Teaching Me to Teach

D o you remember the first time you ever taught a class in the library? Who taught you how to teach? According to a survey administered by Julien and Genuis, 86.2% of librarians prepared themselves for instructional work informally while on the job. Westbrock and Fabian found that librarians learn the ACRL Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators through self-teaching or on-the-job training, not through library school courses. It seems like we are choosing to employ the sink-or-swim method of instructional training: throw new librarians into the classroom and hope that they manage to stay afloat. This method is detrimental to the instruction program, the librarian, and the students.