TEACH Project

A vision for the future of IRTS: the Teacher Education and Collaboration Hub project (TEACH)

Instructional Resources and Technology Services (IRTS) has served an integral role in teacher education on campus. As teacher education continues to evolve, so must we in our use of the space, management of the collection, and provision of services to the benefit of everyone involved in teacher education. The ultimate goal of Rod Library's Teacher Education and Collaboration Hub (TEACH) project is to combine the IRTS Collection and Youth Collection in the IRTS area of Schindler Education Center and to create a hub for teacher preparation and classroom experimentation in this space. Please visit this page for monthly updates on our progress toward this goal.

Have a question about the project? Email us at library@uni.edu!

2024

February 2024: TEACH Project updates

Our colleagues in Facilities Management are at capacity with the Nursing and Applied Engineering Building projects. They expect to see time open up on their calendars toward the end of Spring semester. While they have to pause on planning for our project temporarily, they will be able to devote time to us before the end of the semester.

We have been given the green light to plan for a Fall 2025 grand opening of the transformed space. While this is a bit later than any of us imagined when we began working on this project, the timing is actually quite good: In Fall 2025, the College of Education will debut its revised Teacher Education Curriculum. Supporting Teacher Education has always been an anchor of our work with the TEACH project and aligning with its revisions will strengthen the role of the TEACH project at the heart of supporting these programs. Further, Fall 2025 is the kickoff of UNI's sesquicentennial year and will provide an excellent backdrop for celebrating our project's opening and its commitment to the changing needs of UNI!

In the meantime, and using Fall 2025 as a realistic deadline, we can begin planning the work that we will need to do to prepare for the various moves and other disruptions that we will encounter.

We continue to be excited about the shape that this project is taking - and are newly invigorated after our recent tour of Cedar Falls High School.

January 2024: TEACH Project updates

The architect for the TEACH project met with the core Youth, IRTS, and COE teams at the end of December to answer questions about the conceptual designs and to gather feedback, input, and ideas. This discussion, in addition to feedback gathered from the conceptual drawing posted on the outside of the IRTS space, is being used by the project architect to prepare a more detailed set of drawings for the space. While we wait for those revisions, we are looking forward to a tour of the new Cedar Falls High School Library at the end of January for continued inspiration for this project!

2023

Fall 2023: TEACH Project updates

In August, we welcomed Dr. Johnnie Blunt to our team. He will be working closely with the TEACH project, providing guidance on its direction, collections, and academic connections to the College of Education. This semester, Maxine Davis (Director of IRTS) and Dr. Blunt have been working collaboratively to update and elevate some of the non-youth collections supporting the TEACH project, specifically the P-12 textbook collection and the professional development collection.

Over the Fall semester, we worked with Facilities Management colleagues and an architect from OPN on a general design concept for the IRTS space in Schindler which will transform to encompass the vision defined through the TEACH project process. The conceptual drawings are posted on the outside of the IRTS space - we encourage you to check out the ideas as you walk through the space and provide feedback! There are spaces for technology experimentation, collaboration, presentation, and youth-centric reading activity - all through the lens of supporting our future educators and modeling best practices in school libraries. We’d love to hear what you think!

Summer 2023: TEACH Project updates

Over the summer, Deans Colleen Mulholland and Theresa Westbrock are working with Facilities Management to discuss and plan next steps in planning the space redesign in the IRTS area that will support Goal 1 of the TEACH Project: Design a responsive and flexible space that reflects a school library media center with collections, services, technology, and spaces to support teacher preparation and classroom experimentation. Reduce overlap in effort and output between collections, services, and spaces. Throughout August and September, they will work with a consultant on the design options and timeline for the space planning portion of the project. After design options and the scope of the physical portion of the project are determined, they will use the Phase II report to guide the process of updating services, technology, workflows, and collections as necessary to complete the goals of the TEACH project.

Later this fall, we plan to launch a TEACH Advisory Committee, which aligns with Goal 3 of the project: Develop the structure of an advisory board composed of faculty and staff, as well as external members to support continuous improvement, identification of emerging learning technologies, current educational media in PK-12 schools, etc.

May/June 2023: TEACH Project updates

The TEACH project's Phase II working group, led by Eric Jennings and Benjamin Forsyth, worked over the course of the academic year to design a responsive and flexible space that reflects a school library with collections, services, technology, and spaces to support teacher preparation and classroom experimentation. Their final report included priorities for consideration in the design of space, the scope and maintenance of the collection, inclusion of technology, and provision of services. Additionally, they proposed a structure of an advisory board as well as staffing and budget considerations. Deans Colleen Mulholland and Theresa Westbrock will use the recommendations included in the final report to determine the next steps of the project, starting with a plan for redesigning the space in the IRTS area. Thank you to Maxine Davis, Joan Bessman Taylor, Magda Galloway, Farah Kashef, and Chris Neuhaus for their service to this working group!

April 3, 2023: TEACH Project updates

At the beginning of March a survey was distributed to teacher education faculty and students to help get additional feedback on the strategic direction of the Phase II TEACH group. The data were in alignment with the general direction that the subgroups had identified regarding the scope of the collections, services, and technologies within TEACH. Of note, after Schindigs left Schindler, there was a clear gap in cafe service in Schindler and the survey’s results clearly stated that both faculty and students are desirous of that in a revamped space. In April the team plans to work on the following tasks: 1) finalizing a structure for a TEACH advisory board, 2) working on naming options for the revamped TEACH space, and 3) proposing an organizational staffing structure that aligns with the skills and expertise needed.

Did you know? Rod Library has been given permission to hire a 3-year term librarian for Education and Youth Services that we hope to have on board for the fall 2023 semester.

March 8, 2023: TEACH Project updates

During the month of February the Phase II co-leads Benjamin and Eric had an initial meeting with facilities to discuss the TEACH project and get additional information from them about what they need when working on a project like this. The Phase II team, with the assistance of Rod Library Graduate Assistant Rishika, created a survey that was sent to teacher education faculty and students on March 3 and they will review the results after Spring Break.

Did you know? After merging the children’s and young adult literature materials in IRTS with the Youth Collection in Rod Library there are 23,915 items left in IRTS.

February 1, 2023: TEACH Project updates

In the months since the last update Rod Library held a book sale of materials taken primarily from the merger between IRTS and Youth. Held in Schindler on December 3, the book sale was a big success. It is estimated that 8,000 books, LPs, CDs, and scores were sold, about ⅓ of what we had made available for sale. Rod Library has not yet determined whether a second book sale will be held but if one is it will be shared in this space and elsewhere.

Over the winter break and during January the Phase II team finalized their draft priorities list for the collections, services, and technologies in TEACH. They also identified personnel expertises that aligned with the needs identified within the collections, services, and technology list.

In order to make sure that interested parties' needs and/or desires are taken into consideration with the priorities list the team will be meeting with College of Education departments in February to revisit this project’s history, present, and future. They also plan to put together a survey to gather additional feedback to inform these priorities lists. Please look for that in your inbox in the near future.

Beginning in February the team will meet with facilities to start a discussion about the footprint and design of the new TEACH space. Team members are meeting weekly during the spring 2023 semester to help meet the Phase II goal of having their recommendations to Deans Mulholland and Westbrock by the end of April 2023.

Did you know? The total amount of shelf space in IRTS is nearly 28,000 linear inches and in Youth it is nearly 26,000 linear inches.

2022

December 1, 2022: TEACH Project updates

Youth Librarian Katelyn Browne resigned from her position in late November and before she left she completed the last of the decision-making work on books that would be kept or withdrawn as we combined the IRTS and Youth Collection’s children’s literature. The Phase II project team met with and got feedback from Katelyn about the future of the Youth Collection before she left and want to thank her for her work in helping move the TEACH Project forward. Best wishes in your new position, Katelyn! And, thank you to Chris Neuhaus who will be joining the Phase II working group and to Sandy Wilkins who will be providing consultative support to the group. Please contact Associate University Librarian Eric Jennings (eric.jennings@uni.edu) if you have any questions about how Rod Library will manage the Youth Collection in the interim.

In mid-November the sub-groups from Phase II met to report on the technology, collections, and services needed to support the hub. These reports were the first drafts and will continue to be developed in the early part of winter by soliciting feedback from others on campus and further synthesis of new information to better ensure that the hub matches the needs of its users. While that work continues we will begin working on other priorities for the hub including looking more closely at the footprint needed to combine the Youth Collection with the IRTS Collection.

Did you know? The total number of external loans for Youth and IRTS materials during the 2021-22 fiscal year was 14,182! The total number of in house uses of Youth and IRTS materials during the same period was 9,913.

Reminder: Many of the books that are being withdrawn are duplicates and we want to make sure these books find a good second home in classrooms, local youth collections, little free libraries, art projects, etc. The book sale of these materials will be on Saturday, December 3 from 12pm - 4pm on the main floor of Schindler Education Center.

November 1, 2022: TEACH Project updates

The Phase Two working group has begun prioritizing the group's work and has split work into sub-groups to help move the project forward in a timely fashion. First priorities are to define the services supported by the hub, the technology needs, and the scope of the collections. Those sub-groups are headed by Joan Bessman Taylor, Magda Galloway, and Katelyn Browne respectively and will make a report back to the larger TEACH working group by November 11. Future tasks for the working group include identifying the footprint needed to support the services, technology, and collection, creating a budget, defining the personnel expertise needed to support the services, and developing an advisory board structure. As is stated in the charge the group will be getting input and checking with various constituents throughout the process.

Did you know? Between July 1, 2021 and October 31, 2022 over 1250 users have been assisted by students and staff at the Youth and IRTS service desks and Youth Librarian Katelyn Browne taught 60 classes to over 1600 students.

Reminder: save the date! Many of the books that are being withdrawn are duplicates and we want to make sure these books find a good second home in classrooms, local youth collections, little free libraries, art projects, etc. We’re hosting a book sale on December 3 from 12pm - 4pm on the main floor of Schindler Education Center.

Have a question about the project? Email us!

October 1, 2022: TEACH Project updates

Most of the decision-making associated with Phase I of the TEACH project has been completed, and now the bulk of the work is focused on transferring the books that will be part of the consolidated youth literature collection and withdrawing the books that will leave the collection. Thank you to Katelyn Browne, Maxine Davis, Susan Moore, Steve Wilcer, and Sandy Wilkens for their excellent (and ongoing) work on this phase of the project!

So, what will happen to the books that are withdrawn from the collection?

Many of the books that are being withdrawn are duplicates and we want to make sure these books find a good second home in classrooms, local youth collections, little free libraries, art projects, etc. We’re hosting a book sale on December 3 from 12pm - 4pm on the main floor of Schindler Education Center. Save the date and stay tuned for more information!

What’s next?

The Phase II working group is beginning its work this month. Understanding that this project lives at the intersection of the Library and the College of Education, we have asked Benjamin Forsyth and Eric Jennings to collaboratively lead us through Phase II, which is focused on designing a responsive and flexible space that reflects a school library media center with collections, services, technology, and spaces to support teacher preparation and classroom experimentation. As they work through this process, we will continue to post monthly updates on the progress of this project. Thank you to Katelyn Browne, Maxine Davis, Joan Bessman Taylor, Magda Galloway, and Farah Kashef for their service to this working group.

Have a question about the project? Email us!

September 1, 2022: TEACH Project updates

Here are a few updates on the progress of the TEACH (Teacher Education and Collaboration Hub) project:

We are mostly working on physically moving the items from the IRTS children’s literature collections to their new homes: in the combined collection at Rod Library, in other sections of IRTS, in the stacks at Rod, or in storage for a planned book sale later this fall.

Youth Collection staff are still working on about 1,500 IRTS items that are duplicates of higher-use books in Youth. We want to keep the copies that are in the best condition and can last the longest.

IRTS staff have been working on about 2,000 items that are part of leveled sets specifically intended for Guided Reading instruction and assessment. These are being incorporated into the curriculum collection at IRTS.

Cataloging & Metadata staff are in the process of transferring about 2,500 items to Youth for the combined collection. Every individual item has to be physically processed and then moved to its new home, so if you can’t find something, please ask!

Did you know? About 60% of the children’s literature items in IRTS have not been checked out during the last 6 years*, and almost half have no recorded use (in-house or otherwise) at all during that time. By combining the collections, removing items that are in poor condition, cutting down on duplication, and aligning our holdings with the needs and interests of UNI students, faculty, staff, and collaborators, we hope to keep popular items moving while also making it easier to discover additional good choices. *why six years? That’s when we switched to a new library catalog system. We do also have and look at records from before that time.

Please stop by the Youth Collection area on the third floor of Rod Library and the IRTS area on the second floor of Schindler to familiarize yourself with the latest changes. There will be more to come - we’ll continue to send monthly updates as we make progress on the larger goal of combining our services, resources, and expertise to create a hub for teacher preparation and classroom experimentation. Please visit this page for monthly updates on our progress toward this goal.

August 1, 2022: TEACH Project updates

As we continue to work on the process of merging the youth literature collection, books are now moving from IRTS in Schindler to the Youth Collection area in Rod Library. Temporary additional shelving is being added in the Youth Collection area to accommodate the combined collection. This work will continue into the fall semester but the newly combined youth literature collection will be ready for use at the beginning of the fall semester.

Many of the books being withdrawn from our collections as part of the project are duplicate titles. We recognize that there are a lot of books that would make great gifts, material for art projects, or additions to little free libraries. Later in the fall semester, once the merging of collections is complete, we plan to host a book sale. Stay tuned for more information!

Curricula and teacher-led materials will continue to be available in IRTS. Additionally, IRTS is expanding the Enrichment section and will have some new materials to share this school year as well.

Katelyn Browne has been working with the Interlibrary Loan and Access Services staff in the library to develop guidelines for requesting multiple copies of any Youth book for staff, faculty, or student use. We are moving toward a model that will make it easier to get additional copies of any book, so that instructional choices aren’t constrained by what we happen to have on hand in our own collection.

Once fall semester is underway, we look forward to welcoming you and your classes to the reorganized Youth and IRTS spaces!

The ultimate goal of Rod Library's Teacher Education and Collaboration Hub (TEACH) project is to combine the IRTS Collection and Youth Collection in the IRTS area of Schindler Education Center and to create a hub for teacher preparation and classroom experimentation in this space. Please visit this page for monthly updates on our progress toward this goal.

July 1, 2022: Future of IRTS project name change and other updates

In an effort to collect the various phases of the Future of IRTS project into a descriptive title, the library successfully crowdsourced ideas for a project name. Moving forward, the overall project will be called the Teacher Education and Collaboration Hub (TEACH) project. The ultimate goal is the same: to combine the IRTS Collection and Youth Collection in the IRTS area of Schindler Education Center and to create a hub for teacher preparation and classroom experimentation in that space.

In July, things are going to be moving around in earnest! Once the annual statistics for 2021-2022 have been documented, our team will start transferring youth literature items from IRTS into the combined collection in Youth. Within the Youth space, books will also be moving around as we make room for the combined collection. Don’t hesitate to ask if something is not where you expect it to be!

We have also been working on separating out Guided Reading and similar leveled books (such as series from Rigby, Fountas & Pinnell, Pioneer Valley, Heinemann). IRTS staff are sorting them and adding them to the instructional materials collection, and they will remain in the IRTS area in Schindler. As collections move around and leave some shelves temporarily empty, we will add signage about the project to keep our students and other patrons informed.

In an effort to keep information about this multi-unit project in a central location, we created a webpage that collects all of the messaging about this project. We’ll update it monthly as we continue our progress on this project. Check it out: https://library.uni.edu/teach-project.

June 1, 2022 Update: Future of IRTS project

The Future of IRTS project’s ultimate goal is to combine the IRTS Collection and Youth Collection in the IRTS area of Schindler Education Center and create a hub for teacher preparation and classroom experimentation in this space. The first phase of this project is to establish a unified youth literature collection which will be located, temporarily, in the Youth Collection area of Rod Library. The assessment and merging of the youth collections in IRTS and Rod Library’s Youth Collection is well underway:

Katelyn Browne has been evaluating materials for inclusion in the combined collection based on the library’s collection development policies and practices.

Steve Wilcer has begun transferring and withdrawing materials (in a process that will also involve others in CMU and Youth), so you may notice empty shelves and temporary collections of items in IRTS and Youth as things move around.

Materials in the main IRTS area will be moving first, followed by items in the Lit Ed room.

For our colleagues in the library: The Working Group for Phase I, led by Katelyn, is having a number of conversations as a task force about how this change will impact various units in the library, and what information we should provide to prepare our colleagues (including student employees) for the fall. If you have concerns about how this will impact your unit, please bring them up with your supervisor. We will be prioritizing this project as a library-wide tactic in the coming year, so there will be a lot of attention to the broad impact of this project.

For our colleagues in the College of Education: While all children’s literature materials will be housed in Rod Library for 2022-2023, we are planning to continue our delivery services to Schindler and are interested in working with you to ensure that you and your students have access to the materials that you need, when and where you need them. Whether that means hosting more classes in the Youth Collection or bringing more materials to Schindler for browsing or borrowing, we will make a plan with you! Also, if you have lists of materials or authors that you share with students, Katelyn Browne and Sandy Wilkens can take a look at them and assist with updating them to reflect our current locations and holdings.

May 13, 2022 Update: Future of IRTS project

In April, I shared this summary of the Future of IRTS project and proposed next steps. The first step focuses on the integration of the collections; Phase 1 will focus specifically on the youth literature collections in Youth and in IRTS.

After meeting with stakeholders and consulting with Katelyn, I have asked Katelyn to lead a Phase 1 Working Group with the goal of consolidating all children’s and young adult literature into one collection in Rod Library. Once the youth literature collection is consolidated and in one location, we will be able to look more closely at the other collections that make up the current IRTS collection. The longer-range goal is still to develop a hub for teacher education and classroom experimentation that will eventually be housed fully in Schindler.

As this project progresses, there will be regular updates to the library, College of Education, and other interested groups. At this point, I’m planning for library-specific updates about this ongoing project to happen via the monthly Open Book newsletter, but I’m open to ideas!

I want to thank Katelyn for her thoughtful approach to crafting the first phase of this project. This is a project that will have reach and impact throughout the library, so please feel free to bring ideas, questions, or concerns forward at any time.

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Working Group for Phase I of the Future of IRTS project

Phase I: Establishing a unified youth literature collection

Charge: Consolidate all children’s and young adult literature into one collection in Rod Library.

Membership:

Katelyn Browne, Chair (Youth)

Maxine Davis (IRTS)

Susan Moore (CMU)

Steve Wilcer (IRTS/CMU)

Sandy Wilkens (Youth)

Goals:

Assess children’s and young adult literature collections in Youth and IRTS

Reduce duplication of materials and align collection with existing collection management policies

Combine and/or segment parts of the collection as needed to accommodate space limitations

Prioritize transferring materials over withdrawing materials in order to have the consolidated collection ready for use at the start of the Fall 2022 semester.

At the start of the Fall semester, create a report summarizing completed work and associated work/tasks still needing to be completed.

Process:

Create a general timeline with proposed deadlines in collaboration with participating units and people.

Create and manage a working group comprising the people and areas involved in the project.

Work with Susan Basye (and Access Services colleagues as appropriate) to determine availability, configuration, and location of additional shelving to accommodate increased footprint of collections housed in the Youth area.

Advise the dean regularly on progress and communications that can be used in library and College of Education communications.

Advise on timeline and process for related tasks to be completed after the start of the Fall semester (such as withdrawals and complete processing of materials).

April 3, 2022 - The Future of IRTS - A Collaborative Visioning Endeavor - Summary of current phase and proposed next steps

In early 2021, former Provost Jim Wohlpart charged Deans Theresa Westbrock of UNI’s Rod Library and Colleen Mulholland of the College of Education to seek out opportunities that best utilize space, resources, and services between Rod Library and the multi-use venue of the Instructional Resources and Technology Services (IRTS) located on the 2nd floor of the Schindler Education Center. Below we share the objectives, process, recommendations, and next steps to address this charge and suggest immediate next steps toward these recommendations.

Objectives

In April 2021 we charged Dr. Robin Dada, Department Head in Curriculum and Instruction, and Eric Jennings, Associate University Librarian for the Learning and Research Division of Rod Library, with providing a vision for the future of the Instructional Resources and Technology Services (IRTS). We asked that the future vision focus on the following:

The creation of a model School Library Media Center
Responsive Collections and Services
Educational Technology
Space for student study and engagement
A clearly defined identity and/or purpose of IRTS
Development of a manageable timeline for this work

Process

The following process was developed, with accompanying tasks:

[Summer 2021] Identify primary users of IRTS and primary users of the Youth Collection (a collection within Rod Library with identified overlap in collections and users):
What collections and what services to these user groups need/expect?
Identify areas of collection and service overlap between IRTS and Rod Library (including the Youth Collection)
[Fall 2021] Use an appreciative inquiry framework to identify charge-related strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results (ie: SOAR model).
[Fall 2021] Align data from Tasks 1 & 2 above into recommendations contributing to the vision of the future of IRTS (see five components of the charge above) a model School Library Media Center

Recommendations

In December 2021, Eric and Robin shared a set of central recommendations that resulted from the visioning process:

Unite resources and staff
Redesign IRTS to be a central feature of teacher preparation at UNI
Create a funding home for IRTS that provides a budget that can support updates, maintain an up-to-date collection, plan for annual maintenance, and new purchases of children’s literature, technology, and makerspace tools.
Develop an advisory board composed of faculty and staff, as well as external members to support continuous improvement, identification of emerging learning technologies, current educational media in PK-12 schools, etc. Faculty and staff engagement on the board assures faculty commitment to the incorporation of this resource in teaching and research.
Consider renaming IRTS with a more descriptive name.

Further, they presented options based on these recommendations among which we identified a successful pathway to the overarching goal in the original charge. We also recognized the importance of finalizing the process of integrating IRTS into the library’s organization, a process that began in 2016.

Next Steps

Ultimately, we will set our long-term goal to combine the IRTS Collection and Youth Collection in Schindler and create a hub for teacher preparation and classroom experimentation in this new space. This option provides a responsive and flexible vision of a school library media center, and acknowledges the budgetary reality that requires attention to reducing overlap in effort and output. Additionally, it offers a unified space, staff, and service point to meet the needs of teacher preparation and others that integrate the Youth Collection into their curriculum and research.

With our sights set on this goal, we will create a pathway and timeline that provides time and support for planning at a comfortable pace. The first step, which will create the foundation for the rest of the project, will focus on the integration of the collections. We have asked Katelyn Browne, with the collaboration and support of Maxine Davis, to lead an initial analysis of the two collections in order to understand the scope, footprint, and appropriate size and location of each of the parts of the two collections. The completion of this initial step will position us to be able to create a realistic timeline of activities.

We wish to express gratitude to all constituents who were part of the focus groups and who provided insights, vision, ideas, and solutions. Further gratitude and recognition to Robin Dada and Eric Jennings for leading this charge to present such a thoughtful report. We know that great care was taken in each step of the process and that framing this process within an appreciative inquiry model set a tone that yielded valuable next steps toward the overall goal. We recognize the additional time commitment in leading a months-long effort to convene colleagues on and off campus, notably during a pandemic.

We look forward to next steps and progress toward this vision and opportunity.

In appreciation,

Theresa Westbrock, Dean of Library Services
Colleen Mulholland, Dean, College of Education