Library News for the Faculty

Information Literacy Instruction in Action: Instruction Hits the Airwaves

This fall the UCLA Library expands its instructional efforts by delivering information via podcasts and television segments. Covering subjects targeted primarily for undergraduates and using media that are popular with students, these short segments range from details on hours and locations to research tips and database descriptions.

Podcasting
Podcasts are audio files that users can download and listen to either on a computer or on an MP3 player such as an iPod. Developed by Stephanie Brasley, information literacy coordinator in the College Library, the Library's podcasting project will be rolled out in two phases.

"Welcome to Powell," the first phase, will be launched during the fall quarter. These podcasts will cover Powell Library Building facilities, including College Library services and hours; hours and policies of Night Powell, the building's extended-hours reading room; equipment and services offered by the College Library Instructional Computing Commons; and collections and services of the Instructional Media Lab and Library. They will also contain general information on locating course reserves materials, accessing the Internet via wireless connections throughout campus, and using Library resources from off-campus.

The second phase of the project, scheduled to be launched later in the year, will provide students with immediate access to Library and research help. Areas to be covered will include selecting a topic for a course assignment, finding books and articles, tips for searching catalogs and databases, and advice regarding scholarly search engines like Google Scholar.

Users will be able to access the podcasts through the College Library Web page.

Television
LITE (Library Instruction to Everyone) Bites, a collaborative project between the Library and the Office of Residential Life's (ORL) Residential Cable Television Station (resTV), is a series of brief segments about Library facilities, resources, and services. College librarians Cathy Brown and Diane Mizrachi and library assistant Steve Sherwin are working with Steve Greim, Jeff Warden, and members of the resTV Student Production Committee under the auspices of Eric Kidder from ORL. The librarians create the content, and the production group writes, acts in, and produces the segments.

"Bites" range from thirty seconds to two minutes and focus on different services or resources. Segments on how to find course reserves; names, locations, and hours of campus libraries; and the extended-hours reading room Night Powell introduce new students to basic Library information. They will be broadcast on resTV and will also be formatted as streaming video and linked from the Library homepage.

The idea for the project grew out of an invitation from Jack Gibbons, ORL associate director, to tour the residential facilities and explore collaborative projects in order to enhance information literacy among students in the residence halls.

Both of these efforts are designed to support classroom instruction by furthering students' ability to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively. Along with print handouts, in-person research help in libraries, and interactive online tutorials such as "Bruin Success with Less Stress" and "The Road to Research," they provide students with multiple access points for information and instruction.

Contact
As head of the Library's Information Literacy Program, librarian Patti Caravello in the Charles E. Young Research Library's Collections, Research, and Instructional Services is available to discuss these and other Library efforts to support faculty's needs regarding classroom instruction. She can be reached by telephone at extension 55025 or by email.