Teaching small groups and one-to-ones

Editor's Notes

• #16: As librarians, our natural instinct is to be helpful and to try and sort out every single enquiry we get as soon as it is asked: this is not always the best option. Even when we're lone workers, we are almost always working as part of a broader organisation: not all the enquiries that come our way actually fall within our remit, and even if we are the right people to ask, we may not have the knowledge immediately to hand. Do not feel that you have to always deal with everything yourself: in many cases, you are not in a position to resolve an enquiry- about, say, IT or course admin- and your job is not to solve the enquiry, but to point the enquirer in the direction of someone who can. Also remember that you can ask colleagues and friends for advice and support if you are not sure what to do, or simply take time out to research or think over the problem. This is not failure: this is getting the job done. People are usually just looking for an answer: while sometimes there may be time constraints that demand an instant answer, most of the time they will not mind if you need to go off and do research, or refer the enquiry to someone else, so long as the question gets answered in the end: they don't care exactly how they get there. If you just sit there flailing about helplessly with an issue you can't resolve, neither you or the student is going to be happy. This leads onto the most important advice of all...
• #17: But the academics also have a major influence in the teaching of information literacy in the amount of time they allot for library sessions. There can vary wildly between courses- and even individual lecturers- and often has very little to do with the degree of informational ability the students may actually require. For example, the Health and Well-Being lecturers may put quite lot demands on their students in terms of information use; but most Health and Well-Being courses have far more teaching time with the librarians than other subjects, so at the same time they can cover more ground. Academics can also free up time in other ways: in the Built and Natural Environment courses, for example, a lot of the resources that fall outside of Summon's coverage, such Digimap or the Construction Information Service, are heavily used in regular classes. The lecturers provide most of the instruction in these, freeing up more time in library sessions for other matters.
• #22: Are you familiar with those kids' books where you have to sort through various options for lost teddies- or tractors, or puppies, or cows, or whatever- rejecting various candidates because they're tummy is too fuzzy or their nose is too shiny, before getting to the right one on the last page? Well, there is a strong element of this in the reference interview. I've mentioned the role checking and confirmation plays in a reference interview: after all, the first thing you need to do when trying to find something is to actually know what you are looking for. It's really easy to make false assumptions about an enquiry and waste time- and patience- by heading off in the wrong direction. So regularly bounce what you think the real question is back at the enquirer, to make sure it's what they think is the real question too.
• #36: Enquirers aren't malicious- well, almost all enquirers aren't malicious: they have a problem they want you to solve, and they will try very hard to help you solve that problem. To do this, they will often enthusiastically supply you with copious amounts of information: sometimes this will actually be the relevant information you actually need to solve the problem; but a lot of the time, it's nothing whatsoever to do with the issue. Part of your role in a reference interview is to sort the relevant from the irrelevant information, based on your expertise and clever questioning. This can be trickier than it sounds, as enquirers will often provide extremely detailed and convincing confabulations, based their mistaken understanding of the situation. So, for example, students will often come to you saying that a printer has run out of paper or ink: occasionally this is true, but, more often than not, it isn't, and the student has misinterpreted an error message on the printer, or has simply assumed that any failure to print must be down to lack of supplies.
• #37: Unfortunately, we're not allowed to say this. This questioning tactic is rarely effective, however much you might feel like using it at times. Subtler methods are required: so what do you do?
• #38: As we've mentioned, librarians can appear mysterious and spooky beings, so it's important to be friendly and welcoming right from the beginning: if you look too fierce and unapproachable, the student may never come over to make the enquiry in the first place.
• #39: Obviously, at some point you need to ask them why they've come to talk to you.
• #40: Again, students often feel like a prize idiot for having to ask a question, so explaining to them that they're not being a nuisance and that answering these questions is part of your job will help calm and reassure them.
• #41: Whatever the initial question is, it's usually a good idea to give at least a brief answer before delving more deeply. It shows your ability and willing to help, and if the student doesn't have a lot of time to spare- or it turns out to be not a very complicated enquiry after all- it stops you wasting a load of time. Your answer can then lead into more probing questioning.
• #42: Before you go too far, it's a good idea to paraphrase the question and bounce it back to the enquirer, to check your understanding and make sure you don't waste time and effort investigating the wrong thing.
• #43: This is bit where you identify and solve the problem: it's the key stage as far as the enquirer is concerned, but is only part of the wider process. This may involve more questioning, as you gather further information on requirements, context and deadline
• #44: Before you finish, you should always check that you: a) have been working on the right problem all along, and; b) have resolved it to the enquirer's satisfaction. It's also at this stage that the students will often ask you the additional questions they've neglected to ask so far.
• #45: It's a good idea to finish on a learning point and summarising what you did for the student: that way, if they encounter the same situation again, they will know what to do for themselves the next time. And being polite and saying goodbye never hurts for encouraging them to come back and asking you more questions.
• #46: An open question is a way of getting more information about the enquiry. It doesn't have a set yes or no answer: instead, the person you're asking defines the answer: to an extent, you're finding different ways of saying 'tell me more about...'. This is often how you get the background to establish the context to the enquiry. A bit of background detail have a major impact on how you answer an enquiry. It may be that what the student is trying to do is wholly inappropriate for their end purpose, or they've gone with a method they're familiar with when there's a much easier or more effective alternative. So if a student is looking for a book on, say, aeroplanes, it will make an immense difference if they're a postgraduate studying aerospace engineering or are a trainee primary school teacher looking for something to take into class for the kiddies. It also helps to establish the level of detail and quantity of information. There is a real difference in the resources you need to look up a quick definition of something and what you need to write a literature review. Likewise, your response may vary for an assignment due in a month or one due in 30 minutes?
• #47: I don't know if any of you were read the story of the insatiably curious Elephant's Child when you were young- if not, I feel very, very old- but this poem from it rather handily lists a lot of the sort of questions that are open questions. So an open question might be: "What sort of thing is an 'X'?" or "When do you want the statistics for?" or "How has your tutor told you to do this part of the assignment?" or "Which of these factors matters most, and why?"
• #48: Once you've got sufficient information, you can then use closed questions to narrow down the options. You supply the possible answers, and ask the student to pick one. It's a very quick and efficient way of getting to the heart of what they want, and usually the way to go once you think you've figured out what the enquiry is really about. Essentially, it's multiple choice: do you want option A or option B? Of course, often they will want option C, which you never thought of: this is why it's a good idea to keep an open mind and prepare the ground with open questions first.