In a few weeks my first program planning experience will come to fruition. On June 6th the NELIG’s (New England Library Instruction Group) annual program will take place in Springfield, MA and I was one of the program co-chairs! It has been one of those career changing experiences, especially because the theme, how students learn, is a hot topic for librarians. A year ago the University of Rochester released an anthropology study they did about how and why students use the library tools, study and research. While some of the findings may have been expected, the reasons for them surprised many of us. Not only because of their simplicity, but because they challenged assumptions we have about current college students.
For example, I always assumed students waited to the last minute for research because of two reasons- procrastination and they write and research at the same time. This was often my model for research in college so I carried the same assumption about our students. What their study revealed was that the reason is our students are over-booked between classes, work and extra curricular activities they unable to find the time to research until the night before the paper is due. Another example, my previous thoughts about radical trust became firmer when I read their study and learned that students turn to their parents and friends for advice. I, personally, use the findings of their study as a constant reference for my programing at the library.
My true excitement over the NELIG program is that our keynote speaker is the Head of Reference at U Rochester and an important participant in said study, Vicki Burns. I can’t wait to share my excitement about this with my colleagues and she is the perfect person to talk to instruction librarians. My biggest frustration is that nobody from my college seems to realize what I am doing. My desk is cluttered with files on proposals, contracts, feedback forms, and all sorts of stuff to help me plan this conference, but my colleagues don’t seem to realize that I am planning a major event.
This excitement is keep me going over a slow summer. As soon as it is over my attention goes straight to Let’s Talk About It for the fall. I think these big projects are keeping me sane.