Candice Benjes-Small - The New Instruction Librarian: A Workbook for Trainers and Learners

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2017 by the American Library Association

Extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of the information in this book; however, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

ISBNs

978-0-8389-1456-4 (paper)

978-0-8389-1512-7 (PDF)

978-0-8389-1513-4 (ePub)

978-0-8389-1514-1 (Kindle)

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number: 2016045614

Worksheets in .

Hello! Pull up a chair, and grab something to drink or eat. We want you to be comfortable as we start our journey together.

This book is intended for any library professional with instruction duties. This could include:

• Recent graduates from library and information sciences programs in their first professional position
• Librarians who have been in the profession for a while but have recently taken on instruction duties
• Librarians with instruction experience but who have moved to a new library and are looking for a game plan for settling into their new setting
• People who are, formally or informally, tasked with training someone else in instruction

Although this book is primarily geared towards librarians in academic settings, anyone involved in teaching users about some aspect of the library or information seeking should find it applicable.

We are librarians who love instruction and want others to experience that passion.

Candice entered the library program at the University of Texas at Austin in 1995 with a concentration in reference and happily took an information specialist position after graduation at the University of Southern Californias Norris Medical Library in 1997. She had been told that teaching database workshops would be part of the job, and dreaded it. Public speaking had never been her strong point. But over the first year on the job, she discovered a previously unknown love of teachinghelped, no doubt, by a supervisor who firmly believed in mentoring her new librarians in instruction. Candice spent her first full semester at the University of Southern California just observing other librarians teach and was not expected to lead a class herself until she announced she was ready. She was startled to discover that many of her colleagues at other libraries had not had such a supportive start to instruction, and when she became instruction coordinator at Radford University in Virginia in 2004, she immediately implemented a training program for all new instruction librarians.

After working as a staff member at a public library, a university library, and a health sciences library, Rebecca graduated with her MLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007. While she always viewed one-on-one reference interactions as a type of teaching, it wasnt until her first post-MLS librarian position at Louisiana State University in 2008 that she actually stood in front of a class and was expected to teach. Rebecca never took an education or information literacy class at any point during her library program, so she was surprised when she was expected to teach not only one-shot classes but also credit-bearing information literacy classes. She dove into the literature headfirst and discovered that a lot of excellent information on learning theories, teaching techniques, and information literacy already existed. When she was appointed information literacy coordinator at Virginia Tech in 2011, she decided to enroll in a second masters program in instructional design and technology. Through this program she was introduced to many additional learning theories, instructional design models, and teaching strategies that have helped her reframe how she thinks about teaching in libraries. She believes strongly in communities of practice as an effective way for individuals to grow in their professional roles, and believes that this book can help bring supervisors, mentors, colleagues, and new instruction librarians together into supportive communities of practice.

This book is intended to be a practical handbook for new instruction librarians and those who are training or managing them. While the library literature about information literacy is rich, we both noted that there was no single go-to source for orienting new colleagues. Candice created a reading list for her new instruction librarian hires, but she had to develop a more comprehensive training program to fill in the gaps. She copresented with one new librarian, Katelyn Tucker Burton, about this program at numerous regional conferences and audience response was overwhelming. Rebecca established a community of practice for all teaching librarians at Virginia Tech that revolved around shared readings related to teaching and learning. Through this program, she realized that all librarians who teachnot just new instruction librariansneed support as they continue to grow as teachers and learners. Many instruction librarians had felt lost at the start of their careers, while those who had been charged with orienting new hires also expressed frustration with the process. This book is intended to ease the transition into library instruction and support all those involved, including supervisors, colleagues, and trainees.

We would like to thank the members of the Libraries Exchange Observation (LEO), a consortium of instruction librarians in southwest Virginia. Our colleagues provided suggestions, support, and encouragement throughout the writing of this book. We are also thankful to LEO because we might not have encountered or pursued so many joint projects without its existence.

We are grateful to our supervisors and coworkers, past and present, who contributed to this books existence. Candice would like to thank her first supervisor, Jan Nelson, who told her, Im not putting you in front of a class until you say youre ready. It was only years later that Candice realized how rare was this offer. She also thanks Blair Brainard and Dave Hayes, who supported her creation of a training program for new instruction librarians at McConnell Library; Steve Helm, Dean of McConnell Library, for encouraging her to write this book; and all of the instruction librarians she has had the privilege to help train and work with over the years. She learned as much, if not more, from them than they did from her.

Rebecca would like to thank Lesley Moyo and Brian Mathews, her two supervisors at Virginia Tech, and Joe Salem, her supervisor at Penn State. Each of these individuals provided amazing support and influenced Rebeccas ideas about what effective and supportive management for new instruction librarians can and should look like. Rebecca is also extremely grateful for all of her colleagues, past and present, at Virginia Tech and Penn State, who provided insight and input into this book in more ways than one.

As of this writing, an Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) task force is rewriting the ACRL Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators; Candice is a member of this task force. The idea of instruction librarian hats grew out of task force discussions, and the authors would like to thank members of the task force: Chairs Sara Harrington and Carroll Wilkinson; Dawn Amsberry; Sara Miller; and Courtney Mlinar.