My Teaching Philosophy

Teaching effectively demands great rigor and intellectual effort. Few individuals possess innate abilities to teach well, rather most successful teachers have become so after diligent efforts to understand the nature of teaching and learning. I believe that the best teachers recognize what their students need most and develop practical strategies for accomplishing those ends. This iteration of my teaching philosophy relies heavily on the ideas of Robert Leamnson whose ideas are still fresh in my mind after reading his book Thinking About Teaching and Learning. This written philosophy will enable me to stand firm in promoting student learning habits that will empower them to achieve their long-term goals; I have perceived that many student attitudes impede their learning powers and ultimately their maximum potential.

Learning requires the cooperation of the brain. In biological terms Leamnson provides this definition: “Learning is defined as stabilizing, through repeated use, certain appropriate and desirable synapses in the brain” (5). Therefore, continual use of the same synapses would not constitute real learning; instead, creating new synapses and neural roads within the brain indicate that learning has taken place. In this physical sense learning is an actual physical activity that may indeed cause the head to hurt as a result of the growth that has taken place. Additionally, I believe that learning can occur throughout one’s entire lifetime.

Robert Leamnson argues that “language is at the heart of the matter” (7). Presently, his arguments make sense to me on many levels, because teachers still need tangible or oral evidence from students that learning has taken place. Traditionally, instructors require students to give presentations, take tests, and write papers. Each of these activities relies on language skills in the forms of speaking, reading, and writing. I believe that the best teachers repeatedly persuade and coax students to participate in all these forms of language skills.

In today’s society too many individuals believe that they can obtain certain goals without going through the legwork those goals require. An article (I believe it may have been in The Atlantic) I read recently discussed the dirty work of teaching in under-privileged universities and community colleges where the freshmen are very unprepared for the rigors of academic work. He ends the article with an allusion to one film that all freshmen seem to know—The Wizard of Oz. In the end the scarecrow receives a diploma and suddenly he can think, yet his spouting off of facts hardly constitutes real thinking.

While the author didn’t mention it, Dorothy had to be told the solution to her dilemma in the end. Today’s students seem to be like the scarecrow, Dorothy and Shakespeare’s Ophelia, they want all the answers and diplomas given to them. When this happens it really does not prepare them for future challenges in life. I believe that students need to be challenged in and out of the classroom; they may know what they want, but they likely do not understand the kind of work accomplishing that goal entails.

I believe that my teaching efforts make a difference. Evidence of good teaching may not always be easy to measure; however, articulate students who can express themselves through speaking and writing may be evidence of a teacher’s influence. My confidence, or lack thereof, as a teacher will be a significant factor in my abilities to persuade students to learn. I trust that strategic preparation will increase my knowledge, interest, and confidence in the classroom, which will in turn influence the students to engage with the subject matter and learning beyond the walls of the classroom.

The field of teaching and learning includes many different schools of thought. Adherence to one particular teaching method will not produce the greatest amount of learning among my students; instead, a healthy variety of techniques enacted at strategic moments will increase the desired results. Therefore, lectures, group work, dialogues with students in class, short essays, quizzes, handouts, guest lectures, term papers, exams, etc. may all prove to be useful in promoting the restructuring of student brains—learning in other words.

Ultimately, my ability to love the students will determine my success or failure as a teacher. Love will prompt me to look students in the eyes, listen to them, respect them as real individuals with a history and personal connections to others, and prepare for class adequately. If I love the students I will be less willing to talk about myself and more willing to treat them as friends—not criticizing them in a way that will demean or insult them. I will work to involve all in the classroom and praise them for positive efforts and participation in the class. I will seek to make the class interesting and challenging.

Notes:

1. The ideas in this philosophy have been heavily influenced by Robert Leamnson’s book titled Thinking About Teaching and Learning: Developing Habits of Learning and First Year College and University Students. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 1999.

2. For more on the Ophelia Syndrome read Thomas G. Plummer’s “Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome.” Thinking About Thinking: A Collection of Essays, Revised Edition. Ed. M. Kip Hartvigsen. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. 181-190.

Bill Badke on Wikipedia

Last week I finally got around to reading an article on Wikipedia which many information-literacy librarians had read months ago. On the Information Literacy and Instruction listserv they talk about it rather extensively. It stirred up discussion to say the least. Anyway, the article is titled "What to Do With Wikipedia" and it highlights the main arguments for and against using this web2.0 reference source. Many professors reject outright, but the fact of the matter is that a majority of today's web generation goes to Wikipedia for basic reference information.

Badke encourages information professionals and professors to use Wikipedia as a learning tool--writing skills, editing, fact checking, etc. Teachers throughout the academic world have already done so, and Wikipedia even provides pages for helping teachers do it well. It teaches students how to do research. He argues that banning this resource only fosters the anti-academic subculture that seems to thrive on Wikipedia and in the digital realm.

One interesting point he made involves the usage of the terms "analog" and "digital." Academics still reside in the "analog" realm; sure they publish articles digitally, yet they still publish them in tidy volumes and issues. Those in the "digital" realm edit and revise an article regularly, seemingly continuously.

Don't get me wrong. Badke does not necessarily recommend that students cite Wikipedia articles in their research papers. Like encyclopedias these reference materials can give somebody basic background information to launch them on more in-depth research. After all, even Wikipedia articles must contain a list of sources that verify their information.

It's worth reading:

Badke, William. "What to Do With Wikipedia." Online: Exploring Technology & Resources for Information Professionals 32.2: (2008), 48-50.

Catalog vs. Index

I have a colleague, Phil Homan, who asserts that the most important thing college students need to know about the library and finding its resources is to understand the difference between an index and a catalog. He makes some compelling points.

Phil talks about the difference between a catalog and an index. He often begins his instruction sessions with a straightforward question like: "What can you find in the library?" He writes the answers from the class on the board: books, magazines, journals, maps, CDs, DVDs, periodicals, newspapers, indexes, etc. He then asks a question like: "What will you find in journals and books?" Answers might include articles, chapters, poems, short stories, etc. The chalkboard is divided into two sections, and answers to the two questions appear on either side. Again, he asks: "What is the difference between one side and the other?" Answer: one side shows parts of a whole, and the other side shows the wholes.

At this point he says that you will find the parts in an index or database, and the wholes can be found in the catalog. Therefore, articles, poems, chapters, short stories, etc. and/or their titles will be found in an index or anthology, while titles to books, CDs, videos, magazines, newspapers, indexes, anthologies, journals, maps/atlases, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. will be found in a catalog. A library catalog, therefore, will tell you what that library has inside its building. (True, many catalogs include links to websites, especially government websites, since most of their "documents" are now "born digital.") An index will give you titles of articles, books, poems, etc., that may not be within the library itself, but which you can request via interlibrary loan.

An approach such as this seems pretty straightforward, yet it can really make sense to students and be just the thing to help them conceptualize the library and its resources.

Catalogs Contain Records about the Whole Item (This allows you to learn about as well as find items in the physical library.)

• Books
• Anthologies
• Indexes
• Maps
• Videos (DVDs, videocassettes, films, etc.)
• Journals
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• CDs
• Musical scores

Indexes Contain Records (and sometimes access to the full text) to the Parts

• Articles
• Chapters
• Topics in the books (See the end-of-book index)
• Poems
• Songs
• Short stories

"Card Catalog?"  OSU Archives.  Flickr.com.

Today's databases are article indexes; they tell you about articles that exist, offering the full citation information and usually an abstract or summary of the article.  Some article indexes provide full text, or the entire article in question.  These articles may appear in html or pdf formats.  Some databases only function as indexes and provide no full-text access to the articles: Web of Science, Biosis Previews, MLA International Bibliography, Abstracts in Anthropology, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, et al.  These are great finding tools, especially useful for graduate students and other serious researchers.

Today the instruction librarians met for a meeting. We talked about a First Year Seminar [FYS] instruction request form, which is being coded today. It includes a menu of options for the instructors in the FYS program. They are no longer required to bring their freshmen students to the library for instruction, so we hope that giving them more options and flexibility will entice them to come. Students need to feel comfortable in the library; those who do tend to succeed more than those who do not.

Anyway, two librarians graciously demonstrated signature components of their teaching sessions. The first drew an inverted triangle and began to explain the research process with the use of her illustration. Anyone starting a research project (especially a project on an unfamiliar topic) would do well to consult the reference resources. As my colleague mentioned, professors assume that students have basic background information on their topics--that they are consulting encyclopedias before doing their research, yet we librarians see that students do not take advantage of these resources--at least not the ones in print.

Students frequently hear their professors condemn encyclopedia articles as sources worthy of citing. They understand that they must cite X amount of articles and-or books, so they skip the step of consulting an encyclopedia article when it could be extremely beneficial to them in a number of ways. First, it gives them a basic backdrop for understanding the article or books they read later. Second, it can identify keywords they can use later in their database searching. Third, it contains a list of references they can then consult to further their research.

Anyway, the broad base of the triangle is where you begin the research with reference materials, such as textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. Books fill the second portion, and journal articles fill the last tip of the triangle. In sessions I have taught, I included another segment to the triangle for personal interviews and personal experience. Students ought to reference their own life experiences and compare and contrast them with the ideas encountered in their research process.

Information Behavior vs. Information Practice

Recently I read an article that discusses the theoretical meaning and the ways in which information specialists use the terms "information behavior" and "information practice." The author contends that information experts have not thought about these phrases in a reflective manner, rather they bandy them around like a tennis ball. An understanding of the usage of words and phrases can yield insightful discoveries. In this article the author tries to discover how these phrases have influenced discourses in the information realm. Here's the full citation:

Savolainen, Reijo. "Information Behavior and Information Practice: Reviewing the 'Umbrella Concepts' of Information-Seeking Studies." Library Quarterly 77.2 (2007): 109-32.

Savolainen looks at the historical uses of these terms, pointing out that "information behavior" has been around since the 1960s among information specialists. He notes that it has various forms: "The concept of information behavior may appear as a part of a longer phrase, for example, 'information-seeking behavior' or 'human information behavior.' In general, information behavior may be conceptualized as including 'how people need, seek, manage, give and use information in different contexts'" (112). If someone has a question and needs more information to answer that question, how do they go about finding that information? How do individuals keep track of that information once they have found it? Will they share it with others, and in which contexts will they do so?

Information practice refers more to the information habits individuals have established in their everyday lives. Reading the morning newspaper, listening to the radio on the drive to work, talking with co-workers, or watching the local evening news could all be construed as "information practice." Both of the phrases in question interest information professionals. For librarians, knowing the practices of an individual may offer recognizable avenues for helping a patron with an information need, thus influencing their behavior. Information-literacy instruction sessions endeavor to offer students strategies for improving their information behavior, particularly when they face a research project.

Toward the end of Savolainen's article a succinct definition and comparison of the two phrases appears: "Ultimately, the major concepts of behavior and practice seem to denote the same phenomena: they deal with the ways in which people 'do things.' The concepts of information behavior and information practice both seem to refer to the ways in which people 'deal with information.' the major difference is that within the discourse on information behavior, the 'dealing with information' is primarily seen to be triggered by needs and motives, while the discourse on information practice accentuates the continuity and habitualization of activities affected and shaped by social and cultural factors" (126).

Why is this important? I tried to address this earlier, but Savolainen cuts to the core of the matter better than I do as s/he defends this exercise as something useful and important--not just "academic hairsplitting." (How many angels can fit on the head of pin? = true discussion in the medieval universities.) Savolainen writes: "However, as the present study suggests, the preference for umbrella terms is not a self-evident or innocent choice of terminology that can be justified solely by stylistic reasons. On the contrary, there is a genuine need to generate a self-reflexive and critical attitude among researchers toward their familiar concepts in order to avoid being 'trapped' in their own discursive formations" (127).

Following are more citations that can point you to sources of the quotation marks within the quotation marks in the first and second quotations above:

Fisher, Karen; Erdelez, Sanda; and McKechnie, Lynne (E.F.) eds. Theories of Information Behavior. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2005. [See pg. xix of the "Preface."]

Tuominen, Kimmo; Savolainen, Reijo; and Talja, Sanna. "Information Literacy as a Sociotechnical Practice." Library Quarterly 75.3 (2005): 329-45.

Essentially, this article qualifies as a review of the literature as it analyzes how scholars and experts have used and reflected on the terms of "information behavior" and "information practice." A study of all 84 of the articles and books could be useful for those wanting to steep themselves in the ideas of information literacy.

Evaluating Research Results

A week ago I taught students in a library-instruction session how to find books, articles, and and library information. They worked to find resources for a research project required for their class. I tried an active-learning exercise that I had not tried previously, which allowed the students to work in groups of two and analyze abstracts and elements of an article citation.

Like I do before most of my instruction sessions I practice many searches in the databases, particularly related to the the subject of the class. Generally, the instructors send me a few ideas of topics in which the students may have some interest. After finding a few results from a search that I had conducted, I looked at the abstracts and the document information attached to the articles. Recently, I had been feeling that I have not emphasized information-literacy skills as much as I would prefer. With this in mind, I decided to choose four or five abstracts from the results list of a search and hand them out to students in the class, so they could conduct their own analysis of the results.

By focusing their attention on one abstract and its accompanying citation elements, the students could practice using the evaluation criteria outlined in the CRAAP Test. Using the acronym CRAAP can help researchers remember five important points when evaluating many sources (Yes, our library webpage uses this test only in context of evaluating websites, but it can be useful for all types of resources.). Here are the five points:
- Currency
- Relevance
- Authority
- Accuracy
- Purpose

In groups of two, students read the citation and the abstract before discussing among themselves the different criteria. For this particular class that focused on physical education and sports history, I found some articles that talked about the Olympics and its history. It seems that when individuals begin a research project they should have a central question in mind, one that interests them, and one that is appropriate for the scope of their project. Students received the following question as a touchstone against which they could measure the article abstract with the five points listed above: "How have the modern Olympics evolved since 1896?"

Students needed about three minutes, but not more than five to evaluate their article citation and abstract. One student acted as spokesperson for their group, so that individual talked about whether the article they received would be a good source to answer the question listed above. When students have an opportunity to discuss in a small group, they tend to be more willing to share with the larger group afterward.

During the discussion we talked about the currency of an item and determined that an older article could be valuable for those doing historical research, but researchers and teachers generally prefer newer articles for their currency on the topic. Fields in the health sciences demand newer resources as new knowledge continually grows. Furthermore, we talked about the relevancy of an article, so if an article claims to talk about the changes from amateur to professional participation in the Olympics and we want to learn about female athletes in the modern Olympics, then it would not be useful. We know not to spend time reading that article and go to find another that addresses our concern. Likewise, an article about antique Greek coins depicting athletes in the ancient Olympics would not be pertinent to our inquiry.

When it came to authority, one abstract described how the Olympics went at the first modern iteration in 1896. It also stated that the article was only two pages long and written for Sports Illustrated. The students believed that anyone writing for this magazine would know their stuff--that they would be experts in sports. It provided a good opportunity to talk about the audience of this serial publication; typically it consists of the general public. Truthfully, writers for Sports Illustrated do need to be authorities in some regard, which may mean that they have watched sporting events their entire lives, participated in the sports extensively, or attended many such events in person. These writers may only have a bachelor's degree and may not be scholarly by any means. The key points I tried to emphasize were that the article only took up two pages of space, which meets the needs of a general audience but hardly scratches the surface for those who want to really gain an understanding of the 1896 Olympics.

Additionally, the fact that the authors of this article published in Sports Illustrated means that a less rigorous editing process took place. Undoubtedly, the editors at the magazine demand quality and accuracy; however, imminent deadlines do not permit the kinds of painstaking efforts required for in-depth fact checking, such as those taken by authors publishing in a peer-reviewed journal or a scholarly monograph publication. Admittedly, I would probably use a Sports-Illustrated article if it related directly to my topic, but I would also be sure to include other more thoroughly researched sources that may be more authoritative and accurate.

Looking back on the experience, we may not have discussed the criterion "purpose" at any great length, but it is one that writers need to remember. If a writer and research can identify the reasons for which an author wrote a particular article or book, they can use that as leverage to bolster or discredit their argument. For example, an activist in a well-known environmental group like Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth would be biased in opposition to group in the other direction.

Overall, the experience succeeded, and it got the students thinking critically about the resources--something we want to promote. In the future I might want to demonstrate the search that led me to the article titles and abstracts. It may be good to make students aware of my mental processes, so they can know how they might approach a similar search. Let them know which questions I am seeking to answer along the way. Ideally, I would like to illicit more responses from the students; I fear that I may have been too quick to talk after students gave their brief summaries of the abstracts. What kinds of questions would be best to ask after students have talked about their sources? Is it best to engage that particular group in the discussion or the class as a whole?

Promoting Information Literacy via Roving Reference

On Monday and Tuesday I decided (with the approval of my supervisor) to try an experiment and do some roving reference in Idaho State University's Rendezvous Building, which was finished just last August. I checked out a laptop from the library's Information Technology department and also took some scotch tape, a stapler, a notepad, a water bottle, and my own planner. Circulation let me take a book truck. My first adventure involved a spill, when my noisy, rattling cart bumped into a protruding slab of concrete and everything but the laptop went flying onto the sidewalk. Gratefully, I had my hand on the laptop. This opportunity for learning prompted me to bring everything in the laptop's suitcase on the second day. I had simply left the suitcase in my office that first day.

Upon entering the Rendezvous I worried that the student at their Information Desk might tell me I couldn't conduct my roving-reference experiment, or that he would
have to seek approval from a supervisor. Fortunately, he had no problem with it; maybe the fact that he hails from my hometown (actually he lived only five houses down the street from me) had something to do with it, but his co-workers had no problem with it the next day, either. So I was good to go.

Basically, I approached individuals with a basic introduction that went something like this: "Hi, I am a Roving Reference Librarian, and today I am answering questions. Are there any questions I can help you with?" Most people responded that they did not, so I would usually go into another line of questioning or public relations for the library. "Do you use the library?" "How do you use the library?" Depending on their responses I varied what I would say.

In a sense, it felt like I was pestering people, but most individuals had the decency to give me at least a minute’s worth of their attention. Yet, I feel strongly that the library can be a significant key to a student's success. I've heard the president of ISU say in a meeting I attended that those students who use the library and its resources are more likely to succeed and graduate. Therefore, whenever I encountered a senior nearing graduation (this week), and they said they had spent many hours studying in the library or had used many of the books/articles I would congratulate them and say that they are proof of this idea.

Here are a few of the questions people asked me:

• My professor ordered some articles for me via Inter-Library Loan. How can I request items through ILL for myself?
• How many books can I check out at a time?
• I need to find out if bacteria grows faster in cow or soy milk. Where can I look to find articles that may address this? This was a difficult one for me; I’m not very satisfied with how I approached this one.
• What is the circumference of the earth? Yes, this guy was being facetious and light hearted, but we had fun finding the answer in the Oxford Reference Online database, albeit in terms of kilometers and not in miles. By the way, the earth’s circumference is wider around the equator than around the poles, longitudinally that is.
• If I check out books now, how long can I have them? I told them that they would be due at the end of the semester, but they could renew them online to extend the loan period.

I think I answered nearly 10 questions in the approximately two and a half hours I was over there. Interestingly enough, I recognized a few student faces as they had been in a recent instruction session I had taught. Their class was meeting about the time I was over there.

For those students who did not have questions, I asked if they ever used the library and what they used it for. I put in a plug for continuing to use the library and to come ask us questions whenever they have them.

Additionally, I met a couple of instructors, and one of them belongs to the economics department. He talked to me briefly about an assignment that he gives his students, and I requested that he send me a copy of it. He has graciously done so, and he gave me permission to share it with my library colleagues. I forwarded it to my colleague who develops our economics's collection.

On my second day fewer persons asked me questions. It could very well be due to my pre-conceived idea that few would have them. When mentioning this to colleagues, they suggested that in such circumstances it might be better to ask open-ended questions like "How is your research going?" Definitely, this roving-reference activity would probably be better during the middle of the semester or at least a couple of weeks before the end of the semester--not the last week.

Anyway, I received lots of valuable feedback on the second day. When I found out one student was majoring in political science I asked her if she had found everything she had needed in the library for all of her projects. In a recent assignment she had not found much on the organizational styles of the US presidency. Apparently, her textbook lists six or seven different styles, and she remembered four or five: collegial, spokes of the wheel, competitive, hierarchical, etc. The following day I noticed that approximately $93 remained in the political-science budget, so I looked for similar types of books in our catalog. We have 29 items that qualify for the search: "presiden? styl?" One of the best subject heading turned out to be "Political Leadership--United States," for which there are 34 titles in our catalog. When conducting similar searches within the University of Iowa's catalog, I discovered a few good titles that seemed to match what this student was looking for, so I ordered a few other titles related to this topic.

Two students had similar ideas, expressing interest in receiving specific information from the library. One suggested that we send a mass email to students, so they can keep abreast of any changes to the library. Later a colleague told me that with an RSS feed, students can receive notice in their emails when the "Library News" gets updated. At the very bottom of the blog is a little link that allows you to receive these updates. The second student remarked that he would appreciate seeing the usage statistics that number how many books have been checked out and how many times people search and find articles in the electronic databases. Again, later I found out the on the "Library News" they post the library newsletters which do include this useful data.

Roving reference turned out to be rather productive and beneficial in my opinion. I hope we pick this up as a regular practice in the future.

Follow-up on Instruction Menu

My colleagues liked the idea of having an instruction menu, so I created one for the First-Year-Seminar instructors. I conducted a search via Google to find some sample menus online to help me get my creative juices flowing, and I found the following menu from Jus Cookin’s Restaurant. After sending it out for my colleagues to take a look, I received some feedback:
-- "You must have had fun."
-- "I liked your delicious menu."
-- "It’s a little cutesy and maybe a little overdone, but I do really like the options you’ve provided."

I would have to agree that I got a little carried away with the idea. I need to remember my audience. Another colleague gave some useful input, noting that many faculty will not want to read all the verbiage included on the menu as it currently stands. She suggested including more graphics while making certain that the description of the menu item was straightforward and easily understandable. With some of the adjectives in the menu now, it's possible that the meaning may be obscured.

She also put forth the idea that breaking up the menu might be more palatable for the FYS instructors, as they would have more leeway to choose what they wanted for their students. She encouraged me to stick with the menu idea; many instructors would appreciate something new and different, while others may not feel it's as serious as it ought to be. It's hard to know who your audience is sometimes; however, knowing your audience and tailoring your services to their "tastes" can increase your chances for success.

The meeting with the FYS instructors is on Friday, so I have a little more time to tinker with the menu. Ideally, it will attract more customers than it repels.

Library Instruction A la Carte: The InfoLit Menu

In recent weeks the ALA's Information Literacy and Instruction listserv had asked for those librarians who had helped create or who work under a "menu" system to post their "menu" to the listserv. Anyway, I learned that several librarians across the country have implemented a systematic program where professors on campus can choose from a menu of information-literacy options. Someone made mention of an article that explained how librarians from Radford University had created such a menu. Here's the full citation:

Benjes-Small, C. & Brainard, B. (2006). And today we'll be serving…An instruction a la carte menu. College and Research Libraries News, 67(2), 80-82. Retrieved Wednesday, November 15, 2006 from Library Literature and Information Science Full-Text database (200603203836004). [See also a brief summary of the article at the following site: Information Literacy in Higher Education: Annotated Bibliography. I highly recommend reading the article.

Take a look at the sites I have tagged with the word menu. I will only talk about two more of the sites in this post. Radford University's Instruction A La Carte Menu outlines a few basic information-literacy topics that their librarians are willing and able to teach. According to the article, they had professors who wanted them to teach something else the day of instruction in addition to what they had already agreed upon teaching. Now, they can point to the menu whenever a professor tries to get them to teach more than they are able in the allotted time period and say that another instruction session would be need to adequately cover the desired material, or they would need to cut one item from the menu.

Creating such a menu has opened the eyes of their faculty to the kinds of things their librarians can teach. In their own words Candice Benjes-Small and Blair Brainard note: "We had hoped that the menu would communicate to the professors the limitations of a single 50-minute session, but we found that the menu also served as a vehicle for sharing possibilities" (82). Faculty did not realize that their librarians could cover more than just finding articles in databases and books in catalogs. It's good that librarians share their expertise and be assertive in doing so. The Radford-University librarians seem to have succeeded in doing this in a consistent manner with the help of their menu.

Some librarians would disagree with a few items on their menu, such as the plagiarism item. Benjes-Small and Brainard claim that this has become a popular topic for librarians to discuss in recent years, but just because it is popular may not justify its presence in a library-instruction session. A campus Writing Center or a Freshman English course may be a better-suited venue for a plagiarism discussion. Speaking from experience, plagiarism discussions beg the question of how to properly cite and paraphrase sources, focusing on the mechanics of writing.

Why should librarians teach plagiarism or academic honesty? Librarians are trained to find and evaluate information. On the other hand, if instructors believe their students will take the plagiarism discussion more seriously from someone who is not their teacher, perhaps it is justified, yet the stern nature of a plagiarism discussion makes it so that the librarians look like the bad guys in front of the students, further exacerbating the bad reputation librarians have been bequeathed as stuffy, they-don't-like-to-have-fun people who live in a romanticized world full of books. Well, we do get the privilege of interacting with books--one of the greatest pieces of technology ever, but that doesn't mean we should be the ones teaching about plagiarism. Chances are that I might re-write this post, because it shows evidence of my frustration with professors and instructors who do not respect the work of librarians, those who act non-plussed to be in the library and only come because it's a requirement for their freshman seminar class. No doubt I have misinterpreted body language from instructors, but the perception of being under-appreciated [the Spanish word "menospreciado" seems to capture my meaning more closely as it is somewhere between being under appreciated and despised] is certainly not a good one to experience. Let us do what we do best = help people find and evaluate research materials and information to suit their needs.

[If someone writes a post or article justifying why librarians can or should teach a plagiarism session, please let me know. Even as I re-read the previous paragraph the idea occurs to me that information literacy involves analyzing sources and ideas for their validity = the positive side of learning and research. Information literacy to some extent is the antithesis of plagiarism, so maybe plagiarism is justified as a library session. Still, I would rather focus on the positive, creative efforts of finding and evaluating information than on the negative don't-do-this-or-else type of plagiarism discussion.]

The Radford menu shows that there are plenty of items to please a large number of professors. Again the Benjes-Small & Brainard article inspires me: "The menu has become a powerful marketing tool. After being shown the array of choices for library instruction available, professors are now much more likely to request a second library session for their classes" (82). Hurray! This sounds like a positive step in the right direction--a step that I feel would be good for most, if not all, academic libraries to take, particularly if they value library instruction. When I presented the idea of having a menu in our program, my colleagues seemed to agree that it would be worth doing. We will probably even create a specific freshman-seminar menu, so instructors can choose what they want, rather than being forced to follow a particular program.

The University of Alaska Southeast has create a similar Information Literacy Instruction Menu. They have presented their menu in a somewhat similar style--with a question such as "Will your students need to select and narrow a topic?"--as the Radford-University librarians, although it is manifested a bit differently on their website. They allow for their instructors to click on boxes next to the menu item, so a request can be sent to the librarians with all the desired items.

An important element that each website includes is the caveat that the menu only speaks to the most popular selections of the group at large--not the individual needs of a specialized class. They reserve the right to cook up specials for a professor's class; this would require that a professor express their unique needs to the assigned librarian who could then tailor the instruction session to fit the tastes of the clients in question.

For those instructors who desire hands-on activities for their students, the cost [accounted for in number of minutes] would increase. Quantifying instruction in such a way really goes a long way in justifying to instructors the necessity of bringing their classes in for more than one fifty-minute session.

Please post a comment to my blog. Let me conclude this post with a quotation from Albert Einstein on the positive thrill of teaching: "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." Quote found at Quote World. This particular quote was found here.
It speaks about the real teacher, someone who can actually "awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." These are the kinds of teachers that light fires for people, inspiring them to learn, be creative, and be movers and shakers--productive with their lives. This is something worth aspiring toward.

Finding and Sharing Good Books

National Library Week begins on April 13th, and libraries around the country will showcase their collections and services. Idaho State University's Oboler Library will promote reading for its own sake--for FUN! Displays will highlight appealing elements of great fictional titles, such as character, plot, setting, and language.

Nancy Pearl, a famous librarian, has written books to direct readers to great books: see Book Lust (2003) and More Book Lust (2005), which can be found in our catalog. If you want to find a great biography of George Washington, or a horror book that isn't terrifyingly scary, she's the one to consult. Pearl subscribes to a theory articulated by Joyce G. Saricks and Nancy Brown in their book Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library (2nd ed., American Library Association, 1997). They claim that the majority of readers do not choose books based solely on their genre type, rather they read a book because of its appeal in one of four areas or elements: plot, character, setting, and language.

To find more readers-advisory books, you might consider conducting a subject-heading search in your library's catalog using the following subject headings: "Best books" and "Books and reading--United States." For the first subject heading there were 88 titles in ISU's Oboler Library catalog, and only 25 titles for the second subject heading. I would venture to say that most public and academic libraries keep readers advisory books on hand as a service to their patrons and also to support their librarians, who do get asked for book recommendations.

What if you want to browse a few titles to find a good book before going to the library? What if you want to share all the books you have ever read with family and/or friends? Lots of online, social-networking sites make this possible. These websites allow you to create your own account and keep track of what you have read and what you want to read; in this post I will only talk about two--aNobii and GoodReads. They allow you to rate the books, comment on them, and share them with friends. LibrayThing even allows you to catalog your books, and some users buy scanners to make this possible, reducing the amount of time it takes to input the information.

aNobii.com is very user friendly and easy to learn how to use. You can browse anyone else's bookshelf, and when you find a book that you have read you can click the link that says "Add to... My shelf." If there's a book title you might like to read, then click the link "Add to... Wish list." It will appear immediately on your shelf. When you create your account, and after you have uploaded books to your shelf, you can write comments about the books you have read, tell where you got the book, rate the book, and browse other peoples shelves. When you browse others' shelves you can click on a link below that person's name and add them either as a "Friend" or "Neighbor." It explains that a "neighbor" may be someone you do not know, but you would still like to keep track of the books they are reading as they may have similar book-reading interests.

GoodReads.com works almost exactly the same as aNobii.com. They distinguish themselves in the way they allow you to rate your books, put them on your shelves, and how you view any given shelf. GoodReads allows you rate a book with five stars, while aNobii only allows you to choose four stars. It allows you to choose how many books you view per page, but aNobii always shows you only ten books per page. GoodReads will send you emails every time a friend comments on a book, unless you tell it otherwise. For those who use Google's Gmail, you can immediately invite all of your friends to start using GoodReads. aNobii allows you to generate RSS feeds to anyone's shelf, allowing you to keep up-to-date with the books your friends are reading.

LibrayThing offers a unique feature in its package; it allows its users to find dissimilar books. If you like a particular book, then you enter the name of that book in the "Unsuggester" search box. It returns books that you would likely not enjoy reading. I believe it compares the book title with the ratings its users have given it, as well as analyzes the shelves of others who did not like the book you entered or have never read it.

These online applications can really spark your interest in reading and remind you of long-lost friends/books you have not visited for a while. It certainly can help you build a long list of books you would like to read. Give it a try, and you will find out what your friends and family like to read as well as discover new friends with similar reading tastes who can point you to books you never knew existed.

Teaching English 101

This week I received a request for assistance. A graduate student wanted me to come give some instruction to her students on doing research for their papers, but most of all she wanted for them to have time to conduct their own research. I said we could do this. I received the email from a colleague who had been working the Reference Desk on Monday, emailed her, and received a response back on Tuesday. I called her and we decided that I could come to her class to give a basic refresher on Wednesday and open up the instruction room on Friday for her students to do their research.

Wednesday's class went fairly well. I handed out the CRAAP Assessment handout. It includes the same information that can be found on one of the Oboler Library's webpages titled "Evaluating Information--Applying the CRAAP Test." We talked about the importance of evaluating the sources we find when doing our research. I told them this handout reminded me of the Spiderman movie when Peter Parker takes his photos to the editor at the newspaper. The editor quickly dismisses Peter's work, saying "Crap, crap, crap" as he flips through the photos. Peter knows they are high quality photos, so he has the confidence to take them back to try somewhere else. Students can likewise gain confidence that their work represents high-quality research if they also follow the assessment criteria in the CRAAP Test:

1. Currency: the timeliness of the information
2. Relevancy: the importance of the information for your needs
3. Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content
4. Authority: the source of the information
5. Purpose: the reason the information exists

I conducted a few searches in our databases and asked them to pick a source that might be useful for them, according to the search question I had in mind. Then I invited them to tell me why they think this information would be good.

Teaching Classification Systems

Today I get the privilege of teaching middle school students the difference between the Dewey Decimal Classification system and the Library of Congress Classification system. I plan on talking about a few basic differences. Dewey uses only numbers and, according to my colleague, is limited to only 100 classes. It seems to me that it has 1000 classes, but I could be mistaken. The Library of Congress has at least 676 classes; with each letter of the alphabet available twice that's 26 times 26, or 676.

In reading Ken Bain's book What the Best College Teachers Do, he asserts that the best teachers ask big-picture questions that are meaningful to students. These questions are often multi-disciplinary in nature. With this in mind it seems like a questions like: "What's your world view?" or "How do you look at and organize the world of knowledge?" The best teachers stimulate even more questions, so students leave with more questions than they came with. They do not just dump information off on the students and expect them to memorize it.

How do these classification systems influence our thinking? How do they influence what we find? By arranging books into topics, the user can find a book they like on the shelf in the library and then he or she can browse the shelves around that book. Many criticize both of these systems for being out-of-date with today's society and anglo-saxon oriented. These probably are valid criticisms, but the money involved in starting all over would be very large indeed.

The Library of Congress resembles Thomas Jefferson's collection as he donated his books to the Library of Congress after their library burned in the War of 1812. I intend to show a few websites, such as the following:

• http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/public.htm
  
• http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/default.htm
  
• http://www.oclc.org/dewey/about/default.htm
• http://www.douglas.bc.ca/library/lc.html
• http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/

When I have more time I would like to update this post and talk more about the web sites selected here.

Instruction Meeting on Knowing Your Audience

Today I conducted an instruction meeting with my colleagues, and we talked about knowing your audience. After talking about a few laundry-list items, librarians split into groups of two and read two paragraphs each from my blog post "Information-Literacy Audiences." A spokesperson presented their ideas, comments, and observations to the rest of the group.

One librarian suggested that it is a good idea to sit in on a visiting instructor's information-literacy session that is held within our library instruction room. A librarian, whose job it is to keep up-to-date with the library's information resources, can correct any misinformation given during the session. Librarians tend to know more specific building-related information, such as hours, circulation policies, printing issues, etc. They also study the databases in greater depth and can provide insights into manipulating their interfaces better.

When we talked about the instructor who had attended a graduate-level, library-instruction session and complained about not having adequate time to conduct hands-on research during the session, we also considered why that may have happened. These graduate research classes usually occur in their first semester as graduate students, and many graduate students are not traditional students, meaning they are coming back to school after years of working outside the realm of academe. If such a graduate class includes more of these "non-traditional" students, they may need a more basic library-instruction session. In this case, the librarian is more than justified in adapting to the majority's needs.

We briefly discussed how a teacher might engage a student who feels they already know the material being presented. These students may put up barriers that prevent them from learning anything useful or different from the librarian giving instruction. One colleague suggested that getting those students to talk or explain something to the rest of the class would be useful. If a student feels comfortable explaining the use of Boolean operators in a search statement, let them teach their peers how it's done. Creating a group activity can also help these students understand why a librarian might cover so many things they already know, since the group activity will allow them to see that their peers do not know as much as they do. Of course, engaging students in group work requires some forethought and preparation, but I have found it to be useful in several ways.

When students collaborate with each other in groups, they tend to speak up more as they are more comfortable talking with a few people than presenting their ideas to an entire class (generally speaking). In a class where few people respond to questions or invitations for comments, group work can liven things up and oil the rusty parts, get their creative juices flowing. A lecture frequently produces the opposite effects. Peers identify with and trust each other more than an "authority figure." Group work may not be advisable in every situation, but sometimes it's just the thing a teacher needs to pull from their bag of tricks/tools.

To some extent, our instruction session may have been a therapy session in that we shared some personal experiences from within the trenches as library instructors. However, these experiences raised some important questions as well as confirmed the fact that teaching does not come natural to anyone. What do you do to help those students who feel like they know everything, because they have attended a number of library-instruction sessions? What do you do with unrealistic expectations? How basic can you get with complex stuff?

These last two questions deserve a few moments of consideration. Some instructors communicate a long list of things their students should know about the library, but librarians feel that to cover everything on the list in a 50-minute session does not do the students justice. Many of the databases are complex. Colleagues recommended that a second session of instruction and hands-on research be proffered to the instructor. At the least it seems appropriate for librarians to warn incoming instructors that all they want their students to know may be a bit much for a one-shot library session.

Anyway, we had a fruitful discussion that benefited most, if not all, present in the instruction meeting today. A colleague suggested that we can always ask instructors to send us topics that interest their students and even the names of the texts they require as reading assignments in their courses. This information can be useful in helping library instructors prepare relevant searches to demonstrate and increase the value of the instruction session as a whole.

Finally, I wanted to mention some jokes I shared at the beginning of the class. (1) "Why did the teacher need dark glasses? . . . Because her students were so bright." (2) "Why are fish so smart? . . . Because they live in schools." My motive in telling the jokes was to lighten the mood and get their attention at the beginning of the meeting, and I think it worked in spite of my poor delivery lack of experience in conveying humor. Hopefully, I can continue to incorporate humor in future teaching situations.

I found these two jokes at the following website: http://informationliteracybghs.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/information-literacy-lessons/. I really likes their reasoning for including humor in the library-instruction classroom: "We like jokes because they make our minds stretch to places we didn’t expect to go but when we get there it’s a pleasant surprise. That is the way we want you to think about the library. (Not as a joke but a place for pleasant surprises!)"

Yes, the library can and ought to be full of pleasant surprises always.

Bookmarking Web Sites

Have you ever wanted to keep a record of the useful web sites you have discovered? Do you wish to share with friends, family, and colleagues the sites you visit with greater ease? Perhaps you have already begun to use the bookmarking feature that Mozilla Firefox offers or the Favorites menu in your Internet Explorer browser. The social networking web site, Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us), allows its anyone to create an account that allows them to record and organize all the sites they visit. These sites can be accessed via this account from any computer in the world that has access to the internet.

For a tutorial in a slide-presentation format go to this web site: http://www.slideshare.net/adrian.muller/delicious-tutorial. Many find that the help page in del.icio.us answers all the questions for getting started: http://del.icio.us/help.

How do I get started?

1. Go to http://del.icio.us and register for an account.

2. It just requires a username, your full name, and a password.

3. Install the del.icio.us icons on the task bar of your internet browser. Click here to learn more about how to install icons. If you use Internet Explorer go here: http://del.icio.us/help/ie/extention. For Mozilla Firefox users go here: http://del.icio.us/help/firefox/extion.

How do I use the icons?

1. The icon shaped in the form of a checkered square takes you directly to your del.icio.us account. Here you can browse other peoples’ bookmarks, organize your bookmarks with tags, and post new web sites to your account with the “post” link.

2. The “tag” icon allows you to save a web site address to your account as you work on the internet. When you return to your account you can see how many other persons have “tagged” the sites you have “tagged.”

What is tagging?

1. Tagging allows you to organize your saved web sites by describing them with keywords that you think are most appropriate.

2. Your “tags” or keyword descriptors appear as an alphabetical list along the right-hand side of your account or as a “tag cloud,” which looks more like a paragraph. Tag clouds give you the opportunity to visualize which tags you use the most, because the most-frequently-used tags appear in a larger, bolder font than the rest.

3. When entering your tags remember to exclude commas between your terms, otherwise those words will always appear with commas. If you want to keep two words together as one descriptor, you can do one of several things: do not enter a space between the terms, enter a period between the two terms, abbreviate the terms, etc.

How do I let others see the web sites I have saved to my account?

1. Give them the following link: http://del.icio.us/username. This link can be included in an email or an IM. It’s that quick and simple.

2. Let them know your username, so they can type it into their browser-address box. To view mine just click on the following link: http://del.icio.us/sjardine. If you only want them to view a few subject specific web sites you can even give them the following link: http://del.icio.us/username/tag. For a real example, look at some of the web sites I have “tagged” or described as “books”: http://del.icio.us/sjardine/books. Note: if they do some clicking within your account they will have the opportunity to see the rest of your bookmarks.

3. Your friends can create their own account and “add” you to their “network” and vice versa, so you can each view what the other is finding on the internet at any given time.

If I want to browse everyone’s bookmarks within the whole del.icio.us system, how do I do that?

1. A search box appears near the top of your account and to the right-hand side. Enter a topic of interest and click the “Search” button to find other sites tagged by the rest of the del.icio.us community.

2. A drop-down menu allows you to choose if you only want to search among your bookmarks, delicious, or the entire web.

Where do I go to manage my account?

1. Click on the “settings” link to delete account, rename tags, delete tags, bundle tags, import bookmarks, integrate your delicious bookmarks with your Facebook account, send bookmarks daily to your blog, etc.

2. Also remember to use the “help” link to answer any other questions you may have.

How to Bookmark Web Sites Using a Del.icio.us Account

If you have never heard of online bookmarking, remember you're not the only one. It's still relatively new. With that said, it's really great as a tool for recording your wanderings and purposeful searches of the vast internet that continues to grow by the second. Most internet browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, allow their internet users to save their favorite web sites, which makes it easier to find and/or access them at a later date. Instead of having to type in the web-site address [URL] each time, or conduct a Google search, all you have to do is click on your "bookmark," or link under your list of "Favorites," and off you go to that site.

One of the clear advantages to using an online bookmarking system such as del.icio.us is that you can access your favorite web sites from any computer or electronic device that accesses the internet anywhere in the world. Additionally, you are not limited to a set number of bookmarks. An internet browser typically allows you to organize your bookmarks into folders, but sometimes that can even look awkward or inhibit you in the number of bookmarks you save. A del.icio.us account [official address = http://del.icio.us] does not restrict you to any number of web sites you can bookmark.

Today's world of collaboration invites this kind of internet tool into the mix. It's easy to share and see what other's are finding on the internet. Tagging, or describing websites with keyword descriptors, also increases access to relevant information. From your personal computer you can easily install icons that make it as easy as a click to save websites when you find them or quickly access the web sites you have already bookmarked. When you are at another computer you just need to login to your del.icio.us account and paste the URL [website address] into the right box--the one that comes up after you click on the blue word "post" along the top of the window.

In order to see someone else's bookmarks, it's important to know their username. Click on the link called "your network" then type their username into the box next to the "add" button, then click on the "add" button.

Undoubtedly, there's more to this bookmarking system, like grouping your tags into specific bundles, so give it a try and explore it yourself. Conducting some searches on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, and other search engines for this topic "del.icio.us bookmarking" can also help you find useful information on how to take advantage of this social networking tool. It's a Web 2.0 tool, just as Facebook, Myspace, CiteULike, blogs, etc. are.

Information-Literacy Audiences

Somewhat recently an instructor in the English department requested to use the library instruction room to give his class research instruction. Our policy states that nobody use the room without a librarian present, and we reserve for instruction of library resources or information sources. In my view it's an information-literacy room. I could not see any valid reason for refusing him the room, as he did intend to use it to teach his students how to conduct research using the library resources.

I sat in on the instruction session myself to observe his approach to library research. He actually talked about Boolean terms. In fact, he asked the students about the term, and someone even dared to say that "AND," "OR," and "NOT" were the correct Boolean terms. He even asked them what they were used for ["What do they do for us?"], and another student said they are used to connect keywords in a search. Sometimes I assume students do not know these things, but many have already had library instruction, so they have heard it already. This instructor, Dr. X, had asked how many of the students had attended a library-instruction session in their English 101 course, and most of them indicated that they had. Librarians would do well to ask questions to see how much their audience already knows. In fact, we should be asking the right kinds of questions of the instructors before they bring their class into the library for instruction. As this instructor said, "We all know how to diagram the word 'assume.'"

He did not dwell on things for too long, because he wanted students to have time to conduct research while someone [us] could help them. He showed the library quick links to find the catalog and the databases. He showed the call-number link that shows the names of the books that come before and after the one clicked, so you can browse the shelves virtually. [I'm still not sure this always works exactly in this way, because many different items are located in different parts of the library with very similar call numbers, such as reference books, periodicals, items in special collections, etc. But it's pretty good, since there are lots more books than journal titles and reference materials.]

It was great to see him point out the Resources-by-Subject pages with their different sections, namely books, web sites, and articles. Come to think of it, he did not mention contacting any librarians for help. Perhaps I should encourage him to do so the next time he brings his class to the library.

This leads me to my most important observation in this post. Why did he not want a "reference librarian" to teach his class? He willingly told me after the class had finished that he has been to library-instruction sessions where the librarian takes the entire time explaining how to do research. He feels strongly that students need time to do it in the class. Like he was saying, students leave the library session and do not do any research for a while and in the meantime they forget what they "learned," so when they try it themselves they stumble and cannot find anything. Their recourse is to Google the information--something they know how to do already. They need time to practice, run into roadblocks, and ask for help when their instructor or librarian is close by and ready to offer it.

He attended a graduate library-instruction session last semester, and he tells me that the librarian talked for two and a half hours about how to do research. In his view, a valid one in my opinion, he felt he knew how to do research already otherwise he would not be where he was = in graduate school. I appreciate the feedback he gave me, because librarians who do give instruction need to be aware of their audiences. We are often chomping at the bit to show them everything we have, that we overlook some of their basic needs and desires, like just trying it on their own. During that two hour and twenty minute session he tried to write down ideas for his own research.

Chances are that some of his colleagues liked the workshop heartily and did not complain; however, many probably wished that they had an opportunity just to practice and start doing some research where a librarian could assist them directly with a specific question.

One of the things I liked the most about his class was how he emphasized evaluating the results of search in determining which ones will be used. "Do you pick the first five if five is what you need? How do you select sources?" This is definitely something I need to do better at myself.

Earlier in this post I mentioned that librarians should be asking the right kinds of questions of instructors before they bring their classes into the library. Here are some questions that we might ask, depending on the situation. If anyone reading this post has more questions along these lines, please add them as a comment to this post.

• What would you like me to focus on during the 50-minute, library-instruction session?
• How much would you like me to focus on the article databases, library catalog, citation resources, developing a search strategy, evaluating search results, showing the library web site, etc.?
• How much time would you like for your students to conduct hands-on research?
• What did you like most about previous library presentations given to your previous classes?
• What did you like least about previous library presentations that I should avoid?
• Where do your students need the most help with their research?
• How do your students learn the most?
• What is the biggest question you hope students will strive to answer in your course?
• What one important thing do you hope your students will gain from their visit to the library?
• What can I, as a reference/instruction librarian, do to help you and your students?
• What are some of the topics that interest your students?
• Which texts do you use/require in your course?
  

Clearly, not all of these questions should be asked of every instructor, but as a faculty member I want to help the university accomplish its research and learning mission. The library, its resources, and staff know that they can contribute to this worthy goal and advance information literacy = critical thinking + knowing how to find the best, most-accurate information needed.