Scalability
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about scalability. This is not a new idea for me, but it has certainly been popping up more in my mind and sticking around longer. Maybe it’s because every year the middle-of-March madness creeps up on me and nearly knocks me over–how is it, really, that I can have […]
2019 LILAC Spring Training Call for Proposals
Add to Your Methodology Toolkit: From Reflective to Participative Action Friday, June 7th, 2019 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. CUNY Central 205 East 42nd Street Room 818/819 We are seeking proposals for 10-45-minute presentations, discussions, or workshops on how you use any of the following methodologies in your college-level instruction practice: open pedagogy (project-based learning, […]
Gaming for Info Lit Flow
A few years ago Michael Waldman at Baruch Library was kind enough to recommend what he described as the least intimidating marathon training book, The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer, which introduced me to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow, as applied to long distance running. I learned that flow, an intense state when you’re fully engrossed in […]
Transferring skills from arts ed to info lit
The last job I held before becoming a librarian was as a facilitator of arts programs, working 11 years for ArtsConnection, a non-profit that brought professional visual and performing (music, dance, theater) artists into public schools pre-K-12 throughout the five boroughs of NYC. Each time I’ve changed careers, I’ve tried to carry over whatever I managed […]
The Power of PowerPoint
Alright, maybe it is not that powerful, but at least, useful. In my college days, professors’ lectures were mostly verbal and sometimes aided by a blackboard. The professor would either talk my head off throughout the whole lecture non-stop making me take notes busily in the fear that I might otherwise miss some important things, […]
Searching as strategic exploration: towards an embodied information literacy
As instruction librarians, we know that the iterative, sometimes nonlinear, search process is an expert searcher’s ability; it comes only with practice and through experience. Yet novice researchers – undergraduate students – may not yet have had this experience and practice. Consider how students could embody information literacy. Students embark on metaphorical journeys in the […]
What does a librarian teach?
So what actually is the teaching role of the Library? When people find out that I am a faculty member at a CUNY school, the next question is “What do you teach?” For me it is particularly poignent, because I was originally hired as the Information Literacy Librarian for BMCC. (My roles since then has […]
A teaching librarian fails at summer vacation
It’s August and I’ve been reflecting on whether I’m making the most of the quiet summer months in our academic library. I’ll confess that I approach summer “break” with an aspirational attitude similar to the one that sparks New Year’s resolutions. And yet, come August, I annually feel panic about whether or not I’ve made […]
What New Things Can I Do?: The Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians (ACRL, 2017)
Taking a bit of time this summer to catch up on my professional reading, particularly as it relates to instruction, I once again happened across The Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians (approved by the ACRL Board of Directors, April 28, 2017). I had observed the advent of this reimagining of the 2007 Standards for […]
4 Reasons Why You Should Keep a Reflective Teaching Journal
Back in January, I was casting about for some instructional inspiration. What could I do, what could I try to improve my teaching in the upcoming semester? A light bulb went off when I suddenly remembered Betsy Tompkins’ (2009) excellent article on reflective journals. She suggests that the systematic practice of recording teaching processes, decisions […]
