Librarian assists first-year students

Navigating the vast resources of a university library and all of its electronically linked partners can be a daunting assignment for first-year students, and yet good library skills are a key component of academic success.

To help students overcome their anxiety and become more proficient at using the library, Bowling Green State University has taken the innovative step of providing a librarian specifically for its new students.

Colleen Boff was hired last spring as a first-year experience librarian. She has been busy this fall conducting library tours and teaching sessions for the 33 sections of BGSU's University Success courses that are designed to help students make a successful transition from high school to college.

The idea for the position arose during conversations between Dr. Linda Dobb, then dean of libraries and learning resources, and Beverly Stearns, director of library human resources and outreach services. While the library had produced an instructional video on using its resources and the staff had always been involved in working with students, the library needed someone with that specific responsibility, according to Dobb, who is now interim provost at BGSU.

"With first-year students, the personal touch is really important," Dobb said. "We've found that when students have had a successful experience with a librarian, it brings them back again and again."

In addition to working with students, Boff has assembled a wealth of materials for instructors of first-year experience courses. She and her colleagues at the library are offering course-integrated library instruction to students in BGSU's Chapman Living/Learning Community for their semester-long research projects.

"This is really point-of-need instruction, beginning with selecting a topic and finding articles and on from there," she said.

Others in higher education nationwide are doing similar things with incoming students, but BGSU may be unique in creating the formal position of first-year librarian.

When the job was announced, John Gardner, founder of the National Resource Center for the First-year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina, sent BGSU a congratulatory note. "This, I believe, is precedent-setting," Gardner wrote, adding, "I hope many other institutions will emulate you in setting up such a role."

Boff's position is still evolving as needs are uncovered. "My main goals for now are to establish some personal contact for students when they come into the library and to alleviate their intimidation," she said.

The librarian has found a wide variation in technical expertise among the students she meets. An informal poll revealed that only about a quarter had had access to on-line catalogs in their high school libraries, for example. Making these students feel comfortable using on-line search mechanisms is an important part of her job.

Since there are many more first-year students than she can reach through classes, Boff decided some Web-based instruction could efficiently reach large numbers of students with a variety of needs. She has developed a number of activities and instructional materials.

"I also tried to gather what the other librarians had put together over the years and bring them together in one place," Boff said. Among these is the FALCON tutorial created by Stefanie Dennis, interim coordinator of electronic resources. Chosen second among the top 10 Web tutorials last year by the Association of College and Research Libraries, Dennis's tutorial teaches students how to use the on-line catalog effectively

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