NELIG Annual Program 2002
Creativity in Instruction:
Librarians Leading the Way

The Art of Presentation
 - Keynote Speaker:  - Nancy Houfek, Head of Voice and Speech - American Repertory Theater     

As teachers, we often focus on the content of our subject matter and leave the quality of our speaking to chance. After a presentation we wonder, "Did they get it? Am I doing everything I can to get this across?" The Art of Presentation will give you some specific skills that actors use that will help you be more effective as a teacher or public speaker. Physical confidence, vocal presence, clear articulation and a relaxed presence are important parts of the performer's training. These are easy to learn and important to practice in order to improve our ability to convey complex and important concepts to our students and as a result, increase their learning!

Nancy Houfek has served as a consultant to professional speakers throughout the United States since 1978. She has presented workshops for Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Radcliffe Seminars, and the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard, as well as for clients in the private sector. A film of her work with the Harvard faculty, The Act of Teaching, has been produced by by the Bok Center for national distribution to faculty development centers.

Nancy holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theatre where she remained as an actor, director and coach for nearly a decade. She has directed or performed in over one hundred plays and musicals off-Broadway and at regional theatres throughout the nation. As Head of Voice & Speech of Harvard's American Repertory Theatre, Ms. Houfek teaches the graduate level actors and coaches the professional actors of the company.

And the Award for Best Performance in a Classroom Goes to ...: Teaching as Performance with Classroom Tips from a Performing Teacher
 - Carla List, Plattsburgh State University of New York 

Any teacher can attest to the need for a sense of theatre when standing in front of a group. Even with 45 minutes of a 50-minute session devoted to hands-on activities or active learning exercises, those remaining five minutes must involve some public speaking/performing by the librarian. Carla List will discuss performance strategies and offer tips on diverse classroom situations from a sudden loss of electronics to working with the jaded student. List has taught for more than 20 years in Plattsburgh State University of New York’s library instruction program. Her background is theatre—she holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and acts in and directs community theatre. … And she "performs" in the classroom.

Carla List is a Librarian at Plattsburgh State University of New York. She has done research instruction since 1981, teaching multiple sections of PSU’s required one-credit course, Introduction to Library and Information Research, LIB101, and addressing widely varied subjects in course-related instruction sessions. She is the author of An Introduction to Information Research (Kendall/Hunt), a textbook used at PSU and at colleges and universities throughout the US and abroad. A second edition of the text will be available in June 2002. List has a performance background. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin, she and acts and directs local community theatre, and she performed with two local semi-professional musical foursomes for more than ten years.

Use ALL Your Smarts: Multiple Intelligences for Diverse Library Learners
 - Kathy Holmes, Lesley University Ludcke Library

Have Fun With It!: A Lighthearted Library Orientation
 - Thomas Mead, Dartmouth College Biomedical Libraries

Teaching the Library: Best Practices for Library Instructors
 - Laura Saunders, Simmons College Libraries

This program is based the article “Teaching the Library: Best Practices,” published in the March edition of Library Philosophy and Practice, in which I reviewed current literature on library instruction, and extracted several teaching methods or techniques that are considered the most popular and/ or most effective for teaching library skills to college students.  In this presentation, I will discuss two popular teaching methods: active learning, and the use of humor.

Laura Saunders works at Simmons College as the Coordinator of the Career Resource Library and as a Reference Librarian.  Laura develops and implements workshops on career and library-related topics, provides research consultations, and assists users at the Beatley Reference desk, among other duties.  Laura has presented workshops on building and maintaining a career collection at numerous conferences, including the Career Resource Managers Association Bi-Annual Conference and at this year’s Annual Conference of the Massachusetts Library Association.  She also had an article entitled “Teaching the Library: Best Practices” published in the online journal Library Philosophy and Practice.  Laura recently completed her MS in Library and Information Science at Simmons College.

Beyond Alternatives to Research Papers: Applying Alternatives to Specific Subjects
 - Kendall Hobbs, Wesleyan University Library

There are many lists available for alternatives to research papers as assignments to teach information literacy. But how do you convince faculty to try them? How can they fit the existing curriculum? And what do students think of them? At Wesleyan Library, we consulted lists of alternative assignments, as well as faculty and each other, and compiled our own list of suggested information literacy related assignments tailored to Wesleyan’s curriculum goals. We use this list when talking with faculty about incorporating information literacy instruction into their programs for their departments’ majors, a primary focus of our library instruction efforts. The faculty members we have talked with so far appreciate having this list. Typically, they had acknowledged the importance of information literacy instruction, but had not done or thought much about it, and many of the suggestions had not occurred to them. Using the list as a suggested outline of possibilities helped us in working together with them to think of ways to creatively apply these possibilities to specific course content and specific discipline requirements. In my presentation, I will focus on how I have worked with a few faculty to identify specific goals of their departmental programs and specific information literacy concepts relevant to those goals to find ways to create new assignments which blend information literacy concepts into existing course and departmental programs and goals.

Kendall Hobbs is Reference and Instruction Librarian at Wesleyan University. As R/I Librarian, he coordinates the library's instruction program, which includes such activities as creating and coordinating policies, procedures, and programs for instruction, consulting with faculty about library instruction matters, and creating Web pages and other tools for library instruction. Prior to Wesleyan, he was Reference / Government Documents / Interlibrary Loan Librarian at Ripon College in Wisconsin, after completing an MLS at SUNY Buffalo and an MA in Philosophy at Emory. He has been an active member of NELIG, giving presentations at two quarterly meetings and one on a Web-in-BI panel, as well as serving as the group’s Webmaster for the past two years. He is scheduled to present a poster session at this summer’s ALA annual conference on teaching a course on “Connecting Culture with the World Wide Web” for Wesleyan’s Graduate Liberal Studies program.

Currere! ... or, Finding the Existential Moment in Library Instruction
 - Lisa Lavoie, Tunxis Community College Library

In this presentation, a conceptual and practical portrait of currere(!) is described and worshipped. By taking oneself and one's existential experience as a data source and using the psychoanalytic technique of free association, a library instructor can create a successful and meaningful curricular experience for both student and teacher. From the Latin, meaning "to run the course," currere, simply put, describes that point in a teaching librarian's career when autobiography, talent, confidence, and outreach come together to create inspired library instruction. A true story.

Lisa Lavoie is an Information Services Librarian at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, Connecticut. Her responsibilities are chiefly in reference services and library instruction, with a strong fellow feeling for public relations on and off the campus. Working at a community college ensures a soundly diverse set of teaching experiences and library instruction is provided to anyone from the very alternative middle college high school students to the seniors in the lifelong learning programs. Tunxis is one of the few community colleges offering a one-credit computer literacy class as well as mandatory library instruction for all English composition classes. The Library is hoping to inoculate the First Year Experience students with a shot of information literacy as well, and currently works extensively with the Summer high school Bridge students. Lisa has been a librarian in lots of places since 1986. She received her B.A. from the University of Connecticut, her M.L.S. from Southern CT State University, and is currently working on her doctorate in Education from the University of Hartford. She will be attending the ACRL Information Literacy Immersion Program this August in Colorado.