Interviewed by Prof. Anne Leonard
For our Spring 2015 issue, Prof. Anne Leonard, coordinator of library instruction and information literacy, interviews Prof. Suzanne Miller of the English department. For the past several semesters, Suzanne has worked with instruction librarians to bring her ENG 1101 students to the library for one additional research workshop, which is led by a librarian. Students prepare for this session by selecting a research topic. During the workshop, they search and evaluate articles, books, and other sources that fulfil the research requirement of their writing assignment. The extra session affords time for consultation about search strategies and keywords with a librarian as well as feedback about their topics from Professor Miller.
AL: Please tell us a little about yourself. How long have you been teaching at City Tech? Can you tell us a little about what you did before coming here?
SM: This is my sixth year at City Tech. I was an adjunct for two years before moving to a substitute line in the English Department. I joined the department as a full-time faculty member in the Fall of 2013. Before City Tech, I worked in the New York public schools as an artist-in-residence, teaching playwriting to fifth graders. If we want to go way back, I did this sort of work in Seattle and in Providence, while I was a graduate student at Brown (I received my MFA in playwriting in 1998.) While in Providence, I taught writing and theater courses at Brown and at the Rhode Island School of Design. All along, I’ve been working as a playwright. I live in the Prospect Lefferts neighborhood of Brooklyn with my husband, two daughters (Margaret, 10 and Eloise, 9), and our labradoodle, Teddy.
AL: Why is the library important to your teaching? What does the library offer to you and your students?
SM: The students are savvy in many ways when it comes to gathering information, but they are not so savvy when it comes to distinguishing between good and bad sources. The librarians and the library instruction sessions give the students a basic understanding of what sources (both electronic and print) are out there, and how to recognize the credible ones. The library is essential to my teaching, especially when it comes to the research component of the writing courses. Without the librarians and the library instruction sessions, most students would rely solely on Internet search engines without knowing how to distinguish between good and bad sources.
AL: What abilities do your students come away with from their library instruction sessions?
SM: I think the students gain an awareness of what’s available beyond the Internet. Even if they are not convinced about actually using the library databases or print materials, the students leave the library sessions with a sense that there’s life beyond Google! Also, just being physically in the library is important. Sometimes the students do not know where the library is—and often they don’t know what the library has to offer beyond being a place to study and check out books. It’s great to make them aware of the reference librarians, for example.
AL: Can you describe the value that these abilities have for you students beyond the classroom, and beyond their course of study at City Tech?
SM: One of the most important life skills that students will hopefully take away from the library is learning to question the sources that they find online or anywhere— to develop a “don’t believe everything you read” mindset. Although the students may have this mindset regarding what they read on social media, they sometimes think that whatever information they find online with regard to research is fine and true. If we can teach students to approach their information sources with a healthy dose of skepticism, this will help them in their studies and in their lives.
AL: Is there anything more you’d like to see in City Tech Library?
I had occasion to use one of the small, private study rooms recently (to conduct a short rehearsal for a play reading), and I found it very helpful to have this space available. I think encouraging students to form study groups in the library (and to use these private rooms) would be a great way to help them improve their study habits and academic performance.
AL: What would you tell a colleague from another department to encourage them to bring their class to the library for an instruction session?
Many of the students are unaware of the resources available to them—especially the library databases. And even if the students are aware of the library resources, they may be intimidated by them. The instruction sessions give students a sense of how to navigate the databases; in addition, these sessions give the students a personal introduction to the library. I hope this personal touch makes it more likely that students will visit the library either in person or online. In addition, I would say that while these sessions are, of course, focused on the students’ needs, I’ve also learned a lot about the library databases from the librarians, and I’ve used this knowledge to help me design my courses and in my own research.
Source: Newsletter
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