Shreveport, LA — LSU Shreveport’s Noel Memorial Library has been awarded the LOUIS Library of the Year Award, which recognizes a LOUIS member library that demonstrates excellence in at least one of the following areas: service to their community; creativity and innovation in developing specific community programs or a dramatic increase in library usage; leadership in creating programs that can be emulated by other libraries. LOUIS is a consortium of public and private college and university libraries in the state of Louisiana. This partnership was formed in 1992 by the library deans and directors at these institutions, in order to create a cost-effective collaboration among the institutions for the procurement of library technology and resources.
“We’re making great efforts to provide students with responsive services and personal interactions that provide tools and opportunities for equity and success. It’s wonderful to be acknowledged, and without a doubt, the best is yet to come,” said Brian Sherman, Dean of the Library.
In supporting the LSUS academic community, the Noel Memorial Library provides or assists with cost saving measures for students through partnerships with LSUS faculty, LOUIS, and OERs, to provide free e-textbooks to students. Over seventy percent of LSUS students benefit from free course materials and have saved over $8.8 million since 2019.
Last year, three LSUS Library faculty participated in the LOUIS/Department of Education Interactive Open Educational Resources for Dual Enrollment program to develop cost free textbooks for general education courses in the state. Continuing in that effort, Library faculty have also agreed to serve on a similar initiative in 2022, Connecting the Pipeline: Libraries, OER, and Dual Enrollment from Secondary to Postsecondary, a $1.3 million project funded by LOUIS and the Institute of Library and Museum Services. The project will develop and share a model for connecting open educational resources (OER) initiatives between secondary postsecondary institutions within a library context.
Librarians have exponentially expanded services adding services such as pop-up Research on the Run booths, virtual and in-person research consultations, and workshops on citation assistance, fake news, and data literacy, providing foundational support for general education courses and supporting critical thinking.
In the past year, the Library has drastically increased the material it circulates outside of traditional print and online materials to technology and equipment that supports LSUS’s academic programs and student wellness, including anatomy models, GoPros, adapters, and active workstations with desk bikes.
Supporting the university and the university community, the library strives to fill roles outside of the traditional librarian tasks. In the past year, Library faculty established a new chapter installation of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society and hosted two interactive summer camps for community youth.
Library activities support and engage the mission of Noel Memorial Library, which is to promote and facilitate scholarly and cultural engagement by providing access to both traditional and innovative resources, creating adaptive spaces, and cultivating excellence in teaching, learning, and research. Previous LOUIS award recipients from the Library are Sarah Mazur, who won the 2021 Outstanding Early Career Librarian. The 2017 LOUIS Leader in Librarianship was awarded to Library Dean, Brian Sherman.
