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Special Interest Group Archive: Info Lit Instruction 1/18/2022

These are the notes from meetings dating back to 2015.

January 18, 2022

The meeting was held via Zoom on Tuesday, January 18, 2022. The facilitator was Melissa Tidd of SUNY Orange.

Notes

How has the semester/season been going so far? Any anecdotes?

  • Some campuses are going remote, to start – libraries are working out who is going to staff the library/manage campus resources
  • 35 students from Afghanistan are attending an institution in the region and, along with other new students, participating in library orientation workshops
  • COVID testing/absences/remote learning: some students and parents are hiding positive test results in order to send their kids to school

Instruction Discussion

  • Library instruction tends to be sporadic, as ever, per professor (college)/teacher (public school) requests – rather than a built-in routine
  • Students arriving at colleges have an uneven array of experience/skills with library resources/research methods
  • Some schools provide pre-semester writing workshops for school orientation; the library includes a research/instruction component in those workshops
  • Public school librarians report lots of teacher absences; while slightly improving in recent weeks, there’s still a real impediment to enthusiasm as everyone tries to get their footing
  • “Ghosts in the Library” and similar engagement activities are lots of work but seem to have more impact on students than a generic tour/debrief of library services

Book banning controversy impact

  • Book banning requests from parents still encumbering library staff; an impediment to student learning
  • Diversity audit of collection underway; people not even associated with the school/institution/library have latched on to that work and have pushed back against the concept
  • Discussion of the tension between those pushing against certain books and the people who are represented in those very books (and who are underrepresented elsewhere/subject to the anger of those who are reacting negatively to the equity discussions in recent years)
  • Discussion that libraries are for everyone, not for any given individual, yet individuals sometimes act as though it’s all about them

Assessment Discussion

  • New students involved in orientation do a padlet w/sources and keywords and research tips
  • New assessment tools for instruction are needed: padlet/polls previously discussed at prior meetings; some students still aren’t participating
  •  “Project Outcome” was noted – an academic library toolkit to provide surveys and measure/analyze outcomes

Things to look forward to this semester/year:

  • High school library has a New York Heritage trifold exhibit on immigration; trifolds on women’s suffrage and Eerie Canal forthcoming. Teachers bringing classes over to view. Will suggest that teachers have their students create their own trifolds, since these are such a big hit.
  • LAD 2022 date/importance noted

Southeastern NY Library Resources Council
21 South Elting Corners Road | Highland, NY 12528
Phone: (845) 883-9065
www.senylrc.org