Teachmeet Abstract

1. Think like a librarian: best practices for offering open workshops
Merinda Kaye Hensley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
mhensle1@illinois.edu
An increasing number of libraries are revisiting the open workshop, a kinesthetic
learning opportunity for the academic community that positions the library to assist
users in constructing advanced research and information management skills. Open
workshops can maximize the teaching strengths of your librarians, provide
opportunities to collaborate with partners outside the library, and strengthen
relationships with your users. Workshops can also cover myriad interdisciplinary
topics that cannot be fit into traditional course-integrated library instructions sessions
including citation management, data services, copyright, authors rights, scholarly
communication, developing presentation skills, current awareness tools, discovery of
gray literature and much more. With a focus on fostering lifelong information literacy
skills, open workshops offer an environment where users can model how to "think
like a librarian." By employing a strategic marketing initiative coupled with active
learning that embraces the teachable moment, open workshops can give our users yet
another reason to turn to librarians during the complicated research process. Using the
successful model of workshops from the Savvy Researcher series, this TeachMeet
presentation will examine best practices for creating in-person workshops that are
complemented by online learning experiences.