I've contacted Helen already and have offered to organise it, if there is sufficient interest. It would probably be the week beginning 21st April.

I find that a lot of users "do not know what they do not know" either that or they are aware of the gaps but are not sure how to fill them or where to go for help. I think that is why advocacy of what we can do and how we can help is so important. Are you working in a Law Library in a Law firm or a University? I am speaking from a higher education perspective so it might be different to your situation, but I have found that it is hard to get people to come to my teaching sessions as they think they can get by without them. However,  once I have got them there, they mostly say "I don't know how I managed without knowing this stuff before" and "can I come back for a follow up session" as they want to know more. I find that the two things that they struggle with the most is the effective use of databases and correct referencing. This is mostly down to a lack of confidence. I don't know why but everyone seems to think referencing is HARD and with databases they tend to be too impatient for good results and get frustrated if what they are looking for is not delivered immediately!  We really should do more of it but my colleagues and I try to address this by offering and marketing drop-in, bite sized sessions to students and staff so they can see exactly what we can help them with. Once we have sold it to them the staff then often include us more in their curriculum and the students pass their knowledge on to their friends. It takes persistence and does not always work but it is rewarding when it does...so after all that waffle I'd say, yes, it is often a case that users do not know what they do not know but once you have given them a taste they frequently ask for more!  I find you have to do the leg work and go to them first.

With regards to planning teaching sessions, which you have already had some useful advice on, one of the most valuable things I learnt on my PGCert course is that it is important to think carefully about exactly what it is you want the students to get from the session and how your methods and content will facilitate this. Try and establish their current knowledge beforehand. As Helen and Karen suggest, it is also really useful to have a planning sheet for each session. Getting feedback from students is also invaluable.

I would be interested to hear how you get on :)

I'm a secondary school librarian so my sessions follow the school's standard lesson plan format.  Basically break your session into 3 main sections:

1. A short introduction - just like writing an essay you need to tell your audience what to expect - you could include a quick ice-breaker - I don't as I am working with pre-exisiting groups.
2. The main body - break this into short sections, don't spend too much time talking, even adults get restless and can't concentrate for too long.  Get your trainees doing the work, you learn more from doing than listening, so include praticals e.g. group discussions, quizes,etc. We use "support, develop, challenge" a lot at school - the idea is that one group will contibute an idea or hypothosis, the next group has to either support (with expansion/justification), develop or challenge their point  - it's an easy to use hands down form of questioning, which allows everyone to contribute.
3. Finally the Pleniary, go over what has been covered to check understanding.

I also use rewards, stickers (particularly good with A Level students), pens, bookmarks etc.

Have a clock where you can see it, and a clear plan or crib cards to keep you on track.  Its easy to get side tracked or allow discussions to run away with the time.  Remember that you are in control of the session.

Best of luck - hope this helps

Karen

I can't really help with the first part of your post as I've only just started working back in libraries - however from my previous work I do agree about the 'unconscious incompetence' you mention! 

In terms of session design, when I was a trainer at JISC Netskills (I've just left a couple of weeks ago) I used a planning form which prompted you to remember various things to do with learning design - there's a version online which was adapted slightly for infolit sessions which you might find useful:

http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/projects/eduserv-info-lit/infoskills-staff/12ILLessonPlanningForm.doc

I hope this helps! 

Helen 

Also, looking ahead to designing a training session in a month or so, it would be great if anyone has any good tips for designing and running a great educational session that they want to share!

Johanna

We have just launched our questionnaire today and wondered if you would kindly complete it and assist us with our project – Bridging the Divide. 

The questionnaire is very brief and will take no longer than five minutes to complete.

Please be assured that all information you provide will be kept strictly confidential.  Your name or other identifying information will not appear on any report.

Your participation represents a valuable contribution to our research and we thank you again for your cooperation.

Please click on the link below and follow the instructions accordingly.

http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/newcastle/bridge

Best wishes,

Ann-Marie and Jackie

Thank you for this it is fab. Good to hear how other people are finding it. I have 2 more assignments left before I finish mine. I have found it easier than I expected in many ways but the hardest thing has been to link what I am learning into my practice. I have been teaching on an online module for the first time though which has really helped as it is my first real attempt at curriculum development, assessment and feedback. I have really enjoyed getting my teeth stuck into that!

I don't think the twitter account auto-tweeted this post so I have done so manually. I hope that is ok.

Johanna

We're at the very early stages of planning a LibTeachMeet in Scotland.  It will probably be in July, somewhere in the Central Belt.

I'll add more info here (and post an event announcement) when we have a date and location confirmed, but let me know if you'd like to be kept informed.

Thanks,

Kirsty

Could use Elluminate for presentations (our uni has a licence), it would just need decide back channels and virtual places to gossip / share ideas associated with it.

If I do (for late July possibly?) do people think it might work? Or is the face to face meeting too much of an important part of it?

I posted this via Twitter a while back - it's a Google Docs link to my presentation from LILAC 2011. I printed some handouts of the useful reading and promptly forgot to give them out too!

Anyway, thought I'd share it here, in case it was useful, particularly for anyone thinking about or starting out on a PG Cert in Learning and Teaching in HE...

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-GFcxIXvGLhMDk5YWI2MDAtMGIwOC00NzI2LWIwZWUtZjZjYmRkYzBmYmE1&hl=en

@Sarahbrarian

Thanks

That said, I think a calendar is good, for the same reason as using the lists: it shows the range and diversity of activity.

LibTeachMeets are obviously highly relevant here but the calendar here should also include other LAT related events, so I'm concerned that we'll end up having to duplicate events or having 2 calendars displayed.

I wondered if we could just use the events page here for libTeachMeets? I'm aware that it does mean it can't be embedded elsewhere but it could be linked to. Any thoughts?

Btw I've been in touch with a couple of other LibTeachMeet organisers and we've done some joint national advertising today.

If anyone's interested in helping, do get in touch. Plan is to go for late afternoon, early evening ,so as to be hospitable both to those working in Sussex, but also to those who commute up to London

I genuinely don't see the problem. 

However, I'm going to be a minority voice here and say I cannot see any need to coordinate at all and it makes me feel a bit.... un-teachmeety. What does it matter if lots of LibTeachMs are happening at the moment? They are by their very nature localised events. If there's one in Edinburgh, it's of little use to you if you're in Bournemouth and it doesn't matter if they're at the same time - they aren't attracting visiting speakers/keynote addresses or any such from the same pool of people. If it turns out that Easter hols or summer break is a time when lots of people all over the country are interested in having this kind of event, I genuinely can't see what the problem would be? It's natural for people to be inspired by events elsewhere.... these things develop organically and it won't always be so incredibly active.

I take your point about national lists getting lots of LibTeachM publicity, but isn't that just like getting lots of different CILIP SIG adverts or whatever (struggling to think of another example) or lots of job adverts on a list when you're not job-hunting? You just ignore the emails that aren't relevant to you. In any other respect, I think it would be really counter-productive to make people feel they need to check a central calendar or run it by someone else before they go ahead and organise. If there's demand and people will come, then people should hold as many LibTeachMs as they wish, whenever they want. 

The teacher TeachMeets have the central wiki obviously, which would provide that calendar function you're arranging. But no ruling that you couldn't hold a TeachMeet if someone already had one on that date/in that week. And I absolutely think we should share ideas - I'm delighted and excited about all the other LibTeachM and am more than happy to answer questions, discuss, share our experiences and learn from those of others. Definitely. As long as that's all completely open to everyone (like here or on one of the LibTeachM site forums etc). 

Obviously just my opinion. 

Andrew - yes, we'll plug it in our talk, near the end with other 'how to find/create your local lib TeachMeet' things.

Niamh - I'm presenting the same time as you at LILAC, so won't get to see your talk on TeachMeet. (v. dissapointed about that...)

If we have a shared / public calendar, will you plug it in your talk?  

I think a thread or other way to share ideas/tips/etc. would be a really good idea - no need for everyone to reinvent the wheel (unless they want to!)

Be nice to arrange another one in Huddersfield or Manchester later on in the year, but I didn't want to initiate anything while so many others were coming out...

Of course it might not be the same people each time but maybe worth a try? Any thoughts?

Helen

Hope to see some of you there!

Helen

Thanks

You will never find a date that suits everyone, in the end you have to just go for it. First time, we just set a date and found a venue later. this time we chose a venue and based date on availability there. And make sure the date at least suits the organisers to make your own lives easier ;)

Good luck, am watching developments with interest.

Do you have any dates in mind for a London Teachmeet yet? Just ball park, not expecting anything specific.

That sounds great, must admit was hitting a brick wall getting info out of my place.  I'll try and get back to you about requirements, but all ideas and suggestions welcome. At the minute I'm just trying to gauge interest and work out if it is possible, though the cambridge team have given loads of advice and help and think I should just go for it and do it. Would you be interested with helping the organisation of a London libteachmeet? It would be really great if you could, anyway let me know if you would like to, my email is mexysoo@googlemail.com

Helen

I don't know where you usually promote your events, but sending a message out on the jisc lists would be good for those not using this network or twitter. I'm teaching that afternoon so won't be able to make it, but I hope it goes well.

Suzie

We might be able to host this at the University of Westminster. What sort of space and technical support would be needed?

Emma
 

Kirsty Thomson (see above) will be helping with organisation. Have created a twitter account for it @toonlibtm so watch this space!

Got your email, and very happy to help. We haven't heard of anyone else doing one in London - good luck with it!

Niamh

With all the TeachMeets going on up and down the country, I thought it was about time to initiate a London one. Does anyone know if anyone is organising one in London already? Also, if I do take this on,  I think I will need all the help and advice I can get, so I maybe contacting some of you anyway but any help much appreciated.

Lynne

• Jackie Dunn– Senior Library Assistant (Arts and Humanities), Robinson Library, Newcastle University

• Ann-Marie Laws– Librarian/Learning Resources Centre Manager, Ponteland High School

Both project members have a genuine interest in Information Literacy and teach students in our specific areas.  Our aim is to bridge the divide between school and university (and in between), making IL a way of life.  Working together we will gain an insight into the similarities and differences between teaching IL at school and HE level.

We are aiming to explore the teaching experiences of library staff in education.  A framework of good practice will be produced which can be utilised by all library staff, assisting with the planning and teaching of IL sessions.  This will result in an online teaching resources toolkit, allowing the sharing of teaching materials.

If you can help with our research or would like us to come along and tell you more, contact us:-

Bridgingthedivide.forgottenlink@gmail.com

I'll try and stick something reflective on the HudTeachMeet blog (and duplicate it here) about the event in general and what I'd do differently next time that might help others organise similar events. It sounds hopeful that there will be one in Liverpool soon, but I'm really hoping to encourage 2 or 3 a year in my neck of the woods. If I've the time and energy I'll start pestering people in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, etc. to organise events after Liverpool! I'll probably do another next year in Huddersfield as well...

I noticed Niamh & Katie have their names down to do a talk at LILAC about TeachMeet, hopefully that'll get a few more people enthusiastic about organising their own!

Andrew

Jo

It sounds like a great success. I am really disappointed I could not the this. it seemed to come flying around and I did not get my act together in time. Hope I can get to a TeachMeet soon,

Jo

Loads of details are on the event blog, including videos of the short talks! Will be some more reflective stuff there soon as well.

From a comment at the end, someone may be interested in hosting one in Liverpool soon...
 

We’re getting closer to the Huddersfield Librarian TeachMeet, so here are a few more details about the afternoon.

We’ll start at 2 o’clock exactly, so please arrive between 13:45 & 14:00 so we can start promptly.

14:00-14:10 Introduction / Welcome to the event

14:15-14:45 Speed Networking

14:45-15:45 Quick Presentations

15:45-16:25 Bag of Goodies

16:25-16:30 Feedback and winding up

For continuing discussion, people are welcome to get together in The Head of Steam (http://www.theheadofsteam.co.uk/huddersfield/) afterwards, a pub conveniently positioned in Huddersfield Train station

The event is in the Seminar room on floor 3 of the Library and Computing Centre at the University of Huddersfield, within the Central Services Building (http://www2.hud.ac.uk/about/visiting/maps/index.php) – that’s the tallest building on campus with “UNIVERSITY” in large letters at the top. We are about 10 minutes walk from the train station. Report to the library reception on arriving and you’ll be guided to the room.

If you’ve not yet given a topic for a lightning talk, please do, we can squeeze a few more in! The list of talks so far are on the blog (http://hudteachmeet.blogspot.com/2011/01/short-talks.html), we’d like as many people as possible sharing on the day.

We’d also like to share presentations with others and intend recording all talks. If you don’t want photos or videos of yourself to be taken and shared, please let us know before the day. We’ll also assume that no-one minds names and email addresses to be shared via an attendee list unless we hear otherwise.

One of the things we’ve got planned for the event is a reading corner. We’ve created a list of bookmarks online (http://bit.ly/fdqRMC) and will provide print versions of as many of these as possible on the day for you to look through. Please look at the list and add anything you think would be useful as well as leaving comments on the items already up there.

If you’re on twitter, use #hudteachmeet to tweet about the event, we’ll also use the blog (http://hudteachmeet.blogspot.com/) to collate information about the day.

Regards,

Andrew

Zoё

Kirsty

Lisa

Sarah

We've also decided to set up a Reading Corner. Created a starter list of books & articles in Google Bookmarks that I'm hoping people will add to & comment on before and during the day. We'll make as many as possible available on the day for people to have a mooch through as well.

Hopefully if people contribute we'll end up with a useful list of books and articles for librarian style teaching

Isla

Would anyone be interested in a local Teachmeet? Any views on whether you'd like it to be during the day / evening / Saturday? I could probably provide the room (Bournemouth) if a Saturday was preferred?

Please get in touch: ccooke@aecc.ac.uk

Thanks,

Caroline Cooke

Details and registration will be on http://www.camlibtm.info and if you're on twitter follow @camlibtm

Hope you'll consider coming along - it would be great to see new faces.

best wishes,
Isla

I'd be happy to help with this if there are things that can be planned from a distance (I'm in Central Scotland) - contact me by email if you'd like a hand with anything.
 

Have you any thoughts about daytime or evening?  Daytime is easiest for people who need to travel, but can cause problems for people getting time off work.
 

We’re holding a Librarian “TeachMeet”  in Huddersfield on 9^thFeb 2011.

 This will be a really informal opportunity for librarians who teach to get together to share tips and experiences. 

If you come, be prepared to give a short (5 min at most) talk to share an aspect of your teaching. There will be “speed dating” to share tips and a lucky dip of teaching goodies to rummage through for inspiration. 

The free event will be held at the University of Huddersfield from 14:00 to 16:30 on Wednesday 9^thFeb. More details will appear on http://hudteachmeet.blogspot.com/and http://latnetwork.spruz.com/ as we decide them.

 Please email library.learn@hud.ac.ukif you’d like to attend. Places are limited, so book now to avoid disappointment.

Andrew, Zoë, Sarah, Kirsty, Lisa

Helen

I'm sure I'm not the only person who saw this teaching course organised by CILIP and wished it was cheaper (£240 + VAT for CILIP members, more for others).  I've had a quote for running the course in Cambridge and it works out more like £100 per person (excluding refreshments, including VAT) if we could get 15 people to sign up.  Would anyone here be interested at that kind of price?

I shall be starting a PTLLS course early next year and while I'm looking forward to it, I am also a little apprehensive about it.  There is also talk of a full blown PGCE but I really don't think I have the time to commit to that.  I also wouldn't have a clue as to what subject to do.  I'm currently completing a Professional Development Award in Application of ICT in Libraries, completed an NVQ3 in LIS last year and also a BSc(Hons) last year.  Some time soon I hope to be doing no courses and having free weekends!

So I am really looking forward to hearing everyone elses experiences and thoughts on courses and teaching in libraries.

I would definetly travel for something like this - I only could not come to the first one as it was induction week so I am pleased to hear you are planning another. For me a week day afternoon event works best as I have a way to travel and as I cant drive I have to rely on public transport which is hopeless on weekends. Evenings would not be possible though. Having looked at CILIP's Teaching and Learning training events, although they all look great, they are pricey and my workplace has no funding to send me on such courses. Teachmeet however is a great alternative where I could learn lots of new stuff and it would not break the bank! They would be more agreeable to giving me the time off and allowing me to attend a teachmeet than they would an expensive course. I would like to organise a similar event in my area but it is not viable at the moment as I have so much on but I am eager to attend one. Keep us posted!

Jo

I'm Katie, I'm a 'new professional' (I qualified in 2008) and I work in special collections, particularly in education and outreach.  It's a different sort of teaching to a lot of the other work described in this thread, but (it's just occurred to me) still definitely education, and quite often teaching.  I do things like organising exhibitions, designing and running hands-on activities, holding school education sessions, speaking to special interest groups, and so on, all based around special collections holdings.

I'm @Girlinthe on twitter and I blog at Girl in the Moon.

Katie

I can really relate to what Katie says about time being limited and the need to get across general principles rather than specific details. In the time allowed it would be impossible to train students in how to use every database they might find useful so maybe better to get students thinking about why they might use databases over (for example) Google - if they know the reasons to use them and are thus motivated enough they'll invest a bit of their own time learning how to use the specific tools. That said, I'm often asked by lecturers to show students specific  databases so often the session ends up falling somewhere between.

I'm also on the organising committee for the LILAC conference.

Twitter: @LisaJeskins

Blog: http://lisatraining.wordpress.com/

I'm looking to share information/tips/experiences with other trainers/teachers (delete as appropriate). I also can't believe I've missed this forum. I think I didn't think it was for me...

Lisa

I'm Sarah, I am an academic liaison librarian at the University of Worcester. I used to work at UCE (as it was then, Birmingham City Uni now) as a library assistant, then a senior assistant. While there I completed a 2-year part-time MSc with Northumbria Uni. Finished that in 2006, and after a spot of travelling I returned to find my first professional post at University of Worcester.

I fell into what I do now - I left a PGCE in secondary English back in 2003, after 6 months, as I just didn't enjoy teaching and hated the discipline issues. So it is rather strange for me to have come back to teaching, albeit a much older age range! Even stranger is the fact that I dropped out of the Worcester PGCE, and now I work with my old tutors, teaching their students. Hmm. How did that happen??

Anyway, not one to be defeated, I am now back on a teaching course at Worcester, this time the PG Cert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Ed. I've just got my marks for the first module, 65/100, it can be done! While I've found it to be a great opportunity to reflect on my teaching experiences, it's really opened other people's eyes too, especially some of the academics and the course tutors, I think. I'm part-way through the second module, which involves planning and delivering a teaching programme - creativity in meeting the learning outcomes is required! I've also just this week started the third and final module, which should be finished in June next year. It requires me to do a piece of action research, and yet again I find myself trying to think of ways to 'get in with' my academic colleagues and find a way to get that research done. You really, really have to think ahead - June seems a long way off, but most of my teaching for the academic year Sep-Aug comes in the first semester. So if Christmas comes and I've got no research on the go then it will be more difficult to complete. Scary stuff :)

Anyway, enough ramblings. I'm here for pals, reflection, networking, sympathy and rants. (Great smileys BTW)

@Sarahbrarian (Twitter)

http://ednetwork.mixxt.com

http://delicious.com/sarahoxford