LIM College

by Nicole LaMoreaux

This past month I was given the opportunity to attend the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS-NA)’s annual conference. I always leave conferences feeling refreshed and inspired and this conference was no different. I have come back to the Adrian G. Marcuse Library with so many ideas to not only implement in the Library, but also to share with our Archives, classes and academic departments here at LIM College.

It’s exciting to take new ideas and see how they might be adjusted for your own population of students, faculty, and staff. As part of my professional development, I plan to work with my colleagues on the following: 

• Graduate Studies Partnerships:
  • Implement scaffolding instruction literacy plans for first year and second year graduate students.
    • First year: Encourage exploratory research
    • Second year: Encourage focused research
  • Embedded Librarianship: Provide both in-person and online opportunities for students to have a dedicated librarian to offer research assistance.
    • This would be a new addition for the capstone students. As they gather information for their projects, students will learn how to fully utilize the Library and its resources. Embedded librarianship encourages exploration and discovery to improve how students gather and understand information.
  • Makerspaces: Create one-off makerspace opportunities to encourage students to use the Library for a variety of reasons including artistic endeavors that allow them to take their creative and critical thinking skills outside of the classroom. An example of a pop-up makerspace includes creating a Lego corner which would allow them to build models of retail spaces that they might then utilize in their course projects.
  • Archive “Suitcases”: The “suitcases” can be checked out of the Archives and used in classrooms for inspiration and teaching tools.

Should you have any questions about any of these ideas, please visit us here at the Adrian G. Marcuse Library. We will be working on implementing some of these ideas in the future months.