Below are the statements of support from Annual Faculty Review and Recommendation Forms, compiled by the Chair of the Department Advisory Committee (DAC) and links to a file of scanned, completed and signed copies of each form. In the library the DAC is composed of the full department of faculty librarians.
2019
2019 – Annual Review – Dragan Gill
Dragan Gill’s PDR demonstrates a year’s worth of abundant effort, achievement and creative activity and events. At the core of nearly all her effort is the Rhode Island College student. Dragan is wholly student focused. Her library instruction, Libguides, library and college service, and particularly her championing of open access education resources, especially open access textbooks on this campus, are examples of upfront and behind the scenes effort to support student learning and engagement.
Dragan is sought out by faculty in her liaison areas each semester to provide library instruction for their classes. She maintains very strong relationships with these faculty which not only enhances instruction but also supports the development of programs and resources for the library collections. She continues to design new as well as update her Libguides throughout the year for classes, library events, library services, and information sharing and has trained a number of library staff persons and students to use Libguides and other SpringShare products.
She is presenting regularly, on campus and off, in her role as the RIC representative to and co-chair of the RI Open Textbook Initiative Steering Committee. She has developed an exceptional Libguide on Open Education Resources and the Open Textbook Initiative. The Power Points that she has created for OER presentations are information rich, sleek and concise, and very well designed and organized.
She provides reference and research support in person, in research consultations, via phone and email and with our new Chat service which she implemented for us this past summer.
Dragan has overseen Library PR activities throughout the past few years and in 2019 she coordinated library exhibits, the Friends of the Library Exam Week Snack Cart, conceiving and planning the Curiousi-Tea event in September -essentially a “welcome back” and “hello to new students” event, to name a few. She has engaged library staff not usually involved in creative activity in working with her on exhibits and events. Library signage has been a legitimate concern of hers and the library’s and in Fall she coordinated a Library Signage Task Force and designed and conducted a sign survey. Dragan is also central to the library’s having an active Facebook and Instagram presence. The extensive and wick array of ideas and activities that Dragan brings to life each year at the library are always about improving the library experience for our students.
She continues as our Springshare administrator managing our Libguides as well as training others in the use of the many modules we have in the Springshare suite of products. She is co-administrator with Kieran Ayton of the the library webpage. She and Kieran are conducting a She and Kieran are conducting a website usability study. Their focus groups discussion with students, faculty staff prompted important changes to the main search box. The focus groups will continue this coming Spring.
Dragan maintains positive working relationships with many individuals, offices and groups on campus. She participates in activities with Learning for Life; she regularly engages with staff and programming at the FCTL and CRCA; she was invited to serve as the library’s COGE representative. She maintains steady communication with other stakeholders in all her commitments.
The significance of her role as the campus coordinated for the RI Open Textbook initiative cannot be overstated. Dragan has increasingly demonstrated her strengths, skills and leadership abilities in her work for the college regarding open education resources. She is in charge of data management and reporting for RIC and all members in the statewide initiative. She is a superb communicator regarding RIC OER events and statistics. She is active both regionally and nationally. In November, she was invited to sit on the newly created New England Board of Higher Education Open Education Advisory Committee. This is a feather in her cap and a wise choice on their part.
The Rhode Island Library Association conference chair invited Dragan to present at it’s annual conference in 2019. The presentation was a collaboration with Dr. Michelle Brophy- Baermann on “Post-Truth Literacy.” Dragan was also asked to provide peer review of an article on asset mapping for The New Educator. She submitted and read her published piece, “Response to: ‘A Figure by Any Other Name: Exploring Alternatives to Gypsy’. (Fall 2019 CDSS News,) at the Writing Board’s annual “First Pages” event. Dragan is a skilled writer and presenter and her colleagues are confident that she will continue to share her expertise through presentations and publications.
Her faculty colleagues are in complete agreement that Dragan is making excellent progress towards promotion and tenure.
2018
2018 – Annual Review – Dragan Gill
Dragan Gill has had a very busy and productive year. Her 2018 PDF is chockfull of accomplishments.
Teaching/Professional Competence. The library instruction classes Dragan teaches continue to grow in numbers and in breadth. Dragan is sought after by colleagues in her liaison depts. of Anthropology, Sociology, Gender and Women’s studies for library instruction. She participated in the Reference and Research Support Department’s (RRS) grant based initiative with FYW Instructors. She co-taught with Breea Govenar’s McNair scholars class and took on full responsibility for the last quarter of the semester when Breea went on parental leave.
She has had a considerable number of presentations in this year as well.
College and Professional Service. In addition to her daily responsibilities as a reference and instruction librarian, she meets individually with many library users for research consultations. She continues the oversight of the library website with Kieran Ayton, and she continues as the coordinator and trainer for the Springshare suite of products, which includes the platforms for the library website, the research and resources guides known as Libguides, a statistical package for the RRS department, an email & chat platform and a program for student employee scheduling. She continued through the first half of 2018 to coordinate the RRS dept.’s student employees but requested release due to the increase in the workload for the Open Textbook Initiative. Dragan is also the library’s main PR/Outreach person, tending to our Facebook page, and coordinating exhibit scheduling. This year she has been the staff representative to the Friends of the Library and has also agreed to serve as Vice President/President elect of the group.
She continues in her role as the RI College coordinator for the Rhode Island Open Textbook Initiative and continues to co-chair the statewide steering committee. Her work includes general coordination, data collection and reporting and presentations. She has met with numerous individuals and small groups on campus and off, at conferences and was invited to do a workshop in Maine on OER. She spends considerably more than the 10% of her time on Open Textbook/ Open Education Resources, which was the amount of time initially agreed upon by the library director and VP for Academic Affairs. This is a significant undertaking on behalf of the college and an important leadership position, as well.
Research, Creativity, Scholarship. Dragan’s OER activity and presentations not only represent quality teaching and college and professional service, but also demonstrate significant information gathering, data collection, writing, and professional collaboration. Related to her OER responsibilities, she participated in a state-wide application for a highly-competitive US Department of Education OER Pilot Grant and completed the CITI Social & Behavioral Research – Basic/Refresher and Conflict of lnterest mini-course, which is required to be a Primary Investigator.
Her library faculty colleagues admire the efforts Dragan has made on behalf of the college and library community and believe she is making excellent process towards tenure and promotion.
2017
2017 – Annual Review – Dragan Gill
2017 has been a very busy and richly productive year for Dragan. She has worked to increase her activity in all areas and has excelled in her leadership roles. Her PDF is packed with accomplishments and achievements.
Teaching/Professional Competence. The library instruction classes she teaches continue to grow in numbers and in breadth. She had a significant number of presentations this year, as well, including participating in the course Liberal Studies 150 in which she spoke on news evaluating in the “fake news” era. Other presentations include Collaborative Cartography: Creating an Asset Map for Student and Community Success, Association of College and Research Libraries, New England Annual Conference, in which she mentored and co-presented with a graduate student and Learning for Life staff member and Using Object-Based and Open-Enabled Pedagogy for Authentic Learning, at the FCTL Adjunct Professional Development Day, July 2017 with department colleague, Amy Barlow.
College and Professional Service. Dragan’s PDF is rich in its list of her service to the library, college and profession. In addition to her daily responsibilities as a reference librarian, Dragan coordinated Reference Student Assistants and advocated and pushed for improved training processes for all student employees. With Kieran Ayton, she continued website oversight including hosting focus group sessions to garner feedback on the website redesign project. She worked with the Libguides company, Springshare, to troubleshoot and manage issues in the platform, including issues of accessibility. She is the main PR/Outreach person for the library, tending to our Facebook page, coordinating and curating exhibits, and she collaborated with colleagues and staff to present the program for Diversity Week which was hugely successful.
Dragan is the RI College coordinator and contact for the Rhode Island Open Textbook Initiative and she co-chairs the steering committee. This has been a huge and significant endeavor on her part and takes up a considerable amount of time. She has presented to faculty groups on campus, regularly communicated on the initiative to the college community, presented at conferences, attended pertinent conferences and professional meetings, and had numerous meetings with invested parties and much more. It has been a superb and impressive effort on Dragan’s part. Her colleagues value her contribution to the open textbook movement.
Research, Creativity, Scholarship. The presentations which Dragan has done this year not only represent quality teaching and college and professional service, but also demonstrate significant information gathering, data collection, academic writing, creative expression and professional collaboration. She is laying a strong foundation for continuing achievement in research and creativity. She published an article on the first year of the open textbook initiative in the RI Library Association Bulletin and contributed to the development of the Creative Commons Certification for Librarians.
The Library Faculty are very impressed with the work Dragan is doing and all that she has accomplished in 2017. She is making excellent process towards promotion and tenure.
2016 – Promoted to Assistant Professor, March 2016
2016 – Annual Review – Dragan Gill
Dragan continues to make major contributions to the Adams Library and to Rhode Island College.
During 2016 Dragan significantly increased the number of information literacy classes she instructed. In addition to her classes, Dragan taught students outside of class. She met them one on one and provided individual research assistance. She also provided library orientation tours for Learning For Life – Campus Connect. Dragan has also prepared and presented at several workshops on campus. She is always willing to communicate her knowledge and skills to others.
Dragan is responsible for overseeing the reference student workers which is no small task. While Dragan revised the training manual last year, she continues to review and evaluate the training manual/program for improvements. In Fall 2016, she introduced LibStaffer for the student employees. This tool allows the student workers to check their schedules and identify other students to work their shifts if they are unable. Her great appreciation for the student employees shows as she was a co-organizer of the Student Appreciation Day party. And she continues to find ways to engage student workers in other areas; in the fall she trained students to update the Library’s Facebook page.
Dragan’s technical skills have not gone unnoticed. She continues to work on the library’s LibGuides to ensure they have uniformity. Dragan also worked with Kieran Ayton and Amy Barlow on the UX study and presented at Rhode Island Library Association Annual Conference. In Fall 2016 Dragan worked closely with Kieran Ayton on the website redesign to ready it for the start of the Spring 2017 semester. In addition to her library responsibilities, Dragan was asked to chair, the Steering Committee for the Rhode Island Textbook Initiative. This is no small task but her commitment to students and the drive to find resources that faculty can use to lower students’ costs is awe-inspiring.
Dragan’s can do attitude shows in everything she does. She is collaborative, engaged, energized and creative; these are just a few of her qualities. She is an active participant in the reference department and an important contributor to improving information literacy especially in the FYW pilot. She collaborates with several departments on campus to enhance the students’ experience. I cannot say enough about her commitment to students and to her colleagues and I have heard nothing from praise from faculty, staff, administrators and students.
Her professional commitment shows in her involvement in professional organizations, such as Rhode Island Library Association.
Her overall commitment to RIC and librarianship shows in everything she does. It was a pleasure to work with her in my first semester and I look forward to watching her grow as a reference librarian and to see what other ideas and projects she has in store for the upcoming year.
The praise she received from her colleagues was great and they unanimously voted that she is making progress for reappointment toward tenure and promotion.
I support Dragan Gill’s reappointment as Assistant Professor, and I agree with her colleagues that she is making progress toward tenure and promotion.
March – December 2015 – Instructor
2015 – Annual Review – Dragan Gill
While Dragan has not yet been at RIC for a whole year, she has had a major impact on the library, and has made contributions benefiting the RIC community.
One of Dragan’s responsibilities is the Reference Desk and overseeing the reference student-workers. Since she arrived she has revised the students training program, sometimes using cleaver games, and began to organize and document student responsibilities and expectations. She has also set up a method by which each student has specific work to do in addition to assisting users at the Reference Desk. Dragan came to RIC with experience from her previous jobs. Her special skill is that she finds what works also at RIC, and integrates it into our environment.
A major project that Dragan carried out was revising the statistics kept at the Reference Desk. The first step was to audit the various accreditations requirements, then meet with the Reference staff to go over all the material and make decisions. Participating in the project was also a library school student from URI, doing an internship at the Adams Library. So not only did Dragan work on the project but was able to use it to teach the student about reference work in an academic setting. Part of this project was also to no longer have questions about Access Services come to the Reference Desk. That goal was achieved thanks to Dragan’s work with the manager and staff in Access Services.
As mentioned above Dragan mentored a professional field experience for a URI library school student. She did an exceptional job organizing the program – insuring that all the outcomes for the student were achieved and that the student learned how an academic library is different from a public library, until now her only library experience.
During the Fall semester Dragan taught 7 library instruction sessions. In Anthropology she taught from an introductory course to a high level course – and received praise from the faculty for her work. She is co developer on a First-Year Writing Fluency Pilot Program that Reference library faculty are developing for the next academic year.
One of Dragan’s strongest skills is integrating technology into her work. She was able to make a significant contribution to our LibGuide program and has used technology to better promote the library to the students and faculty via Facebook. However, she is open to other methods as well, such as a placing a whiteboard in the lobby of the library, with two questions, one a fun question to engage the students and then a second question about how the student use the library. For example, a library question was “where is your favorite place to study in the library”. The top priority is Level lA.
Dragan’s work does not only include Reference and instruction, she is also a liaison to Anthropology, Gender and Women Studies, and co-liaison to Environmental Studies. As such she selects books and other resources in these subjects and assisted with the deselection project. During the deselection project she communicated regularly with the faculty to ensure their feedback was included in the decisions making process to remove or keep materials.
Dragan is also an active member of the Library’s PR Committee. Not only does she come up with suggestions but she also does the work, like formatting the entire spring issue of the Library’s newsletter. She is co investigator on the Adams Library Website Redesign Study, and was most helpful to the team in coming up with the methodology. Her work also extends to the RIC campus. She is representing the Library on the Central Falls Planning Council, through which she is reaching out to the librarians in Central Falls. For Open Access Week she was instrumental in setting up a lecture about Open Textbooks and creating a LibGuide to inform the faculty about Open Textbook resources.
One of Dragan’ s nicest attributes is her willingness to help and work together with colleagues. Her response to a question is “sure, I can do that.” That was the case when asked to develop a LibGuide about sexual assault, or to assist with creating the online list of new books received in the Library.
In addition to all her work at RIC, Dragan is involved in professional associations, like the Rhode Island Library Association, and attends professional development events.
Dragan has done exceptional work. Her colleagues unanimously recommend reappointment.
