Henderson Library Team Selected for AiA Learning Community

May 2, 2014

The Association of College and Research Libraries has selected Georgia Southern University, Zach S. Henderson Library, to participate in the Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success program. Seventy-three institutional teams will participate in the second year of its program.

“This is a very prestigious honor for the Henderson Library to be selected for participating in the second round of the Assessment in Action program,” said Sonya Shepard, library assessment officer and Henderson Library AiA librarian team leader. “Participating in the AiA program provides national recognition to Georgia Southern and the Henderson Library team in regards to our library assessment efforts.” The library team is comprised of Shepherd, Steven Engel, honors program director, Steven Burrell, vice president for Instructional Technology and chief information officer and Michael Jordan, associate director of Assessment. “Our application was not successful in the first year, but in this second year of the project we were accepted,” said Bede Mitchell, dean of the Library. “There are no more pressing concerns in academic librarianship than measuring and demonstrating the value of academic libraries to higher education, this is a highly sought opportunity.” Over the next 14 months, the Henderson Library team will examine the relationship between library usage among freshmen students enrolled in Freshman Seminar, Composition I, and Composition II, and their GPA and retention. Library utilization includes database usage, computer logins, Interlibrary Loan and GIL Express (book sharing) and online and print book checkouts. The program is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and carried out in partnership with the Association for Institutional Research and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The teams, representing all types of institutions, come from 34 states and one Canadian province. For a list of currently confirmed institutions, visit the AiA program website.