1. Student Engagement
in Library Instruction:
Creating a Meaningful
Instruction Experience
Gammons, R. (2012). SIS Student Research Forum.
TLA Annual Conference.

2. My Research Projects (2011-12)
General Education Undergraduate Instruction:
• Lib-Value: Teaching and Learning Committee
o Establishing the value, outcomes, and return on investment of academic
libraries.
• Information Evaluation: English 101
o Using instructional scaffolding to create a system of meaning in library
instruction.
• Learning to Teach: MSIS Students and Library
Instruction
o Incorporating graduate students in library instruction to strengthen and
expand the program.

3. Perceptions of Libraries (2010)
What do college students believe?
Information from a search engine is equally as
53%
trustworthy as information from library sources.
Information from Wikipedia is equally as
30%
trustworthy as information from library sources.
Trustworthiness of a source can be determined
78% using personal knowledge and common sense.

4. Perceptions of Libraries (2010)
Where are we successful?
Students who use librarians agree that librarians
78%
add value to the research process.
Students agree that librarian assistance is
71%
available when needed.
A third of students indicate that the library’s
31% value has “increased for them personally during
the recession.”

5. What Do We Know?
• Students want help – but want help finding the
quickest way to satisfy their course requirements.
• Students want accurate information – but will choose
a resource that is easy to use over one that is complex.
• Students do not understand discipline organized
information or library specific terminology.
• Students will use Google

6. Making Instruction Meaningful
Student-Centered Teaching:
• Focus instruction on specific outcomes.
• Give students skills that are immediatelyapplicable.
• Build on their existingresearch framework.
• Be willing to let things go.

7. First Impressions
Share your learning objectives:
After today’s session, you will be able to…
• Where to find help in the
Identify library.
• Between a primary and
Differentiate secondary source.
• A primary source on your
Locate topic.

8. First Impressions
Why don’t college students use the library website?
Other sites have better
4% information
10% Prefer to use the physical
24%
library
Web site does not have what I
11% need
Fines are too much
12% Can't find what I need
22%
Did not know it existed
17%
Other

9. Keeping Students Engaged
Start with what they know:
http://www.lib.utk.edu
http://www.utk.edu

10. Keeping Students Engaged
Explain when it is appropriate to Google:
http://www.google.com

11. Keeping Students Engaged
Provide a set of criteria to use in evaluation:
• Give a single set of criteria that can be used to
evaluate any resource.
o Information is not black and white, neither are information
resources.
• Demonstrate how to establish the credibility of a
source

12. Keeping Students Engaged
Validate their concerns:
Getty Images.

13. Future Research
Assessing Student Learning:
• Creating a culture of assessment in the academic library.
• Embedding assessment within library instruction.
• Incorporating the ACRL Information Literacy Standards.

14. Sources
• OCLC (2010). Perceptions of Libraries: Context and
Communities. Available online at:
http://www.oclc.org/reports/2010perceptions.htm
• Gibbons, S. &Reeb, B. (2004). Students, Librarians and
Subject Guides: Improving a Poor Rate of Return.
Libraries and the Academy. (4)1. 123-130.