ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 4 0 2 / C&RL N e w s Conference Circuit Earlham's BI enhances teaching and learning By Larry Hardesty, Jam ie Hastreiter, and David Henderson The E a rlh a m College-Eckerd College B ibliographic In stru c tio n C onference O n February 5-7, 1992, Eckerd College hosted the fifth Earlham College-Eckerd College Bibliographic Instruction Confer More than 65 librarians, classroom faculty, and administrators representing more than 40 insti­ tutions o f h ig h er e d u catio n from th e U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada attended. The confer­ ence focused on the bibliographic instruction program at Earlham College and adapting it to the needs of other institutions. Evan Farber, long-tim e head librarian at Earlham College, gave the keynote address, providing an overview of “Library Use Instruc­ tion at Earlham C ollege.” He described the Earlham program as a structured one in w hich librarians take a proactive role in encouraging and facilitating cooperation betw een librarians and classroom faculty. Farber em phasized that the main function of the library should be to enhance the teaching/learning process. This, he stated, should be the measure of the library’s success in m eeting institutional objectives. Farber stressed the n eed to understand the perspectives of the classroom faculty members and the importance of ensuring success in stu­ dents’ early experiences w ith the library. He cautioned that while the Earlham program is not totally exportable, institutions can adapt it to m eet their particular situations. Faculty describe BI experience Following Farber’s presentation, three class­ room faculty from Earlham College described their experiences with bibliographic instruction. e G ordon Thom pson, professor of English, re­ ported on the involvement of the library in Earlham's freshman year humanities course and described working w ith Earlham’s librarians to develop a course-related bibliographic instruc­ tion assignment in an upper-level literary criti­ cism course. Thompson concluded that literature students can learn to use the library well only nthrce.o ugh repeated assignments that start simply and become progressively more complicated. Bill Stephenson, professor of biology, de­ scribed the comprehensive, sequential biblio­ graphic instruction program developed by bi­ ologists and librarians at Earlham College that has existed for more than 20 years. Stephenson said, “O ur students, like those in other disci­ plines, repeatedly rate learning to access the literature as the most important thing they have learned in biology at Earlham.” O ne student project involves developing a poster session, m odeled on similar sessions conducted at pro­ fessional conferences. Welling Hall, professor of political science, reported o n a bibliographic instruction project using structural content analysis to explore Soviet foreign policy. Hall described her first contact w ith Farber, w hich occurred w hen he interviewed her as a prospective faculty mem­ ber and described how, w ithin a w eek o f her being on campus, another librarian contacted her about bibliographic instruction. Hall said that she sees Earlham librarians as colleagues who are genuinely interested in her students. Ann Bevilacqua, creator o f “Research Assis­ tant” (a HyperCard instructional program), pro­ vided an overview of how computer-assisted instruction can augm ent other methods of bib­ liographic instruction. She described programs ranging from drill and practice exercises to in­ teractive hypertext programs. In the small group Larry Hardesty is director o f library services; Ja m ie Hastreiter is coordinator o f technical services; a n d D a vid H e n d erso n is c o o r d in a to r o f in s tr u c tio n a l s en d e e s at. E ckerd C.olleøe S t Petersburg Florida J u n e 1 9 9 2 / 4 0 3 sessions ea c h afternoon, B evilacqua d e m o n ­ strated the u se o f “R esearch A ssistant.” W o rk in g w ith th e fa c u lty Evan F arber led off th e seco n d d ay w ith a dis­ cussion o f alternatives to term p a p e r assign­ m ents. T hese ran g ed from a n n o ta te d bibliog­ raphies to th e afo rem en tio n ed p o ste r sessions. H e th en dem onstrated his bibliographic instruc­ tion interview tech n iq u e w ith tw o Eckerd Col­ lege faculty m em bers, J o h n G oodw in, p rofes­ sor o f chem istry, a n d Bill W inston, pro fesso r o f sociology. Farber em phasized that librarians can s e r v e a v a lu a b l e f u n c t io n o n c a m p u s as nonthreatening respondents to c la s sro o m fa c u lty try in g to th in k th r o u g h n e w a s s ig n ­ m ents an d courses. G o rd o n T h o m p s o n th e n returned to provide a provoca­ tive a n d w itty d escription o f “T h e R e c a lc i tr a n t F a c u lty M em ber” as so m eo n e w h o is n o t only n o t in terested in bib­ lio g r a p h ic in s tr u c tio n , b u t Evan Farber d escrib es Earlham’s BI program . d o es n o t k n o w w h at it is an d d o e s n o t w a n t to k n o w . T ho m p so n listed reasons for these attitudes an d h o w librarians m ay overcom e them . A p an el discussion titled “W orking w ith the Classroom Faculty” follow ed T h o m p so n ’s p re ­ sentation. T h e p an el in clu d ed tw o E ckerd Col­ lege classroom faculty m em bers an d tw o Eckerd College library faculty m em bers. Larry Hardesty, director o f libraries at Eckerd College, sp o k e o f th e im portance o f initial contacts w ith the faculty during th e interview an d orientation pro ­ cess. D avid H enderson, c o o rd in ato r o f instruc­ tional services, sp o k e ab o u t th e n e e d for li­ b rarians to b e c o m e involved in cam p u s life outside th e library building, to serve o n com ­ m ittees, a n d to w o rk to b e p erceiv ed as a true faculty colleague co n c e rn e d w ith the e d u c a ­ tional p ro cess as a w hole. Sandra Harris, p ro ­ fessor o f h u m a n resources, a n d Bill W inston sp o k e o n h o w they h a d b ecam e involved in bibliographic instruction. Students a n d a d m in is tra to rs on BI A “S tudent R esponse to B ibliographic Instruc­ tio n ” p a n e l c o m p o se d o f five Eckerd College students (Matt Staman, D ebra Nail, Susan Moss, Jaso n Palm ateer, an d Eric Schultz) em p h asized th e im portance o f librarians b ein g helpful an d ap p ro ach ab le. T hey talked a b o u t h o w intim i­ dating th e library can b e a n d h o w instruction can serve to ease th eir anxiety levels. Lloyd C hapin, vice-president a n d d e a n of the faculty at Eckerd College, offered his p e r­ spective o n “B ibliographic Instruction from an A dministrative Point-of-View.” H e sp o k e o f the n e e d for librarians to com m unicate regularly w ith adm inistrators, n o t only a b o u t problem s, b u t also ab o u t im provem ent an d advances in the library. H e em p h asized th e n e e d to share com parative statistics a n d to k e e p adm inistra­ tors inform ed ab o u t trends in th e library w orld. C hapin also em p h asized th e m any o p p o rtu n i­ ties available for librarians to w o rk w ith class­ room faculty m em bers o u t­ sid e th e lib ra ry b u ild in g , seein g this as a m e a n s of p ro m o tin g g o o d relations. H e stressed th a t librarians sh o u ld b e se e n as full p a r­ tic ip a n ts in th e a c a d e m ic program . O p en in g the Friday after­ n o o n session, Larry Hardesty sp o k e o n “B ibliographic In ­ struction a n d Collection D e­ v e lo p m e n t.” H e p ro v id e d data from OCLC th at suggests that ev en small liberal arts colleges have highly distinct collec­ tions. This inform ation, h e believes, em phasizes th e im portance o f w orking w ith classroom fac­ ulty m em bers to h elp th em b eco m e familiar w ith th e idiosyncrasies o f particular library col­ lections. It also stresses th e n e e d to check h o ld ­ ings b efo re b ib lio g rap h ic in stru ctio n assign­ m ents are m ade to en su re that students have th e o p p o rtu n ity to succeed. In h e r w rap-up, D o n n a Trent, p rofessor o f m an ag e m en t at E ckerd College, em p h asized th at although th e Earlham program m ay not be w holly exportable, m any aspects o f it can be ad a p te d to th e n eed s o f o th er institutions. Trent stressed “an individual e q u ip p e d w ith know l­ e d g e o f th e p ro cess o f learning . . . is p rep ared to e n ter the co n tem porary w o rld th at dem ands abilities to evaluate, predict, a n d ad ap t to chang­ in g e n v ir o n m e n t a l, s o c ia l, a n d te c h n ic a l c h a n g e .” She co n clu d e d th at bibliographic in­ struction is a n o p p o rtu n ity for a college to d e ­ v elo p a com m on g ro u n d am ong classroom fac­ ulty, adm inistrators, an d librarians. Pierian Press will publish th e p roceedings o f this conference. For further inform ation, con­ tact Larry H ardesty, director of library services, Eckerd College. ■ DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY British Biographical Archive II A continuation of the BBA I, this fiche focuses on British historical personali­ ties from the late Archivio Biographical Australasian 19th and 20th Biografico Archive of Biographical centuries. It is Italiano, the Benelux Archive unequaled in its authoritative and Nuovo Serie Countries This archive comprehensive covers Australia, Historically, Throughout the coverage of regional N e w Zealand, and Italian culture has centuries Belgium, historical biography. the entire South been developed and the Netherlands, 1991-1994 Pacific. 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