News & Updates
Small Talk From the VP: The Larson Principle – Uncovering New Ways to Support the Academic Program
By Dave Smallen
October 28, 2014
Library and IT organizations have a number of ways to obtain feedback about our existing services, including national surveys such as MISO (www.misosurvey.org). But gaining insight into new ways we might help faculty and students be more successful is a bigger challenge.
A few years ago, at a conference on digital scholarship, Doran Larson, Professor of English and Creative Writing, indicated that when IT organizations organize events to tell about the services they offer he sometimes attends. He said that while he may appear to be listening to the presentations, in fact, he is thinking about some problem he faces with his research (or teaching). He went on to suggest:
If you want to get faculty interested and engaged with IT, find the research problem they are confronting for which IT services are an answer. I have called this the Larson Principle.
I find this sage advice, equally applicable to library services (and probably all services that affect the academic program) and to students as well as faculty. Since I lead the Library and Information Technology Services Organization, (LITS) I generalize to this:
(Larson Principle - generalized) If you want to get faculty and students interested and engaged with Library and IT, find the challenges they are confronting for which Library and IT services are an answer.
Implementing this principle requires a surprisingly simple strategy.
(LITS Strategy) If you want to understand faculty and student needs, ask them to tell you about the challenges they face in connection with the academic program (research, teaching, and learning).
Faculty and students at Hamilton are excited about their work, and happy to share that excitement along with the problems they face. What better way to build relationships between faculty, students, librarians and educational technologists than having conversations about the nature of their challenges. The Talk About Teaching lunch series, (sponsored by the Dean of Faculty, Library and Information Technology Services (LITS), Network for Teaching and Learning, and the Division of Student Life) provides a forum for discussion. Having one-on-one, or small group, discussions with faculty and students is even better.
I’m particularly interested in pursuing the second approach because faculty and student challenges are often very personal, and because we are a small college where relationships are paramount. This type of understanding, through conversation, will help inform our future direction. We’ll even provide the coffee. :<)
