Steve -

{Just as I reply to the previous post, you post this whopper}

Thanks for bringing up instruction! The challenge of “presentation” [packaging] is a real one, a performative one. In the last couple of weeks, I taught two very different sessions: ancient Greek literature and music research. I think that the former was successful, while the latter wasn’t. Why?

Well, in the former I was able to muster more energy for humor, for quick changes, and for ad-lib. Questions happened – real conversation happened. I think that in order to make libraries and librarians appear “relevant to their lives as students,” we need to act as human as possible toward our students. In short, we need to show that we understand that BI is fairly boring, but comes with useful tools.

That’s the difficulty, too. I see each student only once. I have one minute to read the students and act accordingly. That failed with the music session (although one student was hooked and has been back everyday since). What strategies do we have for this? Any ideas?

Dave –

Jonathan Richman sang fronting the Modern Lovers “I wanna keep my place in the old world / Keep my place in the arcane.” He also sang “Don’t let our youth go to waste.” And, even if I’m making a bit of a stretch, that is what you are charged with when you try to bring these students (they’re getting younger, we’re getting older) to embrace the resources in your custodianship.

One thing I always tried to consider when constructing BI sessions is how to tie our world – the Library – to theirs – but how?

The influx of new technologies should not alienate us from the students, but rather open new avenues for us to reach them with. Just like a good search strategy – give your students several points of entry to access your message. Go beyond the PowerPoint, the handouts, or, in your case, laying out all those beautiful and rare print materials and then launching into the instruction.

Let’s look at your music session experience – and understanding that time and resources are limited, consider presenting the same information in several formats.

For instance, I presume you are dealing with classical works. As the students peruse the sheet music, play some of it. Many of these works will already exist in the public domain, even as various sound files on the web – burn a mix for them, or better yet, consider a podcast to post on your library site. I imagine the resources to do so are available at your library, and if not, can be acquired for a minimal cost? Email the link(s) to them before they attend your session. This sounds like a lot of work, and no doubt it is, but you will demonstrate the effort of meeting them halfway – entering their world to ask them to enter yours.

Or they might take all of it for granted…

Barry -

Yeah, I see your approach – and yes, as noted, “understanding that time and resources are limited.”

The music class is one that does actually provide easy, multimedia approaches. We did play a jazz track from a real, honest to God iPod, which was reformatted from our Chicago Jazz Archive. But, usually I don’t have enough notice to prepare these multi-leveled presentations. In the near future, preparing some canned presentations will be useful, i.e. presentations that can be reused to a certain degree (not to all degrees, but some).

[As an aside, do you really think I'd only present on classical music? We showed: jazz materials, Civil war song sheets, 17th century English song sheets, the papers of Ralph Shapey (a "new music" composer), a medieval piece on vellum, and Chopin scores. And a student, right this minute, is in our reading room writing his bachelor's thesis using the Shapey papers - success!]

My sessions are usually 1/3 bibliographic instruction and 2/3 talk about the “stuff.” Do you think this is a happy formula? Or does it need tweaking? Am I an outwardly boring old man?

Another distinct aside: I tried instructing on RefWorks yesterday and my planned operations, which had worked so well all day at my own computer, failed in front of the students. One girl was dozing off. I felt like a dart board.

Anyway, I have to point back to Steve’s comment that library materials and tools “should be a part of everyday life within your given community as a student, citizen.” My job is to show that both RefWorks and the 18th century Scottish song sheet of Auld Lang Syne (oddly, with a woodcut of a factory) are equally crucial.

Dave, maybe this is just a euphemistic take on what you are calling “canned presentations,” but I think it might be better to think of it as a libraray instruction curricullum. Just as in their academic programs, all students need to build their information literacy competencies in a manner that builds upon what they previously learned. An English 101 course is not canned, per se, it is a measurement of core competencies. You can do the same thing with library instruction and take into consideration where the student is in her overall academic development. Do not treat a single session as an isolated event.

The other point made here that I have to second is humor. I think that we need to master the humorous performative elements in library session (for example, with patents).

Your comments point out that librarians in many cases are educators rather than ‘information specialists’…

Steve -

I appreciate your approach to instruction as “core” curriculum.

As this institution does not have an instruction program, it is sometimes tougher to see the linear development of information literacy for our users. Very tough to not “treat a single session as an isolated event.” Sometimes that linearity or accretion doesn’t exist. Example: Recently, a bibliographer mentioned that in a conversation with a humanities faculty member she had mentioned JSTOR and the faculty member said, “What’s JSTOR?” And so on, with graduate students who don’t understand why all indexes are not fulltext databases, etc.

But I see how it may be different with undergraduates. Often, telling them something more than once can’t hurt, and in fact can be essential to driving a point home. I know that students in my recent session now know what RefWorks is, what JSTOR is, have heard of MLA and EEBO. What they do with that is up to them.

There are a number of things I need to work on. First, from Steve, presentation with energy and humor every time. Second, from Barry, creatively using multiple levels of presentation (sound, visuals, handouts, emails). Third, from Steve, to approach each session unabashedly as an educator, not as a librarian moonlighting as an educator. Fourth, from me, to work at being a story teller around my objects – to make them relevant as living history and relevant to the sensibility of this generation.