Non-LIRT Meetings Related to Library Instruction
1995 ALA Annual Conference,
Chicago, Illinois

The two presenters, Steven Schomberg (Director of Continuing Education and Public Svcs, Univ. of IL-Urbana Champaign) and Sharon Edge (Head, Document Access & Delivery Svcs, Ekstrom Library, Univ. of Louisville), described the distance learning programs at their respective campuses and evaluated the current state of distance learning technology and services. They also provided a glimpse at what the future may hold and the implications for library services.

LPSS will change their committee meeting time to have their all committee meetings on Saturday morning. They will have a discussion group during the mid-winter meeting on Saturday afternoon from 4:30-5:30, assuming no scheduling problems. The discussion will be on the topic of integrating teaching resources into instruction courses in political science and law.

Members discussed various options for publishing their "Core Law Collection Bibliography" which was prepared this for a pre- conference which never took place. Possibilities considered were to send it to LOEX and to ERIC.

The committee will produce a pathfinder to accompany the summer ALA program. This will cover Web and Internet sites that relate to the 1996 campaign.

The committee discussed their "Glossary of Selected Library Terms for Diverse Populations." This glossary has approximately fifty terms. They hope to eventually have it available in seven languages and to have it translated by librarians who are native speakers. They would use the annual article in a fall issue of the "Chronicle of Higher Education" on the numbers of foreign students in American universities to determine the languages.

Publishing possibilities discussed included offering this glossary to ACRL as a publication or asking ALA graphics to think of marketing it as a disc so that people could manipulate it as needed.

The chair for 1995-96 is Mary Jane Petrowski. Discussions centered around the section's name change from BIS (Bibliographic Instruction Section) to IS (Instruction Section) and the effects on literature, stationary and other materials where the section's name is displayed.

Additional discussions involved the new electronic resources available on the Internet. Trudi Jacobson distributed a handout on the purposes and proposed structure of the IS Gopher and asked for corrections or suggestions. She reported two possible problems with placing the newsletter online: the information may be proprietary, and not all section members have Gopher access. Discussion followed on whether a Gopher site, or World Wide Web site should be developed. Esther Grassian reported that ALA was looking at a new Web-server and migrating away from the current Gopher site at the University of Illinois - Chicago.

Trudi reported that Advisory discussed the newsletter, made suggestions, and raised several questions. Steve Fitt, Newsletter Editor, reported that he had more information than could fit in the newsletter. He reported that some sections had corporate support for newsletter production. Trudi reported that a new newsletter editor should be chosen at Midwinter 1996 in order to work with Steve before taking over for the Fall 1996 issue. Liz Cooksey will write the position announcement. A change in title for the newsletter was discussed.

Trudi reported on a name change implementation task force, and asked for input to be taken to Advisory. Steve suggested that the section have a logo and proposed a contest.

This committee is continuing the process of publishing a new edition of the Library Instruction Evaluation Handbook, which is now out of print. Chapters are being written by different authors. In order to facilitate the editing and publishing process, committee members will be assigned an author to encourage prompt completion. A September deadline for completion of the chapters was set. The proposed target date for final editing is February, 1996. At that time the book will be sent to ALA for publishing.

At Midwinter Meeting, 1996, plans will be made for advertising the book. Valerie Feinman will write procedures for committee members and will consult with Katherine Branch on procedural matters and clarification of roles of the committee. Sharon Mader, editorial consultant from IS Executive Committee, was present to provide guidance on editorial questions.

The first 90 minutes was dedicated to a brainstorming session on the topic of "Designing the Effective Assignment." The rest of the time was used for the business meeting. After the usual announcements, the committee discussed the brainstorming session. It was decided that although the turnout was less than at Midwinter, that was essentially due to the many programs taking place at the same time, and the brainstorming sessions should definitely be continued. The topic for the next one, at Midwinter, San Antonio, will be Teaching in the Electronic Classroom . The discussion then moved to the active learning "cookbook" project. At the time of this meeting, the Executive committee had not commented formally on the sourcebook/cookbook, but, informally, the response was favorable, and the committee expects to continue on schedule. Between annual and Midwinter, electronic and print ads will go out and materials will be collected. Minor changes were made to the ads. It was agreed that the less formal a format is requested, the more likely a larger number of people will respond. A method for distributing the collected material among committee members was discussed, but will be dependent on the amount collected as well as the formats of the material submitted.

The final draft copy of Teaching Information Retrieval and Evaluation Skills to Education Practitioners: A Casebook was presented to the committee. Former committee chairs Pat Libutti and Bonnie Gratch edited the casebook. The EBSS Publications Committee approved the document, pending final editing. Many thanks to Pat and Bonnie for all their hard work in editing and finishing the casebook. It should be available in the fall 1995 ALA list of publications. This casebook applies the skills mentioned in Information Retrieval and Evaluation Skills for Education Students (ED351038) and reports how librarians have used them in real instructional situations.

The committee discussed future plans and projects: evaluation skills, WWW homepages, teaching teachers information skills, and cooperating with other EBSS committees. No consensus was reached, but committee members will be in touch via e-mail to consider options for the midwinter meeting.

Since BIS is now the Instruction Section, EBI will change its name but has not yet decided the new name.

Discussion focused on developing a packet of information to send to library schools for adding bibligraphic instruction as a course offering. The committee also discussed a program idea on teaching library instruction in library schools for the annual ALISE (Association of Library and Information Science Educators) meeting Jan 16-19, 1996, San Antonio.

The committee is currently in the process of reviewing its charge "to review and coordinate activities regarding instruction, to submit reports, to review and coordinate, on a continuing basis, activities within ALA regarding instruction for users in acquiring, organizing, and using information; to submit formal annual written reports to the ALA membership and Council highlighting the committee and ALA units and committee activities on a regular basis; to promote research related to information literacy for access to information; and to encourage association-wide conference programming inviting the cooperation of all ALA units and committees concerned with user instruction for information literacy." Committee members brought forward the the following questions and concerns: Does this group have a unique role for programming? Should this committee really exist? Are other groups, such as ACRL IS and LIRT, already accomplishing these goals? How can, or should, the committee promote research? In addition, the need was felt for the committee to be composed, at least in part, of members from other instruction-related committees. The meeting ended with committee members requesting that chairs and members of other instruction-related groups, such as ACRL IS, LIRT, PLA, and others, be invited to attend their Midwinter meeting to participate in this discussion.

1. Bright Ideas discussion: This Committee has been sponsoring a Bright Ideas in BI Management campaign for the past few years. This year's topic was evaluation of bibliographic instruction programs and librarians. At Annual the first part of the Committee meeting is a discussion of the submissions and of the topic itself. Diane Shonrock attended to discuss LIRT's upcoming book. Problems with doing peer evaluations was also discussed.

2. Literature survey on BI management: Rebecca Jackson has completed what she hopes is the final draft of the literature survey. It will now be presented to the IS Executive Committee for possible submission to C&RL News.

3. LAMA Institute on BI management issues: The Committee is proposing an institute to LAMA on the management issues for people who are BI managers and also for people who supervise people who are BI managers.

Discussion focused on revision of the Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic Libraries which "provide a framework for developing, evaluating, and ultimately institutionalizing instructional programs and services in college and research libraries." The proposed revision has four sections: Program Design, Human Resources, Support, and Assessment. A draft of the guidelines will be published in ACRL News, December 1995. Midwinter 1996 discussion will be based on the published draft.

The program opened with the presentation of the Miriam Dudley Bibliographic Instruction Librarian Award to Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson, University of Washington.

The featured speaker was Dr. Georgine Loacker who directs the Council on Student Assessment at Alverno College. Her presentation was followed by several breakout sessions which were actually mini-workshops. Participants could choose three to attend. The breakout sessions were "Using Surveys, " Mignon Adams, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science; Evaluating Teaching for Teacher Improvement," Trish Ridgeway, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA; "Developing a Performance-Based Evaluation for Instruction," Judith Arnold, Western Michigan University; "Achieving Information Literacy Outcomes: The Triage Process and Collaborative Course Design," Kyzyl Fenno-Smith and Debra Gilchrist, Pierce College, Tacoma, WA; "Leadership in Action: Influencing Outcomes and Using Assessment to Improve Instructional Services," Bonnie Gratch, St. Mary's College of California; "Comparing Modes of Instruction: Selection Evaluation Methodology. " Joan Kaplowitz, UCLA Biomedical Library; "A Longitudinal Study of a Bibliographic Instruction Program: An Experience in Assessment and Accountability," Susan K. Henthorn, Berea College, and Molly Royse, Kansas State University; "Concept Mapping as an Evaluation Tool,"' Bonnie Osif, Penn State University; "Evaluation in a No-Growth Environment: Utilizing on Campus Resources in Designing your Bibliographic Instruction Program," Amy Parenteau, Alverno College.