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Practical help for history instruction
Research Strategies 18 (2001) 63 – 73
Practical help for history instruction Making the one-shot count Joel D. Kitchens* Sterling C. Evans Library, Texas A&M University, 5000 TAMUS, College Station, TX 77843-5000, USA
Abstract While it is generally assumed that active learning, information literacy course are the most effective means of teaching library skills, not every college or university library has the talent, resources, or institutional support required for that level of instruction. Frequently, a student’s library instruction is taught as a ‘‘one-shot’’ by a librarian without specialized training in the subject being taught. This essay is addressed to instruction librarians with limited experience in historical research find themselves called upon to conduct ‘‘one-shot’’ instruction sessions for history classes. D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Librarian instruction; History; Colleges and universities; Academic libraries
1. Introduction It is generally assumed that the most effective and efficient library instruction programs center around credit-based, active learning, information literacy courses taught at all levels throughout students’ careers in higher education. However, there are many instruction librarians on college and university campuses who only dream of that level of institutional support. For many reasons, some institutions do not offer these kinds of courses or devote the talent or resources needed to implement them. A recent posting on the BI-L listserv suggested that most schools are using ‘‘one-shot,’’ single-class-session, library instruction than generally reflected in the professional literature (Ryer, 2000). This is not to suggest that an information literacy philosophy need be abandoned. Instead, one can argue, it should be focused to the * Tel.: +1-979-862-1051. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.D. Kitchens). 0734-3310/01/$ – see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 7 3 4 - 3 3 1 0 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 6 7 - 2
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specific disciplines being taught. Unfortunately, instruction librarians often find themselves conducting single-class-session instruction programs in disciplines in which they may have little or no formal training or experience. This essay is addressed to instruction librarians with limited experience in historical research who are called upon to conduct a ‘‘one-shot’’ history instruction session.
2. History as a discipline History classes teach students more than just the dates of forgotten battles and names of dead kings or presidents. The discipline of history encompasses the whole of human experience; everything has a history. Especially in the past few decades, history has become increasingly interdisciplinary and anything from the history of technology to the history of ‘‘plain folk’’ is fair game for historical inquiry or a special topics seminar class (Ritter, 1993).1 History, traditionally, is a library-use-intensive discipline, as historians must demonstrate breadth and depth of knowledge as well as contextual comprehension in their chosen field. Since the primary form of scholarly communication among historians is the monograph, the library becomes an indispensable resource for their professional life. Critical thinking is one of the goals of most history programs and students of history must learn to be discriminating in what resources they choose, why they choose certain sources, and the manner in which they use the chosen resources. In some science disciplines, research over 5 years old is considered obsolete. In contrast, history builds upon and incorporates previous research to the point that, for example, the seminal work on a particular topic may be over 40 years old. If historians appear overly concerned with proper citations, it is because the accuracy of a bibliography is as important to the historian as the integrity of evidence is important to a lawyer. As one eminent historian once stated, ‘‘I am reminded of [A.E.] Housman’s remark that ‘accuracy is a duty, not a virtue’. To praise a historian for his accuracy is like praising an architect for using well-seasoned timber or properly mixed concrete in his building’’ (Carr, 1961, p. 8, quoted in Fischer, 1970, pp. 40–41). Bibliographies and footnotes from articles are used heavily by historians in their quest for more primary sources or to validate the arguments of a colleague.
3. Instruction for history courses In teaching a class the skills necessary for historical research, how does one decide what to include in a single 50 minute presentation? The problem is not unlike that of the harried history professor who must somehow cram over 5000 years of recorded human history (or even 500 years of American history) into two semesters and make it interesting. A
1
For a brief discussion on the development of various schools of history and historical inquiry, see D’Aniello (1993, pp. 3 – 24) and Iggers (1993).
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comprehensive treatment of even just a fraction of that time period or very focused segment of the population in a single semester can be quite a challenge. An examination of the professional library literature reveals intensive and involved collaboration between librarians and a faculty member on a single class assignment (Huber & Sherman, 1992; Lewis & Postlethwaite, 1990; Mazak & Manista, 1999; Schaus,1990; Stein & Lamb, 1998; Widder & Coogan, 1987; Woodard, 1996). Other librarians discuss collaboration and integrating information literacy into new courses or designing specific courses around improving library research skills in history (Elliot, 1989; Huling & Mudrock, 1999; Walter, 2000). D’Aniello’s book on teaching library research skills to history students is an excellent and thorough discussion on using and teaching the many library resources useful to history students. However, the contents cannot easily be reduced into a single class period even though D’Aniello (1993) admits, ‘‘single-session or one-night stand instructional opportunities predominate’’ ( p. 75). Despite these numerous articles on the benefits of library-skills courses and intensive partnership between teaching faculty and librarians on an individual class assignment, reality is often very different. Few libraries have the amount of staff required to allow professional librarians to do such time-intensive work with individual classes in specialized subject areas for days or weeks at a time, and teaching faculty frequently find themselves in similar time constraints. Instructional librarians may find themselves giving a presentation on medieval England one day, a presentation on the history of the space program the next day, and either an English 101 basic composition class or a physical anthropology class — or both! — the following week.
4. Working with faculty Because historical methodology is so library-dependent, many historians may assume that everyone uses the library in a similar manner and with equal effectiveness as they do. Therefore, convincing historians that library instruction would be beneficial to them and their students, rather than a waste of valuable lecture time, can be challenging. Marketing the library’s instructional services early and often is the key to getting teaching faculty to participate, but full participation from all faculty is unlikely (Kirkendall, 1986; Nims, 1999; Thesing, 1985). If instructional services librarians are not themselves departmental liaisons, they should make sure those librarians who do operate in this capacity frequently advertise what instructional services are available. The departmental liaisons are a voice to the faculty and instructional services librarians should take advantage of that resource. Many faculty learn about single-shot library instruction through department academic coordinators, new faculty orientations, or word of mouth from colleagues; flyers or mailings are likely to be discarded unread. When teaching faculty requests instruction, librarians should be aware that time out of the classroom is sacrificed from covering material with the class as a whole and work to ensure the requesting faculty member feels the session was valuable. When faculty requests an instruction session, the librarian doing the session should get in touch with that professor as soon as possible. A face-to-face meeting between the faculty
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member and librarian or telephone contact is best. The librarian should make careful notes during the conversation on what the faculty member wants and expects students to get out of the session. Librarians must always keep in mind that the history professor may have a specific learning style, content-based objectives in mind when giving the assignment, beyond its mere completion in the most expeditious manner. Instruction librarians should seek answers to the following questions: What is the specific assignment given to the class? What resources will the students need to complete the assignment and does the library have them (something a history professor teaching outside an area of immediate specialization may not realize)? When and how does the faculty member expect the assignment to be completed?
Librarians must recognize that the history faculty member’s desire may not reflect the most efficient way of completing the assignment or a preferred method of using the library. Historians are notorious for simply browsing the stacks and while librarians generally cringe at this inefficient practice, historians prize the method highly (Delgadillo & Lynch, 1999; Rosenberg & Swierenga, 1993; Stieg, 1981). Although difficult on the ego, librarians, even those with faculty status, should remember that the library does not ‘‘own’’ these classes; unless taught and graded collaboratively, the departmental instructor assigns final grades to the student projects. Similarly, though the librarian may want to only teach three or four discrete concepts and not overload the students with too much information, the course instructor may have other expectations and not leave many options. Instruction librarians should be flexible. Also instructive for instruction librarians is to make notes on the issues of electronic resources and the Internet. For example, is the use of Web resources acceptable or forbidden? Although becoming rarer, there are some faculty members who still do not trust any material found on the World Wide Web (WWW) and may forbid its use for their classes, not recognizing the difference between the global, media-hyped, and advertisement-filled Internet, and Web-accessible resources such as an online catalog, WilsonWeb, or History Universe from Lexis/Nexis. This offers an excellent opportunity to educate the faculty member on the complexities of the WWW and clarify the differences between the general Web search engines and scholarly resources available via the Internet. Unfortunately, the instructions or limitation of the assignment may already be set forth in the syllabi and the instructional librarian will have to adapt to the wishes of the faculty member. Some problems appear when students (especially new students) take things said by professors literally. So when a professor, intending to direct students to scholarly resources, forbids ‘‘using anything found on the Internet,’’ students may interpret this to mean any sources found with the aid of a computer (even Web-accessible databases). This is an especially common pitfall for large survey classes where the students are first being exposed to academic research expectations. Many professors express surprise and dismay that their instructions were taken to forbid the library’s online catalog or databases, and generally try to correct such interpretive errors. Taking a few moments to clarify instructions will save many headaches at the Reference Desk later in the term.
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5. Designing the content of the instruction session So what does one put into a history class presentation to make it most effective? That depends on the level of class being taught and what instructions the teaching faculty member has provided. Teaching an upper-level, specialized, undergraduate class may be very similar to the graduate-level research methods course. However, there are some general concepts that should be covered and the instructional session customized according to class experience and need. 5.1. Primary sources defined Graduate-level research in history absolutely requires consulting the original records, the ‘‘primary sources.’’ Instruction to undergraduates can, depending on the assignment, be similar to graduate students as more instructors are seeking to spark interest by introducing undergraduate students to primary source material. Primary sources are those created at the time of the event by witnesses or those actually involved and may include, but by no means are limited to: diaries, manuscripts, letters, personal papers, business reports, ship’s logs, immigration records, government documents, court records, and newspaper and periodical articles.2 An important lesson for instructors to give to any students (especially new researchers) using primary sources is that these sources are rarely ‘‘politically correct.’’ Depending on the chosen topics and resources, students may encounter words and opinions, openly expressed or subtly implied, that are considered unacceptable in today’s diverse and egalitarian society. The harsh light of history frequently reveals the darker sides of life. If the professor has not already done so, appropriate warnings or disclaimers may be in order. 5.2. Newspapers and contemporary periodicals Newspapers and periodicals published during the time period a researcher is interested in will make excellent primary sources. By examining old newspapers and magazines, researchers can gain keen insight into what was being said and read by the reading public. Although not indexed, even the advertisements from such resources can give insight to attitudes commonly held at the time. For example, a student doing a research paper utilizing primary source materials on the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic could find considerable primary source material in the old Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, the indexes for the New York Times and The Times (London). When consulting the older contemporary indexes, instructors should remind the students that the indexes were created near the time of the events and in terms people at the time would understand. Indexes covering these materials are primarily in print, although this is slowly changing, and instructors should explain how to use
2
See Yale University Library’s http://www.library.yale.edu/instruction/primsource.htm and http://www. library.yale.edu/ref/err/primsrcs.htm for an excellent definition of primary sources and instruction in finding primary sources.
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these when applicable. Newspaper indexes frequently use arcane alphanumeric systems to locate an article on the page, and each newspaper will employ a different system. Indexes such as those to the New York Times and The Times (London), as well as periodical indexes such as Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, Nineteenth Century Readers’ Guide, Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, Periodical Contents Index from ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey, and others are essential to opening up these treasure troves of historical information. Another index with coverage to the early twentieth century is the Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). PAIS is an international index going back to 1915 and covers scholarly literature in journals as well as book chapters, and even lists some government documents and reports The aforementioned resources are intended to provide a framework of sources. It is the responsibility of the individual instructor to determine which are available to their users and mention only those resources to which the local library has ongoing access. 5.3. Local resources and catalogs Depending on the topics and course level, some of the advanced indexes and databases may need to be omitted in favor of introducing the basics of searching techniques and developing an effective research strategy. A brief library tour, introduction to the catalog, basic periodical indexes, and an explanation of the local call number system are in order unless the faculty member has given them a more complex assignment and all students, as for an upper-level course, have already been exposed to local library research. Instructors and librarians should not assume that new graduate students are familiar with their local library and library services. They may have earned their bachelor’s degrees elsewhere using a different classification system, or in earlier, less computerized times. Unlike in subjects such as engineering or medicine, nontraditional students can easily return to a history program after extended time away without a loss of prerequisite knowledge. Occasionally, instructors for lower-level undergraduates will want to limit students to resources only within their library. This may be done for a variety of reasons including the desire for the students to become familiar with and value local resources, as well as prevent them from becoming dependent on interlibrary loan — an excellent service, but one that can lead to disappointment when items requested at the last minute cannot arrive before the assignment is due, or the student discovers that archival and special collection materials so often needed for historical research are not loaned at all. When showing students an automated catalog, instruction on nothing more than author, title, and keyword searching may be more useful than getting bogged down explaining Library of Congress Subject Headings (or whatever local subject classification system is used) or other controlled-vocabulary searching techniques. Subject headings used for history are frequently messy, often including multiple subfields and inverted headings. Librarians should explain Boolean operators and limit functions that the library’s catalog system recognizes, and librarians should show the students how to use them efficiently. If serials can be easily misinterpreted in the library’s catalog, instructors should show the students how to find them. Demonstrating the catalog is a good opportunity to give a brief, yet integrated, explanation of the call number system(s) the local library uses. Most, but by no means all, academic
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libraries use Library of Congress and many may also use the U.S. Superintendent of Documents system. Other libraries may also have some collections of various sizes still classified according to the Dewey Decimal System. Students may not know how to read call numbers commonly used in libraries, and if the class has numerous international students, call numbers used by most American libraries may prove confusing. Finally, the interdisciplinary nature of history can make answering the question — ‘‘where are your history books?’’ — difficult to answer directly. 5.4. Secondary scholarly literature Most disciplines have certain indexes that cover scholarly and general literature of interest to practitioners. History is no different, except that, depending on the time period studied, general/popular periodicals, including newspapers, may be considered primary sources. Instructors should decide in advance which indexes will be emphasized in the presentation and become familiar with them. As they deal with date ranges and named events, search fields may be more syntax-sensitive than simple topical keyword searching. Most indexes today are available in print as well as online. Instructors should show both print and electronic resources to the students, as online indexes are rarely comprehensive in their coverage beyond 15–20 years ago, although there are a few notable exceptions. Unlike science or medicine, history is a discipline that is heavily dependent upon comprehensive research, and the definitive essay on a particular topic may be 30 years old, yet still be relevant to contemporary research. Most print indexes of interest to historical researchers go back 40 years or more. Many students may or may not be familiar with the primary subject indexes to the scholarly literature in history such as ABC-Clio’s America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts. Graduate students may have been able to perform adequate research at the undergraduate level with a bit of ingenuity and more general indexes, such as the several Wilson indexes (in print or online), Academic Indexes (online), and Infotrac Expanded Academic (online). America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts are available in print and online back to 1964. The scope of America: History & Life is US and Canadian history from prehistoric times to the present. The scope of Historical Abstracts is worldwide going back to 1450 C.E. excluding the US and Canada. Both contain abstracts or other brief descriptions and citations to articles, dissertations, books, and selected book reviews. For students of the medieval period (ca. 400–1500 C.E.), the International Medieval Bibliography (available in print or online) indexes articles and review articles in scholarly and professional journals on a wide variety of topics for the Old World. Another online index to scholarly literature in medieval and renaissance studies is Iter,3 which is a collaborative project between the University of Toronto, Arizona State University, and the Renaissance Society of America.
3
See http://iter.library.utoronto.ca/iter/index.htm for more information.
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5.5. Book reviews Depending on the class and assignment, many history graduate students in reading seminars often need to be shown resources to assist them in finding in-depth book reviews. The primary form of communication for historians is the scholarly monograph, rather than the peer-reviewed journal article. Through book reviews, historians publicly evaluate and analyze in detail on the quality of research and writing done by their peers. Book Review Index, Book Review Digest, Reviews in American History, Humanities Index, Social Sciences Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and Social Sciences Citation Index are basic resources and all available in print and online, except for Book Review Index, which is only available in print. The online version of the citation indexes is collectively referred to as the Web of Science. The quarterly journal Reviews in American History provides article-length reviews and is available full-text going back to 1995 as part of Project Muse and the full-text from 1973 to 1994 is available from JSTOR. While electronic full-text is very popular, not every index is retrospective to cover the time period of interest or has full-text, nor has every publisher granted full-text rights, and not every library or student has access to JSTOR, Project Muse, or netLibrary.com. Graduate students in research seminars, as well as those beginning thesis and dissertation research, will need to do a comprehensive literature review. 5.6. Archival materials In addition to books, book reviews, and scholarly articles, these students must be given instruction in finding primary sources and materials from other libraries. Again, for historical research, this goes beyond the simple area of journal articles, and recently published monographs to include archival and manuscript resources, as well as microfilm collections, among others. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), OCLC’s WorldCat, RLIN’s AMC files, and ArchivesUSA from ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey — an electronic version of NUCMC — are excellent resources for locating manuscript material predominately housed in US repositories. OCLC’s WorldCat, as well as Dissertation Abstracts International can also be used to assist with comprehensive literature reviews for secondary, scholarly sources. Dissertations, like scholarly articles and monographs, usually have extensive bibliographies that must be mined for resources not found in standard reference sources. 5.7. Government documents If the library is a repository for government documents, or there are graduate students whose research necessitates the use of government publications, include the Monthly Catalog and its predecessors if the library has them from the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Congressional Information Service Index (now owned by Lexis/Nexis), as well as an introduction to the Guide to U.S. Government Publications and United States Superintendent of Documents call numbers. The US government has published reports on a wide variety of subjects: from agricultural reports and manuals, to space exploration, to the more common
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political reports, Congressional hearings, and economic policy, all of which can be used as primary source materials for historical research. The CIS index to congressional hearings (including the Serial Set) is now available online from Lexis/Nexis as Congressional Universe, while Government Periodicals Universe indexes other government research periodicals. However, unlike many other products by Lexis/Nexis, these government information databases are not full-text. 5.8. Other databases and indexes Depending on whether the nature of the class and subject matter covered is interdisciplinary, librarians may find it beneficial to show the students indexes, databases, and reference sources outside of the field of history. For example, instructors should show a class on the history of the US space program how to use the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), and the Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR) published by NASA. Students interested in a history of medicine can also consult indexes and databases such as MEDLINE. These are just a few examples of the resources available to students interested in subjects outside the more traditional topics usually associated with history. When using nonhistory-focused resources, including the truncated ‘‘histor’’ as one of the keywords will likely be quite effective. 5.9. Many different formats Many of the resources mentioned here are available only in print format, but this is changing. There are products today that give access to newspapers and journals of the nineteenth century either as online searchable indexes, or as full-text resources.4 If the library has access to these resources and they are relevant to the students’ work, instructors should include them in the presentation. Historical research can be a labor-intensive process and has benefited from the electronic revolution. However, few of the online indexes are retrospective in coverage and the increasing amount of full-text material available online will never equal the amount of printed material of interest to historians hidden in archives and special collections, or on microtext. In addition, these new electronic resources are frequently very expensive to create or buy access to, and many libraries may be reluctant to spend large sums of money to duplicate what they may already own in print or on microtext. Fifty minutes goes by very quickly and rather than cover everything the students could possibly need to know about the library at a frenetic pace, sometimes the better part of reason is to cover a
4
See http://www.poolesplus.net for an electronic version of Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, while ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey (http://www.chadwyck.com) has an electronic index to the New York Times from 1851 – 1922, Harper’s Weekly, the famous nineteenth-century periodical, is available online at http:// www.harpweek.com, and Scholarly Resources (http://www.scholarly.com) has Pennsylvania newspapers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as well as a collection of Civil War era newspapers on CD-ROM. These are just a few examples of the many resources of interest to historians becoming available by subscription in computer-accessible formats.
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few ideas in-depth and provide supplementary bibliographies. However, there are some other important issues that should be specifically mentioned or worked into a presentation. Since most primary source materials in many libraries are either in special collections or are on microtext, students should be warned to budget their time as this is time-consuming research. Undergraduates especially may not realize that archives and special collections libraries usually are not open the same number of hours as the main library and have special restrictions regarding item use and photocopying. Working with microfilm, -fiche, or -card is a laborious process, and it can be expensive to duplicate or photocopy (except for microcard, which cannot be photoduplicated at all). It is not something that can be put off, but students may not be prepared for a return to the old ways of research and note taking. There are more and more primary source documents and archival related projects appearing on the Web each day. However, since quality control on the Web is still erratic, it should be made clear to students that they must learn to be discriminating when choosing sources. Resource evaluation must be included in any instructional session. Finally, be aware of the hazards of discussing resources at another institution, or in a limited access collection, without input from those in charge of the resources and assurance that the students will be granted access.
6. Conclusion All too soon, 50 minutes are up and class is over. The follow-up assignments and availability of subsequent assistance help the students get practice in building their information literacy level in the discipline. Historical research is not a linear process. One source may answer some questions, but raise others. Instructional librarians who spend time at a public service desk may have students from classes target them with further questions on sources or other needs. Electronic mail messages to fellow public service librarians and staff, in addition to notebooks at the service desks with descriptions of the class assignments and resources mentioned to the students, will result in better service to students who have remembered incomplete details about less commonly used resources or techniques. In closing, historical research is complex, but need not be dull or confusing. Since history has become more interdisciplinary in the past 40 years or so, it has opened new resources, new methods, and new paths of inquiry. In a perfect world, students would receive instruction in library research skills at every step of the way throughout their college careers. However, for some institutions and/or individual faculty members, instruction in the use of library resources is an afterthought. Since historians tend to be intensive library users, course instructors may assume that their students know how to use a library as well as they do. With today’s diverse student population entering college with many varied backgrounds and experiences, this is not necessarily a valid assumption. Some students may know how to use a public library, or a school library, and/or may have general Web searching experience, but may have no experience with academic research libraries, varied formats, or special collections libraries. Other students may come from underprivileged backgrounds and may not have adequate grounding in library research at all. The dynamics are changing for the teaching faculty as well. Confronted with teaching more sections and larger classes,
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opportunities to interact one-on-one with students outside of the classroom are decreased and in-class time takes on greater importance. The ability to give over multiple class periods for library instruction becomes less and less practical, even for disciplines dependent on the library. Instructional librarians may only get ‘‘one shot’’ to help prepare students for historical research assignments. The resources mentioned here should help make every shot count.
References Carr, E. H. (1961). What is history? New York: Alfred A. Knopf. D’Aniello, C. A. (1993). Bibliographic instruction in history. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 69 – 94). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Delgadillo, P., & Lynch, B. P. (1999, May). Future historians: their quest for information. College & Research Libraries, 245 – 259. Elliot, P. (1989). The view from square one: librarian and teaching faculty collaboration on a new interdisciplinary course in world civilizations. Reference Librarian, 24, 87 – 112. Fischer, D. H. (1970). Historians’ fallacies: toward a logic of historical thought. New York: Harper & Row. Huber, K., & Sherman, B. (1992, Winter). Scholarly networking in action. Research Strategies, 10, 40 – 43. Huling, N., & Mudrock, T. (1999, Autumn). IMT 220: information research strategies in history. Available at: http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/Bi/imt220/. Iggers, G. G. (1993). Historical methodologies and research. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 3 – 24). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Kirkendall, C. A. (Ed.) (1986). Marketing instructional services: applying private sector techniques to plan and promote bibliographic instruction. Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press. Lewis, P., & Postlethwaite, D. (1990, Spring). Another time, another place: personal/public history. Research Strategies, 8, 90 – 93. Mazak, J., & Manista, F. (1999). Collaborative learning: university archives and freshman composition. Reference Librarian, 67/68, 225 – 242. Nims, J. K. (1999). Marketing library instruction services: changes and trends. RSR: Reference Services Review, 27 (3), 249 – 253. Ritter, H. (1993). History and interdisciplinary history. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 25 – 47). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rosenberg, J. A., & Swierenga, R. P. (1993). Finding and using historical materials. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 51 – 68). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ryer, M. A. (2000, November 16). Summary: how do you do library instruction? Bibliographic Instruction Listserv. [Online]. Available E-mail: [email protected]. Schaus, M. (1990, October). Hands-on history. College & Research Libraries News, 51, 825 – 831. Stein, L. L., & Lamb, J. M. (1998). Not just another BI: faculty – librarian collaboration to guide students through the research process. Research Strategies, 16 (1), 29 – 39. Stieg, M. F. (1981, November). The information needs of historians. College & Research Libraries, 549 – 560. Thesing, J. I. (1985,Winter). Marketing academic library bibliographic instruction programs: case and commentary. Research Strategies, 29 – 36. Walter, S. (2000, March). Engelond: a model for faculty – librarian collaboration in the information age. Information Technology and Libraries, 19, 34 – 41. Widder, A. H., & Coogan, J. (1987, Summer). Who was Berut? Using correspondence between world statesmen in bibliographic instruction. Research Strategies, 5, 135 – 138. Woodard, P. (1996, Summer). Librarian and faculty collaboration in Honors 301.88: an interdisciplinary computer course. Research Strategies, 14, 132 – 144.
Practical help for history instruction Making the one-shot count Joel D. Kitchens* Sterling C. Evans Library, Texas A&M University, 5000 TAMUS, College Station, TX 77843-5000, USA
Abstract While it is generally assumed that active learning, information literacy course are the most effective means of teaching library skills, not every college or university library has the talent, resources, or institutional support required for that level of instruction. Frequently, a student’s library instruction is taught as a ‘‘one-shot’’ by a librarian without specialized training in the subject being taught. This essay is addressed to instruction librarians with limited experience in historical research find themselves called upon to conduct ‘‘one-shot’’ instruction sessions for history classes. D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Librarian instruction; History; Colleges and universities; Academic libraries
1. Introduction It is generally assumed that the most effective and efficient library instruction programs center around credit-based, active learning, information literacy courses taught at all levels throughout students’ careers in higher education. However, there are many instruction librarians on college and university campuses who only dream of that level of institutional support. For many reasons, some institutions do not offer these kinds of courses or devote the talent or resources needed to implement them. A recent posting on the BI-L listserv suggested that most schools are using ‘‘one-shot,’’ single-class-session, library instruction than generally reflected in the professional literature (Ryer, 2000). This is not to suggest that an information literacy philosophy need be abandoned. Instead, one can argue, it should be focused to the * Tel.: +1-979-862-1051. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.D. Kitchens). 0734-3310/01/$ – see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 7 3 4 - 3 3 1 0 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 6 7 - 2
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specific disciplines being taught. Unfortunately, instruction librarians often find themselves conducting single-class-session instruction programs in disciplines in which they may have little or no formal training or experience. This essay is addressed to instruction librarians with limited experience in historical research who are called upon to conduct a ‘‘one-shot’’ history instruction session.
2. History as a discipline History classes teach students more than just the dates of forgotten battles and names of dead kings or presidents. The discipline of history encompasses the whole of human experience; everything has a history. Especially in the past few decades, history has become increasingly interdisciplinary and anything from the history of technology to the history of ‘‘plain folk’’ is fair game for historical inquiry or a special topics seminar class (Ritter, 1993).1 History, traditionally, is a library-use-intensive discipline, as historians must demonstrate breadth and depth of knowledge as well as contextual comprehension in their chosen field. Since the primary form of scholarly communication among historians is the monograph, the library becomes an indispensable resource for their professional life. Critical thinking is one of the goals of most history programs and students of history must learn to be discriminating in what resources they choose, why they choose certain sources, and the manner in which they use the chosen resources. In some science disciplines, research over 5 years old is considered obsolete. In contrast, history builds upon and incorporates previous research to the point that, for example, the seminal work on a particular topic may be over 40 years old. If historians appear overly concerned with proper citations, it is because the accuracy of a bibliography is as important to the historian as the integrity of evidence is important to a lawyer. As one eminent historian once stated, ‘‘I am reminded of [A.E.] Housman’s remark that ‘accuracy is a duty, not a virtue’. To praise a historian for his accuracy is like praising an architect for using well-seasoned timber or properly mixed concrete in his building’’ (Carr, 1961, p. 8, quoted in Fischer, 1970, pp. 40–41). Bibliographies and footnotes from articles are used heavily by historians in their quest for more primary sources or to validate the arguments of a colleague.
3. Instruction for history courses In teaching a class the skills necessary for historical research, how does one decide what to include in a single 50 minute presentation? The problem is not unlike that of the harried history professor who must somehow cram over 5000 years of recorded human history (or even 500 years of American history) into two semesters and make it interesting. A
1
For a brief discussion on the development of various schools of history and historical inquiry, see D’Aniello (1993, pp. 3 – 24) and Iggers (1993).
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comprehensive treatment of even just a fraction of that time period or very focused segment of the population in a single semester can be quite a challenge. An examination of the professional library literature reveals intensive and involved collaboration between librarians and a faculty member on a single class assignment (Huber & Sherman, 1992; Lewis & Postlethwaite, 1990; Mazak & Manista, 1999; Schaus,1990; Stein & Lamb, 1998; Widder & Coogan, 1987; Woodard, 1996). Other librarians discuss collaboration and integrating information literacy into new courses or designing specific courses around improving library research skills in history (Elliot, 1989; Huling & Mudrock, 1999; Walter, 2000). D’Aniello’s book on teaching library research skills to history students is an excellent and thorough discussion on using and teaching the many library resources useful to history students. However, the contents cannot easily be reduced into a single class period even though D’Aniello (1993) admits, ‘‘single-session or one-night stand instructional opportunities predominate’’ ( p. 75). Despite these numerous articles on the benefits of library-skills courses and intensive partnership between teaching faculty and librarians on an individual class assignment, reality is often very different. Few libraries have the amount of staff required to allow professional librarians to do such time-intensive work with individual classes in specialized subject areas for days or weeks at a time, and teaching faculty frequently find themselves in similar time constraints. Instructional librarians may find themselves giving a presentation on medieval England one day, a presentation on the history of the space program the next day, and either an English 101 basic composition class or a physical anthropology class — or both! — the following week.
4. Working with faculty Because historical methodology is so library-dependent, many historians may assume that everyone uses the library in a similar manner and with equal effectiveness as they do. Therefore, convincing historians that library instruction would be beneficial to them and their students, rather than a waste of valuable lecture time, can be challenging. Marketing the library’s instructional services early and often is the key to getting teaching faculty to participate, but full participation from all faculty is unlikely (Kirkendall, 1986; Nims, 1999; Thesing, 1985). If instructional services librarians are not themselves departmental liaisons, they should make sure those librarians who do operate in this capacity frequently advertise what instructional services are available. The departmental liaisons are a voice to the faculty and instructional services librarians should take advantage of that resource. Many faculty learn about single-shot library instruction through department academic coordinators, new faculty orientations, or word of mouth from colleagues; flyers or mailings are likely to be discarded unread. When teaching faculty requests instruction, librarians should be aware that time out of the classroom is sacrificed from covering material with the class as a whole and work to ensure the requesting faculty member feels the session was valuable. When faculty requests an instruction session, the librarian doing the session should get in touch with that professor as soon as possible. A face-to-face meeting between the faculty
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member and librarian or telephone contact is best. The librarian should make careful notes during the conversation on what the faculty member wants and expects students to get out of the session. Librarians must always keep in mind that the history professor may have a specific learning style, content-based objectives in mind when giving the assignment, beyond its mere completion in the most expeditious manner. Instruction librarians should seek answers to the following questions: What is the specific assignment given to the class? What resources will the students need to complete the assignment and does the library have them (something a history professor teaching outside an area of immediate specialization may not realize)? When and how does the faculty member expect the assignment to be completed?
Librarians must recognize that the history faculty member’s desire may not reflect the most efficient way of completing the assignment or a preferred method of using the library. Historians are notorious for simply browsing the stacks and while librarians generally cringe at this inefficient practice, historians prize the method highly (Delgadillo & Lynch, 1999; Rosenberg & Swierenga, 1993; Stieg, 1981). Although difficult on the ego, librarians, even those with faculty status, should remember that the library does not ‘‘own’’ these classes; unless taught and graded collaboratively, the departmental instructor assigns final grades to the student projects. Similarly, though the librarian may want to only teach three or four discrete concepts and not overload the students with too much information, the course instructor may have other expectations and not leave many options. Instruction librarians should be flexible. Also instructive for instruction librarians is to make notes on the issues of electronic resources and the Internet. For example, is the use of Web resources acceptable or forbidden? Although becoming rarer, there are some faculty members who still do not trust any material found on the World Wide Web (WWW) and may forbid its use for their classes, not recognizing the difference between the global, media-hyped, and advertisement-filled Internet, and Web-accessible resources such as an online catalog, WilsonWeb, or History Universe from Lexis/Nexis. This offers an excellent opportunity to educate the faculty member on the complexities of the WWW and clarify the differences between the general Web search engines and scholarly resources available via the Internet. Unfortunately, the instructions or limitation of the assignment may already be set forth in the syllabi and the instructional librarian will have to adapt to the wishes of the faculty member. Some problems appear when students (especially new students) take things said by professors literally. So when a professor, intending to direct students to scholarly resources, forbids ‘‘using anything found on the Internet,’’ students may interpret this to mean any sources found with the aid of a computer (even Web-accessible databases). This is an especially common pitfall for large survey classes where the students are first being exposed to academic research expectations. Many professors express surprise and dismay that their instructions were taken to forbid the library’s online catalog or databases, and generally try to correct such interpretive errors. Taking a few moments to clarify instructions will save many headaches at the Reference Desk later in the term.
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5. Designing the content of the instruction session So what does one put into a history class presentation to make it most effective? That depends on the level of class being taught and what instructions the teaching faculty member has provided. Teaching an upper-level, specialized, undergraduate class may be very similar to the graduate-level research methods course. However, there are some general concepts that should be covered and the instructional session customized according to class experience and need. 5.1. Primary sources defined Graduate-level research in history absolutely requires consulting the original records, the ‘‘primary sources.’’ Instruction to undergraduates can, depending on the assignment, be similar to graduate students as more instructors are seeking to spark interest by introducing undergraduate students to primary source material. Primary sources are those created at the time of the event by witnesses or those actually involved and may include, but by no means are limited to: diaries, manuscripts, letters, personal papers, business reports, ship’s logs, immigration records, government documents, court records, and newspaper and periodical articles.2 An important lesson for instructors to give to any students (especially new researchers) using primary sources is that these sources are rarely ‘‘politically correct.’’ Depending on the chosen topics and resources, students may encounter words and opinions, openly expressed or subtly implied, that are considered unacceptable in today’s diverse and egalitarian society. The harsh light of history frequently reveals the darker sides of life. If the professor has not already done so, appropriate warnings or disclaimers may be in order. 5.2. Newspapers and contemporary periodicals Newspapers and periodicals published during the time period a researcher is interested in will make excellent primary sources. By examining old newspapers and magazines, researchers can gain keen insight into what was being said and read by the reading public. Although not indexed, even the advertisements from such resources can give insight to attitudes commonly held at the time. For example, a student doing a research paper utilizing primary source materials on the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic could find considerable primary source material in the old Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, the indexes for the New York Times and The Times (London). When consulting the older contemporary indexes, instructors should remind the students that the indexes were created near the time of the events and in terms people at the time would understand. Indexes covering these materials are primarily in print, although this is slowly changing, and instructors should explain how to use
2
See Yale University Library’s http://www.library.yale.edu/instruction/primsource.htm and http://www. library.yale.edu/ref/err/primsrcs.htm for an excellent definition of primary sources and instruction in finding primary sources.
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these when applicable. Newspaper indexes frequently use arcane alphanumeric systems to locate an article on the page, and each newspaper will employ a different system. Indexes such as those to the New York Times and The Times (London), as well as periodical indexes such as Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, Nineteenth Century Readers’ Guide, Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, Periodical Contents Index from ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey, and others are essential to opening up these treasure troves of historical information. Another index with coverage to the early twentieth century is the Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). PAIS is an international index going back to 1915 and covers scholarly literature in journals as well as book chapters, and even lists some government documents and reports The aforementioned resources are intended to provide a framework of sources. It is the responsibility of the individual instructor to determine which are available to their users and mention only those resources to which the local library has ongoing access. 5.3. Local resources and catalogs Depending on the topics and course level, some of the advanced indexes and databases may need to be omitted in favor of introducing the basics of searching techniques and developing an effective research strategy. A brief library tour, introduction to the catalog, basic periodical indexes, and an explanation of the local call number system are in order unless the faculty member has given them a more complex assignment and all students, as for an upper-level course, have already been exposed to local library research. Instructors and librarians should not assume that new graduate students are familiar with their local library and library services. They may have earned their bachelor’s degrees elsewhere using a different classification system, or in earlier, less computerized times. Unlike in subjects such as engineering or medicine, nontraditional students can easily return to a history program after extended time away without a loss of prerequisite knowledge. Occasionally, instructors for lower-level undergraduates will want to limit students to resources only within their library. This may be done for a variety of reasons including the desire for the students to become familiar with and value local resources, as well as prevent them from becoming dependent on interlibrary loan — an excellent service, but one that can lead to disappointment when items requested at the last minute cannot arrive before the assignment is due, or the student discovers that archival and special collection materials so often needed for historical research are not loaned at all. When showing students an automated catalog, instruction on nothing more than author, title, and keyword searching may be more useful than getting bogged down explaining Library of Congress Subject Headings (or whatever local subject classification system is used) or other controlled-vocabulary searching techniques. Subject headings used for history are frequently messy, often including multiple subfields and inverted headings. Librarians should explain Boolean operators and limit functions that the library’s catalog system recognizes, and librarians should show the students how to use them efficiently. If serials can be easily misinterpreted in the library’s catalog, instructors should show the students how to find them. Demonstrating the catalog is a good opportunity to give a brief, yet integrated, explanation of the call number system(s) the local library uses. Most, but by no means all, academic
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libraries use Library of Congress and many may also use the U.S. Superintendent of Documents system. Other libraries may also have some collections of various sizes still classified according to the Dewey Decimal System. Students may not know how to read call numbers commonly used in libraries, and if the class has numerous international students, call numbers used by most American libraries may prove confusing. Finally, the interdisciplinary nature of history can make answering the question — ‘‘where are your history books?’’ — difficult to answer directly. 5.4. Secondary scholarly literature Most disciplines have certain indexes that cover scholarly and general literature of interest to practitioners. History is no different, except that, depending on the time period studied, general/popular periodicals, including newspapers, may be considered primary sources. Instructors should decide in advance which indexes will be emphasized in the presentation and become familiar with them. As they deal with date ranges and named events, search fields may be more syntax-sensitive than simple topical keyword searching. Most indexes today are available in print as well as online. Instructors should show both print and electronic resources to the students, as online indexes are rarely comprehensive in their coverage beyond 15–20 years ago, although there are a few notable exceptions. Unlike science or medicine, history is a discipline that is heavily dependent upon comprehensive research, and the definitive essay on a particular topic may be 30 years old, yet still be relevant to contemporary research. Most print indexes of interest to historical researchers go back 40 years or more. Many students may or may not be familiar with the primary subject indexes to the scholarly literature in history such as ABC-Clio’s America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts. Graduate students may have been able to perform adequate research at the undergraduate level with a bit of ingenuity and more general indexes, such as the several Wilson indexes (in print or online), Academic Indexes (online), and Infotrac Expanded Academic (online). America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts are available in print and online back to 1964. The scope of America: History & Life is US and Canadian history from prehistoric times to the present. The scope of Historical Abstracts is worldwide going back to 1450 C.E. excluding the US and Canada. Both contain abstracts or other brief descriptions and citations to articles, dissertations, books, and selected book reviews. For students of the medieval period (ca. 400–1500 C.E.), the International Medieval Bibliography (available in print or online) indexes articles and review articles in scholarly and professional journals on a wide variety of topics for the Old World. Another online index to scholarly literature in medieval and renaissance studies is Iter,3 which is a collaborative project between the University of Toronto, Arizona State University, and the Renaissance Society of America.
3
See http://iter.library.utoronto.ca/iter/index.htm for more information.
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5.5. Book reviews Depending on the class and assignment, many history graduate students in reading seminars often need to be shown resources to assist them in finding in-depth book reviews. The primary form of communication for historians is the scholarly monograph, rather than the peer-reviewed journal article. Through book reviews, historians publicly evaluate and analyze in detail on the quality of research and writing done by their peers. Book Review Index, Book Review Digest, Reviews in American History, Humanities Index, Social Sciences Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and Social Sciences Citation Index are basic resources and all available in print and online, except for Book Review Index, which is only available in print. The online version of the citation indexes is collectively referred to as the Web of Science. The quarterly journal Reviews in American History provides article-length reviews and is available full-text going back to 1995 as part of Project Muse and the full-text from 1973 to 1994 is available from JSTOR. While electronic full-text is very popular, not every index is retrospective to cover the time period of interest or has full-text, nor has every publisher granted full-text rights, and not every library or student has access to JSTOR, Project Muse, or netLibrary.com. Graduate students in research seminars, as well as those beginning thesis and dissertation research, will need to do a comprehensive literature review. 5.6. Archival materials In addition to books, book reviews, and scholarly articles, these students must be given instruction in finding primary sources and materials from other libraries. Again, for historical research, this goes beyond the simple area of journal articles, and recently published monographs to include archival and manuscript resources, as well as microfilm collections, among others. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), OCLC’s WorldCat, RLIN’s AMC files, and ArchivesUSA from ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey — an electronic version of NUCMC — are excellent resources for locating manuscript material predominately housed in US repositories. OCLC’s WorldCat, as well as Dissertation Abstracts International can also be used to assist with comprehensive literature reviews for secondary, scholarly sources. Dissertations, like scholarly articles and monographs, usually have extensive bibliographies that must be mined for resources not found in standard reference sources. 5.7. Government documents If the library is a repository for government documents, or there are graduate students whose research necessitates the use of government publications, include the Monthly Catalog and its predecessors if the library has them from the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Congressional Information Service Index (now owned by Lexis/Nexis), as well as an introduction to the Guide to U.S. Government Publications and United States Superintendent of Documents call numbers. The US government has published reports on a wide variety of subjects: from agricultural reports and manuals, to space exploration, to the more common
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political reports, Congressional hearings, and economic policy, all of which can be used as primary source materials for historical research. The CIS index to congressional hearings (including the Serial Set) is now available online from Lexis/Nexis as Congressional Universe, while Government Periodicals Universe indexes other government research periodicals. However, unlike many other products by Lexis/Nexis, these government information databases are not full-text. 5.8. Other databases and indexes Depending on whether the nature of the class and subject matter covered is interdisciplinary, librarians may find it beneficial to show the students indexes, databases, and reference sources outside of the field of history. For example, instructors should show a class on the history of the US space program how to use the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), and the Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR) published by NASA. Students interested in a history of medicine can also consult indexes and databases such as MEDLINE. These are just a few examples of the resources available to students interested in subjects outside the more traditional topics usually associated with history. When using nonhistory-focused resources, including the truncated ‘‘histor’’ as one of the keywords will likely be quite effective. 5.9. Many different formats Many of the resources mentioned here are available only in print format, but this is changing. There are products today that give access to newspapers and journals of the nineteenth century either as online searchable indexes, or as full-text resources.4 If the library has access to these resources and they are relevant to the students’ work, instructors should include them in the presentation. Historical research can be a labor-intensive process and has benefited from the electronic revolution. However, few of the online indexes are retrospective in coverage and the increasing amount of full-text material available online will never equal the amount of printed material of interest to historians hidden in archives and special collections, or on microtext. In addition, these new electronic resources are frequently very expensive to create or buy access to, and many libraries may be reluctant to spend large sums of money to duplicate what they may already own in print or on microtext. Fifty minutes goes by very quickly and rather than cover everything the students could possibly need to know about the library at a frenetic pace, sometimes the better part of reason is to cover a
4
See http://www.poolesplus.net for an electronic version of Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, while ProQuest/Chadwyck-Healey (http://www.chadwyck.com) has an electronic index to the New York Times from 1851 – 1922, Harper’s Weekly, the famous nineteenth-century periodical, is available online at http:// www.harpweek.com, and Scholarly Resources (http://www.scholarly.com) has Pennsylvania newspapers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as well as a collection of Civil War era newspapers on CD-ROM. These are just a few examples of the many resources of interest to historians becoming available by subscription in computer-accessible formats.
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few ideas in-depth and provide supplementary bibliographies. However, there are some other important issues that should be specifically mentioned or worked into a presentation. Since most primary source materials in many libraries are either in special collections or are on microtext, students should be warned to budget their time as this is time-consuming research. Undergraduates especially may not realize that archives and special collections libraries usually are not open the same number of hours as the main library and have special restrictions regarding item use and photocopying. Working with microfilm, -fiche, or -card is a laborious process, and it can be expensive to duplicate or photocopy (except for microcard, which cannot be photoduplicated at all). It is not something that can be put off, but students may not be prepared for a return to the old ways of research and note taking. There are more and more primary source documents and archival related projects appearing on the Web each day. However, since quality control on the Web is still erratic, it should be made clear to students that they must learn to be discriminating when choosing sources. Resource evaluation must be included in any instructional session. Finally, be aware of the hazards of discussing resources at another institution, or in a limited access collection, without input from those in charge of the resources and assurance that the students will be granted access.
6. Conclusion All too soon, 50 minutes are up and class is over. The follow-up assignments and availability of subsequent assistance help the students get practice in building their information literacy level in the discipline. Historical research is not a linear process. One source may answer some questions, but raise others. Instructional librarians who spend time at a public service desk may have students from classes target them with further questions on sources or other needs. Electronic mail messages to fellow public service librarians and staff, in addition to notebooks at the service desks with descriptions of the class assignments and resources mentioned to the students, will result in better service to students who have remembered incomplete details about less commonly used resources or techniques. In closing, historical research is complex, but need not be dull or confusing. Since history has become more interdisciplinary in the past 40 years or so, it has opened new resources, new methods, and new paths of inquiry. In a perfect world, students would receive instruction in library research skills at every step of the way throughout their college careers. However, for some institutions and/or individual faculty members, instruction in the use of library resources is an afterthought. Since historians tend to be intensive library users, course instructors may assume that their students know how to use a library as well as they do. With today’s diverse student population entering college with many varied backgrounds and experiences, this is not necessarily a valid assumption. Some students may know how to use a public library, or a school library, and/or may have general Web searching experience, but may have no experience with academic research libraries, varied formats, or special collections libraries. Other students may come from underprivileged backgrounds and may not have adequate grounding in library research at all. The dynamics are changing for the teaching faculty as well. Confronted with teaching more sections and larger classes,
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opportunities to interact one-on-one with students outside of the classroom are decreased and in-class time takes on greater importance. The ability to give over multiple class periods for library instruction becomes less and less practical, even for disciplines dependent on the library. Instructional librarians may only get ‘‘one shot’’ to help prepare students for historical research assignments. The resources mentioned here should help make every shot count.
References Carr, E. H. (1961). What is history? New York: Alfred A. Knopf. D’Aniello, C. A. (1993). Bibliographic instruction in history. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 69 – 94). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Delgadillo, P., & Lynch, B. P. (1999, May). Future historians: their quest for information. College & Research Libraries, 245 – 259. Elliot, P. (1989). The view from square one: librarian and teaching faculty collaboration on a new interdisciplinary course in world civilizations. Reference Librarian, 24, 87 – 112. Fischer, D. H. (1970). Historians’ fallacies: toward a logic of historical thought. New York: Harper & Row. Huber, K., & Sherman, B. (1992, Winter). Scholarly networking in action. Research Strategies, 10, 40 – 43. Huling, N., & Mudrock, T. (1999, Autumn). IMT 220: information research strategies in history. Available at: http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/Bi/imt220/. Iggers, G. G. (1993). Historical methodologies and research. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 3 – 24). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Kirkendall, C. A. (Ed.) (1986). Marketing instructional services: applying private sector techniques to plan and promote bibliographic instruction. Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press. Lewis, P., & Postlethwaite, D. (1990, Spring). Another time, another place: personal/public history. Research Strategies, 8, 90 – 93. Mazak, J., & Manista, F. (1999). Collaborative learning: university archives and freshman composition. Reference Librarian, 67/68, 225 – 242. Nims, J. K. (1999). Marketing library instruction services: changes and trends. RSR: Reference Services Review, 27 (3), 249 – 253. Ritter, H. (1993). History and interdisciplinary history. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 25 – 47). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rosenberg, J. A., & Swierenga, R. P. (1993). Finding and using historical materials. In: C. A. D’Aniello (Ed.), Teaching bibliographic skills in history: a sourcebook for historians and librarians ( pp. 51 – 68). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ryer, M. A. (2000, November 16). Summary: how do you do library instruction? Bibliographic Instruction Listserv. [Online]. Available E-mail: [email protected]. Schaus, M. (1990, October). Hands-on history. College & Research Libraries News, 51, 825 – 831. Stein, L. L., & Lamb, J. M. (1998). Not just another BI: faculty – librarian collaboration to guide students through the research process. Research Strategies, 16 (1), 29 – 39. Stieg, M. F. (1981, November). The information needs of historians. College & Research Libraries, 549 – 560. Thesing, J. I. (1985,Winter). Marketing academic library bibliographic instruction programs: case and commentary. Research Strategies, 29 – 36. Walter, S. (2000, March). Engelond: a model for faculty – librarian collaboration in the information age. Information Technology and Libraries, 19, 34 – 41. Widder, A. H., & Coogan, J. (1987, Summer). Who was Berut? Using correspondence between world statesmen in bibliographic instruction. Research Strategies, 5, 135 – 138. Woodard, P. (1996, Summer). Librarian and faculty collaboration in Honors 301.88: an interdisciplinary computer course. Research Strategies, 14, 132 – 144.