Episode 9 - Learning Resources

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Kendall Speaks podcast. I am Brian Stewart, president of the Kendall campus, and today, Kendyl speaks with our Learning Center. Our guests today include Ms. Jennifer Dipty, Campus Director of Learning Resources. Ms. Meredith Crawl, Associate Director of Learning Resources, Ms. Jennifer Sexton, Faculty librarian and writing coach. Leslie Alfonso. Welcome to the Kendall Podcast. How we doing today? [00:00:28] Speaker B: Wonderful. It's Friday. The sun is shining. Doing well. Thank you for having us. [00:00:33] Speaker A: It's a pleasure to have you here. And, you know, you guys are such a big part of this campus where you work and all the students that participate in your facility. So let's start by getting to know each of you. Jennifer, tell me a little bit about your path to Miami Dade College and how you got to the Kendall campus. [00:00:48] Speaker B: Wonderful. Thank you. So, yes, I'm Jennifer Dipty. I'm the campus Director of Learning Resources here at Kendall, and I say that it's the largest campus at mdc, so it's definitely a point of pride. But my. My journey started in 2011. I started as an associate director, and so I've been here now for 13 years. I've been a campus director now for the last nine years, and so I really much enjoy it. I'm passionate about academic support. My background is in education, and so it's just natural for me to think of pairing students with resources and finding the right tools that they need to succeed. And I think that this role allows me to bridge that gap between technology resources and then the people that need it most, our students, our faculty. And how do we create a space that is welcoming, inviting, accessible, and just creative for students and our campus community to engage with? [00:01:45] Speaker A: Well, I don't think there's any question that the Learning center does that. Where did you go to college? Where did you. [00:01:50] Speaker B: So I joke that if you cut me, I bleed orange and green because I went to University of Miami for my undergrad and my master's and for my specialist degree. So all of them are from the. [00:02:04] Speaker A: U. Undefeated in football at the moment. I think I need to know. [00:02:07] Speaker C: So hopefully I didn't jinx them. [00:02:09] Speaker A: All right, Meredith, tell us about yourself and your journey here to Kendall campus. [00:02:14] Speaker D: My journey is a little long, but I've been here since 2021, and time has flown, so almost four years. But prior to that, I go back in time. So I once upon a time was studying the Victorian novel, and I was teaching at the University of Rhode island, and I was terrible at it, just to be perfectly honest. And so I started tutoring student athletes, and that's kind of what took me into academic support. And I liked working with the students one on one so much that I decided to change my entire career, career path. And I went to work at Daytona State College in their writing lab. And then I moved on to Tulane University where I worked with student athletes for seven and a half years. And what brought me here was opportunity to work in such a wonderful space. When I heard, you know, I got the opportunity to work in a library with so many different resources and so many different levels of academic support. It was just such an amazing opportunity. So, so that's what brought me. [00:03:18] Speaker A: We're glad you found your way from upstate to New Orleans to now Miami Dade. So glad to have you here today, Jenny. Tell us about your background. [00:03:28] Speaker C: Well, I'm, I'm originally from New Haven, Connecticut. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Okay. Now they're up there in the cold. [00:03:32] Speaker C: Weather and I, I went to college at Quinnipiac, which no one ever heard of until they got their polling institute right now. Now everybody started the Quinnipiac poll. They didn't have that when I was there, but I actually did a short stint on the radio station there. So I kind of toyed with the idea of being on the radio. But I majored in math, actually. And when I graduated with a math degree, not knowing what I was going to do with that, I had gotten a job, a part time job. Yes. I'm using my librarian voice. You are? [00:04:04] Speaker A: It's a radio voice, too. It's very deep and very good. [00:04:07] Speaker C: I had gotten a job, a part time job, working in one of the libraries at Yale. It wasn't even really a full fledged library. It was the reading room in the school of Nursing. And the librarian there kind of mentored me. And that's what led to my decision to go to graduate school and get a master's degree in library science. And then for various reasons, I ended up doing that at Florida State. And when I finished there, I had every intention of going back up north. I was applying exclusively for jobs back up in the Northeast. And then one of my professors, my cataloging professor, he handed me an announcement for a position here at the college at North Campus as a cataloger, librarian. So I said, well, but I want to go back up north. And she said, well, it's only a seven month position, it's temporary. Replacing someone who had gone on maternity leave. They used to do that in those days. If you went on maternity leave, they'd hire somebody to replace you temporarily. So I got the job and somehow parlayed seven months into what's coming up on 35 years. [00:05:08] Speaker A: 35 years. [00:05:09] Speaker C: Wow, what a story in some capacity. [00:05:11] Speaker A: Well, we have the math in common. I have three degrees in math. [00:05:14] Speaker C: No kidding? [00:05:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I love math. I'm going to teach math for the first time this spring, provided my boss over there, Christina, lets me. [00:05:21] Speaker B: That's exciting. [00:05:21] Speaker A: But the interesting story, I got my first job teaching math the Friday before classes began on Monday from a math faculty who, because she was pregnant, left. And I got a full time job in one day. And so fast forward to a few years later now here at Miami Dade College. So math is a good degree. [00:05:38] Speaker C: I might end up taking your class because I'm in a year and change. I'm going to retire. And my plan for retiring is to go back and take all my math classes over again because I don't remember any of them. So I'll sign up for your classes. [00:05:51] Speaker A: All right, where do you need to start? You know, which course? [00:05:54] Speaker C: Like arithmetic. [00:05:55] Speaker A: Okay, we can do that. We can do that. All right. Last but not least, our writing coach with us, Leslie, Tell us a little bit about yourself. [00:06:01] Speaker E: Well, funny enough, I was, I think, the only person who was a student. I think, Jenny, you studied here, right? You didn't? Well, here we go. I'm the only person who actually started as a student here in mdc. And funny enough, I started in Hialeah campus where I was born. And originally I was going to be a nurse. You know, my parents really tried to get me on that route. It did not work out because I'm going to be joining Jenny in your math class. [00:06:31] Speaker A: Come on, let's do it. [00:06:32] Speaker E: Math was not very favorable to me, but at the same time, I was actually working at the tutoring lab in Hialeah campus, and I made such great connections there that it really kind of swayed me. And I told my family, I sat them down and I said, I don't think I'm doing nursing. I think I want to get into higher education. And that was a conversation. And I told them, I really, really think I have a future in this. I feel like I have a talent for it. It's easy for me. You know, it felt so natural. And I changed my major and I transferred to fiu. And next thing you know, once I had my bachelor's, I, you know, my director over there said, hey, there's this wonderful opportunity at Kendall. I really encourage you to apply. I think you're ready. And I did. And I got my first full time job at Miami Dade as an associate instructor, actually. [00:07:22] Speaker A: Excellent. [00:07:23] Speaker E: Yes. And a few Years later, suddenly, I became the writing coach. [00:07:26] Speaker A: Well, what's cool, I think, for our audience and our students is each of your path was unique. You know, you may have started in the different ways, but that happens. I think we all need to realize you don't need to know what your major is and what your life's going to be the first day you go to Commerce. That's really good. Well, let's learn a little bit. Executive Producer Paul. [00:07:44] Speaker F: Well, Producer Alex, since we operated from the void again, which means there's a commercial to do, and I found this invitation in my hands asking me to sing at a concert. So I thought I'd get ready. [00:07:54] Speaker G: Wait a minute. Let me see that invitation. [00:07:58] Speaker B: Student lives by. [00:07:59] Speaker G: No, Executive Producer Paul. This is an invitation to attend a. [00:08:03] Speaker B: Concert as an extension of what happens in the classroom. [00:08:06] Speaker F: So I'm not singing, but so I don't need to practice. So I should probably shut up if I'm not singing. What's the point of this event? [00:08:15] Speaker G: Funny you should mention that, Executive Producer Paul, because this event is a program of choral selections composed and arranged by women composers. The event's called Compose Her Concert and it'll be taking place on March 10th at 7:30 in 6120 right here at Kendall Campus. [00:08:31] Speaker B: And lifelong learners. [00:08:32] Speaker F: That does sound good. [00:08:33] Speaker B: We also promise maybe if we don't. [00:08:35] Speaker F: Disappear, we could go. [00:08:38] Speaker G: My arms disappear again. But you, dear students. [00:08:45] Speaker B: Native, you know, Spanish speakers. We've got all of, you know, all disciplines, really. Everybody, Everybody. I'd like to say that we act as a hub, a hub of information, a hub of people. And in essence, we build community with students and with faculty across just an array of different pathways. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that's really important that you talk about what you do in the library. You know, we have 21,000 students this semester. And every time I walk through either the first or second floor, I see such synergy, so many different things going on. And, you know, I think our students need a place to hang out and to study and to be themselves. And I think the library really does a great job with that learning center. [00:09:25] Speaker B: So thank you. Thank you. It's a team effort. You know, we are small but mighty, and we are. We try to be everywhere at every given time. So we really do try and try to make a personalized welcoming space for them. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Very good. Meredith. Let's talk a little bit about the primary services and resources that we offer. [00:09:44] Speaker D: So we have many, but we have librarians available to assist with research, research support, which is something Students struggle with a lot, but they can have one on one appointments with librarians to help them through that process. We have writing tutoring, of course, and Leslie will share more about that. We have workshops even today. We just had a workshop that we did for Stitches on Growth mindset, so that was great. But we also have a lot of fun events, too. And just this past week, we also had our Zombie apocalypse survival challenge, because our goal is really to build community. So whether it's going to be academically or holistically, we're there to help shape that. But we have lots of space for them as well, which you've seen how they use it. We have whiteboards and whiteboard markers. We have private study rooms. We have laptops. So many things they could check out that I don't think they even know about. And I feel like I'm missing things because there's so much. [00:10:56] Speaker A: You have great spaces for students to study and hang out in coves. One of my favorite things I was walking through one day and I think it was our dual enrollment students that were there had one of the whiteboards up and we were talking math earlier, they had calculus on there, and I wanted to just sit down and do math with them. But I love how you can kind of move the space around to meet the need. [00:11:14] Speaker B: We actually started taking photos of them because of the technical content that was up on those whiteboards. We were like, we have to preserve this somehow. We felt horrible just erasing them, you know, and so can't keep them there forever. But we would take some photos because it's incredible the work that you stumble across. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And it might be something we post or something put on some sort of site. So that's really good. Let's talk about academics. You know, we have a lot of academic programs. We pretty much represent the global academic program across the college. What kind of support and growth do you help our students in that area? And Jennifer, you want to start? Meredith, anybody can jump in here. [00:11:51] Speaker B: So academically, from the library perspective, we have our librarians who are, I mean, I want to say top notch when, you know, when they meet with students, they're able to really understand where students are coming from and tailor that experience through informal interviews, you know, that they do at the reference desk. And so my point here is that they are huge on providing research and the right tools and the right resources for students, no matter what the assignment is. Many times they come to us and don't even know where to start. Many times they come to us and they don't even open their syllabus. And so we are from, you know, from ground zero kind of working with them. But as far as navigating the tools and the resources that are available to them, all of which are free, I think is an important point to make. But also for personal growth, I think all of the workshops that we aim to do. So Meredith mentioned this morning we did a growth mindset one, but we also do financial literacy. And you would think that, you know, financial literacy doesn't really fall into the purview of, of libraries, but it really does. And when you start to, you know, help students build that understanding of their finances and how the difference between savings and credit and all of these skills that will help them as adults, you can see how we're kind of empowering and developing skills that they need now, but also in the future. So both academic and kind of personal. [00:13:21] Speaker A: You know, it occurs to me we have all of our athletes, we have our honors college student, our rising scholars, our American dream, our college ready and dual enrollment. Talk about me because I know those different students come in in different ways. How do we help those different types of students in the library? [00:13:36] Speaker B: So our morning, I want to say our morning students usually are our SAS or our school of advancement. [00:13:44] Speaker A: And I didn't even mention them. Thank you for mentioning. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Well, because we already know like between 8:30 and about 10:30 they are just, they're in it, they're here, they, you know, they've either been, they come, their parents bring them and so they have a safe space. But they're all working, they're working in groups and many times they are browsing our collections. We have wonderful special collections available and we've done a really good job of organizing the material. Now where our academic titles are, you know, easily navigated on one side of the library and our popular young adult section, our graphic novels, they're all located on an another side of the library. So it's encouraged a lot of browsing. And so that's kind of what they do a lot in the mornings. They're, they meet with their groups, they start studying, they're prepping for their projects, but they're also taking online classes. And so you'll see if you ever come in the morning, which I know you have seen, they're all logged in to their courses online. So that's, that's a big thing that we've seen with our sas, with our athletic programs. I can let Meredith kind of speak more to that because she liaises with the coaches more than I do. But we offer study hall. [00:14:50] Speaker D: Yes. So we have a space set aside for the teams, and so men's basketball, women's basketball, softball, they're the most frequent users of the space, but they have study hall multiple times a week in the learning commons. So the good thing is then they get to know our staff and they'll come to us for assistance, especially with making tutor appointments. Or sometimes their coaches will reach out and let us know that the student's going to stop by. Can you help them get set up with tutoring? And then we've done workshops for them as well, just personalized for student athletes so that we encompass all of the extra things that they have to do on their plate. And so we get to see them a lot, which is really nice to have them in our space. [00:15:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I've met with each of the teams individually and we've talked about math with them. And I have a number of softball players and baseball players that are coming to my office for math tutoring. So if you ever need me for one of those sessions, I'd be happy to come over there and work with them a little bit. [00:15:47] Speaker D: Yeah, you'll be hearing from him. [00:15:48] Speaker A: Okay, good, good. I know math is a challenge. You kind of mentioned technology. Let's talk a little bit more about how the library stays up with technology. And I'm going to steal one of the stats you guys are going to say, but I'm so proud of this that you told me, I think, a week or so ago, that library book checkout is up 600% right now. And that just blows me away. I'm so proud of that number. We could talk about that too, but you've done a lot of things to keep technology on the forefront of things going on in the learning center. Let's talk a little bit about AI. Anything, anything you want to help. Let our audience know that is available in our learning center. [00:16:25] Speaker B: Thank you. So I want to say that our growth or advances in technology really started in 2020 with the onset of COVID and all of that when we went remote. And so we had to quickly find a way of assisting students virtually. And since then, we have, I want to say, perfected, if anything, I'll put it out there. Perfected the art of helping students virtually with tutoring and with library research assistants. We have two platforms that we use for. For leveraging that environment for students, and they can easily make appointments with us and do drop in as well. So we have both virtual and in person tutoring and research assistants. We also have VR headsets. I'm excited to, to say this because we've, we've had them for a little while, but we've some, some issues with the setup. But they are finally up and ready. They're running. We did our first pilot last week, and it was with the School of Business, the Bit center for Professor Neri Smith's class. And it was just a cool experience to see students immersed in the way that they were for many, which was an interesting, like, we were very shocked. They had not never experienced it before. And so, you know, it was, it was just a very cool experience. And I think that that is one of the advances that we will start to see more of now that professors are learning more about VR and how to integrate that into their curriculum and provide students with that experience. And then the last, I don't dare say last, but one of the more recent ones college wide, is that Learning Resources developed a chatbot and they kind of leveraging AI in figuring out how to help staff, you know, find information and gather information quickly. And eventually I can see that trickling into the student sphere. [00:18:12] Speaker A: That's great. Those are great things that you're doing. Meredith, let's talk a little bit about upcoming developments, you know, things new in the collection spaces or partnerships that you'd like to highlight. [00:18:22] Speaker D: Well, next week we are having our second annual First Generation celebration. All right. We're very excited about it. Monday is the kickoff event in building two, breezeway from 11 to one. And it's going to be really cool. We've put together an experience. Last year we did a theme of a secret garden. And this year's theme, you'll be wowed, I think, when you see it. And the students are right. [00:18:50] Speaker A: They gotta show up. [00:18:50] Speaker E: Yes. [00:18:51] Speaker D: And the students will be really excited. But just some of the activities that they'll get to do while they're there is they're going to be able to plant plants that we've been propagating since the summer so they can plant them and take them home. They're going to be able to build mini terrariums while they interact with the different departments that will be there. They're going to collect little trinkets to put in their terrariums, and there's going to be food and fun and some other exciting things going on. And then the second day is the whole day of fairy tales, which Leslie can share more about. And Wednesday, we're doing a graphic novel panel at 1pm in the library with student voices and how graphic novels have kind of mirrored their journeys as first generation students. And then lastly on Thursday, we're doing a living library where people love that. Yeah. So people will represent books and students and staff and faculty can check out the books and hear their different stories and their journeys. So that we're very excited about. And then we also have coming up International Games Month also in November. So we're going to have lots of cool gaming experiences in the library. And then Leslie will also share about our November writing challenge that's going on. Those are just a few things that we have in the works. [00:20:11] Speaker A: Well, you guys are sort of in the heart of the campus in my opinion. You've done banned books, you've done so many things that I think bring students out and those are some great events. And I just pulled out my phone and it is on my calendar. So I'm looking forward to that next week. [00:20:23] Speaker D: We can't wait to see you there. [00:20:25] Speaker B: I will add one more and I just thought of this. But when we think of our campus community, we talk about our students and our faculty. But coming in December, we have our 10th annual tutor symposium. And that's an opportunity for our tutors and our academic support staff to network, to get together, receive professional development. And that'll be happening at the Homestead campus this year. But I do think it's, it's something worthy of just sharing because we have academic support across all the disciplines. And so it's an invitation really to all of them to participate. It's a great time and I'm sure the others can attest to it. But this is our 10th year so we've figured it out and they really do enjoy it. The feedback is always positive. So just want to. [00:21:11] Speaker A: Very good. I appreciate you mentioning that. Let's turn to Jenny now and let's talk a little bit about the faculty librarian. Talk about what their role is and how they collaborate with professors curriculum and course content. [00:21:23] Speaker C: Well, the librarians, college wide have a liaison program where each librarian is responsible for two or more often several different subject areas. So we contact the faculty in those areas and remind them that we're available for information literacy instruction. We can visit visit their classes and talk to students about specific assignments that they're working on and resources for those assignments. We also encourage faculty to participate in collection development, helping us to develop the library collection. So if you're math, I'm going to be contacting you. [00:22:06] Speaker A: I'm there. [00:22:06] Speaker C: So if faculty have, if there are certain books that they want to recommend that they feel can support their curriculum, we'll acquire those. We can help faculty to identify oer materials, the open educational resources that they can mix and match and incorporate into their materials that they use in the classroom, which helps with textbook affordability and all of that. We have our LibGuide collection. The LibGuides are web based research guides that we can work with faculty to curate resources. And again, those can revolve around a specific course or a specific assignment that students are working on. So if, if you're a faculty member and you want to participate in what we do, you can go to the learning resources homepage. And I think there's under faculty resources and then under collection development, you can see who your liaison is and reach out to that person. Or, you know, you can just talk to a librarian at your campus if you're more comfortable with that, and we can hook you up that way as well. [00:23:09] Speaker A: That's very nice. What about student research? How do you support students who need to do academic research? [00:23:15] Speaker C: Oh, well, let me count the ways. [00:23:17] Speaker A: Okay. [00:23:19] Speaker C: Well, you know, certainly our core service is reference assistance. And there are many ways that students can get in touch with us for that. They can either drop in or they can make appointments with us. If they have a more complicated assignment and need more time one on one with us, they can, we can help them over the phone. We have the. Also, we participate in the statewide Ask a Librarian service, which is actually available more hours than we're open. You know, there are hours on Sundays. It's a statewide thing, so they can ask us questions and we can chat in real time with them. We can initiate a zoom session if we need to share our screen and show them different things. They can also leave messages for us through email or text and you usually within 24 hours, someone gets back to them. Of course we have our collections, our print collections, and our online collections. We have a suite of over 100 different databases. So we help students figure out which ones are the most appropriate to use for their research assignments and help them to evaluate their search results and choose the most appropriate resources for whatever they're working on. We have our Research Thursday series. Every Thursday, Thursday or most Thursdays, a librarian somewhere in the college will get on zoom and present a workshop on something. I did one recently on tips for talking to AI chatbots. [00:24:41] Speaker A: Appropriate. [00:24:42] Speaker C: We have different topics that we focus on to help students. Just a multi pronged approach to helping students navigate this ever changing and often confusing information landscape that we're living in today. [00:24:54] Speaker A: You know, Alex, our producer and I often talk about how much we learn during these. These podcasts. And I didn't know about the statewide library thing on the weekend. That's a really cool thing. That's awesome to hear that because that helps students that maybe don't want to go from 7 to 7 or whatever the hours are. [00:25:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't, off the top of my head, I don't know the hours, but I think they're there until 10pm you know, we're only here until 9, so there, there are extended. Extended hours. And we help students from other institutions as well. [00:25:25] Speaker A: That's amazing. [00:25:38] Speaker G: What are you doing, Executive Producer Paul? [00:25:40] Speaker F: Well, Producer Alex, since we operated from the void again, which means there's a commercial to do, I found this invitation in my hands asking me to sing at a concert. So I thought I'd get ready. [00:25:50] Speaker G: Wait a minute. Let me see that invitation. No, Executive Producer Paul. This is an invitation to attend a concert. [00:25:59] Speaker F: Oh, so I'm not singing? [00:26:02] Speaker G: No. [00:26:02] Speaker F: So I don't need to practice? [00:26:03] Speaker G: No. [00:26:04] Speaker F: So I should probably shut up? [00:26:05] Speaker G: Yes. [00:26:05] Speaker F: Well, if I'm not singing, what's the point of this event? [00:26:08] Speaker G: Funny you should mention that, Executive Producer Paul, because this event is a program of choral selections composed and arranged by women composers. The event's called Compose Her Concert, and it'll be taking place on March 10th at 7:30, 30 in 6120 right here at Kendall Campus. [00:26:23] Speaker F: Ooh, that does sound good. Maybe if we don't disappear, we could go. [00:26:29] Speaker G: My arms disappear again, so. No, but you, dear audience, can go. So go. [00:26:40] Speaker A: You know, I think about our students, and we have such a diverse population of students, and, you know, I often wonder how many of them were in a library like we have, especially in some of their schools and so forth. Talk a little bit about the resources and how you recommend to students how to complete complex research projects, especially students who, you know, maybe don't have the experience of being in a library, especially in high school. Maybe, maybe they didn't have the opportunity that they do here at Miami Dade College. [00:27:10] Speaker C: Yeah, well, as I mentioned, we have all of our. Our databases, over 100 different ones. And they provide access to all kinds of resources. Scholarly articles, streaming video, ebooks for schoolwork, but also ebooks for leisure reading as well. Archival materials, art, images, you know, all kinds of different things. So we recommend databases for students, depending on what kind of research assignment they're working on. But sometimes, you know, if it's a more complex topic, you just need that Google search engine. You need the power of that Google search engine. So we help them Google better. Sometimes we'll talk to them about Google Scholar if they need specifically scholarly materials. And there is a way that you can use Google Scholar kind of in concert with our databases. So if you find something in Google Scholar and you don't have full text access to it for free, there's an easy way to find out if one of our databases provides access for free. And then increasingly, we're guiding students to AI powered research. Tools like Consensus is one that, that we are introducing into our instruction. Lately, the librarian at medical campus, Carla Clark, kind of turned us on to, to that, and it's a stupendous tool for, for finding scholarly articles in particular. So we're starting to experiment with those kinds of tools as well. [00:28:38] Speaker A: Well, thank you, Jenny, for those great questions. Those are some good, good answers. Let's turn to our writing coach, Leslie here, and let's talk about some of the common challenges that students face and what you do to support them to overcome their obstacles and challenges. [00:28:51] Speaker E: Oh, that's, that's a really good one. I really do think that writing is one of these disciplines that it is extra hard to ask for help because it feels like your writing is, you know, your innermost thoughts. [00:29:05] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:29:05] Speaker E: And it's very brave to say I don't know what to write. And I feel like that's the number one challenge we see in the writing lab. They don't even know where to start. Which has led us to another challenge, which is the use of AI to write papers. And the good thing is that I have full confidence in our tutors. And when it started a few years back, they were like, I'm seeing some patterns. I think these are AI and we've. Well, they actually presented in last year's studio symposium on how to approach students how to detect if whether AI was used excessively. [00:29:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:29:43] Speaker E: Because again, that dependency on AI comes from, I think, insecurity about their own writing skills. Instead of reaching out and asking for help, they're like, you know what, let me just put this prompt, let me get a paperback, and let's see how we do. So we really want the writing lab to be a place where they feel comfortable in discussing these things, because if they open up the discussion, if we can kind of crack that shell, that's where we can talk about, you know, the ethics of writing and how important it is not just in college, but writing skills help you throughout life. They go hand in hand with communication. And I think really what we're trying to do is make sure that these challenges that they know everyone's going through them. Even the best writers have editors. Right? [00:30:30] Speaker A: That's right. That's right. [00:30:31] Speaker E: Exactly. And I tell them I considered myself a great writer, and the first time I went to a writing tutor, I was like, oh, they're gonna destroy my paper. [00:30:42] Speaker A: Bring out the red pen. Right? [00:30:43] Speaker E: Yeah. We have no red pens. [00:30:45] Speaker A: Okay, that's good to hear. [00:30:46] Speaker E: We have no red pens. We're making it a very friendly environment. Right. But it's something that. Think of it as someone who is not as formal as your professor. Right. But might be or should be much more knowledgeable about the skill than a friend. So we're in that middle ground where I feel like students who do go to the writing lab, they feel, okay, I can come to this person. They kind of find their tutor. They. They. They hop around a little bit until they find the tutor that's perfect for them, and then they start booking appointments with them because it's. Again, once you kind of reach them, they keep coming back because they're like, okay, you know, this person doesn't judge me. Which, you know, I think that's a big fear in a lot of them. Right. That they're going to be judged. And that's not what we're here for. We all love writing. We want to help them understand that this is a process that goes throughout life. Right. [00:31:38] Speaker A: You mentioned it takes. Takes them a little while to ask for the help. I'm sure our diverse background with all the different cultures also makes it a challenge to encourage those students to come forward. [00:31:48] Speaker E: Definitely. Sometimes we get students, and you can tell that they're very hesitant to even talk to you. And I tell them, I'm like, okay, well, you know, I know Spanish, so if you need a break. And they're like, you do? I'm like, it's okay. You know, we can figure this out together. And I tell them Spanish was my first language. A lot of people don't know that, but that's my native language. And with practice and with a lot of help, I was able to master it as much as I think, you know, the average person can. And that kind of, you know, releases that tension, you know, because, again, it's. It's. It's very scary to admit you don't know any. Exactly something. Right? Yeah. And we really want to make sure that MDC helped me so much when I went to it. It helped me just discover what I loved, who I was. I want them to have as similar of an experience as I did. [00:32:42] Speaker A: That's great. Talk A little bit about what types of writing assistance are available, from essays to creative writing. Talk a little bit about how different types of genres you can help with. [00:32:53] Speaker E: We actually help across all disciplines. So one thing that I see a lot of students think is that, oh, if I'm not in an ENC course, I can't go to the writing lab. And that's not true. We help with any writing assignment. Doesn't matter the discipline. Right. We help in person, but we also help virtually. So while the writing lab is open, we also are open for online appointments, which have, you know, increased in popularity, I think the more comfortable people get with it. And really, we help at any stage. Even if you don't have anything on paper, you can meet with a tutor because sometimes you just kind of need a little bit of a soundboard, Right. To kind of brainstorm someone to pull out all those good ideas. And they can meet with a tutor for that as well. So whether you're in the brainstorming stage, revision stage, if you're kind of lost in organization, all of that is okay. You can come to the writing lab at any point. [00:33:47] Speaker A: That's good. What about any writing workshops or events or resources that are tailored to support our students? [00:33:53] Speaker E: So we actually, well, college wide, kind of like research Thursdays, we have a series called Writing Wednesdays where tutors, writing tutors all across the college present a writing workshop on some topic, whether it can be AI use or something as basic as found or foundational as like thesis statements. Every Wednesday at 12 and 6pm Right. But we also do tailored workshops depending on faculty request or needs that we see in the students. So we actually have. In November. I keep forgetting we're in November. It's crazy. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Gone fast. [00:34:29] Speaker E: Yep, we have. Me and a coworker really were big fans of this national writing contest that happens in November. And we were like, wouldn't it be interesting if we did it on Kendall campus? So we started what we call the Kendall Writing Challenge. So it consists of three workshops throughout the month where students can drop in, get some, you know, polish up some skills with creative writing. And they actually, if they attend, they actually enter a raffle for some gifts. But we want to make sure it's a fun environment because especially creative writing is a tough one. [00:35:01] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:35:02] Speaker E: You know, so we actually are having an event on Tuesday where we're going to kind of teach them. How do you get started with creative writing? What are some tips and tricks using fairy tales, actually, to kind of spark that creativity, using something that everyone knows. Right. Everyone knows a fairy tale. So we're trying to kind of use what we know they are confident in to kind of spark their love of making their own stories. So we do have a lot of continuous workshops, whether they're foundational skills, time management, and writing, all of those things. And if a professor comes up to us and says, hey, my students are having issues with this, we're like, we got it. We'll make a workshop for you. So it's something that's really ongoing, and. And our repository of workshops kind of keeps growing. [00:35:48] Speaker A: Well, and this podcast is an opportunity for students that are listening and even faculty to come to you and say, hey, here's an idea for writing. And so hopefully any of our audience that has ideas, we're open to those, are we not? [00:35:59] Speaker E: 100%. I love them. [00:36:01] Speaker A: Well, thank you, Leslie, for telling us about the writing center. Let's turn back to director Dipty here on the next question. Jennifer, what are some of the future goals or initiatives that the library has in mind to enhance student learning and engagement? [00:36:15] Speaker B: So, at MDC Learning Resources, our future goals on pretty much are on expanding our digital digital resources. Creating more interactive and collaborative study spaces is always on point. As our students change, so do the spaces, and so do the environments. And introducing, as you mentioned, the workshops, very specialized workshops to support student success. So we're always looking to leverage new ideas, new disciplines, cover different topics, and something that we are always keeping an eye out for are seeking grant opportunities. It's a wonderful way for us to expand our reach, our resources, and not necessarily take a toll on the college resources. So one in particular that we just started kind of reviewing a little bit is the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Service. And that would be a really cool experience for students to kind of apply for that and bring those traveling exhibits to the campus. So that's one. [00:37:11] Speaker A: But we also Standing idea. I love that. [00:37:13] Speaker B: Right. And, you know, how often will students, let's say, be able to go visit the Smithsonian, but if we can give them a taste of that here at, you know, MDC Kendall Campus, that would be awesome. [00:37:24] Speaker A: And that's what's so great about our learning centers. We have space to do that, and I love that idea. I hope that comes to fruition. [00:37:31] Speaker B: Me too. From your mouth to their ears, but yes. So just looking at different partnerships, traveling exhibits, grant opportunities, we. That's how we actually started the First Gen initiative. We wrote a grant for naspa, and it was awarded last year. And so based on the success of that, we continued it this year. And you know, we're just always keeping an eye out there for, for grant opportunities. [00:37:59] Speaker A: What about any upcoming programs or changes that you'd like to talk about that are coming? [00:38:04] Speaker B: So, you know, changes. Well, not so much a change, but an offering, an opportunity that actually is hot off the press. So I just got notice of it this week is a partnership between Learning Resources and the BIT Center. We collaborated. We collaborated on the President's Innovation Lab Fellow program and we just got awarded. We got noticed that we were awarded as fellows. So we're going to. Thank you. Thank you. So we're going to go into this joint effort together and try to come up with something just innovative and very cool and a great partnership of resources and community reach through the BIT Center. So I can't give too much on it yet because part of the. We're full of secrets here. Part of the process is to work together and almost do a design thinking towards this project. So you don't really have an end project in mind. We just kind of going to put things together and see where that takes us through mentorship and different opportunities. [00:39:03] Speaker A: That's great. That's important. Meredith, tell me one thing you want every student to know about our library. Is there any secret that, you know, secret sauce that would help them? [00:39:13] Speaker D: There's many, but one of them is if they want a book and we do not have it, they could. We have a box and they just can come and write down what that book is and we will buy it and add it to our collection. So that is one thing. And what a lot of students don't realize is a lot of those popular books that they want at the library, the public libraries, we have a much shorter waiting list. So if they're looking for a specific popular book, we probably have it. [00:39:46] Speaker A: Not to put you on the spot, but have we ever thought about book clubs? Do we ever have any book clubs that we might. Go ahead, Leslie. [00:39:53] Speaker E: So actually, I was approached a couple years ago because some students really wanted a book club and they needed an advisor. And I said, say no more. And we actually, it's called the Readers alliance and they're a student book club where they. Their main purpose is to promote literacy, right. As well as share their. Their opinions on books that they read. So there, there is such. I think it continues to grow, this interest in books, right. Especially with things like Book Talk. We hear about it all the time, this increase in library loans. So even when I'm speaking to the members who are huge fans of literature, they're just like, can we get this, and I'm like, this library is yours. So, yes, we want you to make this library your own. [00:40:44] Speaker A: So I'm thinking a future podcast might be on that. So be ready. You might have to call on that last question, Meredith. How can students and faculty make the most of the library resources in services throughout the semester? Any tips you'd like to give them. [00:40:58] Speaker D: Just come in and talk to us. Because like we said, if you want a book, we'll get it for you. If you want a workshop on a specific topic, we will build it for you. So we are here to serve them. They really can make an impact on what we can offer them, the students and the faculty. So they just need to talk to us, and we will do it for them. [00:41:19] Speaker A: That's a great answer. And, you know, I should have probably asked this question first, but what are our library hours? Let's tell our audience when we're open and all those kind of details. [00:41:28] Speaker D: So we are open Monday through Thursday from 7:30 in the morning till 9 at night, and Fridays from 7:30 till 5, and Saturdays, we're also here from 8 to 1. [00:41:40] Speaker A: Okay, wonderful, wonderful. Well, ladies, I appreciate you being here today. One of the things we like to do is to turn the microphone around to you guys to ask me anything you'd like. So anybody want to ask me a question? [00:41:53] Speaker E: Well, since I'm like, the designated book club person, I think I need to know, what's your favorite book? [00:41:59] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Well, I would say the book Inside the Magic Kingdom by Disney would be one of them. Right now I'm reading a book on cycling, professional cycling that I was reading this week. I also have another book that we're reading as a team called the Ideal Teammate. And I have a couple other books. We're getting ready to go on vacation. Beartown. You've heard of that book? I'm reading the sequel to that. But I'm waiting. Over Thanksgiving, we're taking a family vacation, so I'm going to start that book on there. So I have a number of books that I'm in the process of getting through. [00:42:34] Speaker E: A man of many interests. That's wonderful. [00:42:36] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:42:37] Speaker D: Have tissues handy for bear to me. [00:42:39] Speaker A: Oh, don't tell me that the first one. The first one was something else. So maybe that's a book club. That's a book club discussion there. All right. Well, ladies, anything else you want to ask? Or is that it for today? [00:42:50] Speaker C: You like graphic novels? [00:42:52] Speaker A: So my wife is an English teacher, and actually she's opened a new school and she is big on young adult novels, so that's why I'm reading Beartown. So there's several books I've read that she kind of passes down, and she kind of wants to have a book club with me. But I kind of have different tastes on books sometimes. But, yes, I do. I'm open to book, good books. [00:43:12] Speaker C: And we have a huge graphic novel collection. [00:43:14] Speaker A: Okay. [00:43:14] Speaker C: And growing. [00:43:15] Speaker A: Good. Well, I want to thank you ladies for being here today. Today we had Jennifer, Meredith, Jenny, and Leslie. Thank you so much for this great conversation. It's been great to get to know our learning center and everything that's going on. I hope our audience enjoys it. I want to thank Christina Signs, our head writer, Paul Klein, our executive producer, and Alex Bellows, our producer. Thank you all for being here today, and goodbye for now.