ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 1 6 0 /C&RL News Teaching w ith scratch paper B y C arol W ith ers a n d D o n n e ly n C urtis A n example o f minimalist library instruction T h e p r o b le m . O u r p atro n s often d o not w rite do w n sufficient o r a p p ro p ria te in ­ form ation from th e in d ex es a n d o u r OPAC to actually retrieve a n article. T h e situation has b e e n ex acerb ated b y th e addition o f a tap e- lo a d e d g eneral in d ex (th at w e called PAN) to o u r online system , at w h ich tim e o u r su b scrip ­ tio n to InfoTrac w as cancelled. InfoTrac h a d b e e n p o p u la r a n d heavily u se d b y patrons, d u e in p art to its provision o f holdings infor­ m ation. U nlike o u r CD-ROM w orkstations, m ost o f o u r OPAC term inals d o n ’t h av e p rin t­ ers, a n d alth o u g h th e in d ex has links to th e library’s holdings, the step s to the call n u m ­ b e r are n o t obvious. S tep s to w a r d a s o lu t io n . Increasingly, w e hav e fo u n d ourselves pro v id in g p atro n s w ith han d w ritten lists o f w h a t th ey n e e d to w rite d o w n from in d ex es a n d the OPAC to h e lp th em learn th e tw o -step p ro cess o f find­ ing a n article: 1) using a print index or PAN; 2) u sin g th e OPAC o r PAN’s linking feature to se e if o r w h e re w e h o u se d th e item. In library instruction classes w e p re s e n t this in­ form ation w ith an overh ead transparency an d discuss it at length. W e h av e d e v e lo p e d PAN a n d p rin te d in d ex w o rk sh eets for freshm an English stu d en ts to h e lp reinforce th e tw o step concept. B ecause n o t all library users attend instruc­ tio n sessions, a n d e v e n th o se w h o a tten d do n o t usually internalize th e entire retrieval p ro ­ cess, w e first th o u g h t o f ad ap tin g th e instruc­ tional w o rk sh eets to som ething w e co u ld dis­ tr ib u te at th e re fe re n c e d e s k th a t w o u ld instruct (o r rem ind) users w hile at th e sam e tim e it w o u ld g u id e th em th ro u g h th e steps, w ith b lan k lines for ea c h e lem en t o f th e cita tio n a n d for th e jo u rn al’s call num ber. As w e c o n sid e re d th e w o rk sh eet form at, w e b e g a n to a ck n o w led g e th e resistance to instruc­ tio n w e som etim es e n c o u n te r at th e d esk, u su ­ ally from g rad u ate stu d en ts a n d faculty, ev en w h e n it is obv io u s th at th e y also n e e d to learn th e retrieval process. W e rem o v ed instructional w o r d in g a n d r e d u c e d th e siz e o f th e tw o w o rk sh eets to a h alf p ag e an d th en abbrevi- (Scratch p a p e r cont. on p age 183) F o rm 1. Carol Withers a n d Donneleyn Curtis are reference librarians a t New Mexico State University, Las Cruces; e-mail: cwithers@lib.nmsu.edu, dcurtis@lib.nmsu.edu mailto:cwithers@lib.nmsu.edu mailto:dcurtis@lib.nmsu.edu March 1 9 9 5 /1 6 1 March 1995/183 shapers o f the association itself. Recent initia­ tives to improve leadership include establish ment o f a listserv for elected leaders, and for­ mal training and planning sessions on Friday afternoons for elected leaders during ALA. These worthwhile efforts merit expansion, perhaps through a continuing education effort for a larger share o f the membership. W e must pre pare ourselves to be leaders. When it comes to running for vice-presi dent/president-elect o f ACRL, however, how does one prepare? My experience as chair o the Bibliographic Instruction Section and o f the Choice Editorial Board, as president o f the Michi gan ACRL Chapter, and as a member o f ACRL’s Planning and Budget committees have exposed me to a significant percentage o f ACRL’s many facets, especially because they have inevitably meant ex officio involvement in many other ­ areas such as conference programming, publi­ cations, and Chapters Council. My work at small colleges and large universities has exposed me to most o f the w ork environments in which our members move. I f I merit this office, it is only because I have experienced ACRL under ­ various conditions for the past twenty years, and understand something about h o w ACRL relates to the needs and experiences o f the average member. f W e are entering a new era in which com pe­ tition for reduced resources in higher educa­ ­ tion w ill be intense and the basic nature o f the profession w ill be altered. If elected, I w ill try my best to keep the organization vital and rep­ resent your needs during this crucial transitional age. (Scratch paper cont. from page 160) ated and further reduced them to a less cum­ bersome quarter-page size. They intentionally look like simple forms, and yet they are still designed to teach unobtrusively the step-by- step process. W e print them on the blank side o f used paper and place the PAN form alongside the scratch paper that is used for writing down call numbers of books, around the OPAC termi­ nals, and at all public service desks. The index form is placed near in­ dexes in place o f scratch paper. One possible drawback to the forms is that, because o f their sim­ plicity, the patron is not prompted to write dow n all o f the informa­ tion required for interlibrary loan. We have decided to g o with sim­ plicity o v e r thoroughness fo r a number o f reasons: it serves our purpose o f teaching the process; a simpler form is more likely to be used; its small size makes it easy to distribute; and it is fairly easy for patrons to retrace their steps and get a d d itio n a l in fo rm a tio n if needed. W e maintain the flexible attitude that these form s can easily be changed when new or better ideas are developed. With their adoption, we’ve seen few er incomplete cita­ tions. Patrons have accepted them Form 2. as useful tools and are begin ning to ask us for them. W e b e liev e that the forms are in­ structional as w e ll as convenient, and that they encourage users to be independent with­ out pedantry on our part.