june07b.indd Ann Wheeler Information literacy, technology, and forgotten barcodes: The life of a solo academic librarian While at the 2007 ACRL National Conference, I caught up with Stephen Spohn, university librarian at the Harrisburg University (HU) of Science and Technology. Over lunch in Baltimore’s Harbor Place, Spohn fi lled me in on why his job is a job of a lifetime. HU is a not­for­profit, private university in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Students earn bachelor’s and master’s de­ grees in programs focused on the industry needs of the Central Pennsylvania region. The university is brand new and still rela­ tively small; the inaugural class of 113 students started in 2005. Spohn is HU’s first and only librarian. “I tell people I’m a solo aca­ demic librarian. I answer reference questions, deal with budget projections, facilities, the catalog, gifts, grants, everything. I’m a one person depart­ ment.” Teaching and learning Spohn is no stranger on campus. “One of the lucky things about being so small is that I see the faculty every day. We’re equals in the teaching and learning at the university. That’s just lucky on my part in getting in on the ground fl oor.” Spohn is successfully leading the campus initiative for information literacy. “I’m on the Stephen Spohn, university librarian at Harrisburg University provost’s technology across the curriculum committee. Actually, I just started showing up at their meetings. At one, we were talk­ ing about core competencies for students. I told them what I think our competencies need to look like, based on information literacy as I see it. I provided them with two things; an overall framework for information literacy, and a way to track student competency at the course level.” Spohn’s ideas are a huge success. “The com­ mittee members loved it. They’re using the structure I created as a model for describing core competen­ cies. I’m really excited.” Spohn’s take on infor­ mation literacy focuses on “product versus process.” As he says, “I’m concerned that in general we focus too much on this convoluted process rather than focusing on the production of a quality product. Sometimes our faculty have higher expectations for our students than are real­ istic. Many of our students just haven’t been adequately prepared along the way. “Often a disappointed faculty member will say, ‘I just wanted my students to do Ann Wheeler is the librarian at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Have a story idea for Job of a Lifetime? E-mail Ann at awheeler@dnr.state.md.us 368C&RL News June 2007 mailto:awheeler@dnr.state.md.us a small research paper, and I wanted to get some critical thinking out of them.’ At this point, I’ll ask, ‘Okay, what do you re­ ally want them to do? Do you want them to demonstrate critical thinking, do you want them to write well, or do you want them to learn to do library research? If you really want critical thinking and some depth of understanding, why don’t I give students a preconceived search that pulls up all the relevant resources in the area?’ I think that you have to show the students that the library has something worth look­ ing for, rather than tell them, ‘We’ve got some great stuff here.’ If you let students see the value in what you offer, they’ll be hungry for it.” Opening doors library course pages in RSS so that faculty can easily import related library links into Moodle. It’s an opportunity to show them these e­course pages where they’re able to cherry­pick from all the resources in the database. They log in, they can do what­ ever they want. As the semester goes on and the needs of the students change, they can change the resources. It’s the faculty’s opportunity to say, ‘Here’s the fi ve most important things that you need to be using in this class. If you want to succeed, this is where you want to be.’” Don’t forget the barcodes! Being a solo librarian often means learning on the job. “I always say if I ever write a book, the title is going to be ‘Don’t for­ get the barcodes’… Solo academic librarian with technology because I did! I was Spohn is very excited What: Harrisburg University of Science negotiating with our about technology’s po­ and Technology book seller, and was tential to engage stu­ Where: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania working out all the dents with the library. technical specs. We For more information, visit: “I love technology. I www.harrisburgu.net/campuslife got through every­ love the way it can en­ /library/ able, facilitate, all those great verbs. I would love to reconceptualize the entire library Web site, and build in a social aspect. I want to bring students there. I want them to rec­ ommend things to me and to other students. I want them to leave comments on the library Web site and say, ‘Hey Steve, just wanted to say hi, I’m sorry I missed you today.’ I want them to be that open. The students are very comfortable with me, and that’s the way I want the library to operate. It’s not some formal relationship, because that’s not going to bring people to the library.” He’s also using technology to enhance faculty involvement with the library. “We use the Moodle course management sys­ tem. I have my own course pages that the faculty can set up, but so far they’re not using them. They’ve started coming to me, asking me to talk to their classes about doing research. Now, I output the thing, and then he asked, ‘Where do you want the barcodes?’ I said, ‘Oh, somewhere in the middle,’ and he asked ‘Well, what’s your barcode num­ ber?’ I thought, I don’t know, how do you get that sort of thing?” Luckily it wasn’t too late to rectify his mistake. “I called a barcode company cold, and said, ‘Hey, I need barcodes. I’m not sure what I’m doing. So if you could just walk me through the whole thing, that would be great.’ And they did!” Spohn doesn’t let little things like for­ gotten barcodes get him down. Rather, he enjoys the constant change that goes along with being a solo librarian at a new univer­ sity. “I love change. I embrace change. I go with the flow of change, and I cause a little bit of it myself. I’m not easily frightened about anything.” Fearless, and moving forward with some great ideas, Spohn has found a job of a lifetime. June 2007 369 C&RL News www.harrisburgu.net/campuslife