teaching a class, interview presentations, & cataloging as it applies to reference

So yesterday was the first class that I taught, along with the questions on the worksheet that I revised. I was lucky to have a class that was receptive and curious, even asking questions that I didn't have the answer for (regarding the updating of musical directories). Despite a pretty good performance overall, I still have things to work on, especially using my notes less, and also taking more time to demonstrate searches, especially for online materials. For the most part, I feel pretty comfortable in front of a classroom. I think that I need to focus more on preparing and being a little less off the cuff.

I think that hardest thing about instruction, and the most important, is getting across the "why" question. This was doubly hard due to my topic, which was music directories. Granted, directories are nice, but the logical question that follows is: can't this be found online? The short answer is yes, but sometimes it's easy to forget that people will curtail what information they share in different media. Additionally, the way that directories are organized allow for more of a browsing type of searching, with information already co-located, as opposed to keyword searching, which has less underlying logic to it. While i think that this seems somewhat straightforward, my hope is that I can make the point without seeming either condescending or preachy.

It must have been the day for instruction, because I was asked to attend a presentation that was being made for a candidate for CU's head of reference postition. There was an emphasis on the growing importance of instruction in academic libraries, but at one point the question was raised about the fact that it was passe and not wirth the while, that people should get point-of-need instruction through online tutorials and help menus. The point was raised that students are increasingly into self-directed study, and fewer are using the old bricks and mortar.

While that seems to be the case, I would say that that argument overlooks the fact that not everyone likes the format of online tutorials, because they are not particularly interactive, not in the same way an actual person is. They do have their place, but I do not think that they replace a person. Also, they are not always hands on in allowing for instruction that is tailored to a specific information need the way that a class can be adjusted to cover a particular subject area or resource. I agree with the candidate that instruction is becoming increasingly part of the reference librarian's job, either in a classroom or on the reference desk. I think you can make some exceptions, however, for public libraries, or for specific inquiries, which is the crux of this practicum. To some extent, specific inquiries ought to be left as they are presented to the librarian. While there might be cases where a person is asking for the wrong thing, or is going about it the wrong way, it is often the case that the searcher learns more from the experience, or that the searcher in a specialized library really only needs help finding the physical object they seek. So an open question inquiry becomes a prime violation of Raganathan's old adage, "save the time of the researcher."

Finally, I got an in-depth session with one of the catalogers on reference work, which was enlightening. It taught me a lot about using keyword searches for pieces of music, as well as the importance of gaming LC subject headings when searching for music. in general, specificity combined with completeness of information given is key.