Recognized for excellence in information literacy and instruction, Lone Star College-CyFair’s “Pop In To Your Library Tour” program won the Library Instruction Project of the Year Award.
“I am delighted that the Texas Library Association Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) recognized our efforts to provide innovative instruction services,” said Jane Stimpson, reference librarian, who accepted the LIRT award at the annual Texas Library Association spring conference.
Launched in summer 2018, the “Pop In To Your Library Tour” program offers four 30-minutes or less tours a day during a two-week period toward the beginning of the semester. Full-time librarians lead the tours, with back-up librarians on hand, to keep tour groups at 15 or fewer students to foster more engagement and discussion.
“The library can be overwhelming to new students, so the tours are a great way to establish a rapport with students and begin to break down the barriers of library anxiety,” said Stimpson. “The most important things we want students to know are ‘where to do what’ in the library and how librarians, who are ‘experts and know everything,’ help students.”
Since inception, more than 1,000 students have attended a “Pop In” tour including First-Time In College (FTIC) students, who are required to take EDUC 1300, a student success course titled “Learning Frameworks: First Year Experience.” Some non-EDUC1300 students, who received extra credit for attending, and library patrons have also participated in tours.
“The Pop In To Your Library Tour program is a highly, engaging, comprehensive, effective method of distributing information about library resources,” said Kim Mori, associate professor of education. “This approach allows our librarians to actively engage with new and returning students near the beginning of the semester, inspiring them to continue engaging with library resources after they have completed their Pop In tour experience. It’s also led to our librarians being highly regarded as a much-needed campus resource.”
Summer and fall student incentives to participate in the meaningful, high-impact library orientation tours were phone stand “pop sockets”. In the spring, students were entered into a drawing for prizes including two $25 gift cards to the campus bookstore and a grand prize of a study room reservation for an entire day during finals week.
“Students especially coveted the ‘Study Room Takeover’ prize, since study rooms can only be reserved for two hours and are constantly in use,” said Stimpson.
One of the largest branches in the Harris County Public Library system and the largest campus in the LSC system, LSC-CyFair’s library is a joint-use community college and public library located on the LSC-CyFair campus at 9191 Barker Cypress.
For library services, programs, hours and information, go to LoneStar.edu/library/cyfair.
