At the college where I work, we've launched a project designed to improve and streamline the way we do bibliographic instruction. We're using the Angel courseware to deliver the basics of library orientation, and to target individual classes with guides and tips tailored to their assignments. Using the courseware, we can create mini tutorials and how-to jings that explain many of the day to day functions and procedures in the library. We can also provide external web links, bibliographies, and list of the best databases to use for specific disciplines. We can even do our pre and post instruction surveys using the courseware. We call it the Library Lab.
Admittedly, the information we can provide via the courseware is not fundamentally different from what we have always provided through the library website, in PowerPoint presentations, or in printed subject guides - or, indeed, in person. What is different, of course, is that we can now put all of this information in one place, and 'push' it to the students in a format that they are increasingly required to use for most of their courses. What was once widely dispersed over different media and in different venues can now be more centralized.
Certainly, this doesn't mean that we are moving towards totally virtual or self-directed instruction. We will still have individual classes coming to the library for course-specific instruction, but those sessions will now be more assignment focused, more geared to teaching the methods and strategies of library research. The formal sessions should also be shorter than they have been in the past.
Under the ‘old’ system classes would come to the library for sessions that included a brief orientation tour, a course-specific dog and pony show covering everything from how to make a photocopy and check out a book, to an explanation of the Library of Congress cataloging system, and some hands-on practice searching the databases and the online catalog.
As long as students are using the courseware for their classes - and increasingly most courses at the college are making this a requirement - then we have a greater likelihood of reaching them where they are. Also, having separated the more general informational content from that which is targeted to a specific course or a specific assignment, we are now able to make library instruction more focused and (hopefully) more effective. With this tighter focus, we can also concentrate more comprehensively on incorporating the ACRL's information literacy standards and guidelines into our core instruction.
We plan to introduce students to the courseware and the Library Lab mainly through short sessions right in their classrooms. In this way, we can quickly demonstrate where all of the general information and tutorials can be found, and encourage them to look to the course-specific content for help with their assignments. It is our hope that this will make students more likely to seek out these resources on their own, and at the same time give them a sense of having a more direct and efficient way of connecting to the library, its resources, and staff.
That summarizes our goals for this pilot project. It’s our first real foray into 'embeddedness' and we are still treading lightly. So far, the response from faculty has been very positive. We are providing useful resources directly to one of the points of instruction without infringing too much on the prerogatives of the instructors. The most important test, of course, will come when we begin to get more feedback from students. Stay tuned....
