University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
5-12-2023
Abstract
This presentation, delivered at the LOEX 2023 conference, highlights the program impetus, design, and initial assessment, as well as a call to rediscover how in-person tours can be an essential part of an academic library instruction program. Academic library tours used to be a staple offering that acquainted users to spaces and services. Today, librarians provide many types of online orientations and virtual tours, but there is a need to help students feel welcome in our buildings. At the University of New Mexico, the First-Year Experience librarian created an in-person, asynchronous tour that students access with their smartphones. Pairing a paper map with recorded stops, the tour welcomes people unfamiliar with libraries, guiding them through the learning commons, archives, the historic west wing, and book collections on three floors. Students can take advantage of accessibility features not available with a traditional tour, including volume control, captions, and adjustable pacing. With guided explanations of how students use different spaces, the tour norms library use and give students the agency to choose how they might engage with our spaces in the future.
Keywords
academic libraries, tour, student success, library spaces, embodied cognition
Recommended Citation
Warner, Adrienne. "Served Fresh Daily: Welcoming Students with an On-site, Asynchronous Tour." (2023). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ulls_fsp/196
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
