Reviving the CILIP in Kent branch and presenting to other librarians

A few of us were interested in reviving the local branch and also in sharing new initiatives/recent work with other Kent librarians. To get the ball rolling a Lightning Talks events was organised which also included a chat about how best to start up CILIP in Kent again. My write up of the event can be seen on the CILIP South East branch web page.

LILAC conference - 25th-27th March 2013

On 25^th-27^th March I attended the LILAC (Librarian Information Literacy Annual Conference) conference in Manchester. An enormous number of events were on offer and it was an exciting, informative and exhausting three days.

I’ve come back to work brimming with ideas that I can use to improve my information literacy sessions. The three events that made the most impression were Transfrom your training the sequel: return of the interactive IL trainers by Emily Shields, Rosie Jones and Karen Peters; the Teach Meet and Alan Carbery’s Arming the teacher librarian: using experiential learning and reflective practice to guide pedagogy.

As well as the listening; thinking; reflecting and participating that went on during the daytime there were also ample opportunities to socialise and network.

Gorton Monastery was the venue for the conference dinner – a stunning interior, if a tad chilly. The networking event was held at the John Rylands Library, a huge Gothic building, built with the proceeds of a textiles business and very archives/special collections in tone. I took a liking to the signs displayed next to their collections – I think they helped to set the tone and expectations about the building and purpose of the collections. Whilst networking I met some people I had previously worked with and put faces to names I’m always seeing on mailing lists.

 

 

Since being back at work I’ve compiled a short action plan to make sure I apply all the knowledge I gained at LILAC. Here are a couple of my information literacy ‘resolutions’.

The Tidy Librarian’s LILAC Action Plan

A) Improve my presentation images

·         Take some useful images with my own camera for use in my presentations.

·         Try the Public Domain Image site which I saw referenced on many slides.

B) Information literacy sessions

·         Try using PollEv for online voting.

·         Use the jigsaw method with Foundation Degree students.

·         Use the IL trainers' activity called ‘choose a picture that represents…your feelings about searching’ with the Research group.

·         Question my current lesson plans – are they inclusive of trans/digital literacy?

·         Suggest a researcher information literacy strategy at work and use this to market our offer to PhD students, the research centres and research active staff.

C) Personal Professional Development

·         Begin to build a teaching portfolio using a teaching journal as recommended in Alan's workshop.

D) Building my professional reputation in my organisation

·         Keep blogging and tweeting.

·         I need to get more items in Faculty newsletters; integrate to a greater extent with the research teams, muscle-in on staff development days. I shall attempt to promote information literacy (or whatever we want to call it) better at learning and teaching committees.

E) Building my professional reputation in the library world

·         I should and would like to present something at a future LILAC event. I have previously been reluctant to realise that what I do in my day-to-day work does have value and is of interest to other people in the library world. There were a couple of sessions at LILAC where I sat back and thought ‘I do that already’. However I think to present at a conference you need to ground that work in theory.

Getting a belated introduction to learning and teaching

Over the last few months I have been attending a workshop series at my institution that consisted of five discussion-based workshops each focusing on a particular learning and teaching theme. The themes were planning a session; giving a lecture; leading a seminar; providing feedback to students and observation of teaching.

Despite being involved in delivering information literacy sessions for almost a decade my theory base of learning and teaching is limited.  When studying for my Masters in Library and Information Studies there was no acknowledgement that we would go on to ‘teach’ and hence no formal training in designing and delivering instruction was included in the course. All my teaching knowledge was learnt on the job (and sometimes on the spot!) followed by attempts to improve that teaching through continuous, usually informal, personal reflection.

I do not feel that my institution adopts a supportive role in encouraging all those involved in learning and teaching to improve their ‘classroom’ skills. There seems to be a reluctance to accept that some non-Academic staff have a substantial role and influence in the learning and teaching of students and that those staff would like to improve skills that the institution deems are outside the scope of their staff category. An obvious course to participate in to improve my knowledge is the PgC in Learning and Teaching but at my workplace this is validated for Academic staff only.  Initially I was a reluctant participant at the practical workshop sessions because they were aimed at those new to teaching in Higher Education and I felt I had more practical experience to work with. The course did not provide a qualification and this is something I have long strived for on my CV.

However, despite my reservations, I did ascertain a lot about learning and teaching as well as validating knowledge I already have.  Since the end of the course I have reflected on the knowledge acquired and have started to think about how to apply it to my day-to-day work.

What did I learn?

 
Looking back at my notes I think there are four key aspects of information that I can take from the sessions.
 

1. A good teacher keeps trying to improve what they do.

All the informal personal reflection I have carried out over the years was along the right lines. Whenever I get back from a session I scribble down notes for the next run through of the session – what didn’t work/ideas for next time or other sessions – or I write formal notes in response to student evaluation form comments. This activity means I’m always trying to move things on/get things right for myself and the students. I need to continue this method but endeavour to record more of these thoughts than I currently do.

2. Turn first year dependency into final year independence.

A good teacher encourages their students to be independent learners. A good teacher doesn’t get final year students pestering them about reading a draft or how to find a book – they should have grappled with this; got it under their belt and be able to do this on their own. This is a tough challenge for me as I get limited time with students and have to work hard over a number of years to achieve this independence from a distance. It is possible but maybe I need to improve my coaching skills for those students who attend one-to-ones and assess my strategies for group work – can they go away without needing my specific support?

3. Develop mindfulness in the learning and teaching setting.

It turns out that I am mindful when in the classroom but I didn’t know that’s what it was!

Mindfulness – being aware of/paying close attention to your responsibilities – such as thinking and asking:

• Can they hear me?
• Did they understand that last point?
• Checking for puzzled faces in the audience
• Putting yourself in their shoes
• Does the session ‘feel’ like it’s going well?
• Is it going badly? Can you turn it around?

This is something to keep doing in the classroom. I think the key teaching skill I need to take away is to pick up on those puzzled faces and ask them what they need to make them unpuzzled.

4. Lesson plans – always make one.

I usually but admittedly not always create a lesson plan. I started to make them in my current role because it was expected and as the librarians team-teach sessions from time to time it is a good way to map everything out for the other person.

 

Making a lesson plan forces you to think about what you want the students to be able to do, both in and after the session (a step towards independence). It moves you on to think about how you are going to get them to learn that information – talk/activity/reading – and how it fits with their assignment i.e. constructive alignment.

… and number 5 – read up about Carl Rogers; go back and refresh my memory about learning styles and read the odd book about being a lecturer HE...

 What did I learn? That I’ve picked up a lot on the job; that I have surface learning for some of the above and can move on to deeper learning by reading some trusty tomes and that I’ll always be working at my learning and teaching if I want to be a ‘good’ teacher. I think ‘keep going but take it up a notch’ sums up my next move.

 

What did I enjoy?
 

I enjoyed being back in the classroom as a student rather than standing at the front. It was surreal after ten years of being on the ‘other side’. I had to dust off my note taking skills and remember to write up the session each week which has always been my tried and tested way of absorbing the knowledge.

 

One of the tasks we were set was to watch an experienced Higher Education practitioner deliver a lecture. I found it an enlightening experience but I don’t feel confident enough to discuss my criticisms/praise with the lecturer – there were lots of things I thought were good teaching and learning strategies but a couple of areas where I thought things didn’t quite work out but we all have our own styles.

 
Meeting colleagues on the course who were embarking on their first teaching assignments was interesting. They were worried about working with groups of thirty students whereas I work with multiple groups of thirty and routinely deliver lectures for 200 students. They too had similar concerns in terms of not having had any formal teacher training. It was a supportive group who were quite honest and self-critical in their contribution to the discussions. And we were all committed to getting it right.

 

What worked well?

I had thought the session on providing feedback to students after an assessment would be least relevant to me but I was surprised by how engaging and useful it was.  I’m not involved in deciding or designing assessments instead I have to find out what the assessment is; work out what the students need to know in order for them to tackle the assessment and then design my teaching session to facilitate that learning.

 
Unexpectedly I picked up ideas about why students want feedback; what type of feedback they want; delivering negative feedback and getting them to write their own feedback for themselves or their peers. One tactic I might use more of in future is to get them to mark their own work or their classmate’s work. This self-assessment should encourage them to model what their tutor does so they understand the assessment criteria and what they should be aiming for in their work. This has worked well with keyword exercises in some of my sessions – they have to swap papers and assess the search words other person has thought of. By enhancing this and getting them to check the other person’s work against a checklist of core search skills I hope to get them to see what they should be looking for when searching.

 

What, if anything, went wrong?

I found it hard to contribute to some of the discussions partly because I am shy in that environment until I trust the group but also because I felt unfamiliar with some of the topics. As discussions progressed, particularly in the week about leading a seminar, I reflected on how my role in learning and teaching is different from the academic tutor’s role – for example I am parachuted in to timetable slots and often see students once whereas a tutor has more time to build a lasting rapport and learn names. I struggled to make a link between my work and the seminar theme because of the nature of the sessions I deliver - although I get the seminar slot I rarely deliver a traditional ‘seminar’. I ended up picking up things about asking students questions rather than facilitating discussions.

  

What would I change?

If I did this course again I would push myself to contribute more to the discussions even if it was to say that I was finding it hard to relate the topic to my day-to-day work.

 
 

What (potential) impact could this have in my workplace?

 

I have picked up lots of tips about learning and teaching and pointers about what to read and what skills to develop in the future. It has certainly encouraged me to reflect on my skills and the way I work. As I reflect on the notes I took I am buzzing with ideas for workshops which I intend to investigate further. I hope by looking at my sessions with a fresh and more informed perspective that I can improve the learning of my students so that their ability to search independently and more confidently increases. We are moving to a resource discovery tool soon and this gives me the opportunity to revamp my information literacy sessions and make them less about database instruction and more like ‘seminars’.

  

What can I practically apply from the experience I’ve had?

As the workshops progressed I noted down a number of things to investigate or to try in future workshops:

 

• Try to reduce the number of PowerPoint slides in my presentations – can I turn any of the text in to images/diagrams/infographics?

• Look at the generic library induction – do we have constructive alignment issues by trying a one size fits all approach?

• Try negotiating some ground rules in the year one lecture. As it’s the first lecture the students attend, I should try saying what the nature/purpose of a lecture is – schools do not lecture students so this is an alien concept.

• If students are utilising their phones in lectures/sessions for socialising – I can re-engage their concentration by using the phone as part of the session. For example, I could ask them to look up a phrase or how many articles are retrieved on a search for ‘health’?  Maybe I could get them to tweet/email in what they want to know about the resources or get them to check whether we have a particular book in the library and what the classmark is.

• Make the seminar a trial run for the assignment – make it significant/relevant. I do this but maybe I don’t make it obvious to the students.

• If we are mindful of our classroom we are always on the lookout for ‘assessment’ or students’ comprehension of what we are saying – we look for puzzled faces; ask if they have any questions or would like us to repeat anything. I want to test their knowledge by getting them to write down the clearest/muddiest ideas they have taken from my lecture/seminar. I could do this at the beginning or end of the session but must make sure I clear up the muddy ideas asap. Something like this might work best if I see the students for a couple of sessions.

I have offered to participate in a ‘safe’ teaching observation exercise which is being run by the workshop leader. The idea is to run a micro-teaching session that will be observed by others in the workshop group. Getting feedback on my teaching skills in this way is both terrifying and exciting. I’ll report back on the experience.

Inductions: number crunching

The first week of 2012 inductions is done. Thankfully it went well. My biggest problem was the fluctuation in student numbers. With set numbers of students expected I had made sure multiple rooms were booked and plenty of staff were on hand to help. However, all but one of my groups experienced considerable numbers of no-shows (not for the library tour but no-shows for the course itself).

Tour number one was for social work students and the full quota arrived. As they were a Masters group I chose to run traditional walking tours. So we toured 3 groups of 15 students around the library simultaneously - this involved much choreography so that we didn't all crash into each other en route. When I was at library-school it didn't dawn on me that logistics would play such a huge part in my day but I always plan routes for each group so that they get the best experience.

The second group were registered nurses who were returning to specialise in being public health nurses. Alas instead of 60 we had 28 turn up. They are always my favourite group of students - the phrase "cracking bunch" doesn't do them justice. I couldn't run the tour I wanted to because they students hadn't been through their registration process and did not have computer logins/id cards etc so the tour couldn't be as hands on as I desired. Still we had lots of fun - a walking tour and a talk about the e-Library followed by an attack on my basket of freebies!

A group of Foundation Degree students were next up - they too were reduced in number, 28 instead of 40. They looked distinctly nervous about starting their course and using a university library but we had a good natter about all things library and they seemed to relax a little. I did an orientation activity for this group which consisted of a short and sweet presentation about the library service, followed by a mini-tour on one floor of the building and then they had a quick activity. The task consisted of picking one book from a little list, searching for it on the library catalogue to find its classmark, the number of copies and which floor it lives on etc. They then had to go off and retrieve the book from the shelf and tell me what the title of chapter 2 was. The team I work with rest their tours on the principle that we 'learn by doing' so we like to get the students to put their hands on a book and use it.

I was off-site delivering a lecture to a group of distance learners on Friday morning and returned to a phone message that my afternoon group had been reduced from 30 to 7 and then later in the afternoon only 2 turned up! Still the two that made the effort had a small, personal tour around the facilities and got plenty of freebies between them.

The first week is always a wake-up call. Summer hurtles by and suddenly your back in the saddle trying to remember all the things you're supposed to mention on the tour and fluffing words in presentations as you try to regain your patter. By the end of week two I'll be word perfect and probably on tour auto-pilot.

What did I do on my day off - I went on a tour! Yes, a tour of a newly opened museum/library in my home town. Still at least being on the tour was a change from running the tour.

My top tips for inductions:

Freebies - always have freebies. A free pen endears you to many a student! I am often reminded in workshops that I was the lady who sorted all their stationery needs in week one.

Rooms/staff - better to be over prepared. It's easier to take structure away rather than add it at short notice.

Flat shoes - if you're giving walking tours your feet will suffer so be nice to them!

Engage tutors - get them to join you on your tour (freebies work on them too) as the students can ask them questions about reading lists etc during the event and the tutor gets an annual update on all things library.

To embed or not to embed?

Each September and April the University accepts new cohorts of health students. They have a 2 week skills module at the very beginning of their course during which they have several library activities scheduled in their timetable. As part of the module content and for a formative assessment they have to carry out a search on a topic given to them by their tutor. They are expected to find a couple of books; journal articles and websites on their topic and explain how they found the sources. At present their timetable of library activities looks like this:

Week 1:

Monday – Core lecture about ‘Finding information’ – 1 hour (compulsory)

Tuesday – Orientation to the library physical space – 1 hour (compulsory for 1^st half of cohort)

Wednesday – Library workshop 1 ‘Library catalogue and introduction to e-Library’ – 1 hour (not compulsory but strongly encouraged by tutors to attend/shown on central timetable)

Thursday – Orientation to the library physical space – 1 hour (compulsory for 2^nd half of cohort)

Friday - Library workshop 2 ‘Finding health information resources’ – 1.5 hours (not compulsory but strongly encouraged by tutors to attend/shown on central timetable)

Week 2:

Wednesday: Repeats of library workshop 2

Friday: Repeats of library workshop 1 and 2

As expected, there is good attendance for the lecture and orientation activities. The optional workshops have ok levels of attendance but certainly do not cover the whole cohort (Total students numbers are Sept = 380 students and April = 110 / students are from a range of health areas and are mixed together).

Why are the workshops non-compulsory?  Several reasons, firstly (and quite wrongly) because there are not enough members of library staff to run the number of workshops required to accommodate the large cohorts in the two week module (plus lots of other students also start at the same time). Secondly, some students will ‘get’ searching from the off and will possibly have done a degree previously therefore both library and academic staff felt it was a little harsh to make them go right back to the beginning. 

Overall the timetable and activities work well. The workshops were started by a previous librarian and have been built on and modified over the years. I get the students to evaluate the library workshops and feedback has been consistently positive for many years – something I am very proud of.

However, it has emerged that the start date of the module has shifted to a quieter time of the term and with the changes to higher education it has meant a modest reduction in student numbers for 2012/13. This has made me think that I can offer compulsory workshops to all the new students rather than optional ones.  I’ve been musing over this for a while. I can offer compulsory library workshops but I can only provide workshops that are 1 hour long rather than the combined offer of 2.5 hours when they were non-compulsory workshops. I’m worried that this is wrong – am I better off embedding the short library workshops or persevering with the positively received 2.5 hour offer of non-compulsory workshops?  Here’s how I envisage the possible timetable of library activities:

Week 1:

Monday – Core lecture about ‘Finding information’ – 1 hour (compulsory)

Tuesday – Orientation to the library physical space – 1 hour (compulsory for 1^st half of cohort)

Thursday – Orientation to the library physical space – 1 hour (compulsory for 2^nd half of cohort)

Week 2:

Tuesday – Library workshop ‘Using the e-Library to find journal articles’ – 1 hour (can run 6 one hour workshops covering 10 personal tutor groups)

Thursday - Library workshop ‘Using the e-Library to find journal articles’ – 1 hour (can run 6 one hour workshops covering 10 personal tutor groups)

Pros	Comments
All students have equal access to workshop	Gives parity across the different pathways of the programme
No sign up required	No wikis, paper forms, extra notices needed
Less confusing for students/staff if workshops are timetabled centrally	All in place before start of term, academic staff can request large IT rooms.
Embedded into their timetable – no longer an add on	Eureka!
Content can be more closely tailored to their area of health	Can introduce them to their key resources rather than ones which cover a spectrum of health topics
Opportunity to meet the librarian on 3 possible occasions rather than one	I can’t do all the sessions but I can do most of them
Can rejig lecture and tour to accommodate some items that were previously delivered in the workshops	Revitalise lecture and tweak orientation activity
Cons
Time to cover e-library only in workshop whereas we used to cover evaluating websites and the catalogue	But can move these items to lecture and orientation activity. New VLE gives scope for video content.
Complicated timetabling	But probably worth the agony
Some current workshop evaluation forms say they ‘want more time to practice’	However they can log in at any time and keep practising using the worksheets/VLE information
Is second Thursday too late in module?	Needs discussion with academic staff

I think I may have made my decision simply by writing it all down for this post - it helps to see it set out.