Code Number: 065-171(WS)-E
Division Number: VII
Professional Group: User Education: Workshop (Hebrew University, Mount Scopus)
Joint Meeting with: -
Meeting Number: 171
Simultaneous Interpretation: No

Diversity of training versus diversity of users: the Z. Aranne Central Education Library case study

Abstract

The Z.Aranne Education Library hopes to meet the new millenium with appropriate training programs for its users.

Paper

When Plato suggested to Socrates to write down their discussions, the teacher, at the beginning, opposed it because he thought that it could inhibit the thinking process.

Today, in the era of communication networks, we are in a similar situation : thinking is in a continual movement, with updated information between the users.

It is possible to think and read and search and write even in an isolated room using the new technologies. The user training programs in libraries must be also adapted to these new working conditions of their users. For searching in most databases, the academic libraries have reduced their roles as intermediaries, preferring instead to teach users how to be independent and competent searchers and evaluators of information. At our staff meetings we discuss how to teach end-users to become effective searchers. We are still concerned about our teaching role, and how library users can best become independent, competent learners. We make efforts to integrate basic library literacy with technology literacy and critical thinking skills. For the past two years we have succeeded in introducing Internet instruction into the School of Education curriculum as a credit-bearing course in alliance with other new technology-based academic courses.

The librarians help users to understand effectively and efficiently how to formulate a research statement, how to access, analyze, interpret, evaluate and use the information found. The librarians help users to understand that not all data can be translated into reliable, accurate, credible or authoritative information.

We see the importance of helping users to be critical consumers of information. As librarians, we know that even poorly constructed searches can retrieve some information from the Web sites available through the Internet. It is only through the precision of searching and the critical evaluation of search results that useful information can be located.

In today's library environment, since the library subscribes to or licenses electronic resources based on specific price models, as librarians, we are more aware of the needs of our users.

Because of simultaneous use of the databases, we are concerned with access issues: some information provides restrict information to only in-library use (no remote access) or to certain types of users, such as only faculty and students.

The access to electronic resources is limited to faculty and students through proxy servers. These services authenticate users who wish to search electronic library resources (journals, databases) through non-campus Internet Service Providers. Because of the growing demand for quick and convenient access to shared electronic information resources, we impose time limits on our users. This time restriction increases the need for users to know how to search for needed information efficiently and effectively, especially as the number of Web-based full-text databases continues to grow in popularity.

An efficient and effective user training program increases user satisfaction with the library, and the users searching abilities enable them to find relevant materials in minimum time.

The Education Library at the Hebrew University has a collection of about 150.000 titles of books, educational materials and about 500 periodicals from all over the world , covering education , didactics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, statistics .

As an university library it serves the students and the faculty of the School of Education and also students of other faculties of the Hebrew University.

The Education Library plays the role of a national library of education with its special collection including reports, decisions and archival material about education in Israel, textbooks for schools and other educational non book materials with historical significance.

The library users have access to electronic resources and databases, through the library network, as part of the Universities Libraries Consortium.

The Education Library is on its way to being a global library and must enable users to maximum and easy access to all library resources.

Versus the multiple possibilities created by advanced technologies is the growing diversity of the Education Library users. The library has to adapt to this by structured training programs :

1. General library orientation

   Each first semester, we promote our services and library resources to the new students at the School of Education , by offering a general library orientation. The students have the possibility to participate in training at different hours, in groups of up to 20 persons.

   Students who need library refresher training are assisted on an individual base by the reference librarian.

   The general library orientation includes a tour of the library , an explanation of all library services and a computerized vivid presentation of the library catalog, search possibilities and library resources. The Aleph program for universities libraries in Israel is user friendly and is consistently being improved.

   View screen shots of the computerized presentation
   [Acrobat PDF 127KB]

   We must consider the computer abilities of our students: the youngest , learn easily how to manage with the new technologies, others, older, need, in addition , also person to person instruction.

2. Workshops for faculty use of electronic resources

   Many of the School of Education faculty were students themselves, they remember how to use the library resources, but as all areas of information processing and access have been affected by the increasing use of technology , they need workshops every year. They are quite familiar with the literature in their fields and they regularly peruse their journals, but many have not kept up with the changes that technology has imposed on information . The workshop helps faculty to update their bibliographies with electronic access materials and then students who are busy with jobs , families and studies can learn from home, during their free time.

   In other words, this workshop helps faculty and students to get the best from our library resources and to work on their own, but they can always receive a professional help when they have problems.

3. Workshops for MA and PHD students oriented to special research subjects

   The increasing use of technology in our library affects all areas of information processing and access. The increase in electronic resources offers the students more and more options of information searching. But just as students are accustomed to a CD-ROM database, they must learn a new search interface as we migrate from CD-ROM's to online access. We have not a common search platform for all databases and the users must learn and understand various search interfaces. The MA and PHD students prefer more and more electronic sources, they become familiar in a short time with the changing interfaces or with navigation through the Internet.

4. Library orientation for Israelis who study at foreign university branches

   The Education Library gives library services to Israelis who study at foreign university branches. There, they do not have sources of information and through special arrangements with academic Israelis libraries, the students can learn to use the updated collections. The students are very interested in easy use of library resources, especially of electronic databases, many of them , with full text. They are working people and the possibility of accessing the electronic resources in their free time, from home, is very important and increase the workshops' value.

5. Workshops for school pupils on special collections on hot education subjects as: drug education, violence in schools

   The Z.Aranne Education Library was built also with the help of the Ministry of Education and allows the use of its special collections on hot education subjects, for school pupils. In the library collections the pupils can find books, articles or educational non print materials(games, videotapes) on actual subjects: violence in schools, drug education, democracy in Israel.

   Prior to the beginning of the academic year, as chief librarian, I meet with the School of Education +Dean and the pedagogic secretary, in order to establish a timetable for the workshops and to discuss promotional strategies. We need the help and attention of the faculty in order to have well-attended training programs. We advertise the workshops on wallboards and by email. As chief librarian I advertise the events at special faculty meetings and appeal them to push for library competence instruction and I let them know that we are open to suggestions and improvements.

   A library electronic newspaper calls for workshops participation and advertises our new acquisitions.

   In each of the first three workshops we teach new possibilities of searching or new versions of the library software. The workshops focus on the library's electronic resources, teaching how to access and use. We cover many databases from the university special menu and explain also home access of the library's resources.

   We teach users how to analyze a query, put it into words and build an appropriate strategy. The users become familiar with the basic concepts of subject, keyword, author and citation searching. We build a step-by-step orientation in using new tools. We emphasize the importance of these workshops in teaching library research methods and integrating this instruction in the School of Education curriculum. We emphasize that the users ,when coming into the library without having a clear idea of what they want to find, waste their own time and also the reference librarian's time. Some of them use the database or the catalog file left open by the preceding user.

   The reference librarian also helps on an individual base, how to define a topic, where to locate information, how to distinguish between popular and scientific articles. The reference librarian teaches to be discriminating and not accept all information retrieved through the Internet, regardless of its source or authority.

   During faculty meetings, I reinforce that library t raining workshops need to be included in the School of Education curriculum.

   For experienced users we provide a variety of Web URLs in education and additional subjects, which may be reached through our library homepage. We give passwords for accessing databases available only to our users.

   The library prepares flyers with general library information and basis help instruction for database searching.

   We lack technical assistance in the library; the librarians are able to help only with simple computer problems and we refer our users to the Computation Center help desk.

   The new Web version of the library offers the bonus of new technology: a new and clean form of the library catalog and the workshops emphasize this.

   The last part of the workshop is dedicated to users' questions.

   Today, the formats of information increase, including full-text, spatial, image, bibliographic or numeric databases, a huge number of electronic journals with articles hot linked from multiple electronic indexing and abstracting services. All these transform the librarians into information competence instructors.