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Library Instruction Y/Our Way: Examining Librarian-Developed Stand-Alone Workshops for Student Learning

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  • Background Today’s college students, though stereotyped as technology savvy, still require instruction to develop robust information seeking and management skills. While library instruction at Oregon State University has historically been tied to single-session lectures for individual courses provided upon teaching faculty request, this model ensures that some students receive multiple library instruction sessions over the course of their program while others receive none. OSU teaching librarians, knowledgeable about the gaps in students’ information seeking skills and motivated to meet students’ instruction needs outside of the traditional model, offered a series of course-independent, stand-alone library information skills workshops in AY 2012. Methods Librarians developed four workshops addressing topics that are often overlooked in course-based workshops or are cursorily addressed given the need to cover multiple topics in a single library session: the research process (big picture), citation searching, copyright/fair use and citation management tools. Each session was offered multiple times (different times/days) in each of three terms. Students completed post-session feedback forms. In Spring 2012, all Fall/Winter attendees were surveyed to gather qualitative evidence of student learning. Results 124 unique students attended 37 workshop sessions offered in Fall 2011/Winter 2012. Majors represented included 49 academic departments though Biochemistry/Biophysics,Biology and English predominated. 35% of Winter 2012 attendees had never received library instruction at OSU or elsewhere. While partnerships with some academic programs resulted in students’ required attendance, 32% of Winter 2012 participants attended voluntarily. Survey respondents (n=24) reported that 84% of the workshops attended were relevant to their coursework/projects, and 93% reported learning “some” or “all new” skills. 60% of respondents promoted the workshops they attended to their friends. The Top 3 skills respondents reported acquiring include learning to broadly explore a topic, using relevant databases and using reference lists to develop additional sources. Conclusion This pilot workshop series reached its intended audience - those students with no previous opportunity for library instruction. Attendance patterns indicated that Fall and Winter terms are the most appropriate times to offer library workshops. Relevant workshop content and flexible learning opportunities contributed to workshop attendance. Student self-assessments of learning matched workshop learning outcomes, indicating that selected workshop topics were appropriately chosen and developed. Students’ own words provide evidence of learning and the rationale for continuing the workshop series: “The [citation searching workshop] has helped me on pretty much every research paper I've written for any class since then. Mostly I've used it as I work on my senior research project of land use change in Eastern Oregon.”
  • Poster presented at American Association for the Advancement of Science Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, February 17, 2013.
  • KEYWORDS: student learning, assessment, library instruction
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  • Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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