Rebecca Guenther has over 35 years of experience in libraries, primarily at the Library of Congress, where she developed national and international metadata standards, including MARC 21, MODS, PREMIS, METS, and ISO language codes. She has served on numerous national and international standards committees and given numerous presentations and workshops about them. She continues to serve on the PREMIS Editorial Committee, MODS Editorial Committee and PB Core Advisory Subcommittee. She is currently based in New York and consults on metadata issues. Some of her previous and current consultancies include the Library of Congress (BIBFRAME, LC’s Linked Data Service, PREMIS), the New York Art Resources Consortium (metadata for Web archives), the National Book Foundation, and Metropolitan New York Library Council, among others. She teaches metadata at NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program.

Rebecca teaches a class on BIBFRAME for Library Juice Academy. She is currently preparing to teach it for the second time next month. She agreed to do a brief interview here in order to give people a better sense of what her class is about and what they can expect to learn from it.

Rebecca, thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

Many people in the cultural heritage community (libraries, museums and archives) have taken an interest in BIBFRAME as a successor to the MARC Format, which has had remarkable staying power— this year is its 50th anniversary. The course aims to familiarize people with the concepts, vocabulary, and development of a new approach to metadata in libraries.

The first question I’d like to ask is, “What is BIBFRAME,” but I also want to ask how much background you would like your students to have in the course. If it more for people who already know what BIBFRAME is? So, those two questions to start out…

BIBFRAME is an emerging standard for describing information resources that is intended to replace MARC, while leveraging the rich and valuable metadata that already exists. It is based on a Linked Data model, which has as its goal to enhance discovery of information by combining data from many sources on the Web. It isn’t necessary for people to have a background in BIBFRAME, because it is still under development and experimental, so it isn’t mature enough for there to be a large body of knowledge about it. What people should know about is how metadata is encoded and used. It would be useful if potential students have some background in XML and other encodings for structuring metadata, as some of the content is technical. The first half of the class will be on Linked Data and the Semantic Web, which should provide students with the necessary background about the Linked Data model.

Could you describe a bit about what BIBFRAME will do that MARC does not, what this innovation will mean for resource description?

MARC is sometimes misunderstood, and it is important to remember that there is a difference between MARC as a communications format and MARC as an element set. It has been highly successful at allowing libraries and other institutions to exchange metadata records (aka catalog records) based on a widely implemented standard encoding. A huge infrastructure has been built around it so that the data can be imported and exported in a standard way, but customized in whatever system they choose to use. MARC as an element set is rich and can carry precisely tagged data so that complex searching combining information in different elements and limiting by others can bring back relevant results to satisfy research needs.

One big problem with the MARC communications format is that your system has to understand MARC to use the records, and that isn’t an easy task. It’s a format that was developed in the late 1960s when storage was expensive and a compact format was necessary— hence all the coded data. What BIBFRAME aims to do is develop a vocabulary (a term used in the RDF world, but it essentially defines what we would have called a metadata scheme for a particular domain) that is understood by the Semantic Web, enabling BIBFRAME data to be shared as Linked Open Data. That means that the data can interact with other data on the Web and enhance searching. For instance, as the theory goes (and we’re seeing applications of this now), we can imagine that doing a search on a person could bring back results from multiple sources (all of which has put their data out as Linked Open Data). For instance a search on George Clooney could bring back information from LC (or VIAF) Name Authority records, Wikipedia data (i.e. DBPedia, which is its Linked Data form), the Linked Movie Database (LD version of IMDB), etc. It makes the Web into a large database and opens up all the rich information in bibliographic records to the Web.

The notion of exchanging bibliographic records will change, and it will no longer be between designated partners who know how to use the records, but they will be available openly (in fact in the Semantic Web world, people don’t like to call them “records” but multiple “statements”). As for the element set, if an institution needs an element (in Semantic Web speak, classes or properties) that BIBFRAME doesn’t have, it can use appropriate ones from other vocabularies (e.g. from schema.org, IMDB ontology, etc.).

Wow, that is very clear and succinct. I think a lot of people will be interested in this introduction to BIBFRAME. You’ve taught the class for us once so far. What was your experience like teaching for us?

I’ve taught a number of online classes and I might have liked this experience the best. One was a metadata class for the Rutgers School of Information and Library Science, and, since it was a full semester and a masters’ program, it was difficult to evaluate the students and was a lot of extra work to be constantly online with them for 4-5 months. This was also an asynchronous class. Others have been synchronous and just 2 hours. I thought that the month long time period was the right amount of time. It was also helpful to be able to see how other instructors teaching for LJA set up their classes, and the Moodle tool is fairly easy to use and does what you need to. Sometimes it is hard to engage the students, and especially because they come from different backgrounds and are taking it for different reasons.

As a final question, what would you like to say to librarians who might be interested in taking your course?

It is important to know that BIBFRAME is still under development and decisions aren’t all set in stone. A number of institutions are experimenting with the BIBFRAME ontology and there are efforts to define extensions for specific purposes where BIBFRAME doesn’t describe some forms of material adequately. It is built into RDF, the encoding for Linked Data, that you can use elements from different ontologies/vocabularies together. For instance, there are groups developing extensions for rare books and art objects, moving images, etc. That means that some of the details may change, but it is really the model and the concepts that are important to understand at this point and how what they know in MARC are represented in BIBFRAME. I also hope that the class will engage people enough that they are willing to follow its developent and see how it applies to their applications to perhaps make suggestions for improvements.

Thank you for this interview. It’s been interesting. Thank you for teaching this class for Library Juice Academy.

I hope this has sparked some interest in the class and look forward to engaging with the students again.

Lauren Hays is the Instructional and Research Librarian and the Co-Director of the Center for Games and Learning at MidAmerica Nazarene University. She holds an undergraduate degree in education, a masters in library science, a masters in educational technology, and a graduate certificate in online teaching and learning.

We previously interviewed Lauren about two classes she has been teaching for us for some time: Gaming in Libraries and Informal Learning in Academic Libraries. You can read that interview here. She has agreed to do another interview with us, this one about her new class, An Introduction to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Lauren, to start out, what is “the scholarship of teaching and learning?”

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a movement in higher education to study teaching and learning in order to improve both. Findings are then shared publicly. Typically, SoTL research is conducted by professors in their own classes, but it can also take place at a broader institutional level. SoTL has experienced tremendous growth since it was first introduced by Ernest Boyer in his seminal work Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (Boyer referred to it as the scholarship of teaching). Now, many institutions recognize and support SoTL as an area of research, scholarly activity, and professional development.

How is it different from prior education research and theory?

This is a question that comes up a lot when SoTL is discussed. Educational research and theory is typically conducted by trained educators. On the other hand, SoTL is often conducted by instructors who are trained in other areas (e.g. librarians, sociologists, biologists, etc.). The unique disciplinary perspectives these instructors bring to research on teaching and learning is beneficial because these disciplinarians understand the habits of mind necessary to learn and grow in the particular subject they are teaching. Additionally, each subject-expert brings unique research methods from their own discipline and can research teaching and learning in distinct ways.

Ah, that is very interesting. So, given that, could you describe the class that you have developed?

Yes, in An Introduction to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, we will read many of the prominent articles in the field and gain an understanding of the big picture of SoTL. Then we will transition to thinking locally about how we can use SoTL to improve our own teaching practice, perhaps conduct SoTL research, and support SoTL on our campuses. I hope course participants will come away with practical ideas for getting involved and using SoTL. Specifically, each person in the course will brainstorm at least one idea they have for a SoTL research project.

Also, SoTL emphasizes the teaching commons. Instead of teaching as an isolated act individuals who participate in SoTL share their teaching publicly in order to build support for teachers. This is another goal I have for this class. I want to bring people together who care about teaching and care about students’ learning, and then build a community of librarian SoTL scholars.

That seems like a really good goal, and I hope your class can help facilitate that. I can imagine it leading to other projects.

Since you’ve taught other classes with LJA previously, I wonder if you could tell us some reflections on that experience. What has it been like teaching your classes, and what have you learned from doing it that you plan to apply with this class?

Well, first, I always enjoy teaching. I am a teacher at heart and am always excited to journey alongside others in learning. Teaching professional development (PD) courses, however, was a bit of a challenge at first. Many of participants in the courses have an amazing depth and breadth of experience. Therefore–as is useful for good teaching generally, but even more so for PD courses–acting as a facilitator, supporter, and idea-generator is how I have learned to teach in this setting.

Thank you, sounds good. Before I let you go, is there anything else you’d like readers to know?

Thank you for the opportunity to share about this course. I look forward to teaching it!

Michael White is the librarian for research services in the Engineering & Science Library at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He has worked with patent information since 1991. He was the engineering, patents and trademarks librarian at the University of Maine from 1995-1998 and a librarian in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 1998-2005. Michael has taken over from another instructor teaching our patent searching class. Since the baton was passed, he has taught the course a number of times and is in a position to reflect on the experience. He agreed to do an interview here, to give people more of a sense of him as an instructor and an idea of what they can expect in his class.

Michael, want to tell readers a bit about yourself to start off?

I was introduced to patent information in the early 1990s when I was a graduate student in the University of Michigan’s School of Library and Information Studies. As part of my program, I had a half-time intern position in the Engineering Library, which was (and still is) a member of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program (PTDLP). (Several years ago PTDLP was renamed the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Program.)

Working and studying at Michigan was a great experience, and by the time I began my job search I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in science and engineering librarianship and to continue developing my knowledge of patents.

My first professional position was science librarian at Loyola University Chicago. Loyola fostered a very collegial, professional, and supportive environment. It was a great place to start my career and allowed me to deepen my knowledge of science information resources. However, I did not have many opportunities to use or improve my patent knowledge. Fortunately, in early 1995 I became the engineering librarian at the University of Maine at Orono, which had recently (1994) been designated a PTDL. I was glad to be returning to my home state.

Building and promoting the PTDL services at the University of Maine was a terrific experience. I regularly attended the annual PTDLP training conference in Washington, D.C. I also became active in the Engineering Libraries Division of the American Society for Engineering Education. I’ve presented several papers on patent information at ASEE conferences. ASEE is the organization I’ve been most active in. I’ve served as chair, program chair, secretary/treasurer, and director and on numerous committees and working groups. In 2017, I received ELD’s Homer I. Bernhardt Distinguished Service Award.

After working at the University of Maine for a couple of years, I was selected for a fellowship librarian position at the USPTO. The fellowship program allows librarians from PTDLs to work for up to two years in the PTDLP Office. At the end of my fellowship, I was fortunate to secure a full-time position in the PTDLP. I worked at the USPTO from 1998 through 2005. During that time I visited numerous PTDLs across the U.S. and conducted dozens of workshops for inventors, entrepreneurs, librarians, and patent professionals. I also joined the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and Patent Information Users Group (PIUG). I’ve conducted a number of patent workshops at SLA conferences and moderated panels at PIUG conferences.

In 2004, I decided it was time for a change. I very much wanted to return to an academic library. My wife, who is also a librarian, wanted to return to her home province of Ontario. We were very fortunate to find positions at Queen’s University in Kingston that suited our interests and backgrounds perfectly. At Queen’s, I have continued to focus on patents and IP information as core parts of my professional practice and research.

Thanks for sharing your background. Can I ask you to describe the patent searching class for those who might be considering taking it?

“Patent Searching for Librarians” was originally created by Martin Wallace, the former engineering, patent and trademark librarian at the University of Maine at Orono. In 2016, Martin moved to a new position and I volunteered to teach the course. I’ve retained the basic structure of the course and added more international content for the benefit of librarians outside of the U.S.

The course is designed as an introduction to patent information for librarians working in all types of environments and with all types of users. Librarians and librarians-in-training who have taken the course hail from academic, public, government, law and corporate settings. The course is specifically aimed at librarians with little or no experience working with patent information. However, parts of the course may be of interest to librarians with more advanced knowledge who are interested in a refresher or looking to improve their knowledge in a specific area such as classification searching.

The course is not an introduction to patent law or intellectual property issues in general. Both topics are far too complex for a short four-week online course.

The course consists of four weekly modules, each (except Module 1) building on the previous module. All modules include learning activities and assessment activities. However, none of the activities are graded. The first half of each week is devoted to the learning activity and the second half focuses on the assessment activity.

Module 1 focuses on the legal and ethical issues librarians encounter when helping users conduct patent research. Students are assigned readings and activities focusing on determining a patron’s information needs when it comes to patents, and what kinds of help we–as librarians, not attorneys–are able to provide. Most importantly, students learn how to avoid committing “unauthorized practice of law” when helping users research patent information. Students can expect to spend 4-5 hours on this module.

In Module 2, students learn about the format and organization of patent documents, and how to identify different parts of a patent. This module will take 2-3 hours to complete.

In Module 3, students explore and compare two open access patent databases. Students with access to a commercial patent database (Derwent, SciFinder) through their places of work may select it as one of their options. This module takes 3-4 hours.

Finally, the fourth module covers patent classification systems. Using patent classification is often the most difficult aspect of patent searching for our users to grasp, so I feel it deserves an entire module dedicated to it. Students learn about the two major patent classification systems in use today, the International Patent Classification (IPC) and the relatively new Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) systems, and how to conduct a patent search using a step-by-step method inspired by the USPTO’s “Seven-Step Search Strategy”. This module will take 3-4 hours to complete.

Finally, throughout the course I provide references and links to other sources of patent information and training.

Sounds like a very solid course. You’ve taught it for us a few times now. What has your experience been like teaching it? You can tell us about some things that have happened in class, or some things that surprised you.

Over the past twenty years I’ve taught countless face-to-face classes and seminars; and I’ve conducted a fair number of live webinars. But teaching an online, asynchronous course was a new experience for me.

I was concerned that without the real-time interaction of a live class or webinar, students would find the material dry or boring. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. Only a few students have commented on the amount of reading required. Most seem very pleased with the content and learning activities. It is a fun challenge coming up with fresh, timely examples to use in the course. Fortunately, patent information and tools are always evolving, so it’s not too hard.

Given the reported high drop-out rates in online courses, I was curious whether students would complete the class. So far, however, only a couple of students have failed to complete the class.

The range of personalities is interesting. Some students are content to work their way through the material without many, if any, questions or comments. Other students do like to engage in feedback, which I try to provide as much as I can.

It sounds like it’s been a good experience. I want to thank you for the interview. It’s been good hearing about the class and your experience with it.

Thank you. It’s been a pleasure working with Library Juice on this course and the many students who have taken it. I’ve learned much about teaching and learning in online courses. I look forward to teaching it again in the near future and perhaps developing new courses on IP research.

Sarah Hare is currently the Scholarly Communication Librarian at Indiana University, where she works on several open and library publishing initiatives. In her previous position at Davidson College, Sarah led two Open Educational Resource (OER) initiatives. In addition to co-authoring a chapter on interinstitutional collaborations to advance OER outreach for OER: A Field Guide for Academic Librarians, Sarah has been invited to guest lecture and present on OER to LIS courses, professional development organizations, and an international librarian group. Sarah teaches a class on Open Educational Resources for us. She has agreed to be interviewed here, to give people a better sense of who she is and what they can expect from her class.

Hi Sarah. Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about OER, Rory!

I would like to start just by asking you to talk about yourself a little bit and how you became interested in open educational resources.

Sure, I’d be happy to. My name is Sarah and I’m currently the instructor for the Library Juice Academy “Introduction to OER” course. I’ve been doing open education outreach since I was a graduate student at the University of Illinois. I’m a first generation college student, so I originally became interested in OER because of the cost savings and increased access that OER can offer when used as an alternative to expensive course materials. I started working at a small liberal arts college as an information literacy librarian and I quickly realized that conversations about open pedagogy and student-created OER could also help spark fruitful conversations with faculty about instruction. To me, OER outreach is a unique intersection of the best parts of my scholarly communication/ open work and my instruction/ pedagogy work. It’s an opportunity to talk to faculty about open access, Creative Commons, instructional design, publishing, and even discovery, preservation, and metadata while also working to increase student retention and access to higher education.

That’s great. I’m noticing however that you’re talking about things that possibly not all of our readers know enough about to completely follow you. Could you explain a little bit about what OER is? And then maybe go on to say a little bit about what role the library can play in it?

Of course! This is something we’ll cover more in the first week of the course as well. An OER is a learning object (i.e. anything used in learning and teaching, including a syllabus, worksheet, textbook, tutorial, wiki, etc.) that is licensed under an intellectual property license that enables others to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute the object. David Wiley calls this framework or litmus test for OER the 5 Rs. It’s important not to conflate free and open when determining if a learning object is an OER. The presence of a Creative Commons license is key since that’s what enables others to legally revise and remix the OER and continue to improve the learning object.

I touched on this in my last response, but I think that librarians from all areas and specialties have a lot to contribute to the conversation on OER. Many librarians are experts at locating and evaluating information, which is incredibly useful for helping faculty find quality OER. Instruction librarians understand instructional design and know how to work with faculty to write learning objectives, find OER that align with those objectives, and assess the effectiveness of the OER throughout the course. Librarians with expertise in open access, copyright, and publishing can even help faculty create and share OER.

Pretty exciting stuff. Now, would you describe the course itself?

Sure. The course is six weeks and it is a survey of both OER and open pedagogy fundamentals. I use the first three weeks to help participants gain a deeper understanding of OER issues. We focus on definitions and misconceptions of OER, where to find OER, and tips for conveying the many benefits of open education to administrators and faculty. I use the last three weeks to challenge participants to apply what they learned by writing an OER initiative proposal. I ask participants to tailor their proposal to their specific campus context (i.e. size, culture, mission, library buy in). As part of the course, each participant gets extensive feedback from another student and myself so that they can refine their proposal before it goes live. In addition to the proposal, students get hands-on experience finding OER, learn how to apply Creative Commons licenses, and practice “pitching” OER to an administrator on their campus.

Sounds excellent and very practical. At the time of this interview you’ve taught the class once already. How was your experience teaching it? Did you learn anything new? Were there any surprises?

Yes! Last class, we had almost 30 participants from a variety of institutions and contexts. I learned a lot from my students, particularly those that had a different context than my own (including community college librarians and a staff member at a scholarly society). At the end of the course, I received feedback that the course was excellent but a lot of work. For this second iteration, I plan to break the outreach plan up a bit so that we complete a small portion of the plan each week. This is better scaffolding and I think it will help students balance the course work and all of their other existing commitments. Last class I also asked students to review each other’s outreach plans. Some students told me that this was the most useful part of the class because they got to compare their outreach plan with someone else’s. So I’ve taken this feedback to heart too! This January, I’ll divide students into small groups so that they have a chance to see at least two other outreach plans in order to refine their own.

I really enjoyed teaching the LJA OER course last spring. It helped remind me of why I’m so passionate about OER, librarianship, and teaching/ empowering others.

That is great to hear! I have one final question… If you could teach any other classes for LJA, what would they be?

Wow, great question. It would be exciting to create and teach a library publishing course. I started a new position in May 2017 and a lot of what I do focuses on publishing. I interface with the press at our institution, use Open Journal Systems to facilitate open access journal publishing, and even teach an academic publishing and editing class to undergraduate students. Library publishing is a growing library specialization and I hope it will continue to develop as libraries invest more heavily in open access and open source infrastructure. Currently, there is an IMLS grant to develop a curriculum for library-based publishing, so I hope that librarians start to have at least one source for education in this area.

Great idea! We can talk about that further later on. It’s been great talking to you about your OER class. Thanks again for doing this interview.

Thanks for interviewing me. Anyone with questions about the OER class is welcome to e-mail me at secrissinger@gmail.com.

Deborah Schmidle is currently the principal consultant at Schmidle Consulting Services. She has developed and taught numerous organizational development-related workshops and has facilitated strategic-planning processes for libraries and library organizations. She holds an M.L.I.S. from Syracuse University and a Certificate in Contemporary Leadership from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. Prior to retiring in March 2013, she was Director of Research & Learning Services at Cornell University Library (CUL). Deborah teaches the six courses in our Certificate in Library Management program. She has taught the full sequence a number of times now, and can say a lot about the experience. She agreed to do an interview here, to give people more of a sense of who she is and what her series of courses is like.

Deb, thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

Thanks for this opportunity Rory, I look forward to talking with you.

I’d like to start by asking you to tell us just a bit more about your background that has led you to do the teaching and consulting that you do.

My library background has been pretty varied! I have worked in and with libraries, for over 40 years now. I started out as a page in my local public library. After a few years there, I moved to an academic library. With the exception of a stint at Nylink (an OCLC network) and a local historical society, I have pretty much stayed with academia. Over the decades, I have done everything from cataloging, reference, collection development, circulation, special collections, instruction, and library management. I am sure I have forgotten a couple of things, as well!

I have always loved teaching and my original intent was to get my doctorate in History and go into academic teaching, However, partway through the process, I ran out of steam (and funding!) and I also decided I wanted a more assured job future. By this time, I had been at Cornell for several years and I really enjoyed reference and instruction. I am a natural extrovert and I get my energy from interacting with others. The instruction piece of my job also fed my desire to teach. At that point, I decided librarianship was a natural fit.

My first job post-MLIS was at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell where I developed and taught an Internet training program for labor unions. This was in the early days of the Internet and we traveled throughout New York State, training people on the basics of using the Internet for research and developing their local union websites. It was a great job and a lot of fun. It was also the first time I designed and taught day-long or multi-day workshops and I loved it. It was also at the ILR School that I became introduced to, and interested in, organizational development, including topics related to management, leadership, and conflict resolution.

When I moved to Albany and joined Nylink as their Director of Library and Educational Services, I decided to develop a management training program for librarians. As I said earlier, Nylink was an OCLC network so most of our training was centered around OCLC products. Our members included all library types of all sizes. Over the years I had seen many librarians and support staff promoted into supervisory roles with no mentorship or training. This was especially true in smaller libraries where in-house management training simply wasn’t feasible due to a lack of resources. Therefore, these individuals would suddenly find themselves in charge of supervising a department with no real support. Moving into a supervisory position for the first time is always daunting; it is even more so if you have had no training on how to handle the issues that arise in this arena. It was that gap in professional development that I wanted to address.

After leaving Nylink and retuning to Cornell, at the invitation of libraries and library organizations I continued to speak at library conferences and offer workshops on topics like communication strategies and change management. After retiring as Director of Research and Learning Services at the Cornell University Library, it seemed a natural fit to move into consulting. I also wanted to continue teaching and Library Juice Academy has been a great opportunity to do so.

Great, thanks for telling us about your background. Shifting gears, could you describe your certificate program in library management?

Sure. The program consists of six courses that are all somewhat inter-related. They can be taken in a six-month series, out of sequence, or as standalone courses. The series starts with Effective Communication Strategies. In my opinion, this is the foundation on which all of the other courses are built. It is also the running thread throughout the series. Effective communication is key every component of our lives, professionally and personally. I honestly believe that 90% of workplace problems can be addressed through communicating clearly, respectfully, and honestly. It is something about which I feel very passionate (as any of my students will attest 🙂 )

The series continues with Planning and Leading Effective Team Meetings. As librarians, we are often called upon to chair or lead meetings. Sometimes these meting are regularly-scheduled meeting within a department. Other times, these are more broadly-based meetings with shorter lifespans (such as committee or project meetings) that often involve participants from numerous departments or functional areas in the library. Therefore, this course looks not only at practical issues such as the steps necessary to set up and run a meeting, but also at how to build and lead a team of participants throughout this process. Again, effective communications play a large role in this process.

The third course, Strategic Planning, applies the lessons of the first two courses as we look at how the library is currently functioning and in what direction the library wishes to grow. We cover various strategic planning tools, as well as discussing how to consider the needs of library stakeholders (both internally and externally) in this process. We also touch on the concept of scenario planning, an important component of strategic planning.

Critical Strategies for Implementing and Managing Organizational Change is the fourth course in the series. I positioned this after Strategic Planning since (as most of us have experienced), change is the result of strategic planning. Change is also really challenging for most of us. It is also something all of us experience on a regular basis. We grow older, we may get married, we may have children, we may move or start new jobs. In this course, we examine several change models for helping organizations effectively move through change by helping staff understand, accept, and hopefully even embrace change. It is also a good course for self-reflection. How do we feel and respond to change? Being in tune with our own experiences often provides us with empathy for the emotional responses that others encounter during the change process.

Growing, Developing and Retaining Dynamic Staff is the fifth offering and again, overlaps with some of the other courses. Often strategic planning and/or change initiative result in new staff, reorganized staff, promoted staff, etc. Staff are our greatest assets. That is not just a platitude–it is true. Poor hires and high staff turnover is expensive, time-consuming, and detrimental to both library staff and library services. Therefore, it is essential that we hire smart. It is even more essential that once we have hired the best staff possible, we then nature and mentor them throughout their time in the library, for both the good of the library and for the professional fulfillment of our staff. As with the courses that came before it, this course is mixture of very practical advice (including sample interview questions) with a bit of theory thrown in for good measure.

The final course offering is Telling Your Story: Successful Marketing Strategies for Libraries. In an era of competing priorities and tight budgets, libraries are frequently fighting for resources. This course looks at various marketing strategies, including how to build and deliver effective messaging. It also emphasizes how to create collaborative
stakeholder partnerships in order to successfully highlight and demonstrate the library’s worth to its constituents. The ability to creatively “tell our story” as libraries is a skill that is not often taught.

I started out by saying that the common thread through all of these courses is communication. Another common component is the practical nature of these courses. While a discussion of theory is built into most of these courses, I wanted to develop resources and tools that participants could put into action immediately. Therefore, there is also a strong practice-based component to these courses. Because these courses are somewhat interrelated, I also go back and revisit concepts we discussed in earlier courses as a way of tying all of the pieces together.

Thanks for that thorough description. Now I’d like to switch gears and ask you to reflect a bit on your experience teaching this series through Library Juice Academy. What was the experience like, for you and the students?

When I started teaching for Library Juice Academy, I didn’t have much experience with online teaching. My goal was to make the experience as enriching as possible for the students and to keep them engaged throughout the courses. From the start, I knew I didn’t want to give them just transcripts to read. Different people have different learning styles and I thought a singular approach would not be the best one. Therefore, I write my lectures and then create PowerPoint slides to accompany them. I’ve attended a lot of deadly PowerPoint presentations so I use these slides as a jumping off point for the lecture, rather than read word for word from them. From there, I record my voice over the slides, upload the material to password-protected YouTube account (so the material is not accessible to the public) and then download the recording to Moodle.

In addition to the recording, I give students the full transcript so they have both options. The process is a lot of work but the students appreciate it. After each course, I survey students as to their learning preferences and it is an even split between those you prefer the recorded lectures, those who prefer the transcripts, and those who want both! I also include video clips and images for some visual stimulation. In addition, I try to include some funny video clips or anecdotes just to keep things lively. I also offer the occasional live chat meet up and I encourage them to participate in the weekly discussion forum assignments.

Initially, I missed the face-to-face interaction with students, but I feel that we have somewhat replicated that in our discussion forums. Although I have never met any of my students, I feel like I know some of them (particularly the ones who do take all six courses), quite well.

I can’t speak for the students, but based on the evaluations and direct feedback to me, I think most of them have found the experience a very good one. I have received many emails thanking me for the courses and often they will cite specific examples of how the courses are helping them in their work. To me, getting that feedback is as rewarding as teaching itself. I always encourage my students to stay in touch. I tell them that their relationship with me doesn’t have to end after the courses end and I am always happy to available to offer professional advice or talk them through a particularly tricky management problem, should the need arise. Despite having a consulting business, I also offer this for free since they were my students. I like keeping that connection and I take a great deal of fulfillment and satisfaction in helping them succeed and feel confident in their work.

I should also add that Library Juice Academy provides great support for me and my students. Whenever I have a technical question regarding the Moodle software, there is always someone there to help me out! Moodle also offers great flexility that allows me to share material in various formats with my students.

One final point on that last question. When I discuss encouraging the students to stay in touch, I would add that that I also encourage them to build a community of support amongst one another by actively engaging with each other in the discussion forum. I emphasize that they can often learn a lot from each other’s experiences. I think these relationships are particularly strong within the certificate program cohort.

Well, that sounds great. Final question. Is there anything else you’d like to say to readers?

This has been a very enriching experience for me and I look forward to meeting new students in the future. Also, if anyone has further questions about any of the courses, they should always fee free to contact me.

Thanks very much!

Rick Stoddart is an associate professor and education librarian at the University of Idaho. Rick holds an MLIS and MA in Communication from the University of Alabama. He also has an Ed.D. from Boise State University where his dissertation reported on a research project leading a group of librarians through a critical reflection curriculum. He has co-edited a forthcoming book from ACRL Press on autoethnography, a critical reflective research methodology. Rick’s research interests include evidence-based librarianship, strategic thinking, and exploring the intersection of librarianship and learning. Rick strongly believes in the potential of writing as discovery, collaborative inquiry, creative thinking, school libraries, and empowering others. He is teaching a class for us next month for the first time (this interview was conducted in October 2017), titled Exploring Librarianship through Critical Reflection. He has agreed to do an interview here so that readers can learn more about him and get a sense of what will happen in his class.

Rick, thanks for agreeing to this interview.

I am happy to speak with you.

I’d like to start by asking you to say a bit about yourself and how you became interested in this topic.

My long and winding story with the topic of critical reflection goes back to graduate school. I was working as an academic librarian and taking graduate classes in the evening working toward my Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction. In one of the courses, we were asked to do this intense and challenging reflective technique drawn from Curriculum Studies called currere. The professor wanted us to focus on education and teaching but I wanted to focus on librarianship and I did. I must say, initially I wasn’t a fan of reflection or currere. I thought the whole idea of self-examination was distracting from learning about all the other things I needed to know to be successfuly librarian. During the whole currere writing assignment I was frustrated and angry — and that emotion came across in my final reflection paper. However, when I got to the end of the reflection, I realized that something had changed. I acknowledged that my anger wasn’t at the reflective process that currere was asking me to do, but at myself — at my current role in librarianship. It was through this critical reflective process I was better able to connect to why I am a librarian. This initial critical reflection experience was very powerful and moving for me, so when it came time to undertake my dissertation, I decided it would be interesting to see if this process was meaningful for others. Spoiler alert — it was. That is also why I wanted to teach this Library Juice Academy class to see if sharing some of these critical reflection methodologies, experiences, and exercises might translate into an online course.

Can you describe the course some?

Sure. The course will include an exploration of a few critical reflection techniques such as autoethnography and currere. We will do some reading of various examples of reflection that are library-based and outside libraries. We will also do some writing. I think the best way to understand how reflection “works” is to do some reflective writing yourself. My intention is to give a basic survey of critical reflection but also to engage the students in the class with how critical reflection might inform their own practice of librarianship.

Could you explain what autoethnography and currere are?

Well, those are some reflection methodologies we are going to explore more deeply in the class. The short version of each goes something like this…

Autoethnography is a “self-ethnography” — just as an anthropologist might report on aspects of a culture or society through observation, note-taking, and evidence-gathering — so too you do so with autoethnography. Except with autoethnography the foci, or lens that you view society or culture from, is the self. Autoethnography incorporates various forms of evidence such as diaries, experiences, outside literature, etc. into a form of critical self reflection writing. Autoethnography moves beyond mere nostalgic writing into a more rigorous, structured, and evidence-based reflective stance by treating the whole reflective writing process as an research-based form of writing. Autoethnography offers an opportunity to explore social issues and identity. For example, I am at the very beginning stages of a collaborative autoethnography project with a colleague around our similarly shared experiences with the academic tenure process. In this project we are going to be exploring our identities as untenured associate professors.

Currere is another critical reflection methodology drawn from Curriculum Studies. This methodology takes a temporal approach and asked the participant to write four reflective pieces. One rooted in the past, one rooted in the future, and one rooted in the future. The final reflection is a synthesis of those three other reflections. This form of guided reflective writing shakes up the participant by making them adjust their points of view to different aspects of time. Additionally, I am a fan of this technique because it requires the writer to generate three types of evidence with their first three reflections that are then “cited” in the final synthesis. It is almost like an evidence-based form of critical reflection — though the context still remains the self.

Can you give some examples of how these kinds of self-reflective practices can help librarians?

Well at the highest level — the better we are able to understand ourselves and begin to create meaning from our experiences — the better we understand our motivations and values around being a librarian — this all informs our practice of librarianship and how we interact with patrons and what we desire libraries and librarianship to be. On another level, through my dissertation project and also various workshops I have done using the currere reflection method with different groups of librarians — I have seen critical reflection have a profound effect on how librarians approach their jobs. I witnessed reflection turn people from being negative about their work to being positive. I seen it help with librarian burnout. I have also seen it help librarians and library staff connect why they do what they do. For example, after a recent workshop, one library staff shared how she was now more aware that the simple act of checking out a book to someone can change that patron’s life — that is an amazing realization — libraries change lives. Now that person comes to work thinking I am in the business of changing lives not simply shelving/checking out books. How cool is that! I think making those connections are a potential huge benefit of reflection.

The recent autoethnography book that I co-edited with Anne-Marie Deitering and Robert Schroeder showcases how reflection can inform library practices from instruction, research, tenure, leadership development, gender/race issues, and fitting in at work among other areas. I believe reflection can offer a fuller picture of librarianship and as that picture becomes clearer the better librarians we can be in all aspects of our practice.

Well, I hope your class is a big success, and we can chat again about the experience of teaching it. To finish up, is there anything else you’d like to say to readers here?

I am very excited for this class. I feel like I am a student as much a guide for the class as I always learn something new as we explore critical reflection together as a group. I am often very deeply moved by some of the results that happen during and after the reflection process. There often are meaningful experiences that people uncover that help shape not only their own perceptions of librarianship but also inform my own library practice. I am very interested to see how all this will play out on the Library Juice Academy platform — that will definitely add a new wrinkle. This should be a very interesting and inspiring experience. Looking forward to it!

I’m looking forward to it as well! Thanks for the interview…

Tracey Leger-Hornby is an independent consultant with over 30 years of leadership and expertise in libraries and technology, primarily in higher education. Her previous positions include Dean of Library Services at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Associate CIO at Brandeis University, Library Director at Rivier University, and several positions in the library and academic technology at Simmons College. Recently, as a consultant, Tracey served as interim Head Librarian at the Worcester Public Library and Interim Director of Research and Instruction at Wheaton College. She is currently working with the Massachusetts Library Association on their long-term strategic plan. Her interests include library management issues, application of new technology in libraries, and business process improvement. Tracey teaches a class for us, titled Academic Library Budgets 101. She agreed to do an interview here, to give people a bit more of an idea of what she brings to teaching and what you can expect from her class.

Tracey, thanks for agreeing to do this interview.

Thanks for this opportunity Rory, I look forward to talking with you.

I’d like to start by asking you to summarize your philosophy as a teacher on topics related to library management, and how that philosophy has evolved.

My educational background is in teaching. My undergraduate degree is in secondary education and I’ve always seen myself as someone who can help others learn about new things. In my early career in librarianship I taught many classes on using new (at the time) technology and I’m excited to be able now to use technology to teach. My philosophy is based on providing a supportive structure for students to gather information and then put it to good use to achieve a goal or complete a task. The course I’ve developed on academic library budgets is designed to make students successful in creating simple spreadsheets but also understand what’s behind the numbers.

Can you give us a little detail on what you cover in the class?

Sure. The goal is to get a running start on how to set up a budget if you’ve never done that before. I start the class by asking all students to find a summary budget of their library and to look at the big picture of spending. Where does the money go? Then I ask students to learn about the process of securing funding and the budget cycle through readings (for theory) and interviewing a colleague in the financial offices on campus (for practical application). Where does the money come from? We then work on creating a draft budget proposal that covers not only the numbers (with some background data) but a written justification for those funds. What’s best practice for obtaining funding? Students share insights from each activity including suggestions for strengthening the final budget proposal.

Sounds very practical. You’ve taught this class previously for us. Can you tell us a bit about the experience? What was it like in general and what did you find surprising or interesting?

I had a really great experience for a first time through. I took a course from LJA myself on teaching online which was great and very helpful. I had taught many times face to face but this was my first fully online class. I found the students were engaged from the first week and very eager to ask questions and share experiences. It’s been my experience as a manager that gaining budget skills is important for advancement but it’s difficult to get a chance to learn the nitty gritty on the job. I’ve also heard that many people are intimidated by spreadsheets. I want to demystify the process as much as possible and think this class can help do just that. I was pleased to hear back from several students who were surprised they enjoyed the process of creating a budget so much fun.

That sounds great. I think that actually covers most of what I wanted to talk about, but I do have a final question that’s a little different. If you could teach some other courses for us, what would they be?

Thanks for asking Rory. I’ve been thinking about designing a class for new managers on basics of fundraising. Or perhaps one about writing job descriptions. These are things I’ve had to learn on the job or from generous colleagues in other departments on campus. I’m looking for things that could be helpful and make things easier for fellow librarians. It’s been fun teaching class online and meeting students from around the country and across the globe. I’m glad I’ve had this opportunity.

I’m glad you’ve been teaching for us. It is working really well having you aboard. Thanks for doing it and thanks for the interview.

Thanks again Rory. I’m glad that I am able to teach my budget class and I hope to develop more courses in the future. In the meantime, I look forward to meeting more students online.

Shaundra Walker is the Associate Director for Instruction and Research Services at Georgia College. She holds a B.A. in History from Spelman College, a Masters in Library and Information Studies from Clark Atlanta University and Ph.D. in educational leadership with a concentration in higher education administration from Mercer University. Her work and research in libraries and education is deeply influenced by her experience attending and working in minority serving institutions. Her research interests include the recruitment and retention of diverse librarians and organizational development within the library. Dr. Walker is teaching a class for Library Juice Academy next month, titled, Cultural Competence for the Academic Librarian. She has agreed to be interviewed about this course and her background for teaching it.

Hi Shaundra. Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed.

Thanks for the interview. I’m very excited to be teaching this course.

I want to start by asking you about your research and professional experience in relation to this course. What are some of the experiences that you will bring to it as the instructor?

One of the most valuable experiences that I hope to bring to this course is my experience and familiarity with organizational development and diversity. For my dissertation, I used Peter Senge’s systems thinking as a theoretical framework to explore the role of a leadership development program in developing future librarians of color. Systems thinking suggests that organizations learn when their employees learn. I’m a firm believer that if libraries want to prepare for the impending diversification of higher education, developing cultural competence among our employees will help us to remain relevant. Since earning my PhD, I’ve continued to conduct research in this area. Most recently, I completed a book chapter that dealt with the recruitment, retention and promotion of librarians of color and I’m currently working on another chapter that delves into a bit of the history of our profession and some previous attempts at diversity.

In terms of my experience, as a librarian of color, I’ve worked in higher education for over 15 years, in all types of libraries. I’ve worked in a predominately White institution and I’ve also worked as a person of color in an HBCU. I think those two very different experiences have given me a unique perspective to engage in a conversation about what it means to be a culturally competent librarian.

Thank you, I agree that your unique perspective and your experiences make you the ideal person to teach this class. Turning to the class – would you outline it for readers?

We’re going to start with an overview of cultural competence, what it means within the academic library context and why it’s important. Next, we will engage in some self-reflection activities designed to help us understand our personal identities, followed by some activities designed to aid us in comparing and contrasting our identities with those of others. Finally, we’ll practice developing culturally relevant library programs, services, and resources.

I am wondering, how is your approach different from related diversity training programs that people may have been exposed to?

This approach is different from other training in that it is focused on the development of the individual, recognizing that we are all different people, with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Whether we realize it or not, we bring those identities into our work. One or more policies has driven a lot of diversity training that I have attended. Very often this training is designed to make sure that employees maintain compliance with policies and to prevent them from creating any legal risk to the organization. An individual policy is not guiding this course; it is not designed to help any person comply with a policy in the workplace. What it will do is put individuals on the path to being more conscious about who they are, help them to recognize that others may share different identities and experiences and hopefully bring that kind of sensitivity to the services and resources that they provide to the libraries where they are employed.

Thinking about what you’re saying, I can imagine that it might be scary at times for some people to explore their identities and those of others in the context of diversity. Do you agree with that? Is it sometimes scary?

Yes. I definitely agree. Discussing one’s identity can be very challenging work. And for that reason, I want to emphasize that the course will be a very non-judgemental space. This course is not about defending who you are. Also, there are no right or wrong answers. Your identity is…your identity. It’s a very personal reflection on how you see yourself. Engaging in this type of exercise can be very helpful in the sense that it helps people to see that others are much more than what they appear to be. Also, when we talk about diversity, it’s important to recognize that diversity is very complex. When we hear the word “diversity,” we often think in very binary terms (ex. black or white). There are many dimensions to diversity. The very word diversity has become a loaded term. A lot of people automatically think race when they here diversity. Certainly, race is important, but there are other aspects of one’s identity and what that looks like varies greatly from person to person. For some, it might be their gender, for others it might be their family status, for someone else it might be their faith. Again, there are no right or wrong answers here!

That is really nice to hear. I think with that sense of safety people will be relaxed and eager to learn from the class. And I imagine people will learn a lot from each other. Related to the non-judgmental aspect, I am wondering how you will handle the important diversity-related wrongs that are being discussed a lot in the culture right now – microaggressions, structural racism, and other forms of identity-based oppression. A lot of people want to talk about these issues, and a lot of other people seem threatened by them. How will you handle that?

Luckily, there are some great LIS-related resources out there that delve into these topics, such as In the Library With the Lead Pipe, the LIS Microaggressions Tumblr and many others. As much as possible, these resources will be worked into the course or provided as supplemental resources. There are a lot of voices out there right now that can help us to see and hopefully appreciate the lived experiences of individuals who have identities that are different from our own. I agree with you, when you bring up topics like microaggressions, structural racism, and others, things can get tense. In my work, I have tried to help people to understand that engaging in these sometimes difficult conversations is helpful if we keep in mind that it’s not always possible to comprehend another person’s lived experience, but it is possible to understand that others have lived experiences that are different from our own. When we respect those differences, it makes this work much easier. I hope to bring that spirit into the course.

That sounds great. I’m kind of out of questions, so I’ll just close by asking, is there anything you’d like to add?

I’m looking forward to guiding this course and learning from the students, as well.

I’m very glad you’re going to be teaching it. Thanks for teaching and for agreeing to the interview.

Angela Pashia is an Assistant Professor and the Instructional Services Outreach Librarian at the University of West Georgia, where she regularly teaches a credit bearing information literacy course. She has a Masters in Information Science & Learning Technologies, with an emphasis in library science, from the University of Missouri, and a Masters in Anthropology from the University of Virginia. She is currently focusing on practicing critical pedagogies, incorporating social justice issues into “the library course”, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Angela is teaching a class for Library Juice Academy in January, titled Developing a Credit-Bearing Information Literacy Course. She has agreed to do an interview here to tell interested people a bit about her course.

Hi, Angela. Thanks for agreeing to do the interview.

Thanks for inviting me to be interviewed!

I’d like to start by asking you to briefly describe the class you’ll be teaching for us.

The class I will be teaching is targeted to instruction librarians who have experience teaching one-shots, but have not been responsible for a semester-long course before. There are a lot of perks and challenges involved in teaching a credit-bearing information literacy course. On one hand, I love that I get to spend a full semester getting to know a set of students. I also have the opportunity to teach concepts that don’t often get covered in one-shots. For example, it’s one thing to teach students to evaluate sources using a tool like the CRAP test, or even coming up with a list of criteria students think should be considered. But how often do we get to then take that further to discuss the ways ideology affects information, or spend a whole lesson examining the use of various logical fallacies in arguments as another facet to consider when evaluating a source? On the other hand, if you’ve only taught one-shots, how do you then arrange everything you want to teach into a coherent syllabus? Deciding how to plan assessments that you will actually grade is another challenge. And classroom management is another issue – we do a certain amount of that in teaching one-shots, but in that model, we don’t have to deal with the student who is chronically 15 minutes late to a 50-minute class or reach out to the student who did great for 8 weeks then disappeared. So my class will address some strategies related to these aspects of teaching a semester-long course.

I got the idea for this class after talking to people at conferences and on twitter, who either want to or had signed up to teach credit-bearing courses, and had questions about planning syllabi and whatnot. The title refers to teaching an information literacy course, because that was what I was thinking of when I proposed the class, but the content will focus on class design and management, so that it will be useful whether students are planning to teach an information literacy course, a semester-long first year orientation course, or whatever.

That sounds really great. Can you give us an outline of what the course will cover, week-to-week?

My thought is to start with developing a syllabus, which will take a couple of the weeks, since that entails linking the course learning outcomes to more granular daily learning outcomes, and then deciding how to assess those learning outcomes. That naturally segues into actually grading that student work. And then we’ll wrap up with a discussion of classroom management strategies. Writing that out now, it feels like LOT to cover in four weeks! This course will really be an overview, with discussion and resources to save and refer back to later.

This is a new course, so I’m open to being flexible – if we get into it and everyone really wants to spend the fourth week talking more about grading rubrics instead of classroom management, I’m willing to shift gears as needed, and adjust the description or length for future offerings of the course!

So I surmise that a lot of what you teach in this class comes from your own studies in preparing to teach a credit-bearing course, and your experience teaching it. Can you talk about that? What did you study, and how did the opportunity to teach a “library class” come about?

My background is in Anthropology. I earned a Masters and started a PhD program before switching to library school. I had some experience as a TA in my first grad program, leading 20-person discussion sections connected to a large lecture course. Then, in the first year of my PhD program, I was a TA for General Anthropology, an introductory survey course with 180-225 students each semester. That meant that I attended lectures, helped the Graduate Instructor select test questions from a test bank, and lectured a couple of times when the Instructor was unable to be in class. The following year, I got to be the Graduate Instructor for that class – which meant I was the instructor of record and responsible for all of the planning of the course. In many ways, I had less training in pedagogy than I got in my first year at my current job, but the grad students had a folder (back then it was burned on a CD!) of past materials – syllabi, powerpoint presentations, tests, etc. We also used an introductory text, so it was easy to just structure the course to follow the organization of the textbook. Those materials helped a lot, though I’d admit my instruction was just a bunch of boring lectures and scantron tests!

Flashing forward a couple of years, I graduated in 2011 and landed a job at some small regional university that I had never heard of (it’s not really that small, except in comparison to the large state flagship universities I attended). I was willing to move cross-country because I specifically wanted to focus on library instruction. I lucked into a place that had an established course. It’s 2 credit hours and is one of the options that will meet a core curriculum requirement.

Another librarian who some readers may recognize, Jessica Critten, started the same month as I did, so we went through some of the challenges of starting to teach this class together. Colleagues shared their syllabi, assignments, and other resources to help us get started, which was a great help. As we’ve each developed in our positions, we’ve gone different directions with our course designs, but continue to share ideas and talk through challenges.

Since then, our department has had several new people start teaching the course. In summer 2012, at what felt like the last minute, we were granted funding for two one-year limited-term positions with no guarantee of continued funding. We hired two new grads, who had something like a week to prepare to start teaching! One was here for one year, and the other was here for two years, but both left for great permanent positions elsewhere. In the next budget cycle, we got funding for two new tenure-track faculty positions to start summer 2013. Of course, the whole department contributed to helping all of the new hires get their feet under them. And then this fall semester, I worked with one of our staff members who earned a MLIS while working here, but had no teaching experience. We taught the class together in a sort of student/mentor teacher relationship – we met weekly to talk about the reasoning behind each week’s lessons, grading, etc., and she taught some lessons and helped with the grading. She’ll be teaching the course on her own this coming spring semester!

I talk a lot about my experiences, because I feel more comfortable critiquing my own missteps than picking on others! But the topics I plan to focus on for the LJA course are things that have come up in discussions with several of the people who started teaching the class after I did. Those conversations helped me internalize that most people struggle with these things, it’s not just me! I feel like it’s easy to say that, and to know it on an intellectual level, but still feel like an impostor on an emotional level. But really, everyone I’ve talked to who really cares about their students has struggled with these things, and many still do after several years of teaching.

And I hope I didn’t write too much for this question!

No, not at all. That is all very helpful in thinking about this. I wonder if you can say a couple of things about what was most interesting or surprising about teaching the credit-bearing course?

It’s really rewarding to see students develop over the course of a semester. I don’t always get to see much change, because we’re talking about just a few months, at a time when, developmentally, their brains may not yet be wired to be able to handle a lot of grey areas, like picking apart the ways authority is constructed and contextual. So I sometimes envy friends who teach in disciplines with majors, where they get to see students grow over the course of several semesters. On really challenging days, I remind myself that I am planting seeds, and even if I don’t see growth now, it could be germinating and sprout next semester or next year. Sometimes a student will email a year or two after having taken my class to tell me that they didn’t really get the importance of the lessons when they were in my class, but now that they have to do more serious research in other classes, they’re so glad to have taken my class.

But it is amazing when I do get to see that growth. A couple of years ago, I had this one student. For the first month or so of the semester, they seemed like a total slacker. They would do the homework assignments, but would write really short answers that kind of skimmed the surface near what I was looking for. After getting low grades on a few assignments, this person asked me why, what they needed to do to get better grades. I explained my grading, and what I’m looking for – make sure you answer all of the questions, and say enough to show that you are actually applying what we’ve talked about, not just reciting the terms you think I want to hear. For the next few assignments, I didn’t see much change, so I wondered, did they even really listen or did they just want an easier answer? But then, when it came time to grade the final projects, this student knocked it out of the park. At that time, the final project included a paper, an annotated bibliography, and a presentation. On the annotated bibliography, the annotation had to include an evaluation of the source’s credibility. This student did the best job of applying our evaluation criteria out of everyone in the class! I don’t remember much about their paper, except that overall, they had more minor grammatical errors on both the paper and annotated bibliography than most, but the content was really good.

A week after finals week was over that semester, I went out for drinks with a friend. Assuming the students had all left town, we just grabbed seats at the bar (instead of looking for a less visible seat somewhere). We were wrong. That student walked by and saw me, and came over to give me a hug. They said that was the first time they had ever gotten an A, and told me about how proud their mom was when they showed her the paper for my class. This student earned it – like I said, despite lackluster work on lower value homework assignments, they did a great job on the final project. That also kind of validated my approach to homework assignments – lots of feedback on lower value assignments early, so that they know how I grade before they turn in a high value assignment!

Oh, and it’s also interesting to see how former students react to you during reference shifts – will they avoid eye contact or come over to say hi or ??? Being the one who is responsible for assessing their learning means that I have to be the one to hold them accountable – which means recording an F for some students for the semester. And nobody likes that (myself included)! Some students in that boat will avoid eye contact at all costs, while others will acknowledge that they dropped the ball that semester but have gotten things together since then.

That is great. I hope people taking your class with up will end up having similar experiences. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me about your class and your experiences. And best of luck with the class next month.

Thanks for interviewing me! I also hope they have similar experiences!

I know you recently developed a Library Juice Certificate in Library Instruction – I would definitely encourage people to check that out. My course will cover the logistics of managing a semester-long course, but I would not have had as many great experiences without training in how to teach well. I got that from a range of sources, including Maria Accardi’s Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction course. My course will just fill the gap for those of us trying to translate pedagogical training for librarians, which mostly focuses on one-shots, into a coherent semester-long plan. We’ll examine issues that don’t come up much for those teaching only one-shots, but not address skills that are also relevant to one-shots, like how to develop an engaging lesson plan. I really enjoyed Maria’s course, and have heard great things about Andrea Baer’s classes, too!

Thanks for the plug! And thanks again for the interview.