Document Type
Changing Needs of Our Users
Publication Date
4-2008
Abstract
From community colleges to research universities to private colleges, part-time, graduate student, and adjunct instructors are increasingly the norm. Approximately 50% of all graduate teaching assistants have full teaching responsibility for one or more courses and 40% of faculty appointments are part-time. Among those with the greatest need for library instruction are first-year students, yet these populations that are often transient in nature teach many first-year classes. Reaching these moving targets via traditional means can be difficult, as they may not have campus offices or phones.
The University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign conducted a survey of those teaching first-year rhetoric classes to address communicating with this audience and incorporating library instruction into the courses they teach. This group consisted of both graduate teaching assistants and non-tenure-track instructors. The results of this survey provided numerous strategies for reaching this group and expanding the incorporation of library instruction into their courses.
This session will emphasize the importance of opening the lines of communication with these groups and share strategies for doing so. The presenters will examine why library instruction is particularly important for these classes and look at some of the reasons there is such disparity in incorporating this instruction. Although responses to the survey provided many ideas and suggestions, the presenters will also examine broader studies and literature in the disciplines. Results of this session will help librarians working with graduate students or part-time faculty - or both - make library instruction a part of these courses.