Braided Streams: Collections, Connections and Information Literacy in Asian Studies

1. Braided Streams:Collections, Connections and Information Literacy in Asian Studies Kris MacPherson and Yunshan Ye St. Olaf College 9 April 2005

2. Today’s Agenda Asian Studies and the Library at liberal arts colleges: • Collaboration • Collection Development • Information Literacy • Curriculum development

3. The Context: East Asian Studies and East Asian Librarianship • Intellectual context • Material context

4. The Project: Collaborative East Asian Studies Collection Development at the Three College Libraries • Build strong English language Collections • Build core East Asian language collections • Provide access to resources beyond library collections

5. Teaching Methodologies and Strategies for Accessing this Wealth of Material

6. Activity at the national level: • Cathy Chiu, UC Santa Barbara, and CEAL Librarians • Zhijia Shen and Keith Gresham, UC Boulder • Hua Yi, CSU San Marcos • Alban Kojima, University of Pennsylvania • Sharon Domier, U Mass Amherst and 4 other colleges • NCC on Japanese Language Resources

7. St. Olaf Context • Reference and instruction librarian with Asian Studies background since 1982 • An inclusive, collaborative department • Long tradition of assignment-specific, course-integrated instruction, particularly with first years and seniors • Need for focus time to evaluate and revise program

8. The Stimulus • Our own frustrations • Consultants confirmation • Freeman Grant librarian focus on collection and services overall • Mellon/ACM monies

9. Actions • Common readings • Goal setting • Our own competency standards for StO students • Sequential approach • Assignments coordinated

10. Concepts Rubric • Course Level • Concept • Resource • Assignments in which concepts are covered

11. Concepts Rubric – non ACRL • Distinguish between and understand limits and values of different genres (scholarly, journalistic, fictional literature and memoirs) • Use digital image collections • Send email in Chinese or Japanese • Identify theoretical perspectives within materials (feminist, Marxist, etc.)

12. Assignment Rubric • Class in which covered • Assignment Title • Assignment Description • Concepts Covered • Assignment format

13. Challenges • A multitude of entry points for the major • Students abroad for intermediate level courses • Seniors unprepared for research – bibliographically and disciplinarily

14. How do research methods show up in the curriculum of other undergraduate programs?

15. Using a disciplinary focus : • University of Wisconsin— Madison, major in Asian Studies • Requires eight credits in one discipline and a senior thesis • http://www.wisc.edu/pubs/ug/10lettsci/depts/asian.html • University of California-Berkeley: Group in Asian Studies, Undergraduate program • “Two courses must be in the same discipline. One of the two must be a course whose primary purpose is to introduce the theories and methods of the discipline.” • http://ieas.berkeley.edu/gas/undergrad_program.html

16. Using a disciplinary focus • Macalester College, major in Asian Studies • Requires six courses in a single discipline (not necessarily focused on Asia) plus a senior seminar or independent research project • http://www.macalester.edu/academic/catalog/program/ • asi_m.html • Colorado College, major in Asian Studies • Requires one advanced disciplinary methods course outside Asian Studies plus a senior seminar • http://www.colorado.edu/ealc/aprg.html

17. Using a research methods course • Bryn Mawr College, major in East Asian Studies • Requires a sophomore seminar on approaches and methods plus a senior thematic seminar • http://www.brynmawr.edu/eastasian/courses.html • Victoria University (Australia), major in Asian Studies • Offers a course on social science methods: Research methods and techniques in Asian Studies • http://www.vu.edu.au/Faculties/Arts/Undergraduate_Courses/Asian_Studies/ • University of Albany, major in East Asian Studies • Offers “East Asian Research and Bibliographic Methods” • http://www.albany.edu/eas/205/syllabus%202004.htm

18. St. Olaf CollegeOur Course for Majors • “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Asia” • Aimed at sophomores and juniors • 1.5 hour class; once a week

19. Course Goals • To introduce majors to the interdisciplinary nature of the field and to provide preparation for the senior seminar, including research methods • To provide a grounding in the approaches different disciplines make to a common body of knowledge • To introduce the professional field of Asian Studies and suggest possible career paths

20. Asian Studies 275: Course Content

21. Introductory Issues • Disciplinary and interdisciplinary: What's all the fuss? • Asian Studies as a field of study: History, current status, future, as experienced at St. Olaf • Introduction to the common topic: Great Wall of China and Japanese anime

22. The Great Wall and Anime: Faculty Presentations • Questions from the disciplines • History, Literature, Religious Studies • Economics, Political Science, • Socio-linguistics • Fine Arts • Sciences • Interdisciplinary Approaches

23. Resources in Asian Studies: • Encyclopedias, annual reviews, statistical sources, bibliographies and catalogs in English and CJK, biographical materials • Databases, Newspapers, Journals, Review sources • Citation indexes • Websites and digital image collections with a quick refresher on evaluating websites

24. Presentation skills • EndNote • Web portfolios • Advanced PowerPoint

25. Joining the scholarly conversation in Asian Studies AAS and the Newsletter H-Asia Asia-Network, etc.; Grants and other opportunities for undergraduate and graduate work: Rotary, Fulbright, Freeman, etc.

26. Career Paths • for Asian Studies Majors, Concentrators or Interested Folks • Alumni panel

27. Program Transferability • Sharing a librarian with specialized disciplinary background • Collections can be coordinated and built with the help of an expert • Specialized resources for reference • Focus time to work on IL offerings

28. Accessing St. Olaf Asian Studies Info Lit Documents:www.stolaf.edu/library/instruction/infolit To bottom of page…

29. Documents on Web Page • Concepts Rubric • Assignments Rubric • Course Description • Course Timeline • This powerpoint presentation

30. For more information on this project: • macphers@stolaf.edu • ye@macalester.edu