Teaching with WorldCat Local: What’s Different?

Meg Grotti, University of DelawareKaren Sobel, University of Colorado-

Denver

Whose Libraries have WorldCat Local?

Disclaimer

Thesis Statement

Agenda

• Results First! What we discovered• Methodology • Themes, challenges and

recommendations• Institutional context• Brainstorming guide• Q&A Discussions Throughout!

What we discovered

• Survey focused upon 3 major themes:– Skills Taught– Populations Taught– Materials Searched

Methodology

• Practical, informal ways of coming up with real questions

• From questions to scholarly inquiry• Identifying WCL academic libraries:

OCLC-WCL-L listserv • “Snowball” survey• Gathering data using Google Forms• Horrible long link to our survey:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&pli=1&formkey=dEtiRkFweDg2MUs2UlVHWVJtQkwtN1E6MA#gid=0

Theme 1: Skills Taught

• New emphasis on Interlibrary Loan, networked libraries

• Shift in searching paradigm• Librarians are teaching with WorldCat

Local in a similar way to traditional catalog systems

Theme 1: Skills Taught:Recommendations

• Multiple Formats= Teaching Moment• Information Dissemination Timeline

• Citation Tools• List function can support groupwork

Discussion

When you teach with WorldCat Local, what information literacy

skills do you tend to emphasize?

Theme 2: Populations Taught

• No great difference between populations taught

• “Tiered Approach”

Theme 2: Populations TaughtRecommendations

• Beginning Researchers:– Build on prior knowledge– Exploration– Format basics

• Intermediate Researchers:– Higher level tasks– Citation /Attribution– Authorities on a subject

Discussion

Do you find yourself teaching WorldCat Local more to some populations than others? Do you find that some populations gravitate towards this resource while others do not?

Theme 3: Materials Searched

• Searching for select material types– Books, a/v

• OR searching for “all”• Why doesn’t anyone focus on article

searching?

Theme 3: Materials SearchedRecommendations

• Searching “all” helps students learn about material formats.

• Article searching always gets results.• Learn who can change what.

Discussion

Who has had good luck with teaching article searching via WCL? Would anyone like to share techniques? Do these work with all patron groups, or only specific ones?

Institutional Context:

• How WCL is integrated in your library• Patrons’ immediate needs• Patrons’ future research needs• Patrons’ backgrounds in terms of

experience, language, and more

Brainstorming Guide

• Different best practices for every institution

• Most institutions need a tiered approach

• Brainstorming guide + your institutional knowledge = WCL teaching success!

Keep in touch

Discussion group:http://groups.google.com/group/wclinstructors

mgrotti@udel.edukaren.sobel@ucdenver.edu

Image Credits and References

All Images were distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) license

“Old Time Bath” by The Pfaus“Classroom of Students” by Tulane Publications“Open Book” by Sarah Michael “School Supplies” by Wirawat Lian-udom “Study” by Lester Public Library “School Bus” by Geoffery Kehrig “Front of Classroom” by Chris Campbell “Angela Thompson” by Tulane Publications “School Supplies” by tormol “Lecture Hall” by uniinnsbruck “Brainstorming” by Marco Arment“Wet Feet” by p4nc0np4n“Steps” by Larry Miller