Libraries: Partners in Linking College Students and Their Communities Through Service Learning

April K. Heiselt and Robert E. Wolverton

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With decreased funding and personnel reductions in many libraries across the United States, local librarians are searching for innovative methods to create sustainable partnerships in the community. Using Mississippi State University’s Day One Leadership Community as a case study, this article illustrates how service-learning provides a dynamic connection between a public library and a local university. Establishing such a partnership proved beneficial for student learning, helpful in accomplishing projects in a local library, and through the resulting publicity provided greater interest in and access to library materials for the local community. Program components, personal experiences, and ideas for program replication are shared.

Higher education institutions are often described as ivory towers because their work is conducted away from what is happening in their local environments. Students who attend these institutions of higher learning are kept busy with academic coursework and may have neither time nor opportunity to learn about the surrounding community in which they live. This being the case, some students may graduate from college with a lack of understanding of the greater world they inhabit or even a failure to appreciate the local community.

Administrators within higher education institutions are seeking ways to link students with their local communities. Some students, including the majority of first-year students coming to campus, are more civically involved than their predecessors. The Corporation for National and Community Service found that “the number of college students volunteering grew by nearly 600,000 from 2.7 million in 2002 to 3.3 million in 2005.”¹ These incoming students are more likely to continue community service activities when given opportunities to do so in their classes or via university-sponsored activities. Service-learning provides a link between community needs and academic objectives. Survey data from the Corporation for National and Community Service indicates that the creation of service-learning projects is on the rise. In fact, “at least a quarter of all higher education institutions and more than half of all community colleges have adopted service-learning programs.”²

A number of researchers have shown that service-learning is beneficial for college students both in the short and the long term.³ Students who participate in service-learning may reap many benefits including enhanced personal skills, increased awareness of global issues, and motivation to learn.⁴ Astin, Sax, and Avalos found that these short-term effects of service became long-term effects that continue to benefit students as much as nine years after the service has been conducted.⁵ Further, a study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) in 2000 confirmed these findings and added that service-learning particularly benefits students when conducted as part of an academic course that includes reflection of some type.⁶ Accordingly, service-learning creates connections between the “ivory towers” of higher education and the surrounding community.

Additional research has been conducted comparing students who take service-learning courses with those who do not.⁷ Armstrong compared various types of service-learning, including service-learning linked to an academic course, service-learning as part of an alternative spring break trip, cocurricular service-learning, and a control group of students who did not participate in service-learning. From the study, Armstrong determined that there were different effects on the students’ psychosocial development. Of note were the students who participated in the more intensive service-learning experience of the spring break activity—they exhibited greater increases in psychosocial development as compared with the other types of service-learning experiences and the control group.

Armstrong’s study in particular gave way to understanding that students who are participating in an intensive program have more intimate relationships with the community and are truly engaged in the experience. The students in the academic service-learning courses may not have exhibited increases in psychosocial development because some faculty members may have only included the community service experience within their syllabus and not truly incorporated it into the course with reflection and opportunities to engage the students in class. Across all types of service-learning experiences, it was determined that there is great importance in student reflection.

Critical reflection provides students with opportunities to question their beliefs about the world and its cultures, communities, and peoples. It allows students in service-learning courses to focus on their community-service experience and relate it to what is being learned in context of their course objectives. The HERI study supported the idea that students must be given an opportunity to make connections between their service experiences and their academic coursework. Astin stated that although he had assumptions that students would reflect on their experiences and make connections to course material, it takes faculty members to assist in helping the students make those connections.⁸

Service-learning and the Community

Service-learning provides students with a greater understanding of their local communities. To understand how this service affects students, there is a need to define the term service-learning. Service-learning is a teaching and learning method that combines community service with academic instruction as it focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility. Service-learning programs involve students in organized community service that addresses local needs while developing the student’s academic skills and community commitment. As the students participate in the service experience, it is through service-learning that they are provided with an opportunity to connect their service with what they are learning in the classroom. Through service-learning students critically reflect, discuss, and create links between their personal lives and the world around them.⁹

Boyer illustrates the connection between service and learning: “Service is concerned with helping others but above all it is concerned with improved learning.”¹⁰ Moreover, Rhoads and Neururer state that “learning cannot occur without a social dimension.”¹¹ The act of giving service is a social experience through which students formulate and shape their identities.¹² As a result, service-learning programs provide students with opportunities to exhibit critical thinking and to participate in activities that promote civic engagement.¹³

Academicians within higher education institutions need to find ways to engage the community in order to nurture and educate their students.¹⁴ Service-learning is one way to benefit both students and the community. As students develop projects that address local needs, community agencies gain the opportunity to participate in an educational partnership. Presenting students with service-learning experiences provides a community with substantial human resources to meet educational, human, and environmental needs. Service-learning also benefits faculty as it enriches and enlivens classroom teaching. As faculty engage the community with the curriculum, they become more aware of current societal issues and relate these to areas of academic interest.

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