• QuestionPoint provides excellent statistical reporting capabilities.
• Demand for digital reference services varies significantly throughout the week, suggesting the potential for an asymmetrical staffing model.
• Users requested chat reference sessions more frequently than they submitted email reference questions.
• Our chat reference staff are able to handle only 36% of the chat sessions requested by our users, which is in line with the other AskMN academic libraries. This highlights the benefit of having the cooperative provide back-up during hours we are not available.
• Satisfaction levels are high among Chat users who respond to our post-chat survey.

1. A large majority of U of M respondents reported they most frequently used course readings (96%), search engines such as Google (91%), and scholarly research databases (86%) for course-related research.
2. When U of M respondents were faced with evaluating Web sites they had collected for their course-related research, three-fourths "almost always" or "often" considered the currency of a Web site (74%), the Web site's URL and what it might mean about the origins of information (74%), and the author's credentials, if they were provided (73%).
3. Students reported having three frequent difficulties during the entire course-related research process, from researching to writing, that included : (1) getting started on an assignment (86%), (2) defining a topic (66%) and (3) narrowing down a topic (60%).
4. Over half reported they used certain course related research practices, routines, and techniques from one course-related research assignment to the next one.
5. They also reported using practices and routines for the information gathering part of course-related research--but these were fewer than the practices that the sample used for writing papers. Respondents reported included using a system for organizing the information they found along the way (41%), figuring out search terms to use early on (31%), and developing an overall research plan to guide the process (29%).

The Libraries partnered with the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence and the SMART Learning Commons to provide the Peer Research Consultant Program, targeted to support First Year Writing students and MCAE program and scholarship students. Peer Research Consultants undergo a rigorous training to develop skills in information literacy, tutoring and cultural
competency. They met with approximately 100 students over the course of the 2009-2010 academic year and received high
praise from both students and instructors.

Libraries Media Services continued to develop strong, integrated, production support infrastructure
between the classroom and the SMART Learning Commons.  This academic year Libraries Media Services reached over 600 students in formal outreach that supported student-produced media projects, including documentaries highlighting critical international issues, public service announcements on health topics, personal digital stories on water sustainability, and videos to promote awareness of sustainable food organizations in the City of Minneapolis.  Formal outreach services included faculty consultations on developing effective student media projects (often in collaboration with campus educational technologists and the Digital Media Center), class visits discussing research, access to production resources (e.g. cameras), on-demand student production support in the SMART Commons, and follow up assessment. 

Bonus material:
Many of the student-produced media projects are conducted in groups using production facilities in the SMART Learning Commons.  Several higher level pedagogical objectives are met during the group process.  Assessment from PSTL 1135 is used here as an illustration:
1 -  Students appeared to be promoting each others success, the group work emphasized teamwork skills, there was both group and individual accountability and (most importantly) there is high positive interdependence. Effective collaborative groups work together to make each individual smarter and the team working together makes everyone accountable for their actions. Effective collaborative work is research-proven to be more effective than working individually.
2 - The groups fostered a social atmosphere and students get to know one another.  Students who feel comfortable - form positive relationships -- and not as an island in the classroom are proven to be better students who can achieve higher outcomes that in independent situations.
3 -  Both in having to apply anatomy/physiology problems and describe them in a new way (ie. through video) the group members all climbed quickly on Bloom's Taxonomy of learning and on its companion "new" version the Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. This not only refers to the curricular outcomes, but also in digital literacies. Having to explain, articulate aloud or create a script and video of their version of a function is extremely high up on these taxonomies.
4 - Putting the videos into a short timeframe and with a task that is doable is required in effective group learning situations. Breaking their videos down required them to think about key bullet points in the function they were describing. It made them find the most important aspects and demonstrate them rather than drag it on.
5 - Sharing group projects supported accountability and fostered class promotion of each other's learning. Students shared their videos on Youtube and 	linked to them on a class page created on Facebook. Class work was drawn outside the classroom in this way as a demonstration that learning went beyond the lecture and beyond the classroom.

New staff awards received.  

Technology Librarian, Cody Hanson, was one of two early-career librarians sponsored by the national Library Information Technology Association to participate in the American Library Association's 2010 Emerging Leaders program.

American Indian Studies Liaison, Jody Gray, was recognized by the American Indian Student Cultural Center as a women of the community who has "displayed outstanding achievements" and was honored at the Center's Honoring Native Women Luncheon in December 2009.

Advances or contributions to intercollege and transcollege/interdisciplinary teaching and research.

Technology Librarian, Cody Hanson, co-taught with Digital Media Center staff two semester long programs called the Educational Technology Workshop.  
Geared to educational technologists across campus, the program covered a wide range of new and relevant technologies that support teaching and research.


Administrative efficiencies, service improvements achieved, and specific cost savings.

Students, faculty, and staff can now get their questions answered by the Libraries whenever they have them - 7 days a week, 24 hours a day -  at no additional cost to the Libraries through a cooperative arrangement with peer institutions around the country facilitated through MINITEX. This program has more than quadrupled the hours per week during which our users can receive live online research assistance (from 30 hours a week to 168 hours a week).  This averages to a FTE savings of over xxx a year.  [Karen, if you want to use this last sentence let me know and I'll figure it out.]


Definition of how you measure success and performance in the Libraries. 

Following their chat reference interaction with the Libraries, 159 users responded to a survey distributed during the 2009 fall semester.
87% of respondents said they would recommend the service to others and 91% said they would use the service again.  



International programming activity.
The Libraries' Diversity Outreach Collaborative worked with the Office for Measurement Services to deliver a survey to all international graduate and professional school students in March.  Although results are still being analyzed, we anticipate that the survey will help the Libraries understand how this population receives information about the Libraries when they arrive at the University of Minnesota and how they characterize their interactions with the Libraries.