ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


688 / C&RL N ew s ■ Ju ly /A u g u st 2001

Wireless library instruction

Library instruction is n o t m an d ato ry  at 
Canisius College, so our library need ed  a 
way to prom ote the service to faculty. Our 
solution was to establish a wireless lab.

Wireless technology works with a radio 
transmitter that is physically connected to the 
campus Ethernet. Our library instruction room 
is equipped with a permanent transmitter and 
12 IBook laptops.

This wireless environm ent allows stu­
dents to move around the room  with their 
laptops; the radios “cover” the entire room. 
This physical setup lends itself to group 
learning.

Reference librarians conduct library in­
struction classes either by demonstrating da­
tabases and then having students do their own 
searching or by having students do guided 
group searching (working from a series of 
questions) and then having the groups present 
results to the rest of the class with the librar­
ian guiding the ensuing discussion.

The wireless lab has freed the librarians 
from demonstration-only classes. This allows 
the librarians time to help students with indi­

vidual search questions and problems. It turns 
p an  of every library instruction class into the 
equivalent of one-on-one help typical of what 
is received at the reference desk, yet it does 
so in a classroom environment w here stu­
dents have the additional opportunity to learn 
from each other. The emphasis of wireless 
library instruction is therefore o n  student-cen­
tered learning rather than on teacher-centered 
control of classroom time.

Technical problems with the wireless lab 
have been minimal. The biggest problem  is 
not having a laptop for every student. As it 
currently stands, two-to-three students often 
must share one laptop. A future develop­
ment may be the ability o f the librarians to 
move the equipm ent into classrooms w here 
the class normally meets. This w ould give 
us added flexibility in scheduling and deliv­
ering library instruction sessions.— Karen 
Bordonaro. reference librarian, a n d  Joel 
Coben, associate lice president fo r  library an d  
information services, at Canisius College, e-mail: 
bordonar@ canisius.edu a n d  c o h e n @ 
canisius.edu ■

mailto:bordonar@canisius.edu