The Indispensable Academic Librarian by Michelle Reale

Author:Michelle Reale [Reale, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LAN025000 Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / General
Publisher: American Library Association

HOW THIS PROCESS BEGAN

Librarians are constantly challenged to present information literacy in ever more dynamic ways. We add layers of technology, databases, and both creative and tried and true methods like keyword searching. But still we often find it difficult to convince students that what we are there to show them is of any value to them. As I have written in a previous chapter, I have often found that professors or adjuncts in many of the classes we teach are disengaged. In some cases, they use the library session as an opportunity to catch up on their own work, or use the librarian as a substitute teacher for the session. My sessions are usually more productive, and I receive more buy-in from students when professors are engaged in the learning process as active rather than passive participants. As well, I have dealt with instructors who feel as though they know more than librarians do about their own field (always a frustrating experience), and will interrupt a session with comments or misinformation that lead the session away from its learning objectives. Because students may receive multiple library sessions in different classes, they may tune out most of the information, especially if they consider it to be repetitive. Paradoxically, students often do not absorb all that they should at library sessions because librarians are not always scheduled to meet with them at their exact time of need. Therefore, what we are teaching or presenting in class is often not immediately applicable to their work.

My institution, Arcadia University, is a small liberal arts university with a strong international education mandate located just 25 minutes from Center City, Philadelphia. Serving approximately 4,000 enrolled students, Landman Library employs six faculty librarians, all of whom are engaged in various levels of teaching, from working with first-year seminars and capstone and thesis classes to teaching their own courses according to their specialties. Librarians at Arcadia University enjoy the camaraderie and respect of faculty members on campus; they are involved in many areas of collaboration, from serving on committees to developing and co-teaching courses, although that has not always been the case.

At the time I became a librarian, I had been working as the manager of Access Services at Arcadia’s library. I was fortunate to have been offered a faculty librarian position upon completion of my MSLS. I was more than anxious to teach bibliographic instruction. While a staff member, I had heard many of the librarians lament that students do not seem engaged in library instruction classes and rarely, if ever, retain what they are taught. As the liaison to the English department and a graduate of both the undergraduate and graduate programs in English at Arcadia, I was treading the line with the professors with whom I worked: they had known me as a student years ago, and now I was their colleague. I had to go slightly off the beaten path to develop the skills needed to connect with the students, while at the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.