Curriculum-Based Library Instruction: From Cultivating Faculty Relationships to Assessment

There have been many books published recently that cover the topic of library instruction (LI) or user education, so is there a need for another? The solution tried with this book is to target a niche market, so for that reason it is likely to have some success. That niche is the health sciences sector consisting primarily of medical and nursing students. The subject material in their curriculum is so specialised that general books on LI may not be of much use. One feature of the book that needs to be made is that its authors have focused on in-depth LI and for those librarians who can only offer “one off” classes the content is not always fully relevant (but nevertheless could be of some assistance).

The two editors work in health sciences libraries, and they have put together a large team of writers, many of whom also work in managing information services for health science academics and students. The book is a mixture of some familiar kinds of material on LI and one section devoted to LI in the health sector. The first section contains two chapters on “building relations and gaining trust” which are really about entering into the mainstream of academic life and getting noticed. Throughout the book, attention is given to some topics often forgotten in other books on user education, such as learning theories (nicely written and not at all “dry”) and adult learning. There are chapters on online instruction, face-to-face teaching and blended learning and on introducing self-assessment and peer assessment into LI practice (a chapter on an innovative method that will interest even those who are very familiar with user education).

In the special section on subject-based instruction in the health sciences, there are chapters on evidence-based medicine and medical students, writing a curriculum-based LI plan for medical students, the librarians’ role in evidence-based medicine integration into the medical curriculum, thoughts on a graduate nursing curriculum, strategies for creating an information skills curriculum for a health sciences library and a chapter on biomedical informatics. If these sound like topics that will interest you or assist you to develop user-education programmes for medical science students, then you should get a copy of this book.