About the Library Instruction Case Wiki

Mission

The purpose of the Library Instruction Case Wiki is to promote and facilitate the application of case method teaching in library and information literacy instruction.

Teaching with cases is widespread in legal, business, and medical fields, and has been shown to increase both learning and enthusiasm in students. Case teaching is a problem-based approach to active learning, concepts that are increasing prominent in the library field. (See the Annotated Bibliography for further reading.)

Although case teaching is more effective, it also requires more preparation on the part of the instructor. By making cases we have developed for instruction available on this site we hope more librarians will be encouraged to experiment with the case method. We also hope to encourage discussion and research on the topic of case teaching.

Origins

Andy Spackman and Leticia Camacho began experimenting with case teaching at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management in September 2007. Library instruction had proven our most effective form of outreach to the business school, and by 2007 we were conducting over 120 instructional sessions per year, with over 3,000 participants. These sessions were primarily integrated into specific courses, including a mandatory session in the communications class required of all business school students. And yet students continued to express a need for additional opportunities for formal library instruction in specific topics. To meet this need we launched a series of extracurricular, open-door clinics modeled after the clinics at The Home Depot stores. (See a schedule of recent clinics here.)

These "Business Research Clinics" have been a success, with 637 students and faculty attending 48 clinics during the first two years. We have learned much about promoting library instruction sessions where attendance is voluntary, and based on student feedback we

Library instruction has proven our most effective form of outreach to the business school, and we have pursued a variety of approaches.

To remain relevant in the life of the business school despite the lack of a physical presence, we seized on library instruction as

For further discussion of the origin and implementation of the Business Research Clinics and the introduction of case teaching, see Andy Spackman and Leticia Camacho, "Integrated, Embedded, and Case-Based: Selling Library Instruction to the Business School," in Librarian as Architect: Planning, Building and Renewing: Thirty-Sixth National LOEX Library Instruction Conference Proceedings, edited by Brad Sietz, Susann deVries, Sarah Fabian, Suzanne Gray, & Robert Stevens (forthcoming from Ypsilanti, MI: LOEX Press, 2009). You can view the slides from the associated presentation here.