December 2006 - Illinois Library Association

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Christine
Kickels
College of DuPage (COD) Library
How/where do you see
academic libraries/libraries
in general markedly changing
in the profession? Any specific
trends that interest/alarm you?
I see that libraries in general have
an online presence that includes more and more of what
was traditionally considered an “entertainment” component,
such as podcasting/music file downloads, streaming video,
and game-oriented instruction.
A challenge to libraries that’s reflected in this trend is
the recent tendency for us to be compared to the “regular
world” when it comes to electronic resources. If Google
can provide patrons with instantaneous full-text resources
from a simple interface with a few keywords, then we’ll
be expected to do something similar if we want to remain
competitive.
How do you see your library fitting into higher
education? Do students come to you prepared
from high school/undergraduate programs for
research and critical thinking?
When I see students, I have no assumptions that they’re
necessarily prepared for research at the college level. I feel
that it’s my responsibility to assess their abilities as best
I can, interpret their needs, and provide them with
something tangible.
Some students at COD are from an at-risk population.
Academically, they are adequate, but coming from different
socio-economic backgrounds and ages, they have exacerbated
personal demands (jobs, family, time issues) that traditional
students at other institutions might not face. We have to
take that into consideration.
In my role, I want to make the student comfortable
interacting with faculty — if I do my job, they’ll come
back to me again and again.
If not, then students will just turn to the Web for help —
it’s our biggest “competitor,” in a sense.
What’s the most interesting/rewarding/exciting aspect
of your professional career, or, what is your favorite
activity as a librarian?
I enjoy constructing hands-on learning activities and other
instructional assignments for use in the classroom. I believe
in activities, not lectures. I also enjoy opportunities to teamteach
with other faculty — it’s been especially rewarding to
see other instructors’ teaching styles. I like learning about
anything that’s related to pedagogy and integrating it into
my own bibliographic instruction sessions.
In the classroom I believe there is an information threshold
— sometimes, less is more. Lately I’m working on integrating
more assessment elements in the classroom, and answering
specific questions, such as how do we assess students’ prior
information literacy skills? How do their assignment
objectives match up with those skills?
ILA Reporter – December 2006
6
“ In my role, I want to make the student
comfortable interacting with faculty —
if I do my job, they’ll come back to me
again and again.”