Keep it Light

Abstract

For the most part, information landscapes such as libraries are structured, organized, created, and used by the dominant groups. These spaces may be unfamiliar territory for many students. Humour used in library orientation elicits enjoyment and helps to connect librarians and students. Low and high inference humour used during orientation can help connect students new to those landscapes with information and to librarians. Appropriate use of instructional humour in orientations can reduce students’ anxiety about using the library, especially when they need help from library staff. This reflective write up on using humour in library orientations, is to demonstrate how we used humour to create a comfortable learning environment, to encourage students to visit the library, to improve (hopefully!) recall and retention of course content, and enable positive associations with library resources or the librarian. There are challenges with humour when the classroom is diverse or if humour is used negatively. Care should be given to use humour to support course content.