No description available.

In an effort to address declining university retention rates and to reach students who may not make it to the library for research help, the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is in the process developing a peer-mentoring program. This program is one way the library can help the institution in its efforts raise student retention rates and improve student success. Peer learning programs have proven successful in tutoring centers and elsewhere in the university for decades, and research has shown that trained undergraduates are ideal candidates for delivering general reference and information literacy instruction to their peers (Bodemer, 2014). It is the library’s hope that seeding the campus with library ambassadors will help raise the profile of the library and information literacy on campus and at our satellite campuses as well. ETSU’s Library Ambassador Program entails hiring undergraduates each fall and offering them two semesters of information literacy training with a specific focus on learning the databases within their respective fields. Once training is complete, ambassadors are deployed in the academic buildings of their majors to help students with research and to connect students requiring in-depth help to librarians. As word of the program continues to spread, requests for ambassadors at satellite campuses and at additional main-campus computer labs has grown, and in the Fall of 2018, the library plans to hire 20 additional ambassadors to meet these needs. It is the library’s goal for the Library Ambassador Program to continue to grow each fall until ambassadors are stationed in each computer lab, residence hall, and academic building on and off campus.

Undergraduate honors theses represent an intellectual asset that a university should recognize and manage as such. However, when theses were submitted exclusively in print copies, the work often faded into obscurity, forgotten by all but the student and mentor. While theses for advanced degrees have been accessible for many years via interlibrary loan or abstract services, similar access options have been unavailable for undergraduate theses because these works are most often associated with and maintained by the institutional honors program without involvement or support from the institution’s library system. At best, an index of undergraduate theses might be available to the public, but print copies—often the only versions of theses—are traditionally housed in honors and are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. As undergraduate honors theses have become more commonplace and as online access to research has become virtually universal, honors programs do a disservice to their students, faculty, and the public if they do not provide access to the original scholarship produced by undergraduates. Furthermore, introducing undergraduates to electronic publication provides educational value by exposing them to the publishing demands they will likely encounter in their future education and professional careers. Two additional benefits to students are that an electronic publication saves the student time and expense in producing their final work and, most importantly, makes their work available worldwide to potential research partners and employers. An electronic thesis repository provides several instruction-based opportunities to advance learning. For example, courses within an honors college often enroll students from a variety of disciplines. In research methods courses, students can easily examine examples of theses to familiarize themselves with the writing styles and formatting in their discipline. Similarly, in a colloquium-style course that addresses diverse topics, students can use the repository to become familiar with research approaches and writing styles outside of their discipline; this is a particular advantage for undergraduates because, as they progress in their course of study and certainly once they begin graduate or professional programs, they rarely have time for this type of cross-disciplinary interaction. In addition, faculty in diverse disciplines can assign repository reviews, either in courses or when mentoring honors students, to demonstrate the level of scholarship expected in honors thesis work. Although these goals could be accomplished using hard copies, our current students are more comfortable with and more likely to access electronically available materials. East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has made undergraduate theses available to the campus community and general public through an electronic repository and catalog maintained by the university library. The electronic system we implemented and others of similar quality provide a user interface developed for manuscript submission, review, and approvals. This type of system takes students’ research experience to a final level of completion and assures that they learn how to navigate a process analogous to manuscript submission. Because adapting our institution’s system for graduate theses and dissertations was not a feasible option and we could find no general guidelines to direct our efforts, we developed our own undergraduate honors thesis repository, and we hope that our efforts in this process will provide insights and guidelines for other institutions.

Altmetrics derived from Twitter have potential benefits for institutional repository (IR) stakeholders (faculty, students, administrators, and academic libraries) when metrics aggregators (Altmetric, Plum Analytics) are integrated with IRs. There is limited research on tweets mentioning works in IRs and how the results impact IR stakeholders, specifically libraries. In order to address this gap in the literature, the author conducted a content analysis of tweets tracked by a metrics aggregator (Plum X Metrics) in a Digital Commons IR. The study found that the majority of tweets were neutral in attitude, intended for a general audience, included no hashtags, and were written by users unaffiliated with the works. The results are similar to findings from other studies, including low numbers of tweeted works, high numbers of tweets neutral in attitude, and evidence of self-tweets. The discussion addresses these results in relation to the value of tweets and suggested improvements to Twitter metrics based on IR stakeholders’ needs.

With the objective of addressing declining university retention rates, the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) developed a peer-mentoring program in 2017. The Library Ambassador Program entails hiring undergraduates each fall and offering them two semesters of information literacy training. In their third semester, ambassadors are deployed across campus to help students with research. This presentation will discuss ETSU’s Library Ambassador Program as it moves into its second year and the lessons learned along the way. Participants wishing to create their own peer-mentoring program will come away with practical advice on developing a timeline for implementation, handling the day-to-day logistics of student workers and designing a curriculum rooted in information literacy.

East Tennessee State University recently adopted Alma & Primo and was suprised by the lack of an A-Z database discovery module. Frustrated by having to maintain electronic resources separately on our library website and in Alma, we embarked on a goal to eliminate redundancy and use Alma/Primo exclusively. This presentation will cover our entire workflow in both Alma & Primo and the issues we encountered along the way. I'll first go over our process in Alma including MARC record creation, electronic collection setup, and the top level collection module. Next, I'll cover our workflow in Primo including normalization rules, scoping, PNX display, facets, and code table changes. The last section will cover the Primo X-Services API and how it was developed into an A-Z Database list.

Libraries purchase and subscribe to many new book titles each year. Instead of waiting for patrons to find these new titles in Primo, East Tennessee State University decided to develop automated book sliders using data from Alma Analytics. These sliders are now deployed in our subject guides, website, and on our digital displays. This presentation will give participants a high-level overview of our workflow and the tools we used. I'll first go over Alma Analytics, defining collection scopes and required fields. Next, I'll cover our process of retrieving the data via API and formatting the data into a JSON array. The last section will cover the implementation of slider widgets and use of book covers.

Are we doing enough to market newly acquired book titles? Libraries purchase and subscribe to many new book titles each year, both print and electronic. However, we rely on the expectation that users will periodically search our systems to discover newly acquired titles. Static lists and displays have been traditional marketing methods for libraries, but require tedious time and effort to maintain. Without a practical solution for an academic library, East Tennessee State University developed an automated process to generate book widgets utilizing data from Alma Analytics. These widgets are now deployed in our subject guides, website, and on our digital displays. This article outlines the development and implementation of these widgets. We also discuss the challenges we encountered, such as finding image covers and custom subject tagging.

In March 2020, the Sherrod Library at East Tennessee State University found itself in the same position as most academic libraries across the country: making a rapid shift from a face-to-face model of service to an online model. All classes moved online and all employees worked remotely. Join Sherrod instruction librarians as we discuss how we maneuvered through this shift and came out the other end with a more robust model of service and a new perspective. Participants will come away with tips for establishing an online service model from the ground up as well as tools for assessment and collaboration.

We are only now coming to terms with how common trauma really is; a landmark Kaiser study that surveyed patients receiving physicals found that almost two-thirds had experienced at least one form of abuse, neglect, or other trauma as a child. Though originating in the fields of health and social services, trauma-informed care is a framework that holds great promise for application to library work. Empathetic service, positive patron encounters, and a more trusting workplace are only a few of the benefits that this approach offers. In this important book Tolley, experienced in both academic and public libraries, puts these ideas into the library context. Library administrators, directors, and reference and user services staff will all benefit from learning the six key principles of trauma-informed care; characteristics of a trusting and transparent library organization, plus discussion questions to promote a sense of psychological safety among library workers; how certain language and labels can undermine mutuality, with suggested phrases that will help library staff demonstrate neutrality to patron ideas and views during information requests; delivery models that empower patrons; advice on balancing free speech on campus with students’ need for safety; how proper furniture arrangement can help people suffering from PTSD feel safe; guidance on creating safe zones for LGBTQIA+ children, teens, and adults; and self-assessment tools to support change toward trauma-responsive library services. Using the trauma-informed approach outlined in this book, libraries can ensure they are empathetic community hubs where everyone feels welcomed, respected, and safe. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1222/thumbnail.jpg