Library Instruction and Information Literacy for the Adult Learner: A Course and Its Lessons for Reference Work

Caravello, Patti Schifter

doi:10.1300/j120v33n69_24

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The format is not flexible enough to allow meaningful learning to take place among many learners on multiple levels. It has been argued that the use of active learning techniques including information discovery exercises and group work allow librarians to take the role of guides or facilitators of independent learning rather than lecturers (Caravello 2001;Currie 2001;Gold 2005). Active learning techniques require librarians to be flexible in their approach to content, and this ultimately provides a richer learning experience for the students.…”

Section: Adult Learners and Active Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailoring Information Literacy Instruction and Library Services for Continuing Education

Lange¹,

Canuel²,

Fitzgibbons³

2015

Information and Data Literacy

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Copyright for the article content resides with the authors, and copyright for the publication layout resides with the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Information Literacy Group. These Copyright holders have agreed that this article should be available on Open Access."By 'open access' to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited. AbstractAs higher education diversifies worldwide, academic librarians must adapt their information literacy initiatives to meet the needs of new populations. This paper explores the implementation of information literacy instruction and library services for diverse adult learners, in response to Cooke's (2010) call for case studies on the relationship between adult learning theory and information literacy. Based on librarians' success in reaching an underserved continuing education department, a variety of practical techniques for working with diverse students and instructors are discussed, with a focus on how learners' characteristics inform the approaches. Effective techniques from adult education theory and information literacy practice are discussed in the context of outreach to continuing education learners.Librarians adapt instruction and communication strategies for students with varying levels of language, library, and technology skills; teach outside usual "business hours"; teach online; integrate information literacy outcomes in course curricula; tailor communication to students and instructors; and continually develop entirely new workshops based upon the content specific to continuing education programmes. Through these efforts, this unique group of students and instructors has been provided with previously unrealised access to information literacy training and library services.Challenges in outreach and teaching remain. However, the groundwork has been laid for a sustained liaison relationship and an account of this is presented in this paper. Future work will include systematic evaluation of successes and changing needs so that structured information literacy efforts, tailored for continuing education students, can evolve over time.

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Section: Adult Learners and Active Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailoring Information Literacy Instruction and Library Services for Continuing Education

Lange¹,

Canuel²,

Fitzgibbons³

2015

Information and Data Literacy

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“…When these adult learners do seek help from a librarian at the "reference desk," whether in-person or online, librarians need to provide students with handouts, guides, or videos, no matter how brief, in addition to reference assistance. Studies 20 have shown that these tools will help students better retain the information they are given. Perhaps a combination of online tutorials, webinars, and conferencing coupled with a more aggressive approach to the embedded librarian service (reaching out to non-participating faculty, improving communications with students, using other social networking tools) and other innovative outreach activities would improve the librarian-student relationship to a point where these adult learners would not hesitate to contact the librarian for help.…”

Section: Featurementioning

confidence: 99%

Closing the Gap

Ismail¹

2013

Reference &Amp; User Services Quarterly

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“…Conversely, these students are motivated to improve their education, have a great interest in their course of study, and are fairly open-minded to new ideas. Library services created specifically with adult learners and andragogy in mind are more effective and interesting (Ward 2006;Caravello 2001). To that end, a goal of bibliographic instruction is to address these needs, and many factors contribute to the creation of such a successful session.…”

Section: Effective Bi For Adult Learnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming an Andragogical Librarian: Using Library Instruction as a Tool to Combat Library Anxiety and Empower Adult Learners

Cooke

2010

New Review of Academic Librarianship

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Andragogy refers to theory specific to teaching adults, as opposed to pedagogy, which refers to the teaching methodologies used to instruct children. Popularized by adult educator Malcolm Knowles, andragogy relies on 5 basic tenants: adult learners are self-directed, they possess life experience that informs their learning, they possess a desire to actively participate in the learning process, their learning needs to be relevant to their lives, and they are highly motivated to learn. A review of the literature in library science (specifically library instruction) and adult education aims to arm librarians with a working knowledge of andragogy. This is an especially important undertaking as adult learners are becoming a much larger student demographic at colleges and universities around the world, and the specific needs, characteristics, and anxieties of adult learners are often overlooked. Instruction librarians' most valuable tool for working with adult learners is bibliographic instruction. Effectively designed sessions can alleviate the library anxiety of adult learners and empower them to become better students.

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Library Instruction and Information Literacy for the Adult Learner: A Course and Its Lessons for Reference Work

Cited by 10 publications

References 2 publications

Tailoring Information Literacy Instruction and Library Services for Continuing Education

Tailoring Information Literacy Instruction and Library Services for Continuing Education

Closing the Gap

Becoming an Andragogical Librarian: Using Library Instruction as a Tool to Combat Library Anxiety and Empower Adult Learners

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