Workshop Programming with Hooks:

Drop-in general orientation-to-the-library sessions and tours are often poorly attended and sometimes even a bit dull. Here are some ideas for workshops that allow librarians to reach out to their communities and develop information literacy skills in more effective ways, outside of the regular curriculum:

practical

Offer workshops on specific resources that have some buzz. These allow you not only to promote particular library resources, but also to raise critical issues surrounding fee vs free resources and scholarly vs. non-scholarly sources of information.

1. sessions on new subscription-based tools and resources (i.e refworks) - http://www.library.uiuc.edu/refworks
2. sessions on widely known, controversial free tools -- Google Scholar, Wikipedia
3. series -- for example: Research Frontiers or Cool Tools @ UNB Libraries

political

Offer workshops on issues of concern to your community. Not only does this approach raise the profile of the library as a trustworthy information disseminator and keeper of the historical record, it also allows you to teach social and political issues surrounding the context of information, media literacy skills, and even interdisciplinary research skills. Consider collaborating with faculty in relevant fields -- political science, communications studies, etc.

1. Hot Topic Current Events -- how to get background and current information on the issue (government documents, popular and alternative press/media, the Internet)
2. Elections - research the candidates, research the issue
3. Interdisciplinary topics -- e.g. Globalization

guest speakers

Offering lecture series and literary readings in the library profiles the role of the library not just in preservation of knowledge, and access to information -- but also to our role in communicating and disseminating information. Handy bibliographies and relevant pathfinders can be handed out at such events, and/or bookmarks/cards pointing to a web address for more information on how to find relevant information in this area.

1. current authors on relevant topics
2. student and faculty creative writers

specific groups

Outreach to particular populations on campus is a good way to promote information literacy. These sessions should allow for a lot of student-centred learning, discussion and question/answer. Possible groups include:

1. International Students - also University of Illinois Library Tours in Many Languages
2. Mature Students
3. Activists -- opirg's, student leaders, women's centre (feminist research)
4. Students with Disabilities
5. Graduate Students
6. Faculty
7. Staff
8. Lifelong learners - UIUC's OLLI courses

events

1. University of Illinois Library Fall Festival (Open House) + Bob the Book! (photos)
2. Game on @ the Undergrad
3. Library Table at Campus Information Fairs

collections

Pointing patrons to unique collections allows subject librarians and archivists to profile these sources. In addition, sessions can include strategies for accessing and using such sources in academic work. Again, this could be a point of faculty/librarian collaboration.

1. Graphic novels
2. Treasures @ Your Library (a sesion profiling particularly valuable/unique holdings)
3. Music Collections
4. Historical Maps
5. Data collections -- "Why the Census Matters"
6. Local history

spur-of-the-moment activities

1. The Insta-Workshop -- announce an immediate 20 minute "how to use the library catalogue" session, or "how to find a journal article" session.

shifted librarians

1. residence hall sessions
2. subject librarian office hours in other departments