HIGH POINT, N.C., June 14, 2012 – Amy Chadwell, lead librarian for the UC Learning Commons at High Point University, and Kathy Shields, head of reference and instruction at Smith Library, recently published an article, titled “Free Tech Tools That Enhance Library Instruction” in “Virginia Libraries.”
The library journal is published by the Virginia Library Association. The two staff members co-wrote the article with Jennifer Whicker, a librarian at Radford University, which describes nine free online tools that can be used in both library and classroom instruction.
The featured tools included Google Docs, Evernote, Prezi, and Jing, as well as other tools that HPU Librarians have been exploring and implementing to facilitate success for students in their research and academic projects.
“As librarians, we are constantly looking for ways to improve what we can offer. Interactive instruction sessions are more interesting and engaging for students and for us, and we have incorporated several of these tools – PollEverywhere, Lino, Prezi, Mindomo, and Bubbl.us – into our library instruction toolkit to do just that,” says Chadwell.
In addition to making sessions more interactive, Shields says that tools like PollEverywhere also allow them to do real-time assessment of what students are learning in the session.
The article was actually the result of a presentation that Chadwell, Shields, and Whicker gave at the Virginia Library Association Conference in October 2011.
“The presentation was extremely well-attended, and we were approached by the editor of “Virginia Libraries” after our presentation and asked if we would be willing to turn it into an article,” Shields says. The authors worked together over the next few months and the article appeared in the January/February/March 2012 issue of the journal.
“By writing this article we have also gained regional attention from other university libraries for the type of cutting edge service we are dedicated to at HPU Libraries,” says Chadwell. “We presented this conference and article in an effort to share with other librarians the kinds of tools they might not be aware of, and also to outline for our students and faculty some of the exciting things we are doing at the library.”
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people.℠ HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with over 4,200 undergraduate and graduate students at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report at No. 3 among Regional Colleges in the South. Parade Magazine lists HPU in the top 25 private schools in the nation. HPU was selected in the 2010-2011 list of “Colleges of Distinction,” as well as one of the top green schools in the country by the Sierra Club. The university offers 44 undergraduate majors, 40 undergraduate minors and 10 graduate degree programs. It is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at highpoint.edu.
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Pam Haynes
Communication Specialist
336-841-9055
[email protected]