Apologies for cross posting.
Thank you to everyone who repled to my enquiry about training and
user education, and apologies for the delay in reporting back to the
list.
I had replies from 15 institutions. Listed below (in no particular
order) are some of the strategies being used:
12 stressed the importance of getting the departments/academics
involved in the process - it was felt the students were more likely
to take the sessions seriously if their departments were involved.
One person mentioned that they get the tutors to email the students
to tell them to attend.
2 places mentioned the importance of good links with IT departments -
this helped avoid repetition of training sessions.
6 places said they hold regular drop in sessions on general topics
eg. using the catalogues, Internet searching, formulating search
strategies and 13 said they hold sessions tailored to the needs of
particular groups.
Almost everyone has some kind of induction session but the approach
varies - some places have tours, some do catalogue demonstrations and
some just have brief introductory talks (followed up later in the
term with in depth sessions)
8 places pointed out the importance of good publicity -
posters,leafletting, bookmarks, announcements on Library web pages.
6 places said that students are expected to produce a piece of work
for evaluation - this makes them take the sessions more seriously.
2 people said they hand out forms to students asking for feedback.
1 person gets a list of names from the tutors and takes a register -
this helps to encourage the students to attend.
2 places do have one to one sessions - one place was a small library
and one place does them for postgraduates.
The sessions don't just happen in the first year so the students can
build up their skills over the period of their studies.
Several people said that smaller sized groups work better allowing
the trainer to help everyone and they allow the students to get as
much hands on experience as possible.
I got so much information that this really only skims the surface of
what is going on in the field of user education. Once again thank you
very much for all your replies which were very helpful. If anyone
wants to ask me anything else about this please fell free to get in
touch "off list".
Best wishes
Frances
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Frances Redding
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