The librarian interviewed for this project was Barbara Kuttler, a reference librarian at the O’Keefe Library at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. She has a Master of Arts Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa. She has been there for approximately two years. She also works at the Bettendorf Public Library in Bettendorf, Iowa. In addition, she held a position at a Navy Library in Japan. The following questions and answers were asked to get a perspective of the work done by a social science librarian, in this case, a librarian that works with the discipline of education.
Some of the materials used for choosing books are Choice, Booklist, Library Journal, and publishers catalogs. She stated that she chooses a little more popular material than others may because of the undergraduate student population that is served. As far as the amount of faculty input concerning materials, the system is set up so that faculty are provided with a budget to choose materials and the library has a separate budget to choose materials. Therefore, it provides opportunities for each to make their own decisions rather than have disagreements about additions to the collection.
Working the reference desk is of course an important part of the work that is done. Bibliographic Instruction is another. This can be done one-on-one or with groups. Students generally ask for one-on-one instruction, and faculty ask for group instruction for students in their classes. There is also an Information Literacy 101 course (1 credit hour) that is taught by the librarians at the library.
The course is organized in ten sessions. By the end of the course students should be able to:
1. Be able to ask the proper questions for an information need.
2. Be able to locate the proper materials for the need and understand their organization.
3. Be able to apply proper search strategies for an information need.
4. Be able to use critical thinking to evaluate information gathered and to organize it effectively.
5. Use the information gathered effectively – paraphrasing rather than committing plagiarism.
Special education is an area to update continuously because the standards change often.
Students seem to lack library skills.
Proceed to Sub-Disciplines of Education
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Prepared as part of the requirements for the Master of Library Science Degree
Department of Information and Library Science
School of Communication Information and Library Science
Southern Connecticut State University
