Becoming Confident Teachers

A Guide for Academic Librarians

Claire McGuinness

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781780632711
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Becoming Confident Teachers examines the teaching role of information professionals at a time of transition and change in higher education. While instruction is now generally accepted as a core library function in the 21st century, librarians often lack sufficient training in pedagogy and instructional design; consequently finding their teaching responsibilities to be stressful and challenging. By exploring the requirements and responsibilities of the role, this book guides teaching librarians to a position where they feel confident that they have acquired the basic body of knowledge and procedures to handle any kind of instructional requests that come their way, and to be proactive in developing and promoting teaching and learning initiatives. In addition, this book suggests strategies and methods for self-development and fostering a "teacher identity, " giving teaching librarians a greater sense of purpose and direction, and the ability to clearly communicate their role to non-library colleagues and within the public sphere.

• Specifically examines the causes of stress among teaching librarians, zeroing in on recognisable scenarios, which are known to 'zap' confidence and increase teacher anxiety among librarians
• An up-to-date and easily digestible take on the role and responsibilities of the teaching librarian
• Identifies the major trends that are transforming the teaching function within professional academic librarianship

1

The evolving role of the teaching librarian

Abstract:

This chapter explores the origins of the academic teaching librarian role and describes how the development of the role has been shaped by librarians’ own conceptions of their professional teaching identity, as well as the conceptions and attitudes of academics. The chapter also explores the rationale for the teaching role, as well as the barriers encountered by teaching librarians in their efforts to integrate with the curriculum. Finally, the instructional knowledge and skills that teaching librarians require in their pre-service and continuing professional education are discussed, including the importance of reflective practice.

Key words

teaching librarian

teacher identity

information literacy

professional education

academics

Who are we? Where did we come from? The teaching librarian is something of an outlier in library and information work; unlike cataloguers, systems analysts or reference librarians, teaching librarians have only recently been recognised as a specialist sub-group within library and information services (LIS). Mysteriously, the role seems to have evolved and emerged independently, rather than been consciously developed and nurtured; in some respects, the library profession seems to have been almost caught by surprise by the realisation that teaching is a central part of what we do, although the many librarians who have been developing and delivering instruction for all of their professional lives might have a different perception. In recognising the significance of the teaching role, both now and for the future development of the profession, the time has come to seriously address what being a teaching librarian means, from both a practical and philosophical perspective. The first step is to explore some of the key influences which have converged to shape the role, and what they mean to practising librarians, such as you. This chapter presents the bigger picture, and is intended to encourage teaching librarians to think about how their work fits in with the overall mission of library and information work, and what their contribution means to the educational experience of students.

Teaching librarians and the information literacy revolution

It is generally accepted that the term ‘information literacy’ (IL) was first coined in the early 1970s by Paul Zurkowski in his report to the US National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (Zurkowski, 1974; Bruce, 1997; Webber and Johnston, 2000; Pinto et al., 2010). This first use of the term was anchored in Zurkowski’s proposal for a ten-year national IL programme and referred to one’s ability to problem-solve effectively, through optimal use of available information tools and resources. The term itself was used only sporadically during the latter years of the 1970s and early 1980s in different contexts, ranging from the ability to locate and retrieve information, to the capacity of the individual to participate fully in the democratic process (e.g. Burchinal, 1976; Owens, 1976; Taylor, 1979). Since then, the phrase has become more mainstream, and the information literacy ‘movement’ has gained pace in the past two decades, during which time a series of predominantly US-based publications and events have converged to establish and advance the IL agenda, and to gradually extend its reach beyond the politically limited library sphere to the point that it is now recognised as an essential life skill by the President of the US (Spitzer et al., 1998; White House, 2009).

While the origins of information literacy reach back to the early library instruction and bibliographic instruction movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Weiss, 2004), it is only since the beginning of the IL movement in the late 1980s that the potential role of libraries in facilitating, rather than just supporting, learning has received any sort of consideration in domains outside of librarianship. But this has not been without its challenges. Cynical contributors to the debate have suggested that the promotion of the movement constitutes a strategic attempt by librarians to increase their status and visibility, and to ensure a continuing role for themselves in times of uncertainty; for example, Foster (1993) suggests that it represents ‘an effort to deny the ancillary status of librarianship by inventing a social malady with which librarians as “information professionals” are uniquely qualified to deal’ (p. 346), views which have been more recently echoed in Wilder (2005). However, dissenters are relatively few, and it is a more widely held view that it is predominantly the technological revolution, in particular the pervasiveness of the Internet/World Wide Web and its effect on information work, that has stimulated the re-imagining of the role served by librarians, and the growth of the movement. The document that is often cited as the touch-paper of the movement is the American Library Association’s (ALA) Presidential Committee Report on Information Literacy (1989), which produced the most frequently quoted definition of IL:

To be information literate, a person must be able to recognise when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively, the needed information. … Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn.

Along with Breivik and Gee’s seminal book from 1989, Information Literacy: Revolution in the library, this report was one of the first documents to suggest that the existing learning process should be rethought and restructured to incorporate the principles of IL, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, rather than create a new information studies curriculum. Competency in six information-related areas is deemed to be the essential outcome of the general educational process. Following the report, the establishment of two key organisations in the US – the National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL) in 1989, and later, the Institute for Information Literacy (IIL) in 1998 – was viewed as a significant step forward in the promotion of the IL movement.

Teaching librarians should be aware of the context that has shaped and moulded the role; having a sense of the history of instruction in library work contributes to a greater sense of identity. To this end, it is instructive to examine the key trends and concepts that have characterised the information literacy revolution since the 1980s. They are discussed below.

Information literacy and learning

The link between the concepts of IL and learning has been a consistent theme, and has strongly influenced how the term is conceptualised and understood. Many definitions of IL centre on its relationship to the learning process. While the various definitions tend to reflect the interests and concerns of the different groups involved in implementing programmes of instruction, there seems to be at least a basic consensus that information-literate individuals are those who have the ability to recognise an information need or a gap in their knowledge; can formulate appropriate questions; can construct and execute effective search strategies, using a variety of media; can evaluate, use and present information. Becoming information literate as part of the formal education process is seen as essential, in light of the ‘dynamic and changing information environment of the last quarter of the century’ (Bawden, 2001). Virkus (2003) points out how IL has ‘permeated strategic thinking’ in the industrialised, English-speaking world, and has been highlighted in several major reports emanating from government and the higher education sector. In the main, IL is viewed not as an isolated skill-set, but as a formative agent central to the whole educational process – a conceptual framework upon which to base the development of general educational models and curricula to foster information competence across society as a whole (Bruce, 1997).

Lifelong learning

The global emphasis on ‘lifelong learning’ has been a key political catalyst behind calls to incorporate IL into educational curricula. Central to the lifelong learning agenda is a conceptualisation of learning and upgrading of one’s skills that continues throughout the individual’s lifetime and does not cease once the formal education system is left behind. Underpinning the lifelong learning ideology are the information society imperatives of eliminating social division and increasing democratic participation through the provision of equal access to information, of building and maintaining economic competitiveness through a highly educated workforce, and of empowering individuals by equipping them with the means to deal efficiently with the informatio...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of tables
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The evolving role of the teaching librarian
• Chapter 2: Teaching librarians: 10 concepts shaping the role
• Chapter 3: Preparing teaching librarians for practice: focusing on the basics
• Chapter 4: Confidence-zappers and how to handle them
• Chapter 5: Personal and professional development as a teaching librarian
• Chapter 6: What librarians think: teaching and learning in the real world
• References
• Index