Teaching about teaching and instruction on instruction: a challenge for health sciences library education

Abstract

Objective:

This is a review of the master's-level curricula of the fifty-eight America Library Association–accredited library and information science programs and iSchools for evidence of coursework and content related to library instruction. Special emphasis is placed on the schools and programs that also offer coursework in medical or health sciences librarianship.

Methods:

Fifty-eight school and program websites were reviewed. Course titles and course descriptions for seventy-three separate classes were analyzed. Twenty-three syllabi were examined.

Results:

All North American library education programs offer at least one course in the general area of library instruction; some programs offer multiple courses. No courses on instruction, however, are focused directly on the specialized area of health sciences librarianship.

Conclusions:

Master's degree students can take appropriate classes on library instruction, but the medical library profession needs to offer continuing education opportunities for practitioners who want to have specific instruction for the specialized world of the health sciences.

Highlights.

• While it is clear that “instruction on instruction” or “teaching about teaching” is an important feature of contemporary library and information science (LIS) education, it is important to know that the need for instruction on specialized strategies that target health professionals is unfilled.

Implications.

• Health sciences librarians and LIS faculty must take up the challenge of educating peers and students about ways in which to tailor library instruction to the medical environment and clientele, especially in professional development courses, workshops, and experiences.

Any discussion of library instruction programs needs to be grounded in an understanding of where and how medical library professionals are exposed to training for instruction. A review of the master's-level curricula of the American Library Association (ALA)–accredited library and information science (LIS) programs and iSchools for coursework and content related to library instruction offers evidence about the pervasive nature of such classes. While every program in North America has at least one class with content that included library instruction themes, and some schools and programs offered several classes with such an emphasis, none were focused on the special needs of those who teach health sciences clientele.

METHOD

The evidence was gathered in a March 2012 review of the websites for the fifty-eight North American LIS programs whose master's degrees were sanctioned by the ALA's Committee on Accreditation [1]. The individual school and program websites were scanned for lists of courses and/or course descriptions. Evidence of words associated with library instruction that appeared in the course titles was the key indicator of course content. It must be noted, however, that these findings are only as good and as current as the information provided on the school and program websites. The programs from the Universities of Montreal and Puerto Rico were excluded from the review because their course offerings are available only in French and Spanish.

Seventy-three separate courses were identified from fifty-eight schools and programs. Terminology in this area has been fluid. In an informal review of the literature indexed in MEDLINE on the topic, there were early examples from fifty years ago in which the activity was described as “library orientation.” In the 1970s, when libraries and students were grappling with increasing automation of bibliographic tools, academic libraries began using the term “bibliographic instruction,” and bibliographic instruction classes were popular. With the recognition that instruction in topics well beyond the typical introduction to MEDLINE or an online public access catalog (OPAC) was necessary, library terminology often changed to use the term “library instruction.” By the 1990s, as instruction in the use of applications and specialized software tools was added to the instructional fare, an umbrella term such as “information management education” (IME), or variants that used the IME construct to create acronyms like PRIME and TIME, emerged. By the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, “information literacy” was rapidly becoming the term of choice for these activities. This evolution in professional practice was also noticeable in the titles of present-day courses in the master's curricula from LIS programs and iSchools. While seventy-two separate courses were identified, sixty-two different ways of expressing the idea of library instruction were found. Table 1 contains an alphabetical list of the unique titles for these classes. The complete list of course titles and descriptions is available as supplemental material in the online only appendix.

Table 1.

Unique course titles

Seventeen of the courses specifically used the word “instruction” (or “instructional”) in the course title, and seventeen of the courses specifically used the word “literacy” in the course title. The words “design,” “teaching,” and “user” were found in smaller clusters of course titles, and a single course with the unique title of “Learning and Knowledge Transfer” was identified. The course description for the latter class straddled the terminology timeline, indicating that students would be “Employing a variety of learning theory perspectives, models and promotional strategies for information literacy and bibliographic instruction programs are critiqued.”

RESULTS

The typical course description (and actual syllabi when available) indicated that none of the courses specifically targeted health sciences or medical libraries as the venues for library instruction. Several course descriptions did indicate that the course content would cover the world of “special” libraries. Most of the courses, however, were framed in terms of academic and school library settings. Typical examples of these course descriptions included the following:

• This course is an introduction to information literacy instruction in a variety of types of libraries and other information-related organizations. The history of library instruction, theoretical issues in the field, instructional program development, and teaching techniques will all be included. Students will develop and present an instructional session designed for a specific library or other user group.

• Theories, techniques, strategies, and current practice for teaching the effective and efficient use of academic, school, public, and special library resources.

• Introduces theories and practices of educating clients in information research skills. Concepts covered relate to the design, implementation, and evaluation of instructional programmes for a wide array of clients/patrons. Includes theories of learning and how these can be utilized for effective client instruction and education.

• Examines instructional services that libraries and other information-related organizations offer their clients to provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to effectively use information resources. Attention is given to the nature of instructional services, the instructional needs of clients, information literacy, methods of instruction, teaching and learning styles, instructional design, and the evaluation of students and instruction.

• Introduction to the concept of information literacy and its significance for the practice of librarianship in school, public, and academic library settings. Students gain expertise and practice in conducting research and in teaching information literacy competencies.

The majority of the graduate programs offered only a single course. Ten programs offered two courses, and two schools, the Universities of Denver and Michigan, offered three separate courses on aspects of library instruction, while the University of Washington offered a full four courses covering information literacy and library instruction:

• LIS 462 Skills Approach to Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) Literacy: Introduction to the Big6 TM Skills approach to information, communications, and technology (ICT) literacy for personal, school, district, or higher education settings. Includes technology within the Big6 framework, connection to standards, instructional design, assessment, curriculum mapping, peer collaboration, the parent connection, program planning, and implementation.

• LIS 560 Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals: Develops knowledge and skills in instruction and training functions for library and information settings. Issues and strategies for learning and teaching. Design, development, and evaluation of information and technology literacy programs. Addresses the needs of users when designing and delivering instruction.

• LIS 568 Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning: Explores theories, process, and practical applications of information literacy. Examines the development of information literacy programs for libraries, community agencies, business, education, or other information settings. Explores integral relationship between technology and information literacy, and continual evaluation.

• LIS 569 Special Topics in Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals: Introduction to innovative and specialized topics in instructional and training strategies for information professionals.

A number of schools or programs had classes clearly identified as having their focus in the school library media environment, with course descriptions such as these:

• Librarians as Instructional Partners: Learning and libraries; the role of the librarian and resource-based learning within the curriculum; the librarian as a teaching partner, team member, and instructional consultant. Learning theory and educational issues as they apply to cooperative planning, and implementation projects designed to improve information literacy and scholastic achievement.

  • Instructional Technologies for K–12 Information Literacy: Evaluation, selection, and utilization of appropriate instructional technologies to serve the needs of all members of the kindergarten to twelfth grade (K–12) school community. Emphasis is on teaching information literacy skills to K–12 children and youth as well as methods and formats supportive of diverse learners.

Other courses were clearly targeting the public library world:

• Literacy and Library Involvement: An overview of library involvement in literacy programming in local communities. Emphasis is placed on examining community needs for literacy services, developing and implementing library literacy services to meet those needs, and building partnerships and networks with literacy providers and other community groups.

• Literacy Programs in Libraries: Role of libraries in promoting literacy. Particular emphasis upon public library family literacy programs, the emergent literacy process, government programs, workplace literacy, [English as a second language (ESL)] literacy programs, and cultural literacy. Planning and proposal development for literacy programs, including needs assessment, goal setting, and evaluative methods.

All seventy-three of the classes were elective courses; most had prerequisites of core or foundational courses [2]. The courses typically were semester or term-length courses, with twelve to sixteen class sessions in a term, semester, or quarter. Some were offered as face-to-face (on campus) classes, while others were available in an online or distance education format. It is notable that the Web-based Information Science Education (WISE) consortium's array of available classes for graduate students in member schools has classes in information literacy and in instructional technologies as online options, and that the instructor for the “Information Literacy” class is a repeat winner of the WISE Online Educator of the Year award for excellence in online instruction [3].

Most programs offered their library instruction or information literacy classes only once a year, meaning those students had to “catch” the class whenever it was available. While not every program or school website identified the individual instructors for these courses, when the information was available, it was clear that both full-time and adjunct faculty were teaching these courses.

Given the fact that none of the identified courses is specifically focused on library instruction in health libraries, it is important to see what content is available in the LIS programs and iSchools that do offer specialized coursework in medical or health librarianship. Two lists can be used to identify these specific schools: the 2009 U.S. News & World Report ranking of library science programs with “Health Librarianship” specialization [4] and a 2010 article from the MLA News with a “snapshot” of the current state of medical library education in North America [5]. These two groups are listed in Tables 2 and 3, with the course titles of their classes in the area of library instruction.

Table 2.

The U.S. News & World Report ranked list

Table 3.

From the MLA News list (alphabetical order)

Some, but by no means all, of the programs and schools included links to the syllabi for their library instruction courses. Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 show the course objectives and content areas for courses at four of the universities that do offer health sciences options for their library and information science students, although these courses are clearly designed for master's degree students with many different specializations. There is no evidence of specific coverage of medical libraries, but these courses often make it possible for students to do their assignments for a student-specified type of library [6–9].

Figure 1.

Information Literacy Instruction (from Louisiana State University)

Figure 2.

Education of Information Users (from Indiana University–Indianapolis)

Figure 3.

Instructional Role of the Information Specialist (from Drexel University)

Figure 4.

Instructional Services (from the University of Kentucky)

DISCUSSION

Based on this review of websites, course titles, course descriptions, and syllabi when available, it seems likely that master's degree students intending careers in medical settings—academic health sciences centers, hospitals, research settings, and consumer health services—can find an appropriate general introduction to the art of library instruction if they are fortunate enough to be enrolled in a term or semester when the elective course is offered at their institutions. Putting the medical spin on the courses will be the task of the student, however.

At the present time, with many LIS programs and iSchools programs facing financial pressures and unpredictable enrollments and placements, it would seem unlikely that LIS graduate programs and schools will be able to add specialized courses on library instruction solely for the health sciences library or the medical environment on a regular basis. Thus, the world of medical librarianship must still be prepared to offer continuing education opportunities for practitioners who want to hone specific skills related to library instruction or learn new techniques appropriate for their clients, users, and patrons. The opportunity to take courses, advanced certificates, and workshops [10–15] that promote good teaching skills and explore the information behaviors of health professionals will be the challenge for the future.