ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 496 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s Minority student success Librarians as partners by Barbara Holmes and A rt Lichtenstein M any universities are w orking to im­prove freshman retention rates, esp e­ cially o f their minority students. While it is generally recognized that instruction in li­ brary research skills helps freshmen succeed, relatively few programs exist that target li­ brary skills programs at minority students. Often when the question of how to foster library success among minority students is examined, the proposed solution involves hiring a “diversity or multicultural services” librarian.1 Unfortunately, although this ap­ proach may be a good one, many libraries today are unlikely to receive funding for new positions. Instead, many are struggling to maintain current services with existing, or even smaller, professional staff. The APT program At the University o f Central Arkansas, regu­ lar library staff are providing effective research skills instruction for minority freshman by participating in a unique program called the African Americans Partnering Talent (APT) Summer Academy. The APT Summer Acad­ emy, initiated in 1995 by the chair of the department o f administration and secondary education, is delivered through a coopera­ tive effort among a number o f academic units on campus: the colleges of education and health and applied science, undergraduate studies, the Office of Minority Affairs, and the university library. The academy has met with measurable success. Furthermore, it did not require funding for a new library posi­ tion or any significant special costs to the library. Central to the success o f APT was the in­ clusion of library staff in planning the pro­ gram. The input o f library staff helped to give broader definition and specificity to the vision of the project, which is to “create a community of learners who acquire the n ec­ essary academ ic su ccess skills needed to persist successfully in the university.” This partnership betw een academic faculty and library staff has formed a unique foundation for incoming minority students. Each sum m er the APT Academy accep ts a class o f 50 minority students, the m ajor­ ity o f w hom are high sch ool graduates and have b een a ccep ted for regular co lleg e ad­ m ission in the fall. APT students are re­ quired to live in dorm itories, follow a rig­ orous sch ed u le from Monday through Fri­ day, and participate in w eek en d e n rich ­ ment activities. The daily program includes four hours o f fo r-cred it co u rse w ork in English and math and session s in physical fitness, lead ership , career planning, and research skills. A typical day for APT stu­ dents starts with physical exercise at 6:30 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. with a mandatory, two- hour study hall in the library. V irtu a l in fo rm a tio n retrieval The research skills portion of the APT Acad­ emy, taught by librarians, is known as the About the authors Barbara Holmes is associate professor o f adm inistration and secondary education a t University o f Central Arkansas; e-mail: holmesb@mail.uca.edu. A r t Lichtenstein is co ordin ator o f p ub lic services a t University o f Central Arkansas Library; e-mail: artl@mail.uca.edu mailto:holmesb@mail.uca.edu mailto:artl@mail.uca.edu C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 / 497 “Virtual Information Retrieval” course. It is designed to teach students efficient and ef­ fective techniques for information-gathering, documentation, and assessment. Students are trained to exploit both high technology and traditional information sources and formats. In developing the lesson plans for this course, librarians worked to answer the question, “What practical knowledge and concrete re­ search skills will be of immediate value to students as they work to achieve success in their college courses?” This course was designed with two para­ mount goals: first, to teach solid information retrieval skills, and second, to build strong, productive working relationships among stu­ dents and library staff. To optimize the like­ lihood that the second goal was met, only librarians who volunteered to be APT instruc­ tors were directly involved in the program. Great care was taken to ensure that they supported the APT vision and recognized the im portance o f the affective dim ension o f learning. Collaboration and collegiality are at the heart of the APT program, and librarians seek to develop clo se relation ship s with stu­ dents— relationships that will help students handle the challenges freshman year brings. Ideally, students develop a comfort level with librarians that enables them to seek help whenever it is needed. Curriculum develop m ent Since the APT Academy is offered as an inte­ grated learning program, the librarians, as they worked to design specific lesson plans, solicited advice and review from the acad­ emy director and advisory committee. This process, follow ed by all APT instructors, helped ensure that the program was deliv­ ered as a cohesive learning experience. There were meaningful connections between the information retrieval course, the math course, the English course, and other portions of the program. The research skills portion o f APT con­ sisted of ten one-hour class sessions, supple­ mented by homework assignments and in­ dividual projects (see sidebar on this page). Each class was broken into a half-hour of lecture and demonstration, followed by a half- hour of hands-on work with instructors pro­ viding one-on-one tutoring. APT class sessions Class One: Library terms glossary (e.g., URL, primary source, database), interpret­ ing LĊ call numbers, introduction to an online catalog, assignment of individual research project. Class Two: Use of logical operators for online information retrieval, use o f se­ lected subject databases. Class Three: Use o f print format in­ dexes and reference books, specialized reference sources for African American studies. Class Four: Planning and design o f a research paper, style guides, plagiarism. Class Five: LC subject headings, sub­ ject and keyword searching. Class Six: Internet overview and basic techniques (e.g., entering URL’s, b ook ­ marks, saving to disk, printing). Class Seven: Select Internet search en­ gines and subject guides. Class Fight: In-class time to work on research project. Class Nine: Information retrieval scav­ enger hunt. Class Ten: Wrap-up, end-of-term social gathering. Results Preliminary results o f the APT program in­ dicate significant success. Institutional data show that APT students are perform ing at a higher level academ ically than other stu­ dent populations and are achieving higher overall grad e-p oint averages. Also, APT students are returning to the university at higher rates than the overall student popu ­ lation. For the students entering the fall 1997 APT program, 100 percent have re­ mained at the university through the spring 1998 term as com pared to 90 percent for non-APT students. In addition to the hard data, several other very important outcom es have emerged: 1. Students view librarians as an active part of their academic support team. 2. Students use the library m ore fre­ quently and seek out the librarians with whom they have developed partnerships. 498 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 For th e students entering th e fa ll 1997 APT program , 100 percent have rem ained a t th e university th ro u g h th e spring 1998 te rm as com pared to 90 percent fo r non- APT students. 3. In stru ctio n al facu lty have b e c o m e ad vocates for the role o f librarians in the instructional delivery process. 4. More visible, vibrant, and cred ible relatio n sh ip s have b een esta b lish ed b e ­ tw een librarians and instructional faculty. 5. Librarians are seen as a viable part o f the freshm an year e x p e rien ce , and their role in the induction o f students into the university has b e en exp anded . R ecom m endations As librarians seek to partner with instruc­ tional faculty to help students with the a c ­ quisition o f research skills, it is very im­ p o rta n t th a t a tte n tio n b e p a id to th e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f th e s tu d e n ts b e in g help ed. At University o f Central Arkansas, APT participants are first-tim e freshm en, sharing all o f the usual an xieties o f stu­ dents undertaking the co lleg e e x p e rie n ce for the first time. T hey do not p ossess the acad em ic maturity to fully ap p reciate the rigors o f co lle g e study, and they have little first-hand e x p e rie n c e o f what this entails. Know ing this, librarians should exhibit great p atien ce in w orking with th ese stu­ dents. They need to help students m ake solid co n n e ctio n s b e tw e en the skills b e ­ ing learned and what will b e exp ected o f them as co lle g e students. Frequently, li­ brarians should “ch eck for understanding,” a tea ch er task that is well know n to in­ structional faculty. D oing this, they can m ake sure that their instruction co n crete ly supports the acad em ic e x p e rie n c e o f their students. N o te 1. Chadley, Otis A. “Addressing Cultural Diversity in Academic and Research Librar­ ies,” C ollege & R esea rch L ib ra ries 53 (May 1992): 210.