1. Library Referral System
Ingrid Purrenhage – Pasco-Hernando State College
NCLA College and University Section Virtual Conference

2. Background Pasco-Hernando State College institution-wide focus on:
Retention
Completion
Student success
Retention Behavior Inventory (RBI) meetings set up to share retention data
Focus on top 9 most failed courses: 4 mathematics courses, Micro Applications, Intro to Psychology, English Comp. I, plus developmental Reading and Writing.
Faculty Alert System for those courses only

3. Problem
Library not included in any of the retention / completion strategies
Faculty Alert System for those 9 courses ONLY
Only two courses likely to refer students to the library for research / citation help

4. Solution Library Referral System Any faculty member can use
Works on any campus or online class
Allows Library to work with students whom faculty identify as needing specific help
Two parts:
Part one: Form faculty members use to refer specific students
Part two: Library Referral Course – used for librarians to work with referred students

5. Library Referral System Form
Created in Google Forms
Any faculty member can use
Works on any campus or online class
Embedded in LibGuide for custom URL
Tested with small group of faculty
All librarians have access to form and can set up notification to

6. Library Referral System Course
Created in Canvas
Librarians put students into course
Course “content” to provide starting point in helping students with common issues
Use course features to work with students
Course messaging
Collaborate
chat

7. Results
Music Appreciation Instructor at our West Campus referred some students
Humanities Instructor at our Porter Campus referred several students
Most students ended up coming into the library to meet with a librarian.
None really needed the “content” in the course, but it was available to them.
The initial contact via course messaging usually contained some reference guidance to get them started.
Some students never responded
In all cases, the faculty member was sent a follow-up to explain what we had done, or that the student never responded.

8. Data: courses
There were two faculty members who used the service in the first semester. They represented a Music Appreciation course and several Humanities courses.

9. Data: campus
The referrals came from two campuses, West Campus and Porter Campus.

10. Data: reason Most of the referrals were for:
Needs help finding scholarly sources (90%)
Needs General Research Help (80%)

11. Data Google forms generates several nice graphs
Data is sent to spreadsheet so easy to customize data into your own charts
Spreadsheet used to add Librarian Notes
Spreadsheet easiest view for librarians to see who needs to respond (which campus)

12. Spreadsheet

13. Marketing
Work with our Academic Technology Department to put out Announcements for faculty in Canvas.
Presented information on this new system at EduTech – a faculty continuing education opportunity put on by our Academic Technology Department at the end of each Spring Semester.
Flyers for all faculty on campus and present at campus Adjunct / Faculty meetings as able to – (each Associate Director takes care of their campus).

14. Takeaways Need to continue to remind faculty that this is available
Faculty who have used the system are happy with it
Even if the student doesn’t respond right away, at least they know that the library exists and is trying to help them.
Every time a student is referred and comes in, even if it is a simple matter, they now have had personal contact with the library and librarians and hopefully will feel more comfortable in the future asking for help.
Responding promptly and providing feedback to instructors is important – allows them the options of offering extra credit, or adjusting grades based on whether a student took advantage of all help offered or ignored it.
Responding with follow-up to faculty builds rapport with faculty

15. Thank You
Questions?