Expanding Discussions in Library Instruction

In case you missed it or just haven’t gotten around to reading these titles about library instruction and information literacy, I encourage you to consider the theoretical and practical discussions that have taken place over the last few years in the world of library instruction.  If you do any kind of instruction, these concepts and practices may help you take a fresh look at your teaching techniques or name and validate some of those that you are already doing.  As we’re heading into spring and will be wrapping up another school year, what better time to reflect on library instruction practices and theory that might cast a new light on your teaching and your students’ learning experiences?  These titles to which I’m referring are:

• Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods (2010) edited by Emily Drabinski, Alana Kumbier, and Maria Accardi
• Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction (2013) by Maria T. Accardi

See Also: “Imagining the Future of Library Instruction: How Feminist Pedagogy Can Transform the Way You Teach and How Students Learn” (ACRL 2013 presentation)

• Information Literacy and Social Justice: Radical Professional Praxis (2013) edited by Lua Gregory and Shana Higgins

There are thousands of rock star librarians known and unknown in our profession that focus their time or have developed expertise in the area of instruction.  Author and editor of two of the titles listed above, Maria T. Accardi, coordinator of library instruction at Indiana University Southeast, is one of those librarians to keep your eye on.  Accardi is the winner of the 2014 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Women and Gender Studies Section (WGSS) Award for Significant Achievement in Women’s Studies Librarianship for which she’ll be honored at this year’s ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas.  She was selected for this award for her 2013 contribution, Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction (mentioned above).  To learn more about Accardi and her book, read her interview with WGSS Publications Committee Chair, Nina Clements, reference and instruction librarian, Penn State Brandywine.