Activity #3

If I were to renovate UNCW's Randall Library, I would change the first floor by adding more computers and seating. To accommodate for more space, all books (including periodicals), media, and newspapers would be moved to the second floor. Also, the new space on the first floor would enable TAC to expand in order to help more students in a timely manner. The second floor would hold all written material and media as well as the circulation desk. An addition of a third floor would be constructed. The third floor would have multiple graduate study rooms and an all-around quiet study atmosphere. On all floors, restrooms would consist of at least five stalls in each. In regards to the entrance of Randall Library, I would make more entrances accessible to students so they do not have to walk the entire way around the building.   

Jennifer Howard’s article “Tomorrow’s Academic Libraries: Maybe Even Some books” explains two different approaches that Drexel and Johns Hopkins Universities are using to incorporate the needs of students in regards to libraries. Drexel University is planning to build a “bookless learning center” outside a dorm building. Students will have “around the clock” access to the center where they can use the library’s digital resources or just have a place to hang out and study. Also, students can meet with librarians and professors at the center. The entire cost of the new center will run Drexel almost a million dollars. At Johns Hopkins University, “informationists” come to “students and faculty members in the schools of medicine, nursing, and public health.” This way there is no need for them to access the actual library. These “informationists” are librarians who work externally from the library: classrooms, labs, and other college settings. The informationists conduct arduous systematic literature reviews for medical literature. Their main goal is to help people locate and use information.

“Information Navigation 101” written by Andrea L. Foster, first discusses the abundance of information—good and bad—that students have access to via the internet. Students at Cal State’s Fullerton campus are highly encouraged to find scholarly information from the library’s online databases with help from librarians. This practice of “information literacy” is happening at colleges across the U.S. According to the article, “Accrediting agencies are now considering information-literacy programs as measure of an institution’s performance.” The article then explains the history of information literacy leading up to current times. Urban colleges are stressing the importance of information literacy because most of their students are the first in their families to attend college. Another point the article brings to light is that some librarians treat information literacy as a new trend. When in actuality, the same practice has been done for a long time but now has a name. Along with teaching information literacy, standardized information literacy tests have been distributed to many students at different campuses. The majority of librarians claim that the tests only measure a student’s “information-literacy proficiency” and that the tests may soon disappear. In place of the tests, students would have to successfully complete hands-on research projects to showcase their skills.