Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Active Learning and Library Instructionby Michael Lorenzen

(This article was original published in Illinois Libraries, 83, no. 2 (Spring 2001): 19-24.) From the beginning of academic library instruction in the United States, it was noted that perhaps lecturing was not the most effective way of educating students about the library. In 1886, Davis wrote about his frustrations in teaching students about the library who were not learning anything from his lectures. This phenomenon has been noticed by many other librarians as well. The assumption that library instruction should be lectured based probably has driven the opposition of many academic librarians to library instruction. After all, if lecturing to students about library use does not work, why do it? Active learning, also known as cooperative learning, is a model of instruction that many academic librarians have turned towards to better help students learn about the library in the classroom.