Comments on: Students As Stakeholders: Library Advisory Boards and Privileging Our Users

By: Erin Dorney

Erin Dorney — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:27:47 +0000

Hi Abby – Thanks for the comment! So does your library have multiple advisory boards, for undergraduates and graduate students? If so, do you do different activities with them? I have found that the advisory board meetings are an excellent time to dispel myths that may be circulating about the library and equip students with the right information to share with their friends. More than once they have reported to me that they were able to clarify something that their professor or a peer said regarding the library. Good luck and thanks for reading!

By: petitelibrarian

petitelibrarian — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:33:41 +0000

I’m in the process of taking over leadership of my university library’s graduate student advisory board while a colleague is on leave. Our graduate board has been running for about one year at this point and I would say it’s a wonderful success thanks to my colleague who has worked so hard to build it. The group is managed and attended by librarians in our Scholars Commons, a section of the library devoted to graduate students and faculty needs. This means we are often able to respond right away to student concerns or, if we are unable to do so, bring graduate student concerns directly into the conversations taking place within the library. Examples of this are as small as returning our drive-up library book drop, which had been moved during renovations. Another much larger example is the expansion of our faculty delivery service to include teaching assistants. This took a lot of time and planning on the part of different departments in the library to implement, but it’s been an amazing success. Having the voice of the graduate advisory board certainly helped to make both of these things happen. We’ve also found that the students on the board not only appreciate having us listen to their opinions, but also like receiving information about the library first hand.

By: Frontal Lobe » Blog Archive » On MOOCs, Libraries, and Disruptive Models - the mental machinations of sands fish

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:38:17 +0000

[...] Library Student Advisory Boards [...]

By: Erin Dorney

Erin Dorney — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:22:27 +0000

Hi Garrett – Thanks for the comment. I have a feeling that the student requests you outlined (more availability, printing + computing) initially come up at a lot of campuses – I know they have at my institution. I think you’re right, the more communication the library can engage in with students, the more aware they will become about what we have to offer and how we might be able to tweak what we’re doing to better meet their needs. It’s a continual process. Be safe with the storm stuff up there in MA and thanks for reading!

By: notinmy

notinmy — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:02:32 +0000

Excellent topic, Erin, beautifully framed and organized and great references. It’s something I’d like to implement or add student representation to an existing faculty committee, perhaps. When I visited the student government last year, the students’ requests were few (such as more library hours, more printers, more computers), and as they are given more chances to participate and we can increase of services, it may generate ideas for the students about what to request. And most institutional student surveys do not address library services in depth, while at the same time one needs to be careful about generating survey fatigue. I’ve also used walk-in surveys. At any rate, your theme of participation towards results and improvement is just right.