Anna Mary Williford
Amanda Folk
Instruction/Public Services Librarian
Reference/Public Services Librarian
Millstein Library
University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
Freshman Seminar @ Pitt Greensburg
 One-credit, letter-grade course open exclusively to first
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year students
Not mandatory but majority of freshmen do enroll
Designed to help students transition successfully from high
school to college
Some sections are specialized (engineering, Science
Learning Communities, ESL, etc)
Most are general, with a variety of students
Most are taught by staff (advisors, career center, residence
life)
Most are assigned a peer leader/mentor (upper classman)
The Library’s Role
 Each section comes to the library for two class sessions
to learn about library resources and research methods
 Requirement in the Freshman Seminar syllabus
guidelines
 Most class periods are 50 minutes
What was already in place?
 Students would rotate through stations
 Tour of the library
 Quick demo of the library catalog, PITTCat+
 Hand each student a notecard with a random call
number and have them retrieve the item from the
collection
 Show short tutorials about recognizing scholarly
articles and avoiding plagiarism
 Lecture on basic database searching
So What’s Wrong With That?
 BORING!
 Sections would often double up
 No practical application
 Wasting a lot of time moving around the library from
station to station
 Missing a golden opportunity to provide the majority
of our freshmen with hands-on library experience
Times, They Are a-Changin’
 New public services position created from a vacant
technical services position
 New librarian with first-year seminar experience
 The tour took up too much valuable time
 Increase opportunities for interaction and engagement
Other Materials Created
 Script so that students would get the same content in
each session, regardless of who was teaching
 Freshman Seminar LibGuide
 Feedback Form/Survey
Fall 2010: 318 surveys received
Fall 2010: 318 surveys received
Fall 2010: 318 surveys received
Fall 2010: 318 surveys received
Assessment
 Formal
 Feedback forms
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Positive feedback for interactive component and level of engagement
Negative feedback for “boring topic,” plagiarism, and welcome
assignment
 Informal
 Instructor observations
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Interactive component was successful
Welcome assignment wasn’t as successful
Plagiarism section was painful
Changes Based on Assessment
 No more Welcome Assignment!
 All modules interactive, not just the first one
 No more doubling up
 Article Evaluation replaces Plagiarism
 “A” Team Brand Implementation
Three Years Later…
 Still going strong!
 Minor changes only
 “A” Team dynamic has helped to develop a rapport
between us and the students
 Feedback continues to be positive
Fall 2012: 358 surveys received
Fall 2012: 358 surveys received
Fall 2012: 358 surveys received
Fall 2012: 358 surveys received
“I think the changes to the library instruction sessions have
greatly improved how the students learn about researching
topics and using the library resources. It's very hands-on
now and gives them the opportunity to see how the process
works first-hand. We all know that students learn best by
"doing", so by having them brainstorm in small groups and
then actually search the system and the physical library, you
are helping them to learn it so much better than just by
lecturing. The students are "forced" to pay attention and are
therefore more engaged during the class time.”
R. Leigh Hoffman, Assistant Dean of Student Services
and Director of Orientation; Coordinator of Freshman
Seminar Program
“Several years ago, the library sessions were very informative,
but not very engaging. Recent changes to the library classes
have given the first-year students a more hands-on approach
to learning how to use the library and all of its resources. I
definitely see the students walking away with more useful
and practical information than they did 5 or 6 years ago.
Amanda and Anna Mary have brought a more refreshing
approach to teaching the students about the library. This
makes the library seem a lot less intimidating than it appears
at first glance.”
Brian Root, Freshman Seminar Instructor and
Assistant Director of Housing and Residence Life
“The library session class during freshmen seminar was very helpful in
preparing me for many of my other courses. I didn’t even know about
the databases before that session let alone how to use them. In every
paper I’ve had to write for my composition classes, I have had to access
scholarly journals that I learned about during the library sessions.
Having been through the session as a student and watching other
students take the class as a peer leader for two years, I think the
students are able to take away a lot of useful information that may not
seem useful to them at that time, simply because they haven’t really
had extensive writing and research classes at that point, but in the
long run they are able to utilize the skills taught in the session on
papers and assignments in the future."
Scott Szypulski, Student and Peer Leader
Difficulties and Challenges
 Keeping the mandatory 2 library visits requirement
 Growing international and ESL population
 Lack of engagement in seminars without a peer leader
 Increasing requests for basic composition library
instruction
 Future of the Freshman Seminar program
Questions/Comments?
Your turn to share ideas!
 Does your institution currently have a Freshman
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Seminar/First Year Experience program?
If so, what is the library’s role?
What advice do you have for what works/what doesn’t?
If the library is not involved, could it be? What
approach would you take?
What would you consider essential to include in a
library session(s) for this group of students?
Our contact info:
Anna Mary Williford
Instruction/Public Services Librarian
Millstein Library, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
annamary@pitt.edu
Amanda Folk
Reference/Public Services Librarian
Millstein Library, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
alfolk@pitt.edu