"2.5 times less likely to develop Alzheimer’s"
"...reading reduces stress by 68 percent"
Book and Reading Statistics
Leads to Clarity & Clear Thinking
Opening the Closed Mind: The Effect of Exposure to Literature on the Need for Closure
Be Resourceful
Goal Setting is Linked to Higher Achievement
Builds Resilience
5 Steps to a More Resilient You
I worked as a Research & Instruction Librarian at CWU for about two and a half years. It was my first full-time job out of grad school. In that position, I had faculty status, and part of my professional development involved doing my own research and getting peer-reviewed articles published. For the last such project I undertook at CWU, I teamed up with a couple of my colleagues, Elizabeth Brown and Lauren Wittek. Since we all taught library research skills, both in credit-bearing courses and one-off lectures, we were interested in finding out how much of an impact our teaching, and exposure to library services in general, had on students’ command of these skills over the course of their studies at CWU.
To this end, we sent out a survey to the whole student body. It’s difficult to sum up the results in a paragraph or less, but we did find evidence that students typically had more confidence in their research skills the higher their class standing was. It was hard to tell how much credit we ourselves could claim for that improvement. If nothing else, though, our instruction of first-year students in introductory classes gave them a place to start by demystifying some of the multitudes of resources at their fingertips.
I’ve moved on to other projects here at Big Bend, but Lauren and Elizabeth can use the results of the survey to further develop library programs and services at CWU. This is the nature of academic research – it often does not produce earth-shattering conclusions, but it’s still worthwhile if it produces evidence on which we can base decisions, as well as spur future research, either by ourselves or others who read our work.
I can’t recall a particular “hardest question” I’ve been asked. As a rule, though, the more challenging reference questions are the half-formed ones. Sometimes patrons aren’t really sure what they’re looking for or have a hard time putting it into words. Good reference librarians learn how to help patrons flesh out their research topics/questions, partly by teasing out what the patron really is and isn’t interested in. If you have a choice in the matter, there’s not much point in writing a research paper on something you find boring.
There are many such areas for me. I love history, and there are some historical topics I’m passionate about to the extent that I’ll willingly read dense textbooks on them, such as modern German and Russian history. Partly, I do this to better understand how human societies evolve, rise, fall, and recover; but also because history contains endless stories of triumph and tragedy that can be more thrilling than fiction.
I also have more obscure interests. Since I was a kid, I’ve enjoyed watching hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey. At the moment, I’m obsessed with observing golden eagles, which are much more reclusive than the magnificent baldies I grew up seeing in Western Washington. I use maps and information from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, the Nature Conservancy, and other agencies or organizations to know where to look for them. Watching falconry and rescue videos on YouTube has helped me identify the few goldens I’ve been lucky enough to spot so far.
One of the most interesting books I read in the last couple of years was Lying About Hitler, by Richard J. Evans. It was about a Holocaust denial-centered libel case at which the author, a distinguished British historian, appeared as an expert witness. The testimony of Evans and his fellow historians were critical to winning the case, as it proved both that the plaintiff (writer David Irving) was a Holocaust denier and that there could be no honest, reasonable basis for Holocaust denial. They made a powerful statement about the importance of serious, truth-seeking, evidence-based research.
This book didn’t change me per se, but it confirmed my respect for history as an academic discipline. Before getting my Library & Information Science degree, I earned an MA in History. While I am on a different career path now, I remain proud of that accomplishment.
We chose this as Database as the Month for April as we all have experienced some upheavals that have often left us with more questions than answers. This database indexes and provides OER links to eBooks, and more to support staff, students, and faculty. While these resources can support learning, they may also support online learning components by providing readings on specified topics.
We have listed Faculty Select on the library's website under Databases A-Z under our trial database section.
To find full OER text that is immediately available, select for OER in the limiters on the left. OER books have a link in the record to take you to full-text work.
"To support distance learning at institutions impacted by COVID-19 closures, we have created a simplified version of EBSCO Faculty Select to help faculty easily find Open Educational Resources and DRM-free e-books to support remote classroom needs."
Faculty Select is a single interface where faculty can easily discover and access Open Educational Resources (OER), as well as find and request access to unrestricted, DRM-free e-books from top academic publishers.
With this option, EBSCO is offering a simplified version of Faculty Select that includes access to OER material as well as the option to discover more than 225,000 DRM-free EBSCO eBooks™ in one place, available at no charge for faculty to use through June 30, 2020" -- from Publisher.
OER eBooks:
Crosslin, M. (2018). Creating Online Learning Experiences. Mavs Open Press.
Heikka, J., Hujala, E., Rodd, J., Strehmel, P., & Waniganayake, M. (2019). Leadership in Early Education in Times of Change. Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.3224/84742199
Olmsted, J. (2019). Tools for Podcasting. American University.
Interview with: Sarah Bauer, Chemistry Instructor, Big Bend Community College
I have always really loved learning about the science of just about anything: the science of habit formation, the science of willpower, the science of memory, etc. I love to know the “why?” and the “how do we know that?” about things. My favorite things to read tend to be along these lines: "The Science of..." books. And of course, as a teacher, I have always been interested and in love with learning. The precise moment when I realized that I could merge those two interests into one passion was when I read Teach Students How to Learn by Saundra McGuire. It really inspired me to want to become a resource for students and faculty on learning and I have been captivated ever since.
Oh heavens, I hate being frustrated and I have had to come a LONG WAY in this. In the past, my tolerance for mistakes and frustration was pretty low; it did not take much struggle before I was devastated, probably in tears, and convinced that I couldn't do it and never would. If I stuck with it, I eventually would see progress and feel better and keep going. I've experienced this "despair/elation" cycle enough to realize that the messy "middle act" is part of my journey and I have to accept it and walk through it to get to the part that feels good again. I also read Mindset by Carol Dweck and had to really face the way my mindset and fear of failure were limiting me and also making me rather miserable and obnoxious.
My advice for learners (which is all of us) is going to sound pretty Pollyanna-ish, but I mean it with every atom in my body. (It's also research-based too, of course!):
Remember that mistakes, frustration, and struggle are an absolutely critical part of the learning process. It’s the messy, middle act. They mean you are trying, that you are challenging yourself, and it is frustration that triggers the brain to engage in the hard work of long-term learning. Frustration means you are on the right track.
Probably that I really struggle with imposter syndrome sometimes, with the deep-down feeling like I do not belong here; that I am a fraud, a charlatan, that has tricked everyone into thinking that I am intelligent, that I know things, that I am a good teacher; and the fear then that someday people will figure it out. I’ll do or say something, fail at some project, and everyone will suddenly realize the truth: that I am just a country bumpkin who received free lunch in school and never really left her hometown, who pretends to know things but actually just knows a few things and says them with confidence, who is embarrassingly directionally challenged, cannot remember names to save her life, and really isn’t that special after all.
However, I believe in the importance of wrestling with our demons, naming our struggles, and removing their power by confessing them out loud; and so while I do scuffle with these feelings often, they are not currently winning or defining me. One of my favorite quotes of all time (which I have framed in my office as a reminder) is from the author Neil Gaiman:
"Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realize that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.
On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.”
And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.”
And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.
It reminds me that we are all imposters, which means of course, that none of us really are." (Alan Baxter Tweet)
Everything. Read it all. Read as much and as often as you can. I love audiobooks for this reason so that I can be “reading” while I am driving or cleaning or running. I take breaks from reading too much and am always happy to remember how much I love it when I do again. Here are a few that you must:
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