Any Questions?

One of my favorite teaching strategies is the Socratic Method. I like this method because questioning the class for ‘original answers’ fosters critical thinking. For example, instead of telling the students the steps in a 5-stepped research process, I ask them a series of questions that leads them to discover the 5 steps as a class. I start by writing 1 through 5 on the board so the students will know we are looking for five steps. Then I ask them “When you have been assigned a topic to write about, how do usually begin your research?” Almost always they will say, “The Internet!” I will then ask them a series of questions, such as “How many results do you get?” or “How good are the results?” until they admit that maybe the web is not the best place to start. I then write “Internet” in the fifth spot so we remember that this is the last step. Next I will ask something like, “When you first start your research, what do you need to know about your topic?” I usually get answers like “what it is” or “background information.” After that I ask them “Where can you find this type of information?” I ask questions until we have all 5 spaces completed.

I first learned about the Socratic Method at an instruction workshop. In the workshop, we received a handout titled “Introduction to Socratic Pedagogy.” Unfortunately, the handout does not appear to be online, but here are some helpful tips from the handout.

• Prepare your sequence of questions before class
• Vary question difficulty and pace
• “Ask a variety of questions on the same concept.”
• “Set up patterns”
• “When a student asks a question or if we ask a question, don’t answer it yourself.”
• Don’t ask questions that end in “Right?”

Interested in a TLA Distance Learning Interest Group?

Denise Landry-Hyde is looking to establish a Distance Learning Interest Group within the Texas Library Association (TLA). She states, “With the rapid growth in distance learning throughout the country, there is an increasing need within the state for a group that focuses on the needs and requirements of this learning community.”

If you are a TLA member in good standing, please “sign” the petition to form this Interest Group by e-mailing Denise Landry-Hyde at Denise.Landry@mail.tamucc.edu. If you are not a member of TLA, you can join TLA at www.txla.org/html/memoptions.html.

Library Instruction Teaching Tips

At their Library Instruction Teaching Tips page, the Library Instruction Round Table of ALA provides brochures with teaching tips in the following areas:

• Classroom Management
• Classroom Materials
• Presentation Skills
• Technology in the Classroom

Not only do these brochures provide teaching tips, but each also includes a bibliography. Despite being created in 1999, the information provided is still relevant, even in “Technology in the Classroom.”

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these brochures. If you don't already have it, you can download for free at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

Classroom Management Systems Comparison Chart

I have a dream of a library classroom where the instructor controls the computers students use. No more students checking their e-mail or MySpace page. No choice but to pay attention (or sleep). The instructor can even direct all student computers to the same website. Several software/hardware products, called Classroom Management Systems, make this possible. The Teaching Methods Committee of ACRL provides a list comparing many of these products at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/about/sections/is/projpubs/classroomcontrolsys/classroomcontrol.cfm.

Someday my dream will come true.

PS. If you have experience using a Classroom Management System, please post a comment with your opinion of the system you use.

Internet at School

"The Internet at School: A Tool or a Crutch?"
By Peter Alexander, Correspondent, NBC News
MSNBS
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11727321/from/ET/

This article states, "With the facts now at their fingertips, teachers say it's less important that their students can store information in their heads and more important that they know where to find it and what to do with it."

Why does that sound familiar? Oh yeah, we call that 'Information Literacy.' Anyways, it is nice to see that others recognize the importance of information literacy today, even if they don't call it that.

Laughs for the Stressed Librarian

There are just some days (and patrons) I could not get through if I didn’t look at the humor in the situation. Here are a few sources of humor that help me make it through those kinds of days.

Blogs
bitter librarian
http://bitterlibrarian.blogspot.com/
“The true tales of a public librarian. Advocating for victimized librarians everywhere. Names have been changed to protect the confidentiality of guilty parties.”

A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette
http://libetiquette.blogspot.com/
“A polite librarian is a good librarian.”

Library Mofo
(Warning: Contains language that may be offensive to some!)
http://community.livejournal.com/library_mofo/
“The Society for Librarians* who Say Mother****er.” Or those of us who feel like it sometimes.

Comics
Unshelved
http://www.overduemedia.com/
Daily comic strip that takes place in a public library.

Funny You Should Ask…
Each week this e-mail from Thomson Gale features a humorous reference question. Subscribe at http://www.gale.com/enewsletters/ or view the archives at http://www.gale.com/enewsletters/archive.htm. Not really a comic, but it looks like one.



Of course, we can’t actually take our frustrations out on the patron, no matter how much they ask for it. Just to make sure you are not corrupted after visiting some of these sites, take a look at the Baylor University Libraries’ “Client Service Standards and Behavioral Indicators” accessible at http://www.baylor.edu/lib/librarystaff/. This document will give you a review of good customer service behaviors.

ALA Midwinter 2006

I attended the following events at the American Library Assocaition's 2006 Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

Combating the Culture of Copy: Information Literacy Intervention for Plagiarism
Presented by Lynn D. Lampert; Sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
Friday, Jan. 20, 2006
Today’s typical college students routinely download information and media. Wikis, blogs, and open-source programming encourage collaboration. Most students do not know what constitutes plagiarism and what is legal. Furthermore, what most faculty recognize as plagiarism differs from many librarians’ stricter definition of plagiarism. The definition of plagiarism also differs by discipline. This session focused on a discipline-based approach to anti-plagiarism instruction. To understand what constitutes plagiarism in a specific discipline, a librarian, along with faculty, can investigate the field’s code of ethics and its literature on plagiarism and academic dishonesty. An academic department’s or an instructor’s specific plagiarism problem provides a “zone of intervention” where a librarian and faculty can work together to prevent plagiarism.

The Instruction Balance
Sponsored by the Teaching Methods and Education Committees of the ACRL Instruction Section
Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006
In this participant-driven session, participants discussed questions in a group, and then shared the highlights of their discussion with the larger group. My group observed that of all our responsibilities, preparation (objectives, materials, etc.) takes the most time. Nevertheless, sharing can save time. Templates, shared drives, and online materials, such as PRIMO, LOEX, and MERLOT, provide opportunities to share instruction materials. We also discussed ways to avoid burn-out. Training, including team-teaching, is necessary for less-skilled instructors so that teaching duties are equal among instruction librarians. Members of my group also suggested taking a break, participating in non-library activities on campus, and taking advantage of continuing education opportunities as means of avoiding burnout.

Management of Instruction Services Committee's Bright Ideas Session:
"Hello, Anybody out There? How to Improve Outreach Efforts and Build Positive Relationships"
Sponsored by the Management of Instruction Services Committee of the ACRL Instruction Section
Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006
This session was conducted in a “jig-saw” manner. The session had 6 topics. The table a participant sat down at became their home table. Each participant at all the tables was assigned one of the 6 topics. Then participants moved to tables with others assigned their topic to discuss the assigned topic. My topic was “Outreach to Adjunct Faculty or Teaching Assistants.” We discussed ways to locate adjuncts and TAs and how to broach the subject of information literacy with them. Ideas for finding adjuncts and TAs included: making friends with department secretaries, connecting with them when they come into the library, and attending orientations or training sessions. One can inform them about information literacy when they come into the library for assistance or through letters or e-mails (some colleges have e-mail lists or offices that can be used to reach adjuncts and/or TAs).

After discussions in our assigned groups, everybody returned to their home tables, where everybody shared the highlights from their assigned topics with their home table. The participants at my home table shared the ideas that follow.

Outreach to Students

• Integrate into Freshman Experiences or introductory English Courses
• Librarian visits student classes to introduce self
• Activities during Parents Weekend or Orientation
• Poster contest (students designed posters to advertise the library)

Outreach to Graduate Students

• Involvement with the Graduate Student Association
• Newsletters
• Hand out business cards during sessions (helps them see you as a professional)
• Have experienced and respected faculty promote the library to them

Working with Non-academic Departments

• Work with residence halls
• Participate in School fairs
• Gain support by serving on campus-wide committees

Partnering with Faculty

• Provide them the option to select from various library instruction approaches
• Attend social events
• Send periodic e-mails, but don’t overdo it

Cool Marketing Ideas

• Key chains (light-up or carabineers) with library logo or website are very popular
• Other Freebies with library logo or website, including post-it notes, magnets, branded candy and miniature highlighters
• One librarian gives new graduate students a coupon for “Free Espresso with a Librarian.” When they return the coupon she treats them to a cup of espresso and spends 20 minutes talking with them.
• Temporary tattoos

Got instruction strategies to share?

Have you got an Information Literacy instruction strategy you would like to share? There is no reason I should have all the fun. If you tried a library instruction strategy that you would like to post on Information Literacy Librarian, please send it to amylib1 @ fastmail.fm. Let us know what has worked for you and what you tried that bombed.

Happy Holidays!

Internet vs. Library

I like to use this analogy when I am talking to students about the value of library resources in the Internet age.

I usually start by asking students what they do for lunch or dinner when they only have five minutes to eat and five dollars. Every time somebody has said, "Go to McDonalds." I then ask, “Is it healthy?” and the students will usually laugh and shake their heads, “No.” Sometimes somebody will say “You can get a salad,” and I will point out that there are some good things on the web, but for the most part, the free web is like McDonald’s. It’s fast, cheap, and easy, but is unhealthy for your academic career. The free web is fine for everyday things, but you should use library sources for things that matter.

Student Webpage Evaluation

Today I tried a new approach to teaching web site evaluation and found that it 1) increased student involvement and 2) students already use the criteria we teach to evaluate websites.

In the July 2004 issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy, Marc Meola wrote an article titled “Chucking the Checklist: A Contextual Approach to Teaching Undergraduates Web-Site Evaluation,” in which he criticizes the typical checklist approach to teaching web site evaluation. He argues that students are more critical than we give them credit and that the checklist approach is ineffective for a variety of reasons. He suggests a “contextual approach” that promotes critical thinking skills. This approach involves:

1. Promotion and discussion of reviewed sources
2. Comparison
3. Corroboration

I particularly liked the arguments in favor of the Comparison method and decided to try it out in my Internet class this afternoon. The comparison method requires the researcher to compare different sources and different types of sources in order to select the most useful. Ideally, the researcher will compare print, electronic, free and subscription sources in order to find the sources that most meet his/her information needs. Unfortunately, time limits and the scope of the class limited us to free websites only.

Earlier in the class, we did a search for '“childhood obesity” causes' in Google. I then asked the students to get into groups of 2 or 3 and to decide which of the first three results would be the best website to use for a research paper. After some time in groups, we came back together and voted on the best one (each group only had 1 vote, so they had to agree on their vote).

Selection of only one site spurred a couple of the groups into debate, because they didn’t just have to pick one, but they also had to convince their teammates that it was the best one. Instead of going with a gut feeling, they had to articulate why one site was better than the others. They also had to weigh different factors. For example, one group selected an older website that came from a more authoritative source. They decided the source was more important than the date.

After voting, I asked each group why they selected a particular site. Although I hadn’t taught them the checklist method, many of them used the same criteria. The winner of the vote was a webpage sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They said they selected this one because it came from a trusted source. They noticed the date, but decided the information was still valid. They also considered Coverage. The winning webpage was very lengthy and discussed many aspects of childhood obesity. However, another team voted for a website that was more concise because it offered all the information they needed. Students were also aware of Objectivity. They stated that no advertisements was another reason they selected the winning site over the other sites.

I think I actually learned more than the students did today. I learned that students do value quality sources of information and they critically evaluate websites.

More Power to Ya!

I have been reading Maryellen Weimer's Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. According to Weimer, traditional educational practices are Teacher-Centered, meaning that these practices benefit the teacher more than the student or learner. Weimer advocates for Learner-Centered Teaching, instruction practices that help students learn how to learn. In her book, Weimer promotes shifts in the following 5 areas of instruction:

• Balance of Power
• Function of Content
• Role of the Teacher
• Responsibility for Learning
• Purpose and Process of Evaluation

The shift that I found the scariest is the Balance of Power. According to Weimer, sharing power with students increases their motivation and involvement. I won’t go into her arguments, but they are convincing.

I decided to share power with students in my Information Literacy workshops by allowing them to set some of the goals for the workshop. To start the class, I ask students what their goals for the workshop are. This usually takes some prodding with additional questions like “What do you hope to learn?” or “Why did you come?” I type their goals into a Word document and save it. After class, I bring the document back up and ask them to raise their hands if they met goal 1, goal, 2, etc. I count how many raise their hands for each goal so that the document also serves as an assessment document.

Although the goals I previously defined still shape the majority of the workshop, I am able to focus on topics that students want to know about. For example, I usually do not spend much time talking about our Pay-for-Print system, but after a student stated that that was one of her goals, I made sure that we covered that topic. When a colleague of mine tried this same strategy, she learned that the majority of the students in her workshop had a goal different from what she envisioned. As a result, she was able to shift the focus and concentrate on their immediate need.

For the most part, student goals are broad, such as “learn how to do research,” and easily fit into the goals of the Information Literacy program. I have only had to reject a couple of goals because they differed too much from the workshop objective, such as the student in the Library Catalog workshop who wanted to know how to register for courses.

Have Topic Will Travel

Today I taught a Research Workshop to a particularly attentive Composition class. I was surprised to see how much they had written down when I collected their Guided Notes*. Most of the time, students just copy what I write on the board, if they write anything. But these students also copied my power point slides and some took additional notes. I think these students particularly paid attention because they already had their assignment and topic.

Frequently, instructors send their students to our workshops before giving the students the assignment or having them select a topic. I assume they are thinking that the students will do better if they know how to research a topic before receiving their topic. However, as I look back on the workshops I have done in the past, students with an immediate information need (assignment and topic) are the most attentive.

I believe this could be loosely related to Constructivist Learning Theory. When students know their assignment and topic, they can immediately incorporate what they are learning into ideas of what they will need to do to complete their assignment.


*I collect the Guided Notes for assessment purposes. After looking at their notes, I returned them to the class instructor so that she can give the students back their notes at the next class meeting.

Google enters IM market

http://www.google.com/talk/

Google now has its own Instant Messaging software, Google Talk, in Beta. The Developer page states,

"We plan to partner with other willing service providers to enable federation of our services. This means that a user on one service can communicate with users on another service without needing to sign up for, or sign in with, each service. "

What does this have to do with Information Literacy? As much as librarians like to discuss virtual (remote) reference services, it is a service that has not come into its own yet. One problem is that services such as OCLC's QuestionPoint require library users to download a plug-in. Some libraries already use Yahoo or AOL Instant Messengers, but this excludes all library users who use a different IM service than the library's from their virtual reference service. If Google Talk is able to federate with the most popular IM services, a library could provide virtual reference to patrons using a variety of IM services.

Another Librarian Blog?

The Association of College and Research Libraries defines Information Literacy as “the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.” Despite living in the 'Information Age,' many Americans do not possess such skills. Technology and the Internet provide easy access to good information, yet few know about how to find it. Most people are satisfied with the first results of their clumsy Google or Yahoo! search. Frequently, the information they find is mediocre, but they do not have the evaluation skills to recognize this fact.

As information seekers stumble on the surface of the Web, they are unaware of the wealth of information just inches below their feet. Most do not know that their Libraries provide them with FREE access to periodical articles, even some books, through the Internet. In addition, information seekers often overlook the vast information still contained in those old-fashioned things called ‘books.’ But what disturbs me even more, is the knowledge that most Americans remain blind to the fact that Librarians are there to help them untangle the web of information available to them.

As an Information Literacy Librarian at a community college in Texas, I help students (and anybody else who finds their way into the library) obtain Information Literacy skills. To do this, I teach workshops in our Information Literacy program, as well as workshops for individual classes. I also work one-on-one with students completing research for their assignments.

In this Blog, I will be recording my experiences as Information Literacy Librarian. Researchers and Librarians have written a great deal about Information Literacy theory and practice. However, one does not become a great librarian by simply reading the literature. I actively seek ideas that I can implement to improve my instruction skills. Information Literacy Librarian provides me a space to share and reflect on the teaching strategies I put into practice.