Effective Communication

Teaching students to become more effective in their communication and providing students with opportunities, resources and spaces for effective communication encompassess multiple aspects and services of the Mercy College Library Learning Commons, and is also part of the general education competencies that guide both Freshman year and Junior year programming - most especially in the Speech requirement.  Specifically within the Learning Commons several activities encourage students to develop their communication abilities, which is number 4 of the ACRL standards for effective information literacy:  Generate and effectively communicate information and knowledge.  These include:

• The Scavenger Hunt exercise with its new active learning component of cameras and documentation encourages students to work in groups, communicate and create agendas, plan and manage the exploration and acquisition of knowledge and communicate findings in a group setting mentored by a librarian.

• The digital storytelling initiative of the library in partnership with the FCTL directly addresses the need for students to compose and read a script, to communicate their ideas to their peers and to express themselves orally through presentation within the story and through follow-up analysis of their work.

• Library Instruction Sessions administered to the Speech class provide resources for students to improve their communication abilities.

• The Library's Ask-a-Librarian, Web Chat and Instant Messaging services provide channels for students to communicate with library staff and receive feedback.

• The student art shows and the display monitor in the Library provide a venue for students to showcase and communicate their expressive productions to a large audience for feedback.

While these above activities are geared toward enabling students to become more comfortable with communicating and providing opportunities for effective communication, the libraries plans for creating a Student Advisory Team offers a significant strategy for engaging students to communicate their needs and ideas in a collaborative partnership with the Library.