Teacher as Librarian: Things to Think About When Teaching Information Literacy to Groups

The boundaries between teaching and librarianship are becoming increasingly blurred for many within academia (Doskatsch 2003). Many qualified librarians are called upon to teach information literacy as part of their remit. Despite this teaching rarely features on graduate librarianship course programmes (Peacock 2001) including CILIP accredited programmes (Dale et al 2006). Although there is a constant rise in virtual and web-based tutorials (Stubbings and Brine 2003) the art of standing in front of a group of people and successfully imparting knowledge to them is still of great importance. Practicalities mean that despite technological developments and pedagogical recommendations many subject librarians still find themselves to be ‘the sage on the stage rather than the guide on the side’ (King, 1993).
Drawing on the presenter’s qualifications and experience as an English language teacher prior to becoming a librarian, this session will look at several very practical considerations useful for anyone finding themselves in front of a group of people with an information literacy agenda to put forward. The session aims to assist people with some practical discussion and tips on the fundamentals of group training sessions enabling participants to use simple tools and techniques towards better teaching sessions.
References:
Bewick, L. and Corrall, S. (2010) Developing Librarians as Teachers: a study of their pedagogical knowledge, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 42(2), 97-110
Dale, P., Leharne, M., Knight, T. and Marshall, K. (2006) The subject specialist in higher education: professional engagement. In: Dale, P., Holland, M. and Matthews, M., (eds.) Subject Librarians: Engaging with the Learning and Teaching Environment. Aldershot UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited, pp. 19-31 http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/1461/ (retrieved 26 October 2010)
Doskatsch, I. (2003) Perceptions and Complexities of the Faculty-Librarian Partnership: an Australian perspective, Reference Services Review 31(2) 111-121
King, A. (1993) From the Sage of the Stage to the Guide on the Side, College Teaching 41(1) 30-5
Stubbings, R. and Brine, A. (2003) Reviewing Electronic Information Literacy Packages, ITALICS 2(1), http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/italics/issue1/stubbings/stubarev.pdf (Retrieved 26 October 2010)