Instruction! Aus verschiedenen Gesprächen…

I am constantly getting into conversations with various people at Berkeley as well as at Golden State University in San Francisco about varying forms of "library advising". Just like at the San Francisco Public Library, hardly anyone uses the term "information literacy"; instead, people speak far more often about "instruction". The offers are aimed less at independent topics assigned by the library and more at supporting students and faculty in the research process. The librarians involved also see themselves as having a service-oriented role that is geared towards the needs of the university. Although general, strategic decisions are naturally made and a standard structure of offerings exists, the individual "instructors" are quite free when it comes to the specific form their advising takes – both in terms of training and information services. What is considered to be successful?

Drop-in training classes: Drop-in training classes are hardly offered at all anymore. They are not very well attended and tie up a lot of staff. Particularly at libraries that have to deal with major budget cuts (as is the case at Berkeley), such services are being eliminated.

Seminar-integrated courses: It doesn't surprise me that the people I talk to share the unanimous opinion that library courses are most meaningful when they are integrated into seminars. The library at Golden Gate University in San Francisco offers such courses especially for international students enrolled in a seminar on academic skills in the United States. The instructors of these seminars prefer "train the teacher" offers – this way library expertise lines up with the knowledge of instructors. At the same time, it should be noted that curriculum-based library offerings are quite rare.

Online guides: Special online guides with library resources are frequently prepared for seminars. At Berkeley, the "Library a la Carte" program is used to compile these "Course Research Guides", which the individuals creating them can design in quite different ways before making them freely accessible so that other interested parties can use them. I find these easy-to-use guides to be quite attractive compared to e-Learning systems such as Moodle – which many libraries in Germany are using – or merely providing links to all databases in a subject area or even lists of links. The library at Golden Gate University in San Francisco offers these guide via the software LibGuides. The backend of the software allows for coordinated maintenance and the simple compilation of resources.

Individual advising: Nearly all the "instructors" I spoke with consider one-on-one advising to be very meaningful. In my conversations at Berkeley, the Research Advisory Service for undergraduates as well as subject-specific advising from a "Subject Specialist" came up time and again. The library at Golden Gate University in San Francisco also offers one-on-one advising as part of a seminar for working students enrolled in a part-time degree program.

In a nutshell: When contact is more intense and when the subject matter and needs of students are better incorporated, the more meaningful the services librarians offer are considered to be.