Notes from April 2010 Meeting: Give a Man a Fish or Teach a Man To Fish?

Thanks to Christine Drew at WPI for submitting her notes.

Academic Research Collaborative - Reference & Instruction Special Interest Group
April 16, 2010 MWCC
Heidi McCann at Mt Wachusett CC offered future prof dev opportunity:
EBSCOhost training Pamela Ericson will be teaching their faculty 5 of the EBSCO databases throughout their “professional development day” on Tues 5/18 & Wed. 8/25 contact Heidi if you’d like to attend.
 
Give a Man a Fish or Teach A Man To Fish?
The 9 regional librarians in attendance discussed “teaching” vs. “giving answers.” Although at the reference desk this can be situational, all academic librarians present agreed we focus on teaching students, not handing information to them. We hope to ensure the students retain the “know how” vs. “know that.”

Questions that surfaced include: libguides, are we handing the info to the students in a “pre-fabricated way?” Do these simplified guides hinder student learning? Also, federated searching, is this making it too easy as well (serving info up on a silver platter)? Sara Marks discussed her use and success with Youtube videos for students at Fitchburg State. She feels they can save staff time at the reference desk and the videos prove to be popular. Some of the use however could be from other non-FSC users.

Phil Waterman mentioned “librarians shouldn’t be the only ones teaching students to fish.” He espouses the need for librarians to partner with faculty. Also, Phil mentioned the time constraints we have, often very limited time to teach students the competencies they need.

Matt Haggard mentioned a useful citation maker called KnightCite at Calvin College’s web site, similar to Bibme and other citation helpers.

In Other News:
Sara Marks has accepted a position at UMass Lowell and will no longer be chair of the IG.  Kelly Jo Woodside of Assumption College will be the chair for 2010-11.  Watch for details about upcoming meetings.