Library
2019-2020 Program Review

The American River College Library seeks to provide instruction, information resources, and services to support the College mission and supplement the instructional programs of the College. It also seeks to provide information resources and services relevant to institutional, intellectual, and professional needs, and to encourage the personal and cultural development of students, faculty, and staff. Source: Library Mission

Librarians support ARC’s mission by selecting and maintaining a high-quality, equity-minded collection of books, databases, and other information sources, and developing critical thinking skills by teaching students how to find, use, and evaluate information. Librarians build their personal and professional capacity as it relates to the college’s commitment to social justice and equity. The library’s collection offers resources for students, faculty and staff to develop capacity as well.

Ongoing from EMPs -Funding for Electronic Resources: Goal met. Over the last several years, the library has expanded and optimized access to electronic resources. The Los Rios libraries purchase nearly all electronic resources jointly, which saves money and streamlines logistics. Working with other Los Rios libraries we have secured Strong Workforce funding for a nursing database (OVID), expanded resources for Theater, and added two streaming media databases. We also increased our numbers of eBooks. 2018/2019 Annual Unit Plan -Replace student computers: Goal met.The library replaced all our student workstations in 2018. -Hire IA to staff student computer lab: Not met. We have applied for an IA multiple times through the Classified staff prioritization process and were not granted this position. -Equity-related training for library faculty & staff: This goal is ongoing. Over the last few years, equity trainings for all staff were offered. During remote operations, a group of librarians have developed an equity reading & discussion group open to all library staff. We will continue to seek opportunities for training and professional development to support our equity practice. -Equity-focused course review: This goal is ongoing. With one of our LIBR instructors on leave, and then with remote operations, we have not yet had an opportunity to conduct an equity-focused LIBR course review. We would like to find ways to include all librarians in this process, since LIBR curriculum is the responsibility of the department, not individual instructors. We plan to review SLOs, CORs, course content, and andragogy. -LIBR outreach: Goal met. The department developed regular outreach practices we can implement each semester, such as messages on the library website, announcements in library orientations, and emails to faculty. We also looked at ARC’s curriculum to see if there was an opportunity to add LIBR courses to IGETC/CSU GE, but this was not possible. Idea for the future: reach out to California Early College Academy (CECA) students -Develop Library Instruction Training for Adjuncts: Partially met. We need to continue to develop and offer instruction training for adjunct librarians. We may also want to add a teaching demo requirement to the adjunct interview process and add teaching to the job description. We will continue to discuss this goal as a department. -Review Library Spaces with Student Needs in Mind: Partially met. We re-organized parts of the collection (reference, periodicals, Easy Reading) to make them more accessible to students. We still intend to do a CUE-based walkthrough/review of the physical space. We also plan to display “mirror books” throughout the library in various locations. We will return to this goal once on-ground operations resume. -Facilitate the Library Services Platform Transition: Goal met. Significant investment of human resources was required. Although the transition is complete, ongoing maintenance and customization is required. -Develop a Student Feedback System for the Circulation Desk: Partially met. A Google feedback form was developed, but we still need to work out how to deploy the form. We will revisit this once on ground operations resume. Questions about privacy need to be resolved. -Develop an Assignment Review Service for Faculty: Partially met. We developed a process for offering this service and we are still working out a few logistics before we implement it. -Review and Assess Library Instruction Efforts: Partially met. We developed a survey that we ask students to fill out after orientations. We use the results to improve our services. We will continue to discuss ways to assess library instruction. -Prioritize building relationships with students: Ongoing. Building relationships with students is an important goal for the department. Research appointments - can select individual librarians; making contact information available to students in orientations and research guides, exploring ways to use Starfish; building relationships with Umoja-Sakhu learning community.; mentoring students; implementing LibChat, which allows students to connect with librarians 24/7. We want to be “warmly intrusive.” -Review and Discuss Library Best Practices: Ongoing. -Library Budget: Goal mostly met. A lot of progress has been made towards understanding and optimizing the library’s budget. A budget team has been formed, and it meets regularly to discuss the budget and provide input on how to allocate funds. We will continue to learn more about Los Rios budget practices and improve our departmental budgeting processes. -Reclassify Lead Library Technician as a Supervisor: Not met. Our AVP looked into reclassifying our Lead LT as a supervisor, but this was not feasible. -Emergency Training: Ongoing. We revised our emergency plan, held multiple emergency drills, and facilitated meetings in which we discussed emergency plans. We intend to continuously offer emergency training once we are back on ground.

LIBR Course Reflection African American students demonstrate “Course Mastery” and “Success Rates” at a lower rate than other students. We need to reflect on this disproportionate impact and create a plan to address it. To summarize one of our goals above, we plan to conduct an equity-focused LIBR course review. We plan to review Student Learning Outcomes, Course Outlines of Record, course content, and andragogy from an equity lens, such as using the Peralta Community College District’s Equity Rubric. We would like to find ways to include all librarians in this process, since LIBR curriculum is the responsibility of the department, not individual instructors. The library does teach for-credit LIBR courses, but reflecting on the data from these courses doesn’t fully capture the work of the library. We would like support from the Research Office to better assess the impact of library programs & services on student success, and the extent to which students may experience inequitable access to library services. In addition to reflecting on the metric above, we have chosen to reflect on the following: 1) Maintaining a high-quality, equity-minded collection of books, databases, and other information sources -Improve access - more ebooks -Mirror book displays -New computer lab equipment -Improved availability of textbooks/increased the number of textbooks 2) Developing critical thinking skills by teaching students how to find, use, and evaluate information. -Offered online instruction support, -Library Canvas Research Tutorials -Increase in views for LibGuides and incorporating into courses 3) Collaboration between library faculty and staff and dismantling silos -Examined and reorganized to better serve students at the Circulation and Research Help desk -Increased coordination and opportunities for training for adjuncts, student workers, other library staff -Improved communication between faculty and staff; Lead LT attends the librarian’s department meetings and the Access Services librarian attends LT meetings. Equity Strengths -Recognize there is a problem, interested in doing work to address the problem. Commitment to developing equity lens, racial literacy, and researching how to address equity gaps in libraries Efforts made to mitigate equity gaps -Conducting outreach efforts and relationship-building with students from DI populations. -Mirror books displayed prominently. -Incorporating CRAAP Test Plus into instruction efforts. -Conducted interviews with Black students in an effort to make sure that our equity efforts are informed by conversations with students. -Created READ posters with Black students, faculty, and staff created READ posters to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment. -Working with faculty on affordable learning materials and OER. -Revised borrowing policies to reduce the impact of fines and fees on students. Opportunities -Develop mirror collection. Develop ways to make mirror resources easier to find. -Highlight resources on equity in education for ARC educators. -In our role as librarians we occasionally receive assignments from faculty that are problematic from an equity perspective. We would like to work with our colleagues to suggest ways to improve these assignments. -LIBR course equity focused course review. -The Library operates on a help-seeking model. Students must engage in help-seeking behavior in order to benefit from the Library. Students from DI populations may be less likely to seek help. Investigate ways to be more “warmly intrusive.” Challenges -The algorithm used by Primo, the library search engine adopted by CA Community Colleges, produces biased search results. -The Library of Congress Classification system used by academic libraries has inherent biases that can “other” members of DI populations and make “mirror books” harder to find. -The library collection supports a Eurocentric Curriculum and that focus is reflected in the collection. -Difficult to disaggregate data on usage in order to determine where additional equity gaps may be found. -Textbook reserve collection unavailable to students during COVID-19 closure. -Data limitations.

We accomplished most of the measures that we set for ourselves. Many are ongoing (i.e. safety training and equity focus course review). Looking back on these goals the library has had to prioritize based on our time, and focus our efforts to what we can accomplish. We also understand the value of being able to reassess our goals and re-prioritize in order to be nimble and adapt to student needs. For example, going forward our focus has shifted more to equity efforts, but we want to continue to be responsive and change gears as needed. Covid-19 has also been a learning experience and made evident the need to be able to adapt.

We recognize our part in a larger system, but district and college practices often do not take into consideration the unique operations of the library (which were made more starkly apparent by Covid-19). In addition, the library has made efforts to share resources and support the college and faculty at large surrounding equity but have run into roadblocks. The library has spearheaded Open Education Resource and affordable learning, and in addition has had to pivot to provide resources traditionally covered by our print Textbook Reserve Collection. Our ideal future: -Have more structured institutional support for things like: -Library data collection -Library support staff -Coordinated OER and affordable learning across the college (and District) -The library would be supporting a curriculum that supports all of our students. -Space where students feel safe and a sense of belonging in the library, and warmly intrusive services wherever they receive support services. -Recognize there will not be a return to “normal” and our aspirations are to take action towards our goals, remain equity focused and stay action oriented. -Continue to build and develop personal and professional capacity to address inequity. -Safety in the work environment to contribute ideas, address concerns and fail.

Continue to build and develop personal and professional capacity to address inequity by: -facilitating departmental discussions and education/professional development -participating in and offering professional development opportunities -reviewing actions/goals through an equity lens -personal study (reading books) -normalizing discussing race and racism -building a collection that supports the above study and activities As this is a culture based effort, we will not be able to use DI course/program data as other departments. Some metrics could include: -documentation of our efforts to address inequity in things like our Self Study -Increase in number of books/resources in collection -Potentially use an assessment tool or equity rubric

Ibram X Kendi states that the only way to undo racism is to consistently identify it, describe it, and then dismantle it. Building our capacity to identify and describe racism will help us to dismantle racism. Please see identified goals above.