Presentation Title: Building a College-Going Culture with Libraries
Presenter(s): Allison Law
Abstract: In INFO 200 Information Communities, I chose to research the community of college-bound high school students. My blog posts and assignments throughout the course culminated into a final paper which proposed a LIS framework that expands on Hossler and Gallagher’s College Choice Model by applying Dresang’s Radical Change Theory and Kuhlthau’s Information Seeking Process (ISP) Model. Using this LIS college-bound framework, I explored the information behaviors and needs of digital age youths when seeking college information, and I addressed Social Capital inequalities as one explanation for racial and socioeconomic differences in college information access. With this understanding, my final paper discussed three ways in which library information professionals could support college-bound high school students. For this presentation, I will summarize my research paper and focus on one of the solutions discussed–involving libraries in building a College-Going Culture for their community. Some library programming and services will be suggested for consideration. I hope to inspire library information professionals to adapt these ideas and learnings to better serve their specific communities of college-bound high school students.
Link to Recorded Presentation: https://youtu.be/ZaMzyrdMRM8
Fantastic job Allison! I love the idea of establishing a buddy program between high school students and college students to gain insight on what to expect in college. I also like the Metaverse and having a virtual college office available to students.
Hi Lilia, thank you for your comments! I think there could be many different settings for potential buddy programs, including high school libraries collaborating with the alumni association, as well as public libraries recruiting college student volunteers in the community. Thanks for watching!
This is a great presentation Allison! I was thinking about your research on “social capital”, and it’s applicability towards the situation of patrons who are incarcerated. Thank you for introducing me to that theory.
Hi Cybele, thank you! I agree with you that social capital inequalities might be applied to those incarcerated. Perhaps there are also opportunities for prison libraries to create a college-going culture, for both incarcerated youths and adults. That could be an area for further research on this topic. Thank you for your thoughts!
Great presentation! I love your suggestion of a buddy and mentorship program to help create a college going culture.
Hi Joy, thank you so much! Buddy and mentorship programs are wonderful ways to connect people together and build social capital for the college-bound.
Hi Allison! Thank you for your presentation and insights into the information needs for the information community of college-bound high school students. I appreciated your inclusion of actual student statements, and the ideas you presented for encouraging a college-going culture.
I worked with a TRIO Upward Bound department and library at a community college last year to encourage early college skills for high school students that focused on improving their understanding of finding information, evaluating sources, and conducting research both in and outside of the library. May I share your presentation with some of the folks I worked with? I think your insights would help inform their processes for future summer programs!
Hi Ashley, I am delighted to hear that you worked with these organizations for this very information community. Thank you for your comments!
Please feel free to share this video presentation. The slides are also publicly available as a PDF at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rnAxQSbuk_S-OFxR4DTOfGB-r0gyASmj/view?usp=sharing