The world-class Bucks
library program has been recognized
for its leadership in
information literacy.
The library won the 2010
Excellence in Academic
Libraries Award (EAL Award)
for community college
libraries, “a national tribute to
a library and its staff for the
outstanding services, programs
and leadership they provide to their students, faculty,
administrators and community,”
according to the
Association of College and
Research Libraries (ACRL)
press release announcing this
year’s award.
Dr. Maureen McCreadie,
dean of learning resources
(which includes the library)
said, “We think of it as an
award for entire college; we
want students and faculty to
celebrate along with us.”
McCreadie emphasizes that
winning this award could not
have happened “without the
latitude and support given to
Learning Resources by
Provost Annette Conn and the
college as a whole.”
This remarkable achievement
was the result of the dedicated
work of the entire
Learning Resources staff. She
particularly credited the contributions
of an “awesome
group of librarians.”
Bill Hemmig, Online
Librarian, Margaret Montet,
and Linda McCann, director
of library Services, prepared
the winning award application.
“The selection committee
was impressed with the
library’s commitment to areas
often underrepresented in
community college libraries,
including fundraising and
development,” noted Julie
Todaro, chair of the 2010 EAL
Selection Committee, in the
press release.
Learning Resources and the
library work closely with
Information Technology, said
McCreadie.
Todaro said the library’s
“productive partnership with
IT was also noteworthy.”
The innovative and collaborative
spirit of McCreadie and
her staff is an important part
of the reason that Bucks has a
world-class library program.
She explained that information
literacy (IL) is integrated
across all curricula at Bucks
and said the award was also
due the faculty that incorporate
IL in their teaching.
The IL Mission Statement
created by Montet, in collaboration
with all of the Bucks
librarians, McCann and
McCreadie, states that “The
mission of the Bucks County
Community College library’s
IL program is to collaborate
with classroom faculty to
teach students how to find,
retrieve, evaluate, and use
information ethically and efficiently
for success in their
courses and as lifelong learners.”
IL sessions are conducted in
the library’s popular multipurpose
Learning Studio.
The library’s award application
states that the Learning
Studio is available for “group
work, individual study, or any
form of classroom use.”
There are laptops with wireless
access available for students,
and “instructors have
access to a mobile instructor’s
station with projection capabilities
and Internet2 access.”
One innovation is the
MInDSpace (Media and
Instructional Design) multimedia
lab, featuring 11 PCs
and Macintosh computers that
are equipped with the latest
multimedia applications.
MInDSpace is “designed to
bring 21st-century learning
skills to 21st-century students
and their instructors, in order
to foster awareness of new
media literacies and skills,”
according to Bucks’ application.
Online courses are burgeoning
at Bucks. Hemmig and
Montet have a strategy to
bring “the same focused IL
instruction for online courses
that is offered in face-to-face
courses.”
Hemmig’s team of
“Embedded eBrarians” deploy
“online, tutorials, dedicated
electronic discussions, videos,
LibGuides, delicious.com and
other technologies” available
through the Library’s website
and online course workspaces.
McCreadie also credited the
Technology Learning Center
(TLC) as being an important
factor in winning the award.
The TLC provides technology
assistance for an array of
applications and internet
access and provides computers
for student use.
The award criteria seemed
“made just for us,” she said.
Two of the three criteria in the
award guidelines were “creativity
and innovation” and
“Leadership in developing and
implementing exemplary programs
that other libraries can
emulate.”
She pointed out MInDSpace
and TLC as two of the many
Bucks innovations that other
libraries are emulating. “We
have been in the lead in the
fields of information literacy
and the new media; other
libraries follow us.”
The LR staff is working hard
to remain at the cutting edge
of IL and learning technologies.
Matt Siebert, Emerging
Technologies Librarian,
talked about two projects that
are currently under way.
He noted that the library is
evaluating various mobile
communication applications
for use vehicles to provide
students and faculty with
access to educational content.
Networking applications like
Facebook are also being considered
as vehicles for providing
course content and facilitating
student and faculty
interaction and collaboration.
The challenge of keeping up
with ever-changing technology
in order to properly serve
the Bucks community keeps
McCreadie and her staff motivated.
Receiving a prestigious
national award for “doing
what we love … is a bonus
beyond our imagining,” she
said in a Bucks press release.
The $3,000 award and
plaque will be formally presented
at the Bucks’ Board of
Trustees meeting on Thursday,
May 13.