This summer USF Libraries launched two week-long summer institutes to expand services for faculty. The first, Collections to Curriculum, ran for one week in May and focused on bringing faculty into conversation with archival resources.
Fifteen participants from the College of Arts & Sciences, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, College of the Arts, College of Education, and Patel College of Global Sustainability worked with librarians, curators, and other library experts to incorporate materials from the Libraries’ special and digital collections into new, redesigned, and redeveloped courses. Faculty members also selected materials for use with funded programs and community-engaged events.
The participants’ immersive experiences did not end with the inaugural institute. Since then, Special Collections continues meeting and working with faculty on new, interesting, and innovative ways to incorporate the USF Libraries’ primary resources into their teaching and research. New collaborations include oral history projects, performance programs, assignments requiring Special Collections research, and a course that uses the sheet music collections.
Vidisha Priyanka, Visiting Instructor of Journalism Analytics in the Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications stated in the exit survey, “I appreciated how knowledgeable, engaged, involved, and attentive the archivists were. Their willingness to share their ideas, and the hard work behind finding materials customized to each attendee was remarkable.”
In June, The Libraries’ Research & Instruction department hosted the Faculty Information Literacy Institute, focused on faculty professional development around information literacy, which refers to the set of abilities required for individuals to find, understand, evaluate, and ethically use information.
18 faculty from 13 departments across all three campuses joined us for this week-long institute. The Institute introduced participants to the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education and disciplinary companion documents, provided a community of faculty to explore information literacy and its relation to their own courses, and facilitated scaffolded activities for participants to discuss and apply information literacy skills and concepts.
Lindsay Persohn, assistant professor in the Literacy Studies Program in the Department of Language, Literacy, Ed.D., Exceptional Education and Physical Education, said of the Institute, “It was so well-done. It was well-structured, it was well-paced. It felt like I was really able to give thought to my particular situation while also really appreciating hearing from other people how they were thinking about their courses and how they were considering bringing in information literacy in a more robust way. It helped to reinvigorate me around teaching.”
USF Libraries look forward to offering additional Institutes in the summer of 2025 and will begin soliciting applications in spring.