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Author(s) Bio

Giovanna Colosi is the Librarian for the School of Education and Team Lead for Subject Instruction at Syracuse University Libraries. She supervises a team of librarians, provides research and instructional support, maintains the Education collection, and coordinates a series of research-focused workshops for graduate students. Giovanna contributes to the profession as a reviewer for Choice and EMRO and as the Human Services subject editor for Resources for College Libraries: Career Resources. She has held board positions with the Northern Onondaga Public Library and the Eastern New York Chapter of ACRL and currently with the Central New York Library Resources Council.

Keywords

graduate students, incentives, programming models, research workshops, engagement

Description of Proposal

For almost a decade, Syracuse University Libraries has supported graduate research skill development through the Graduate Research Roundtable Series, a long-running, cross-campus collaboration that provides workshops on a wide range of topics including literature searching, data and information literacy, research tools, scholarly writing, responsible AI use, and publishing. While these sessions historically drew consistent attendance and strong feedback, post-pandemic shifts—including scheduling conflicts, increased teaching and work responsibilities, hybrid learning demands, and rising stressors among graduate students—revealed a need to rethink workshop engagement strategies. Students continued to value the content and support, but many struggled to fit fixed-time workshops into already heavy academic, employment, and family commitments.

In response, Syracuse University Libraries piloted a new engagement model: the Graduate Research Passport Program, funded through a Libraries Innovation Fund grant. The passport introduces a light gamification structure in which students earn “stamps” for attending workshops, completing brief assessment surveys, engaging with campus partners, and participating in skills-building activities. Students who accumulate stamps become eligible for raffles, certificates, recognition, and small incentives designed to reinforce continued participation. Rather than functioning as standalone events, the workshops are reframed as parts of a cohesive, semester-long learning arc that supports ongoing development of graduate research competencies.

This poster will outline how the passport model transformed the workshop series into a structured, community-building program with measurable engagement outcomes. It will highlight how the pilot year of the program:

  • Increased workshop visibility across multiple schools and colleges

  • Strengthened a sense of belonging among graduate students who often report isolation

  • Improved librarians’ ability to track participation patterns and instructional needs

  • Expanded collaborations with campus partners such as the Graduate School, Writing Center, and Office of Institutional Effectiveness

  • Encouraged deeper student–librarian relationships and follow-up consultations

Additionally, the poster will describe the logistics required to sustain this expanded model, including hybrid delivery options, strategic evening scheduling, targeted marketing and outreach, room reservations, catering, and coordination with partner departments. It will also share initial outcomes from attendance data, passport completion rates, student surveys, and qualitative feedback.

By drawing on student affairs practices, incentive design, and research on graduate-level engagement, this project demonstrates how academic libraries can adapt long-standing programs in ways that are scalable, inclusive, and aligned with institutional goals for graduate student success.

What takeaways will attendees learn from your session?

After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:

  • Understand a motivation-based engagement model for graduate-student workshops.

  • Identify program components that support scalability, sustainability, and librarian workload management.

  • Explore how light gamification and incentives can meaningfully increase attendance and workshop completion.

  • Learn practical marketing strategies (email campaigns, partner-amplified outreach, branded materials, cross-promotion).

  • See how community-building and consistent programming can lead to more consultations and stronger librarian-graduate student relationships.

  • Consider ways to adapt the passport model for their own graduate or undergraduate populations.

Additional Files
high Impact Colosi_G_Poster.pdf (432 kB)
Poster
Transcript_High Impact Graduate Programming.docx (23 kB)
Video Transcript
Download

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High-Impact Graduate Programming: The Research Roundtable Series & Passport Engagement Model

For almost a decade, Syracuse University Libraries has supported graduate research skill development through the Graduate Research Roundtable Series, a long-running, cross-campus collaboration that provides workshops on a wide range of topics including literature searching, data and information literacy, research tools, scholarly writing, responsible AI use, and publishing. While these sessions historically drew consistent attendance and strong feedback, post-pandemic shifts—including scheduling conflicts, increased teaching and work responsibilities, hybrid learning demands, and rising stressors among graduate students—revealed a need to rethink workshop engagement strategies. Students continued to value the content and support, but many struggled to fit fixed-time workshops into already heavy academic, employment, and family commitments.

In response, Syracuse University Libraries piloted a new engagement model: the Graduate Research Passport Program, funded through a Libraries Innovation Fund grant. The passport introduces a light gamification structure in which students earn “stamps” for attending workshops, completing brief assessment surveys, engaging with campus partners, and participating in skills-building activities. Students who accumulate stamps become eligible for raffles, certificates, recognition, and small incentives designed to reinforce continued participation. Rather than functioning as standalone events, the workshops are reframed as parts of a cohesive, semester-long learning arc that supports ongoing development of graduate research competencies.

This poster will outline how the passport model transformed the workshop series into a structured, community-building program with measurable engagement outcomes. It will highlight how the pilot year of the program:

  • Increased workshop visibility across multiple schools and colleges

  • Strengthened a sense of belonging among graduate students who often report isolation

  • Improved librarians’ ability to track participation patterns and instructional needs

  • Expanded collaborations with campus partners such as the Graduate School, Writing Center, and Office of Institutional Effectiveness

  • Encouraged deeper student–librarian relationships and follow-up consultations

Additionally, the poster will describe the logistics required to sustain this expanded model, including hybrid delivery options, strategic evening scheduling, targeted marketing and outreach, room reservations, catering, and coordination with partner departments. It will also share initial outcomes from attendance data, passport completion rates, student surveys, and qualitative feedback.

By drawing on student affairs practices, incentive design, and research on graduate-level engagement, this project demonstrates how academic libraries can adapt long-standing programs in ways that are scalable, inclusive, and aligned with institutional goals for graduate student success.