High Impact Instructional Librarianship

Reviewed by Robyn Slusher, Librarian, Anoka-Ramsey Community College on 10/9/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This text covers many different aspects of instruction in libraries. This is more of a broad take, so it can be easily applied to many different types of libraries. It also provides a great insight into the complexities of instruction in libraries and discusses the importance of accessibility and inclusion in instruction. I feel like this text could have benefitted from a deeper discussion on developing relationships with other stakeholders, as those relationships are crucial to instructional librarianship.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

While some of the authors’ content is cited well at the end of each chapter, I felt like there were a lot of statements that were missing direct citations. For example, in the first chapter, there is an assertion about why librarians have a hesitation to identify as teachers. What sources are there that back up this assertion? So, there are a lot of statements that are made that could use more cited sources as backup to make their arguments stronger.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

The content of the text appears current, but there are a lot of older sources used when citing information. Most of the information is from the 2000s and early 2010s. I feel like there has been a lot more literature recently written about information literacy and instructional librarianship. Since this text came out in 2024, I was hoping to see some more recent resources. Also, the extensive use of hyperlinks is concerning, as they frequently become broken. So, it would’ve been better to incorporate media in a way that is more permanent.

Clarity rating: 4

The authors did a good job at explaining concepts, such as Bloom’s taxonomy, and putting terms into context. So, that makes the text fairly easy to understand. However, there were a couple times where I felt the authors overexplained information to the point where I began to glaze over the content.

Consistency rating: 4

The text appeared to be consistent in terminology, but they included a lot of different theories and frameworks to consider when teaching. This could be confusing to those that are just getting their feet wet in the field. So, it would’ve been better to focus on just one or two different strong theories to help send a consistent message.

Modularity rating: 5

This text is really great for being broken down into smaller sections for different lessons. I can imagine the different projects that could be done in the classroom to help support each chapter. Even the guiding questions that the authors provide every chapter are a great tool for instructors to use.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

I believe that the content was organized well between chapters and within each chapter. Each chapter had headings and subheadings that made it easy to see what would be talked about. The chapters also made a logical progression through the instruction process.

Interface rating: 3

I felt like the interface for this text was a little off. There were certain graphics that had large gaps between them and the text. Also, some of the graphics were incorrect. For example, one chapter says to "? Click on the magnifying glass for each literacy to explore its features and relationship to information literacy," but there aren't any magnifying glasses—just the question marks. Overall, I just didn’t feel like the interface for this text was the greatest and it could use some improvements.

Grammatical Errors rating: 2

I felt like this text contained quite a few spelling and grammatical errors—at least a couple per chapter. An example of one of the spelling errors I noted is this, "life cycle of information form creation to deletion." Most of the spelling errors were minor, but there were so many to me that they were difficult to ignore.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

This book takes care to discuss cultural considerations when doing library instruction. There is also a great section on accessibility and inclusion in instruction that I found really insightful. I appreciated that this text took time demonstrate the needs that diverse learners deserve.

Comments

Overall, I think this is a really great text to begin a discussion on instructional librarianship. There are many different considerations that the authors discussed and there are many ways that instructors could use this material.

Reviewed by Heather Stecklein, Director, UW-Stout Archives and Area Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Stout on 7/31/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This text covers a broad range of instructional theories and demonstrates a variety of instructional methodologies and concepts. It provides a strong summary of the complicated landscape of library instruction. It could benefit from additional information on outreach--especially building partnerships with faculty, administrators, and the community (depending upon instructional context).

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The statements that the authors cited well appear to be accurate. However, many statements throughout the work lack specific contexts or citations. It's likely that the long lists of references at the end of each chapter address the content, but some of the narrative isn't connected directly with outside substantiation.

For example "Robert Gagne is considered to be the father of instructional design." By whom?

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content appears relatively current, but the number of links to videos and tools on external websites is concerning. At least one of the external links is not functioning, and it is likely that the link-outs to external content will continue to change or become inoperable over time. It would be preferable to have embedded content.

Clarity rating: 4

The authors sometimes used passive voice, which lengthened the work and decreased clarity. Generally, the authors successfully contextualized any terminology or concept (e.g. Bloom's taxonomy, summative assessment, etc.) that they presented.

Consistency rating: 4

The overall book seemed consistent in its terminology. However, the authors present a large number of theories and frameworks to consider, and novice instructors may struggle to know which of the many options to adopt.

Modularity rating: 5

This book is built well for modularity. Individual chapters would apply well to specific workshops or instructional initiatives. This text also made effective use of previously existing open access content and integrated it well into the larger context of this work.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The content is organized well within each chapter. However, the guiding exercises at the ends of the chapters were sometimes tangential to the content in ways that might frustrate a reader. For example, exercise 6.6.3 asks readers to self assess on their ability to teach information literacy skills that the authors didn't explain or address. How can a reader be expected to know whether or not they're in a good place to lead a class in a topic like "privacy" or "big data"? This book doesn't give them practical advice to guide them.

Interface rating: 2

This book is reformatted from an e-edition on a separate interface, and the PDF version provided includes a variety of problems relating to the reformatting. Some charts are cut off awkwardly across pages, and at least one link to an external resource is nonfunctional. The PDF edition also references remnants of the e-text that do not function in the PDF. For instance, it refers to a "magnifying glass" functionality and instructions like "click on each level to see the bullet points." These could be cleaned up relatively easily and significantly minimize reader confusion.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

This book includes a significant number of grammatical (e.g. "their dominate perspective" vs. "their dominant perspective") and punctuation errors throughout. It would benefit from a careful review and polish.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This book includes effective sections discussing cultural considerations. It makes efforts to demonstrate the diversity of learner needs and experiences. For instance, the section about Trauma Informed Pedagogy provided a perspective that many instructors may not have previously considered.

Comments

I'm thankful for this work, and I intend to refer to it as a reference for my instructional practice in the future.