Special Users Special Needs Designing an Instructional Toolkit

Special Users, Special Needs: Designing an Instructional Toolkit for Research Assistants at a Research Library Kate Scherler, Molly Stewart, and Judit Ward Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University VALE/Users'/ACRL-NJ/NJLA-CUS Conference 2012

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Agenda • • • About our library and this project Planning Creating Implementing Evaluating Discussion 2

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University 3

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Center of Alcohol Studies 4

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University The CAS is a small institution in a much larger network of institutions at Rutgers University. 5

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Center of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Other Drugs (JSAD) is also published at the CAS. 6

Center of Alcohol Studies Library and Information Services at the CAS The CAS Library website has information on some of the services offered to faculty. 7

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Current Services at CAS Library • Computers and wireless for online research (CAS IP) • Article request & delivery • Literature searches • Creating bibliographies • Scanning, OCR • Proofreading • Fact checking • Bibliographic instruction • Reference management • Special collections 8

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Special needs: Research 9

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Special needs: Education/Training and Treatment 10

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Need for a Specialized Toolkit • • • Frequent requests for training Quick turnover of research staff Large UGrad populations Volunteers without RU access Many students are reluctant to ask for help CAS library has limited hours and a small staff 11

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Research Assistant Toolkit (the project) 12

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Planning, part one Meetings! Research groups Lab staff Grad students CAS core faculty– one on one Needs analysis 13

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Planning, part two How do we define our users and their needs? – Rubrics? – Benchmarks? – Minimum requirements? Immediate needs created by the task 14

Center of Alcohol Studies Library 15

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Planning, part three What have others done? http: //www. libraries. rutgers. edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/nursing/tutorial/view_content. html 16

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Creating, part one Lib. Guides versus Sakai easy to use – clumsy variety of options – limiting modifications RUL resource – RU resource existing guide – new content open to everyone – invitation only 17

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Creating, part two 1. What’s most important? 2. What key words will people look for? 3. What was requested most frequently in the past for training and orientation? 18

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Creating, part three Forever? 19

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Lib. Guide 20

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Lib. Guide: Find Articles 21

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Lib. Guide: Statistics 22

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Sakai site 23

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Sakai site Syllabus Tab = Site Directory 24

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Sakai site (cont’d) Resources Tab: • general and RUL info • getting started guides • library-specific information 25

Center of Alcohol Studies Library The Sakai site: CAS Library Services A detailed guide to services and equipment available in the library, meant to orient those to new to the center. 26

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Quick Reference Guide 27

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Implementing, part one Publicize, publicize! 28

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Implementing, part two • One-on-one and group training sessions for Ø Women’s Treatment Project Ø Emotion and Sensation Study Ø Neuro. Pharmaco. Genetics Laboratory Ø Integrative Data Analysis Lab for College Alcohol Intervention Research Ø Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory • Proactive steps: more meetings with faculty to identify evolving needs 29

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Implementing, part three • Introducing Lib. Guide to key people: PI’s, Lab directors, instructors, project managers • Finalizing Sakai site (still creating documentation) • Print and distribute quick reference guide (in progress) 30

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Evaluating, part one Feedback! 31

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Evaluating, part two • After the training sessions: – Immediate feedback from participants – Long-term evaluation by key CAS members • Forms of feedback – Formal survey – Informal feedback, fits CAS profile more 32

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Evaluating, part three • What we think works • What we might change • What else to add • How often to update 33

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Overall, what we learned from this…. . Just do it! 34

Center of Alcohol Studies Library Questions? 35