Design training programs based on appropriate learning principles and theories.
The American Library Association recognizes library instruction as an important tenet of librarianship. Section 52.6 of the ALA Policy Manual states that all libraries should “include instruction in the use of libraries as one of the primary goals of service.” Today teaching in libraries is in a transitional state. Instructional focus is broadening and often becoming more of a core component of library service. Much of this movement is due to technological proliferation and the expanding reach of the internet as a vast and often disordered information environment. Librarians today find themselves engaged in the kind of library orientation and bibliographic instruction that has long been characteristic of the profession, as well as, teaching in regards to information literacy and the utilization of the devices and programs by which information is accessed.
In their text Bopp & Smith (2004, 179-180) identify four theoretical approaches to library instruction:
- Library Orientation – includes activities intended to “introduce users and potential users to services, resources, collections, building layouts, and the organization of materials.”
- Library Instruction – characterized by “in-depth explanation of library materials,” concentrating “on tools and mechanics.”
- Bibliographic Instruction – includes activities intended “to to teach learners how to locate and use information.”
- Information Literacy Instruction – characterized by instructing users to recognize when information is needed and “have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information.”
While as librarians we may see each of these approaches as crucial and important to helping patrons use and enjoy of library services effectively and efficiently, or to evaluate information in general, what we find obvious may not be apparent to users generally. In the process of training users and teaching library use, there is a need to make certain users are apprised of why such instruction will benefit them.
It is likewise important that librarians utilize users' prior knowledge to help design programs that will help them systematize and encode new information. For this reason, in many cases, a pre-assessment of user skills is necessary, so that the learner’s skills and knowledge schemas can be built upon. This sort of cognitive approach ensures that new knowledge is more likely to be retained, especially if it can be molded into understandable categories that fit within the user’s knowledge base. Leonard (2002, 28) defines a number of steps in the teaching process to ensure the encoding of new information presented to users:
This process, which requires full user participation rather than passive instruction, is helpful in ensuring that new processes become coded by the learner.
Evidence
In my library career instruction and ad hoc training have been two of the prime functions of my work on the reference desk. This often consists of assistance in all of the four categories denoted by Bopp and Smith above. Instruction can consist of teaching users on how to utilize their handheld devices with the library’s e-book services, how to search the online catalog, basic word-processing functions, or methods for searching databases for scholarly materials. While much of this desk instruction is ad hoc it does utilize cognitive techniques such as pre-assessing the users skill through the reference interview, explaining function, then more formally directing the user in the task, and offering feedback.
Along with these on-the-spot examples of instruction, I have taught bilingual computer classes in which instruction was coupled with practical computer use geared toward student needs, thus making the objective of the teaching more applicable to the users’ daily lives. Along with this public training, I have been tapped on multiple occasions to train staff on new devices, services, programs and techniques. Once such example is the e-book presentation I have given to three different library departments and my Library’s governing Commission. This presentation consists of a short overview of e-books generally followed by a directed training session in which the learners are guided through downloading a book. The demonstrational component of this training was also used on the Napa Valley Register website, offering the online readership of that paper a peek at one of our popular services and its function.
In LIBR 210, Reference Information Services, I gave a presentation on San Jose State’s Foreign Language Lib Guide. This presentation was coupled with a web tour in which a number of the “Best Resources” were demonstrated in real time to reveal a number of proposed uses for the resources in question. This instructional presentation utilized a demonstrative technique and had clearly delineated goals.
Recently in LIBR 263, Materials for Children 5-8, I spent time analyzing research concerned with literacy learning practices in minority communities. The piece looks at research by Brock (2007) which examines some of the failings of elementary classroom instruction where English Language Learners were concerned. This paper, though critical of some of Brock’s methodologies, demonstrates an understanding of the importance of learner feedback within the learning environment, a critical element which was lacking in this case study.
- Library eBook Presentation
- Napa Valley Register eAudiobook Demonstration
- Foreign Languages LibGuide Presentation
- Brock's Ethnographic Case Study Analysis
References
American Library Association (2012). Services and responsibilities of libraries. American Library Association Policy Manual. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2/52libsvcsandrespon
Bopp, R. E. & Smith, L. C. (2001). Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
Brock, C. H. (2007). Opportunities: A collaborative case study analysis exploring an Englishlanguage learner’s literacy learning. Urban Education, 42. 470-501.
Leonard, D. C. (2002). Learning Theories A to Z. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Bopp, R. E. & Smith, L. C. (2001). Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
Brock, C. H. (2007). Opportunities: A collaborative case study analysis exploring an Englishlanguage learner’s literacy learning. Urban Education, 42. 470-501.
Leonard, D. C. (2002). Learning Theories A to Z. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
