Practitioner commentary on: Fridén, K. The librarian as a teacher: experiences from a problem-based setting. Health Libraries Review 1996, 13, 3–7

When I read Kerstin Fridén's article I found myself in agreement with the many issues that were discussed regarding the role of the librarian as a teacher. Twelve years on from publication of this article many of these same issues are now high on the agenda of librarians and the organizations in which they work. Encouragingly none of the issues are redundant. Discussing some of these allows us to see how we, as librarians, have progressed but also how far we still have to travel.

Can we say that library users, or more specifically non-library users, recognize the value of information skills training in the 21st century? Has the rise of the internet and the ‘Google generation’ led to a culture whereby the library is the last resort rather than the first, not only for students but also for professionals carrying out their daily work? I don't know the answer to these questions. However there is, I feel, cause for hope—library users with the ‘golden ticket’, that is those that do come to the library, can be heard saying ‘I can't believe we didn't know about this sooner’ or ‘everyone should have training on how to search databases’. An inspiring randomised controlled trial carried out in Hong Kong found that information skills training does have a positive effect on teaching users to search more effectively.¹ We, as librarians, need to focus on making the non-users aware that they need information skills training to become information literate.

When this article was written librarians could not have imagined how much the internet and the wealth of resources available electronically would take over the practices of their working lives; when looking up a citation, when performing a literature search for a clinician, or when finding a journal article. This has led to an increase in information skills training. Equally, however, librarians may now never see a large number of the library users that regularly have access to and search the electronic resources they purchase and make available within their organization. It was fulfilling within my organization to observe the influx of library users requiring training on a new database interface that was launched early in 2008. Results from the EMPIRIC project further confirm this—in their study information skills training and mediated searches were perceived as being effective.² Librarians are still needed for user education.

Sometimes librarians run sessions where users have been asked to attend by their lecturers or managers. I believe that librarians have to show such users what is in it for them. In one such session I asked users to carry out a search for a specific medical problem and after a discussion about their problems with searching, they were more open to learning. Only then could they see the value of how to search properly. Librarians also have to help users to question the assumptions that they make when they are searching for information; what a search engine actually is, what information it contains and how it ranks the results it returns. The CIBER report published in 2008 highlights some startling facts, it identifies the high usage of search engines for academic purposes and explains it is not just young people but seemingly all age and professional groups that now follow these same shallow information seeking behaviours.³

The sessions that I teach are heavily focused on hands-on practical work that is backed up with theory to underpin what is being learnt. Various learning models, such as the classic Dale's Cone of Experience,⁴ show that only when users experience the search process themselves and are actively taking part and learning do they retain most information. These hands-on sessions, where users ‘do their own thing’, are also more rewarding for the librarian, as one sees discovery and learning actually taking place.

There is often a limited time in an information skills training session within which to pass on information before a user loses interest or is called back to their clinical area to resume work. Learning not only has to cover the key points but has to be delivered in a way that makes it fun and interactive and that caters for all types of learners. Annual attendance at the Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC) alongside close to 300 other mainly academic librarians finds, amongst others, this topic being explored in depth and leads to sharing of information literacy materials such as library bingo, crosswords and the now well documented induction tool the Cephalonian Method.⁵

My first professional role as a librarian was as a Library and Information Skills Trainer. As part of this I completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and Training. The course equipped me with the knowledge, skills and confidence to teach clinicians who are often highly regarded within the organizations in which I have worked. Many librarian posts now require a teaching qualification and a substantial amount of working time is spent preparing, delivering and evaluating training that has taken place.

From the key issues identified in this article it is clear that libraries have certainly changed in the last 12 years. Large numbers of librarians and their organizations have adapted to meet this challenge. Helping users to become information literate should be at the heart of everything we do as librarians.

Conflicts of interest

EH has declared no conflicts.