Ouachita Stories

Lacy Wolfe, Ouachita Baptist University’s circulation/reference librarian, had the opportunity to attend the Association of College and Research Libraries Teacher Immersion Program in early August.

Immersion 15 was a five-day conference held at Seattle University featuring more than 300 programs for instruction librarians. The ACRL Immersion Teacher Track Program was a “fully immersive workshop in which I learned new ways of teaching information literacy,” Wolfe said. “I was also fortunate to engage with the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.”

The Teacher Track Program focuses on individual development for those who are interested in enhancing, refreshing or extending their individual instruction skills. It seeks to provide participants an opportunity to achieve mastery in assessing student learning in order to inform and improve teaching practice. It also helps participants design meaningful instructional activities that address different learning styles and needs.

Her participation benefits not only Wolfe individually, but the university, as well, noted Dr. Ray Granade, directory of library services. “Having someone involved in a discipline’s national-level representative body is always important but usually rare at a school like OBU where departments are small and travel budgets even smaller,” he said.

“To have someone like Lacy employed here is to have someone who can be a conduit to the larger stage for things that we do innovatively, and from the larger stage to here as we assess what we do against the backdrop of the larger library world,” he added.

Wolfe explained that the work she completed during the workshop on information literacy will make a direct impact on campus. “I took a closer look at the information literacy lab that is part of OBU Connections in order to be sure that we are properly preparing students in information literacy,” she said.

ACRL is the largest division of the American Library Association, serving more than 12,000 members across the U.S. and Canada. According to ACRL’s website, the core purpose of the association is to lead academic and research librarians and libraries in advancing learning and scholarship.

Wolfe joined the Ouachita faculty in 2012. She earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Liberal Arts degrees from Henderson State University and a Master of Library Sciences degree from Indiana University.

For more information, contact Lacy Wolfe at [email protected] or (870) 245-5119.

 

By Meaghan Pollizi