We Asked, You Responded to Our Survey: Watch for Upcoming Library Faculty Workshops!

Thanks to those who responded to our faculty survey concerning interest about a planned series of librarian-conducted workshop about various aspects of VU Libraries and related technologies. We asked what you thought, and sixty-seven of you gave us some ideas about what you might be interested in learning about. Here is a summary:

Librarians believe that one good way to keep students informed about their academic library is to keep their instructors informed, and our survey results reinforce this concept. Over 95% of the faculty said that they are interested in attending an occasional short workshop conducted by the librarians.

Survey respondents overall appear very receptive to attending an occasional library workshop, and seem mainly interested in emerging technologies (such as tablet PCs) and new programs (such as the iBooks Author). Ebooks and our research databases did not receive quite as much enthusiasm, possibly because many faculty are more familiar with these and librarians have provided significant training opportunities and publicity about these over the past years. Other topics receiving faculty interest ranged from a library research refresher course for what the library offers to students, faculty, and staff to citation styles to anything having to do with new technology. Preferred times to present workshops seem to be primarily VU’s “Holy Hour” (Tuesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to Noon) with the second choice being afternoons (Noon to 5 p.m.).

We appreciate your responses, and always seek feedback from faculty, staff, and students about making your library more relevant and responsive to your needs.