Librarians as Teachers (morning session)

Today I attended the Librarians as Teachers event which was run jointly by CILIP’s CDG West Midlands division and UC&R West Midlands section. The purpose of the event was to look at the status and role of librarians delivering teaching and practical ways librarians can develop their teaching skills and gain recognition for the teaching they do. There were many people tweeting the event and much of what follows in my reflection of the event can be found in the archive of #lat10 tweets.

The day started with Antony Brewerton of the University of Warwick giving us a walking tour of the library’s Teaching Grid which, given the topic of the day, was a perfect location for the event. It is a highly dynamic space with no fixed partitions or furniture. Back in our seats Antony introduced us to the ladder of loyalty where each rung is a stage on a continuum defining customer engagement; from potential customers at the bottom to partners at the top. He tied this back to the library’s use of the Teaching Grid as a way of engaging and developing relationships with both academics and students.

Following this, Debbi Boden from Glasgow Caledonian University gave the keynote on the evolution of the librarian’s teaching role. She started with a couple of videos to highlight that the profession is still struggling to overcome the librarian stereotype. I can’t resist sharing this one with you:

Debbi then went on to identify what skills librarians need to be effective teachers. At the very least this should be a knowledge of educational theory and the vocabulary that accompanies that. It was interesting to hear that at Glasgow Cal all liaison librarians are expected to have a teaching qualification and if they don’t have one when they are appointed they must complete the P.G. Cert. within 2 years. One slide in this presentation outlined an ideal CV, amongst other things this included being a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a chartered member of CILIP. Debbi pointed out that if a candidate had one or the other she would prefer them to be an HEA Fellow but that she would not appoint a teacher over a librarian. As someone who has been debating for months over whether to Charter a teaching qualification and HEA membership feels like a more practical and viable alternative.

The next presentation, from Jo Webb, followed on well from here as it focused on the HEA and gaining recognition for teaching. Talking to other delegates during the breaks I think many felt that the topic of this session was all new to them, and this was shown at the start when Jo asked how many of the group were HEA members – of 45 only 5 raised their hands. As well as looking at the criteria of membership the HEA’s professional standards were also discussed. Unfortunately from this I didn’t feel that librarians were really valued as members of the HEA; the criteria for the different levels of membership have been redefined and now librarians may only join as associates where before they could become fellows [Update: I misunderstood this - see clarification from Jo in the comments]. Having said that though I am definitely going to do some further reading about what is involved.

The last presentation of the morning, given by Sally Patalong from Coventry University, was about the P.G. Cert. qualification. Sally has a unique perspective on this having been a student on the course, a practitioner, and now a facilitator. I really found hearing her personal experience of the process and how it has helped her develop as a teacher useful. She rounded off the morning perfectly with three recommendations:

1. Keep evidence of everything you do
2. Observe other teachers, focusing on their style not the content
3. Ask for feedback, reflect on it and act where appropriate

Okay let’s pause there. I have decided to split this post of the event in two because it would have just been too long otherwise. Stay tuned for the second half which I will post tomorrow.