What a coincidence....

For my Library Administration & Management class I had to create a Marketing Plan. My Marketing Plan centered on “my library’s” implementation of the missing LINK. LINK stands for Librarians Illustrate Necessary Knowledge, which they would do through Library Instruction. My pitch was that all incoming students be required to attend the LINK workshops as part of their orientation. All of the library instruction sessions would be either lead by Academic Librarians and/or Graduate Student Assistants. Hence, imagine my surprise when I was asked to participate in library instruction for Oak Park High School. I was beyond excited when my coworker asked me to participate in this instruction. What a coincidence, because I had just dedicated a paper to this topic.

First, on the day of the instruction the group was supposed to arrive at 9:30am and instead arrived a little after 10am. The teacher who arranged the library instruction session was both professional and polite. Since there were quite a number of students, they were split up into three different groups. I partnered with my coworker Katrina, who was responsible for the planning of the instruction. While the other two groups had one Academic Librarian assigned to teach the students about library instruction.

Next, Katrina and I led our group to Lab B, where we introduced ourselves and began the instruction. Initially we were going to thoroughly discuss different types of domain names and the importance of citing along with the MLA format. Due to their late arrival, we had to briefly discuss certain domain names and we eliminated the discussions dedicated to citing and MLA. Katrina was covering the different types of domains, and the authority, bias, and currency offered on the different domain types. I was responsible for discussing the difference between Academic/Research Libraries, Public/School Libraries, the Michigan Electronic Library, and the Databases offered through MEL.

Moreover, Katrina presented her material first and I watched as she taught with confidence and humor. Truth be told, I was shaking in my boots as I watched her from the corner because I knew my time to instruct was quickly approaching. Whenever I become nervous, I tend to stutter and one of my legs shakes uncontrollably. This is what precisely happened as I began to speak, but neither one of my legs was shaking to my surprise. Once I became comfortable in front of the students, my confidence grew and Katrina was very helpful in adding anything I may have left out.

Naturally, because of my theatre background most assume that I handle crowds and/or public speaking very well. Playing a character allows me to step into another world to perhaps become someone from a different environment. Library Instruction and/or presenting a class project, is Jasmine being Jasmine and not a character, which makes me nervous. Besides, if I suck as an actor this reflects my poor acting ability vs. poorly instructing students which is a reflection of my job and/or school in a way.

Overall, the library instruction for all three groups went very well and the teachers were pleased with the knowledge they and their students garnered. The students in my group were very respectful and appreciative of the instruction that they received. The teacher responsible for arranging the instruction with Katrina said he planned to bring his 12th grade students back every year. Katrina said that for this to be my first time doing instruction I did very well. I was beyond happy and humbled by the entire experience and wish to do it again in the near future!!