Student Success

The Toaster is hot

More than 2,300 people joined our Toaster Community by the end of the fall 2021 semester. The Toaster Innovation Hub offers students:

• Reservable spaces for group meetings
• Workshops and events
• A makerspace with hands-on equipment and supplies
• Access to all things UMN innovation and entrepreneurship.

In short, the Toaster is a place devoted to collaboration. It is a partnership between Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management and the University Libraries.

Instruction, library guides, and online tutorials

• Library staff provided instruction in 809 classes, reaching a total of 20,408 students.
• The Libraries’ 879 course guides and research guides were viewed a total of 377,454 times.
• Library tutorials — including “How to read and comprehend scientific research articles,” and “Choosing a Research Paper Topic” — were viewed nearly 142,959 times during fiscal year 2021.

Student Advisory Board launched in fall 2021

Ten outstanding students make up our inaugural Student Advisory Board. Board members represent the undergraduate student body and share feedback on library spaces, collections, and services. They meet monthly with Dean Lisa German and key Student Success staff members, including Carissa Tomlinson, Richmond Kinney, Kate Peterson, and Phil Dudas.

Peer Research Consultants

Our Peer Research Consultants (PRCs) enjoyed a record year in FY2021, providing more consultations than ever before. PRCs are students trained to help other students with research papers and assignments — while also helping students interested in working on a faculty research project. In FY21, PRCs:

Provided 300 one-on-one research consultations across 75 different courses

Helped 30 students with online library workshop follow-up requests

Presented to 150 students at the BIOL 1806 online information session regarding getting started with faculty-sponsored research at the U

Worked one-on-one with 20 College in the Schools students from Apple Valley High School.

Shout out to the PRCs

“Super helpful and constructive! She gave great direction and ideas, and answered all of my questions thoroughly! I am very happy with my experience and I would definitely use this resource again.”

“This experience was very helpful! I now have much more clarity on the specific requirements of my research assignment. The assignment was worded in a way that was confusing to me, but the Peer Research Consultant helped me understand it clearly.”

Campus Exploration Fair