Academic Library Instruction

ACADEMIC LIBRARY INSTRUCTION IN A 

MULTI-INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT 

Deborah J. Grimes, Ph.D. 

Director of Library Services 

Shelton State Community College 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 

INTRODUCTION

The days of the self-sufficient library are long gone. The information wildfire, which feeds off ever-more-rapidly changing information and telecommunications technologies, has changed the nature of the library forever. Academic library instruction programs must address these changes and educate students to view the "library" in a different way. In an effort to promote information literacy[i] in a broader context, Shelton State Community College provides library instruction within a multi-institutional environment by requiring students to utilize not only the Shelton State Library but also the local public library and the local university libraries. Although over 800 students participate in Shelton State's library instruction program each semester, the multi-institutional components seem to be particularly effective.

SHELTON STATE'S LIBRARY INSTRUCTION PROGRAM

Shelton State Community College is a two-year institution which offers both vocational/technical training and academic educational programs to approximately 6000 students in Tuscaloosa and the West Alabama community. Shelton State students enrolled in English Composition I and English Composition II classes are required to be concurrently enrolled in Library Skills (LBS 101) and Research Skills (LBS 102) courses, respectively. The library courses are one-hour, credit-bearing courses that include lecture, hands-on tool-specific exercises, and hands-on strategy-building exercises. Important components of the LBS courses are the requirements that students complete exercises at Tuscaloosa Public Library and, after attending orientation sessions, at The University of Alabama (UA) Gorgas Library, also located in Tuscaloosa.

PUBLIC LIBRARY COMPONENT OF LBS 101

The public library component of LBS 101 is designed to enable students to identify the system of classification in use at the public library, to identify and use the type of catalog available at the public library, to identify the location of current periodicals, and to identify a specific periodical reference (on a topic of student choice) by using TOM (a CD-ROM based periodicals index available at the public library but not at the Shelton State Library), and to acquire a public library card.

At the beginning of the semester, LBS 101 students are given an exercise to be completed, outside of class, at the Tuscaloosa Public Library by a given deadline. The exercise is relatively simple, requiring the student to visit the public library and locate its major access tools. Public library staff members are provided with a stamp by Shelton State librarians and asked to stamp or sign each student's exercise, thus providing evidence that the student has actually completed the exercise on site.

After initiation of the program in 1990, small samples of students were informally surveyed to determine their level of satisfaction with the public library component of LBS 101. Results were surprisingly positive, falling in the seventy percent range for average or excellent results. When surveyed again in 1993, results were, in fact, even more positive. When asked to indicate what they felt to be the most beneficial aspects of the exercise, students indicated learning how to use TOM, acquiring a library card, and learning the location of the public library.

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMPONENTS OF LBS 101 AND LBS 102

Components of the LBS 101 and LBS 102 courses require students to attend one fifty-minute orientation session and complete a related exercise for each course at the Gorgas (or main) Library of The University of Alabama. Each semester, forty to forty-five classes, based on enrollment projections, are scheduled in both day and evening sessions in the UA Gorgas Library for Shelton State students. Students select a session and must have their exercise sheets stamped by the instructor as evidence of attendance. Students then must complete an exercise designed to help them locate resources and tools not available in the Shelton State Library. Generally, students stay a few minutes after the session to complete the exercise. This component both reinforces and facilitates the reciprocal borrowing agreement that has been in effect between the Shelton State Library and UA Libraries since 1979.

Because they are held in classrooms located on the fifth floor of the UA Gorgas Library, the sessions provide a "friendly" welcome to Shelton State students to a somewhat imposing research library. This approach addresses the "threshold anxiety" related to entering a new place by having someone waiting to meet Shelton State students and to provide instruction in using the UA libraries. Other agreements between Shelton State and UA, such as reciprocal recognition of faculty and student parking decals, also contribute to the success of the program.

Although there have been a number of complaints from students about having to attend the UA session (and about the difficulties of parking on the UA campus in particular), results of small samples of students indicate that the component is quite effective. High numbers of students report that they feel better able to use the UA libraries after attending the session.

The objectives of the UA component of the research skills course (LBS 102) are to learn more sophisticated search techniques, such as key-word searching, and to learn how to use specialized subject indexes (available at UA Libraries but not at Shelton State Library). Because LBS 102 is designed to help students learn how to gather information and develop a research strategy for research papers, students seem to be particularly receptive to the UA component of the course. Emphasis is on helping the student locate resources that supplement those available at the Shelton State library. Activities identified as helpful by students include: the tour of the UA Gorgas Library, learning about the UA reference room, learning about keyword searching, and learning about government documents (which are not available at the Shelton State Library). Informally, UA bibliographic instruction librarians report that they find that Shelton State students who have participated in the LBS program to be better prepared to use the UA libraries than are other students.

COOPERATION BETWEEN LIBRARIES

How does an academic library develop a multi-institutional library instruction program? There are a number factors that contribute to the success of the Shelton State LBS program. First, there is frequent, two-way communication between librarians that fosters the climate in which multi-institutional instructional programs can flourish. Shelton State librarians were open and frank in their initial requests about the burdens the program would place upon the other libraries and their staffs. Shelton State librarians have regularly shared the results of surveys and other reports with the staffs of the other libraries, being careful to point out the positive responses of Shelton State students to the staffs of both Tuscaloosa Public Library and UA libraries. Problems reported by public and UA librarians are acted upon quickly.

A willingness to compromise has been evident in the communication between institutions. Shelton State librarians were willing to meet the requests of the other institutions in order to promote the LBS sessions and activities in their facilities. Originally, UA Bibliographic Instruction librarians provided the UA sessions for Shelton State students. When this proved to be too much of a burden for the UA staff, the Shelton State librarians agreed to provide their own instructors. In addition, Shelton State librarians attempt to schedule sessions for their students when the UA students are not involved in Bibliographic Instruction activities.

A major contributing factor to the success of the programs is the location of the UA School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) on the fifth floor of the UA Gorgas Library. In exchange for classroom space, Shelton State agreed to hire SLIS students to provide the UA sessions for its students. This agreement moved the Shelton State classes out of the UA Bibliographic Instruction classroom and provided SLIS students with both experience and employment. Shelton State trains and monitors the SLIS instructors to insure accurate and high quality instructional sessions for its students. In addition, Shelton State librarians are careful to set schedules, post directions, and provide instructions that take the burden off SLIS administrative and office staff.

The only request made by the director of Tuscaloosa Public Library in exchange for participation in the program was to have Shelton State students acquire a library card. Because the public library charges no fee for issuance of a library card, there is no additional cost to Shelton State students. This activity introduces or re-introduces the student to his/her local public library and encourages its use. It also helps to build the patron base of the public library, which is useful in obtaining funds from various sources.

Finally, Shelton State librarians have long maintained friendly, collegial relationships with public librarians and UA librarians. Some of these relationships go back to shared library school classes, while some grew out of committee work and other professional projects. The Assistant Director of Tuscaloosa Public Library is a former instructor in Shelton State's LBS programs. In addition, Shelton State librarians have fostered and maintained working relationships with administrators and supervisors at the public and UA libraries. All of these relationships provide a solid base upon which to build cooperative, inter-institutional library programs of all types.

CONCLUSIONS

The multi-institutional components of Shelton State's LBS 101 and LBS 102 courses seem to be quite effective. The majority of students consistently earn high grades on UA and public library exercises, indicating successful completion of course objectives. Informal survey results show that students are meeting the objectives of the course with a high level of satisfaction with the instruction provided and the benefits gained.

Through LBS 101 and LBS 102 classes, Shelton State students are encouraged to view information literacy as an important aspect of college life and to interpret the concept of "library" in the larger sense of "libraries." With indicators such as grades, student reactions, and librarians' reactions showing positive results, Shelton State will continue to promote information literacy within a multi-institutional environment.

NOTES

[i]. The definition of information literacy used in the Shelton State library instruction program is "the ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use needed information," as outlined by Patrician Senn Brievik and Barbara J. Ford in "Promoting Learning in Libraries Through Information Literacy," American Libraries 25 (January 1993): 98-101.