As an intern teaching information literacy at San Jose State University, I am experiencing the importance of teamwork. I am fortunate to have joined a group whose members worked together last semester, instructing undergraduate students in a single classroom session that provides a general introduction to the library and accessing databases online. The interactions among the interns, librarians, English professors, and students contribute to the success of the literacy program. The librarians understand the importance of the three features that Grassian and Kaplowitz (2001) emphasize in a discussion of management skills: to communicate, to collaborate, and to create teams in order to contribute to ongoing growth within the information literacy program.
As the newest member of the team, I benefit from the lessons learned by both the supervising librarians and the other interns. Our main supervisor is the English reference librarian, who is responsible for coordinating the library session schedule with the classroom and instructor assignments. In the first meeting I attended the group shared email address and phone numbers, which are important lines of communication to each other as we prepare to face classes on our own.
Collaboration along with communication has played the greatest role in the enjoyment I have found in participating in the instruction internship. The group collaborated before beginning the library sessions, as the interns were asked to revise the handouts that are given to the students to list features of the library and guide the exploration of the online databases. The tasks were divided among us and ongoing discussion resulted in a format and content for the handouts, which satisfied us all. Google Documents provided the tool to make the files available in a common location to edit with each of our modifications.
Because many of the English professors teach more than class, the interns also have the opportunity to collaborate in deciding which databases to use for a particular class topic. We compare notes in our plans before the class and share observations after the session. Before I began instructing, I observed and assisted in the library sessions taught by the other two interns, incorporating the techniques that I found would work best for my student interactions.
Outside the actual library instruction, team collaboration is established in communicating with the English professors about how the library session flows and the importance of including a research assignment with which the students are involved. The students benefit most as the librarian and professors work together and the “collaborative environment equalizes the playing field by developing mutual understanding” (Montiel-Overall, 2006, p. 26). The use of evaluations provides further sharing of ideas by all involved in the learning process: the library instructors, English professors, and students.
In order for the methods used in library instruction at the undergraduate level at San Jose State University to succeed in introducing the basic concepts of database access and search, communication and collaboration must be continual. Creating teams among the librarians offers the possibility of discovering new approaches to reach the common goal of introducing tools to enhance on-going learning for the students, as well as increasing our effectiveness as librarians.
References
Grassian, E. and Kaplowitz, J. (2001). Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice. New York: Neal-Schuman.
Montiel-Overall, P. (2005). A theoretical understanding of teacher and librarian collaboration. School Libraries Worldwide, 11(2), 24-48.
