrasies and challenges. The first challenge is building, organization and weeding a collection of resources that could be consistently changing from year to year as print materials are updated. It is widely popular that to keep the athletic department a cohesive unit to give students the best opportunity to excel in their specific sports, ACCESS to print materials is given within a Lending Library attached to an Athletic Academic Resource Center. These lending libraries primarily consist of classes which students may encounter in their first two years of academic study in core classes. Reason behind this is that to control the flow of students in the resource center, if they maintain a certain GPA they are eligible to cut back on mandatory study halls that are usually two or three times per week. Problems behind the control of the collection are obvious, because most of these "libraries" generally do not have an automation system, or organization system at all besides broad subject or class headings. This can lead to books being "checked out" eternally throughout a semester when other students may not need the book for that long and need it for reference. Instituting a workshop to introduce all student athletes to the policies of the lending library might give students a better frame of reference for when they must check materials back in or schedules times to utilize them with a resource center learning professional.
Furthermore, the implementation of digital media and technology into these Academic Resource Center's has been spurred on by the popularity of electronic database's, paper submission software and other digital resources that could be part of the collection. These resources incur many dangers such as misuse and tampering to academic dishonestly. Generally these issues are met with an acceptable use policy that covers everything from inclusion of print material in papers and discussion board posts, to the use of Flip Cameras for video blog submission (something else that creates collaboration between resource center). As these resources could be utilized on road trips, or taken away from the center adequate training and information should be given regarding the penalties behind misuse. Not matter the resource in question, a specific organization method must be instituted in order to properly assist students in acquisition of materials relevant to their areas of study. Proper research should be done through a Collection Analysis to portray the strengths and resources of the academic resource center, so that secondary and supplementary resources provide a different layer of application.
No comments:
Post a Comment