title: Becoming a “Student Ready” Library: A Conceptual Framework for Engaging the Library in Student Success
Creators: name: Sweetman, Kimberly
name: Carroll, Jennifer
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
subject: Library and Information Science

description: There is currently a lot of emphasis in higher education on accessibility, student success, and retention and as librarians, we know the library plays an important role in these initiatives. We have always understood how integral we are, but we still struggle with helping other areas of campus to understand our unique role and how it complements theirs. To focus our work while also connecting it more closely with other student success initiatives on campus, we have applied a framework that is under discussion for higher education in general, the "Student Ready College," to the library setting in particular. A student ready college is one that makes the campus ready to meet students where they are rather than focusing on incoming students being ready for the college experience. This includes making the campus easy to navigate, making systems transparent, providing welcoming environments and fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment by removing barriers to success. We believe framing the work of libraries to become more inclusive, barrier free contributors to student success as the work of becoming "Student Ready" will move us forward, challenging us to critically assess internal library structures while also facilitating engagement with campus collaborators and ultimately leading to greater success for our students. Our interactive poster will share this conceptual framework for making the academic library accessible to all students. Takeaways will include what it means to be a student-ready campus, what it means to be a student ready library and steps that any library can take to make them more student ready. We will also create space for our audience to add to the conversation by sharing their own initiatives and describing how they move us forward.
description: There is currently a lot of emphasis in higher education on accessibility, student success, and retention and as librarians, we know the library plays an important role in these initiatives. We have always understood how integral we are, but we still struggle with helping other areas of campus to understand our unique role and how it complements theirs. To focus our work while also connecting it more closely with other student success initiatives on campus, we have applied a framework that is under discussion for higher education in general, the "Student Ready College," to the library setting in particular. A student ready college is one that makes the campus ready to meet students where they are rather than focusing on incoming students being ready for the college experience. This includes making the campus easy to navigate, making systems transparent, providing welcoming environments and fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment by removing barriers to success. We believe framing the work of libraries to become more inclusive, barrier free contributors to student success as the work of becoming "Student Ready" will move us forward, challenging us to critically assess internal library structures while also facilitating engagement with campus collaborators and ultimately leading to greater success for our students. Our interactive poster will share this conceptual framework for making the academic library accessible to all students. Takeaways will include what it means to be a student-ready campus, what it means to be a student ready library and steps that any library can take to make them more student ready. We will also create space for our audience to add to the conversation by sharing their own initiatives and describing how they move us forward.