Creative Instructional Design: Practical Applications for Librarians

With an explosion of accessible information online and students feeling more and more independent in their searching skills and information needs, libraries are shifting to user-centered models. With this shift comes a need for librarians to transform the focus of the library from a great repository of material into a service-centric, one-stop research and learning shop for patrons. These changes are requiring librarians to define the library by the services it can provide, especially innovative ones, such as publishing services, scholarly communications, and project management. Instructional design can help librarians craft and assess these new and innovative services, including teaching information literacy, developing online content, and designing programs and outreach initiatives in a targeted and mindful way.

Creative Instructional Design: Practical Applications for Librarians explores the major overarching themes that show why instructional design is so impactful for academic librarians—intentionality, collaboration, and engagement—and provides you with extensive examples of how librarians are applying the theoretical perspectives of instructional design in practical ways. The book examines ways in which librarians are using instructional design principles to inform, construct, or evaluate information literacy initiatives; online library instruction and services; and programming and outreach efforts. Instructional design provides a way for instructors, trainers, and educators to both approach instruction creation systematically, and evaluate how it has been effective and how it can be improved.

Regardless of the instructional format, from classes to workshops to videos to worksheets, instructional design strives to ensure that potential learning gains by students are maximized and that the instruction is evaluated for improvement in future iterations.

About the Author :
Brandon K. West is the Head of Reference & Instructional Services and liaison to the social sciences at the State University of New York at Geneseo’s Milne Library. His research interests include examining the intersections of information literacy and online learning, applying instructional design principles to enhance student learning, and addressing LGBTQ issues in libraries. He has a master of education degree from Grand Valley State University, a master of library science degree from Texas Woman’s University, and a graduate certificate in online learning and teaching from the University at Albany.

Kimberly Davies Hoffman serves as the University of Rochester’s Head of Outreach, Learning, and Research Services at the River Campus Libraries. Pulling from successful past collaborative experiences at SUNY Geneseo, Kimberly is excited to guide a new team of outreach librarians toward growth in areas of teaching, programming, collaboration, and leadership. Her interests lie in engaging pedagogy, instructional design, assessment, and creating professional development opportunities. She has been a founding member for programs like LILAC, the 3Ts, and RYSAG. Kimberly earned her MLS at the University at Buffalo and a BA in French and International Relations at the University of New Hampshire.

Michelle Costello, Education/Instructional Design Librarian, is liaison to the School of Education and provides reference help and library instruction to students, faculty and community members at SUNY Geneseo. Ms. Costello is a member of a campus Instructional Design Team, who assist faculty in designing, developing, and implementing online courses. She also teaches workshops for faculty and students on authentic uses of classroom technology which further increases her relationships within the campus community. Ms. Costello was co-project manager of a successfully developed and implemented learning community of pedagogical improvement for librarians (LILAC, Library Instruction Leadership Academy) and currently serves as co-principal investigator and presenter for the latest hybrid iteration. Michelle earned her MLS from Syracuse University and a BA in psychology and elementary education from St. John Fisher College.