Evidence and Empathy: Library Support for Service - Learning in the Arts

In this unique curricular service-learning project, two librarians collaborated with an art professor in a foundational art course by providing an information literacy session, hosting a panel discussion in library space, and archiving student projects in the institutional repository. University art students partnered with a local youth writing project to create short films based on participants’ writings. Through shared journal exercises, youth writers and university students developed topics and shared written work. The art students created short, stop-motion films based on the writers\u27 works. A faculty-coordinated hip-hop literacy group made up of area youth created a film soundtrack, providing another level of campus-community collaboration. This project highlighted the importance of community engagement, diversity, and citizenship, demonstrating academic library potential within service-learning projects. Early in the process the instructor and two librarians collaborated to guide student’s preparatory research, exploring the value of the arts, the arts as citizenship, and the local community/agency. Researching helped students contextualize the project by encouraging them to confront stereotypes with evidence and empathy; the presenters hoped students would have a clearer sense of the community partners and the value of collaborating to create works of art. The research grounded students in data about the community, public arts, citizenship, and the community partner. As part of layered library involvement, the Digital Media Hub (located in the library) provided technology support, youth participants visited the library, a culminating panel discussion was held in the library’s ScholarSpace, and librarians provided guidance for archiving films, event photos, and original artifacts in the University’s institutional repository. In this presentation, presenters will discuss information literacy in service-learning, leveraging library space for campus-community engagement, and benefits to all stakeholders. We will also make recommendations for how attendees might adapt this project in their communities to highlight library value beyond traditional research assignments