25 August - Adviser Update

Advisor packets will be delivered to the departments on Friday, August 26 at 9:30 A.M.

For the advisor-advisee meeting on Tuesday, August 30 at 2:30 P.M. you should have received in your packet a printed schedule of classes for all new students who have pre-registered for the Fall 2005 Semester. If the students do not need an individual appointment with you to change their classes, please initial the schedule and give it to the student. These students will complete the registration process with their orientation club. If the student would like to make a schedule change you may assign them an appointment time on one of the extra appointment cards included in your packet.

Registration will be held in the Olson Forum on August 30 at 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. and August 31 at 8:30 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. Please note this is a change from the academic calendar printed in the catalog.

Hopefully, these changes will continue to improve the registration and new student orientation process. If you have any questions please contact the Registrar's Office at 299-3250.

Thank you. I am looking forward to working with you during the 2005-2006 academic year.

Carole Stalheim Registrar

17 August - Library information

Dear faculty,

Greetings from the library! Please see the attached document for exciting opportunities for your students.

Many of us have read articles and heard presentations lamenting the preparedness of incoming students to engage in the research process. Although our students are familiar with a number if "high tech" information-gathering tools, their ability to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate information sources is lacking. As Patricia Breivik notes, "it has become one of educations' greatest challenges to teach students the skills needed to test the reliability, currency, and relevance of the information they find." (Breivik 22) Librarians at Concordia hope to work with you throughout our students' college careers to address these challenges.

As you begin planning your syllabi, I invite you to include the following information literacy opportunities for your students:

Library Orientation Workshops. The library will offer introductory library workshops September 14-16 and 19-23. The Reference staff will ask students to sign up during registration, but we hope you will help us catch those students we miss. If you have first-year students or transfer students who do not sign up at registration, please send them to the Reference Services Desk in the library to sign up for a session. Please note that these workshops are useful for any students who are new to campus!

What are library orientation workshops? These workshops are a great opportunity for students to meet librarians and to do some introductory work with the library resources they will need to use during the next four years. Students will be given a brief tour of the library building and then will complete a mini research project. They will use the library catalog to find a book, meet with a Reference librarian to learn about services, use the Academic Search Premier database to find an article, and visit with a librarian. After completing these activities, students will fill out a brief post-test. Results of this test will be available to you by request. If you would like to know which of your students have attended an orientation session, please forward your class list to me (rux@cord.edu or through campus mail) and I will send you their post-test scores.

We sincerely appreciate your support! Without your encouragement, we know many students may think this time at the library is not well spent. However, with recent changes to our workshop format, orientations are an important and fun learning opportunity. (Yes, several students actually admitted to enjoying their hour in the library last fall!) Why not require attendance and boost your students' ability to use the library effectively? We think you'll enjoy grading their improved work.

Course Specific Research Assistance. If you teach a course that requires your students to use the library, your liaison librarian is eager to help you! By collaborating, we can help our students meet your disciplinary learner outcomes while infusing essential information literacy learner outcomes. As Breivik points out, "the single most effective way to increase library use is for faculty to create assignments that require thoughtful use of library resources and services." (Breivik 25) Librarians can suggest simple ways to maximize research skills already embedded in the assignments you use or help you to create new projects of any size. We are also happy to meet with your students to teach the effective use of library resources. Please call or email your liaison librarian with questions or to schedule your library session.

We look forward to working with you and your students!

Sincerely, Erika Rux, Chair of Library Instruction Phone: 299-3904 Email: rux@cord.edu

Liaison Librarians

Arts and Humanities Division: Amy Soma 299-4937 soma@cord.edu; Alec Sonsteby 299-3237 sonsteby@cord.edu

Natural Sciences and Mathematics Division: Theresa Borchert 299-3235 borchert@cord.edu; Erika Rux 299-3904 rux@cord.edu

Literatures, Languages and Cultures Division: Molly Flaspohler 299-4643 mflaspoh@cord.edu; 

Social Sciences and Professional Disciplines Division: Connie Jones 299-3238 cjones@cord.edu; Amy Soma 299-4937 soma@cord.edu

Core and Integrative Studies Division: Erika Rux 299-3904 rux@cord.edu 

Resources Breivik, Patricia Senn. "21st Century Learning and Information Literacy." Change. Mar./Apr. 2005: 21-27.