ruthbaker.wordpress.com

By clicking on any of the links in the side bar to the right (or at the bottom on mobile devices), you can navigate to different sections of the portfolio: my Academic/Faculty Service, Education and Work History, Teaching Experience, Professional Development and Presentations.  There are also links to supporting materials such as research guides, tutorials, and class materials; my teaching philosophy; and a link to my CV.

Summary

In August 2012, I accepted the position of Learning Commons Librarian and Assistant Professor at Georgia Southern University, in Statesboro, GA.  Prior to that, I was a  Reference and Instruction Librarian at the Community College of Philadelphia’s Main Campus Library  for more than 10 years. In addition to teaching formal classes in information literacy and research methods, I have experience teaching a computer applications course (both in the traditional classroom and online) and a Freshman Orientation seminar.  As a Department Liaison,  I have done collection development in a variety of subject areas in the social and biomedical sciences.  In Technical Services, I have a background in serials control and management, including staff training and the documentation of policies and procedures.

I believe very strongly in the teaching role of academic librarians and I greatly value my work at the Reference Desk as well as in the classroom for the variety of interactions and influence we can have on students: from ready reference, to point-of-use instruction on a wide array of topics, to informal academic advising. I think it is the most interesting, varied, and challenging work I have ever done.

My philosophy of teaching is based on two main goals: 1) to help students gain the knowledge and skills they need to become passionate learners and 2) to set them on the path to lifelong learning  [for more detail on my teaching philosophy, see the Quick Links in the sidebar to the right]

I have:

• taught more than 350 formal information literacy classes, some by team-teaching with discipline faculty or as an embedded librarian; also I have taught semester long courses in applied computer technology  (both in the traditional classroom and online) and a Freshman Orientation seminar;
• chaired the Information Literacy Subcommittee of the Learning Outcomes Assessment Committee, guiding our team through the development of an Information Literacy plan, creation of learning outcomes and  a rubric for grading assignments in writing intensive courses;
• lead a team that adapted an online tutorial to assess Information Literacy skills [for more, see the Quick Links in the sidebar];
• participated in team-based outreach to the college community through: an online course supplement in the College’s CMS (WebStudy); use of social media tools such as Facebook  and Meebo; and  regular contributions to a library blog;
• created research guides, online tutorials and an information literacy wiki [see  the Quick Links in the sidebar]; and
• most recently, I worked with two other community college librarians to design and write a proposal for a joint Information Literacy assessment.