The one-to-one...

So far this academic year I have delivered 105 one-to-one appointments. This is a record number for me and it's not even Easter yet!  I thought I'd offer some of my observations on what's involved in running a one-to-one search support appointment.

The one-to-ones I run for students and staff tend to range from being 10 minutes to 1 hour long. It could be on anything - library catalogue, databases, finding the full-text, creating a search strategy, referencing, how to record a search... or all of these. The student/staff member could be a novice or good searcher - they just want to learn that little bit more or have a refresher.The aim is to help/coach them to carry out a search, not to do the search for them - it's their degree and it needs to be their work.

Before the event:
1. If the person emails or telephones to arrange a date  - make sure you ask them what course/what module they are studying/what assignment they have been tasked with.
2. Ask what it is they want your help with - people rarely ask for what they want and a quick conversation should elicit the aim of their visit or allow you to direct them to another more appropriate source of support. I quite like being confronted with a topic/query that I'm not sure how to solve as it's good for the little grey brain cells to be tested but the student's needs come first and I like to be prepared with something on their topic when they arrive - even if I've just peeked in a few databases to see what's out there/looked up the condition etc they are searching for.
3. Do you have a room/space/computer to work with?

The event:
1. Ask what it is they want your help with?  Yep, ask again. Don't jump in with advice, let them take the lead with their questions.
2. Don't take over. Let them use the computer/do the clicking. If you have to demonstrate things, talk them through it and explain what you are doing.
3. Answer their questions, not the questions you think they should be asking.
4. Summarise at the end - check you've covered what they wanted.
5. Do you need to give them handouts/guides for extra support when they are searching on their own later?
6. Remind them that they can contact you again - email/phone or another one-to-one appointment if appropriate.

After the event:
1. Keep statistics on how many one-to-ones you have carried out - it helps you to keep track of your workload because one-to-ones can be time consuming.
2. Keep a note of who you have seen - what course they were on and the general details such as search topic/advice given. This might seem onerous but I find that these students will pop back for additional bits and pieces of advice later on in their search - it's much easier to remind yourself of who they are and what it was they were looking for so you can help them quickly.
3. Reflect on what you did, why you did it and what you might do differently in the future. For instance I have run one-to-ones where students have wanted to bring their husband 'because he helps me use the computer at home', son 'because he types up my essay' and boyfriend 'because he'll get lonely sitting outside'. At first I thought it a little odd but on reflection if that's the way they learn/study and it works for them - I'm ok with it. Obviously the one who said he never realised 'how clever librarians were' was my favourite!

The best bit of a one-to-one is when you see the penny drop/the fog clear. It could be 20 minutes through, 59 minutes through or 3 minutes in. We all have different ways of learning and although people attend library workshops/lectures as part of their module it might be that a short one-to-one meeting consolidates all that person's previous learning.