Cole Library: A one-stop shop for student success

The Cole Library Center for Teaching and Learning is a suite of resources that can help students in just about any class. 

There are even times when a student in their block course might seek help from two, three, or even all four of the Center’s resources:

• Quantitative Reasoning Studio
• Dungy Writing Studio
• Academic Technology Studio
• Librarian for research

Librarians and studio staff often visit and teach micro-sessions within Cornell classes. Sometimes they help faculty develop effective assignments. That’s why it’s not unusual for a student to visit one of the studios only to find that the staff already knows about their project. 

In order to better understand how the Center for Teaching and Learning helps students succeed, we followed two students who together used all four of the resources.

A Taylor Swift study

MkpoutoAbasi James’ Statistics 201 assignment was going to be fun, but she knew her project would turn out better if she sought help from the Quantitative Reasoning Studio in Cole Library. 

Her professor gave the class choices of several subjects, and James chose Taylor Swift and a dataset from Spotify. She picked two variables to explore, conducted a brief literature review, and headed to the library.

“The Quantitative Reasoning Center helped me analyze data, get the mean, the median, and also make a prediction about what all her music is like. They helped me not just create the data but also explain it,” says James, who is from Beltsville, Maryland.

When it came time to write the paper, James made an appointment with the Dungy Writing Studio. 

“I always use the Writing Studio. From my first block, I’ve never not used it if I had a paper,” James says. “If I don’t go through the Writing Studio it takes me hours to write a paper. I write the way I speak so it’s easy for things to get long. I need help to sound professional, concise, and clear.”

Curious about what James found out about Swift’s music using the variables she chose—energy and danceability? 

“I found no correlation between those variables, which is consistent with other research,” she says. “Danceability did not play a huge role in her popularity. I was able to write that the outlier, energy, did not explain danceability.”

A reiki video project

Sidney Brown, of Eaton, Colorado, came to the library for help with her senior seminar video on reiki, a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that promotes healing. 

She began her research with Jen Rouse, consulting librarian for education, humanities, and theatre. (The library has four consulting librarians, each specializing in different academic areas.) “We went through a lot of search engines looking for peer-reviewed articles and books,” Sidney says. 

Next Sidney made an appointment with the Academic Technology Studio for video equipment and editing. “Matt Zhorne helped me with the audio, getting video film, renting a camera, and providing editing software to make the video,” she says. 

Then, she came to the Writing Studio. 

“I started out with a rough draft script and went to the Writing Studio to see if it flowed and made sense. I went back and forth with (Dungy Writing Studio Director) Laura Farmer and my professor. The professor wanted more information. Laura helped with flow and organization.” 

1,000 appointments a year

From crafting a thoroughly researched paper to analyzing and synthesizing data, students are constantly creating new knowledge using the resources available to them in the CTL. With students often returning for guidance, each studio facilitates as many as 1,000 appointments each year. “It’s not just our responsibility to provide resources through the CTL,” Rouse said, “It’s our pleasure.” 

Working with students and faculty in the pursuit of knowledge is always a great reward.

CTL hours

Writing Studio

• Monday – Thursday: 8 a.m.–10 p.m.
• Friday: 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Sunday: 1–10 p.m. 
• Schedule a conference!

Quantitative Reasoning Studio

• Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m.–5 p.m., 7–10 p.m.
• Friday: 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Sunday: 3–5 p.m., 7–10 p.m.
• Schedule a session with a Quantitative Reasoning Consultant!

Academic Technology Studio

• Monday-Thursday: 9 a.m.–10 p.m.
• Friday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Sunday 3 p.m.–10 p.m.
• Schedule your appointment with an ATS Consultant today!