It Takes a Village: Student Chapter Survival and Success

Diane Jenkins (to whom all correspondence should be addressed)

University of North Texas, School of Library and Information Sciences

North Texas Chapter of ASIS&T, Information Sciences Building, Room 205

P.O. Box 311068, Denton, TX 76203-1068

E-mail dmj0008@unt.edu

John R. Castledine

University of North Texas, School of Library and Information Sciences

North Texas Chapter of ASIS&T, Information Sciences Building, Room 205

P.O. Box 311068, Denton, TX 76203-1068

E-mail jrc0043@unt.edu

Lisa Galaviz

University of North Texas, School of Library and Information Sciences

North Texas Chapter of ASIS&T, Information Sciences Building, Room 205

P.O. Box 311068, Denton, TX 76203-1068

E-mail manolisa@sbcglobal.net

Teresa Williams

University of North Texas, School of Library and Information Sciences

North Texas Chapter of ASIS&T, Information Sciences Building, Room 205

P.O. Box 311068, Denton, TX 76203-1068

E-mail taw0030@unt.edu

Many student chapters of professional organizations like ASIS&T can have difficulty sustaining membership, educational support, financial resources, and chapter competitiveness. Some organizations are more successful than others in sustaining student chapters. Since student chapter membership and activity are important contributors to parent organization long-term survival, growth, and success, it is essential to identify student chapter problems and take steps to solve them. Current trends in scholarly collaboration and distance education, assisted by technical networking advances, can provide methods for linking student chapters to help each other with problem-solving through "intellectual proximity" (Weedman, 1999). We can form a collaborative community that will work together to improve the chances of long-term chapter survival and success. Such an environment will also provide opportunities for inter-institution research, creativity, and socialization (Students, 1998). We will invite other student chapters of ASIS&T to join this network, using existing Internet technology such as WebCT, Yahoo Groups, and email listservs to create a "virtual village" for all student chapters. If successful, this collective Village has the potential to become a permanent Internet service for ASIS&T student membership.

While the ASIS&T Chapters web page currently lists thirty-four student chapters spread across the United States (ASIS&T, 2002), only twenty-four of the chapters have web sites. Many of those web sites have not been updated for years, indicating problems in continuity. The Student Chapter-of-the-Year awards are sometimes given to the same chapter for multiple succeeding years, indicating a lack of competitive quality and resources among the active chapters. Other problems and issues may be raised with further discussion.

In 2001-2002, the University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences LISSA student group and NT-ASIST student chapter created a successful model of such an environment, based on the vision of the SLIS Dean, Dr. Phil Turner. We used the UNT distance education WebCT technology to create "SLIS Village" for the SLIS students, faculty, staff, and even alumni (O'Donnell, 2003). The students and faculty have used these resources to host several Village Colloquia for "villagers" and guests spread across Texas and other states. WebCT includes built-in capabilities for discussion, chat, security, presentations, and email. Creating the same kind of supportive virtual community for student ASIS&T members and chapters can help to provide solutions to many of our common problems.

This project will be a collaborative effort to create a nationwide online portal, accessible by all national student chapters, both members and advisors. We plan to try various Internet technologies to create a robust community environment for student chapters that want to participate. As the project progresses, we will gather ideas and feedback from regular ASIS&T members, officers, and chapters through conference panel sessions, surveys, email, and other means. If appropriate, the "village" community will collaborate on design and construction of a standalone web site with all necessary facilities for long-term use.

Our current chapter members inherited a conventional university web site and email listserv created some years ago when the chapter was very successful. We are evaluating the possibility of a web site re-design with more modern features. Meanwhile, we are trying out other means of communication such as a Yahoo Group called NT-ASIST, with chapter officers serving as Moderators (Yahoo!, 2003). This Group has an open membership policy.

SLIS has provided a WEBCT "course space" for us, similar to SLIS Village. There, our chapter is developing a new Village for our ASIS&T chapter work. Thanks to the experience gained in SLIS Village, it only took a few days to get NT-ASIST Village operational for our chapter members and advisors. This new Village will eventually include geographical "neighborhoods" for individual chapter discussion postings, "presentation groups", links to various Internet sites and digital libraries, interactive group chats and "whiteboard" sessions, multimedia presentations, student homepage portfolios, and virtual colloquia with other ASIS&T members and guests.

Conclusion

We believe that some ASIS&T student chapters are struggling, and solutions to the problem lie in virtual and physical collaborative efforts to join geographically distant chapters in a single Internet environment tailored to student needs. This "village" may also serve as a long-term motivational, marketing, and research channel for attracting new chapter members, challenging current members, and retaining the knowledge and support of past members.

 

Acknowledgments

Dr. Phil Turner invented the concept of SLIS Village, was crucial to its success, and provided the platform for NT-ASIST Village. Dr. Samantha Hastings and Dr. Linda Schamber have inspired, supported, and advised the NT-ASIST Chapter and many SLIS students through the years. Dr. Shawne Miksa is a terrific Advisor to the current members, who all contribute valuable ideas. None of us could survive without the help of the entire SLIS and Center for Distributed Learning staff.

References

ASIS&T Chapters. (2002). American Society for Information Science & Technology. Retrieved May 19, 2003 from

http://www.asis.org/AboutASIS/asis-chapters.html

O'Donnell, M., Reynolds, S. & Epperson, A. (2003, March). SLIS Village. University of North Texas School of Library and Information Sciences. Retrieved May 17, 2003 from http://www.unt.edu/slis/resources/slisvillage.htm

Students on 16 campuses pursue collaborative approach. (1998, August). Nation's Health, 28(7).

Weedman, J. (1999, July). Conversation and community: The potential of electronic conferences for creating intellectual proximity in distributed learning environments. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(10), 907-928.

Yahoo! Groups NT-ASIST. (2003). Yahoo!, Inc. Retrieved May 19, 2003 from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ntasist/