Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Meaningful Work When Work Won't Love You Back: Sociological Imagination And Reflective Teaching Practice (Reports From The Field), Andrea Baer

Libraries Scholarship

This essay explores the tension between pursuing meaningful work in instruction librarianship and the realities of working in a society in which many jobs provide little fulfillment or pleasure, or, as the journalist Sarah Jaffe puts it, “Work won’t love you back.” Drawing on a recent conference keynote by Anne Helen Petersen, C. Wright Mills’s conception of sociological imagination, and an ecological model of teacher agency, I propose that one way librarians can sustain their teaching practices and preserve their well-being is by actively investigating how social structures and relationships influence their teaching roles.

Exploring Librarians’ Teaching Roles Through Metaphor, Andrea Baer

Libraries Scholarship

As librarians’ instructional roles continue to evolve, metaphor can be a powerful tool through which to reflect on and at times to reframe librarians’ evolving educational roles and pedagogical approaches, as they consider beliefs and assumptions about teaching and learning and about their unfolding work and identities. This article explores this potential by examining professional documents on librarians’ teaching, discussing empirical research on metaphor as a tool for teacher development, examining metaphors that librarians have sometimes used to describe their pedagogical work, and sharing the author’s experiences facilitating a librarian workshop on metaphor and librarians’ teaching roles.

Designing A Collaborative Cross-Campus Drop-In Workshop Series To Motivate Lifelong Learners, Tim Miller, Sarah Fay Philips

Tim Miller

Breathing Life Into Information Literacy Skills: Results Of A Faculty-Librarian Collaboration, Divonna M. Stebick, Janelle L. Wertzberger, Margaret E. Flora, Joseph W. Miller

Janelle Wertzberger

When an education professor and a reference librarian sought to improve the quality of undergraduate student research, their partnership led to a new focus on assessing the research process in addition to the product. In this study, we reflect on our collaborative experience introducing information literacy as the foundation for undergraduate teacher education research. We examine the outcomes of this collaboration, focusing on the assessment of the process. Using a mixed methods approach, we found that direct instruction supporting effective research strategies positively impacted student projects. Our data also suggest that undergraduate students benefit from not only sound research strategies, …

Breathing Life Into Information Literacy Skills: Results Of A Faculty-Librarian Collaboration, Divonna M. Stebick, Janelle L. Wertzberger, Margaret E. Flora, Joseph W. Miller

Education Faculty Publications

When an education professor and a reference librarian sought to improve the quality of undergraduate student research, their partnership led to a new focus on assessing the research process in addition to the product. In this study, we reflect on our collaborative experience introducing information literacy as the foundation for undergraduate teacher education research. We examine the outcomes of this collaboration, focusing on the assessment of the process. Using a mixed methods approach, we found that direct instruction supporting effective research strategies positively impacted student projects. Our data also suggest that undergraduate students benefit from not only sound research strategies, …

Pedagogy For Librarians, Megan Hodge

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Most librarians are required to take classes on reference, collection development, and information organization in library school; courses on pedagogy, on the other hand, are usually optional, if they’re offered at all. This leads most librarians who end up with instruction duties to learn on the job. Activities and assessments can be learned on the fly fairly easily, but these often have little to no bearing on how much students actually absorb and recall weeks later because alone, they are usually insufficient to ensure deep learning. This chapter seeks to add the basics of pedagogy, a subject comprehensively covered in …

Library Resources For Liberty University Online Faculty - Fall 2012, Randy Miller

Randy L Miller

Liberty University Librarian Randy L. Miller talks about using library resources for online teaching. Workshop includes information literacy goals, using EZProxy for access to subscription databases, online library services available, tips for finding books and journal articles, and tips for effective library assignments.

Night Vision Goggles Or Rose Colored Glasses: A Unique Perspective On Training The Library Graduate Assistant In Instruction, Mary Todd Chesnut

The Southeastern Librarian

A review of the course descriptions for the twelve ALA-accredited Library and Information Graduate Schools in the southeastern states identified that the majority offer only one or two elective course related to library instruction (see appendix). These courses cover topics such as curriculum design, learning theory, best practices for teaching, and information literacy strategies. Some graduate program curriculums do not offer specific courses in library instruction, instead including it as a topic in a broader course such as Academic Libraries or in conjunction with a school media specialty.