ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries Novem ber 1 9 9 7 /7 1 1 G lad ly would he learn , and g lad ly teachThe W ay I See it By Sandra W eingart Students won’t learn if we do their work fo r them I read Carol Goodson’s column, “Putting the ‘service’ back in library service” (C&RL News, March 1997), with a great deal of inter­ est. In my three-plus years as an academic li­ brarian, I have always believed that the most important thing we do for patrons, particularly students, is to teach them how to find, retrieve, and analyze information. Goodson believes that we would all be better off if academic libraries provided research services on a pay-as-you-go basis. The students would get their materials more quickly and with less effort on their part, and we librarians would become a more inte­ gral part of the campus environment by pro­ viding this much-wanted service. I disagree thoroughly and wholeheartedly. It is true that students would rather have a librarian do their research for them, and that many would be willing to pay for such a ser­ vice. It is also true that we are more experi­ enced and efficient at research than are stu­ dents just learning the process. I am reminded of my own undergraduate days. I would much rather have had the teaching assistant in Math 109 do my trigonometry homework for me than do it myself. And I would have sold my blood in order to pay for it. The exercises would have been done much more quickly and much more accurately. B ut th at w a s n ’t the p o in t o f havin g trig hom ew ork. The point was for me to learn something new and useful and to develop my own competence through repetition and trial- and-error. Assuming that students still go to college or university to gain an education, how on earth are they going to accomplish that if they pay someone else to do their thinking and their work for them? Just because students want something doesn’t necessarily mean it would be good for them to have it. Learning to think critically, to analyze infor­ mation, and to synthesize conclusions is not the same thing as buying a pair of jeans at J. C. Penney. In a retail sales transaction, the goal is to gain the desired item as quickly and as pain­ lessly as possible. It is the sales associate’s job to go find the right size and color if the store has it. And don’t kid yourselves— that’s just about as likely as finding the journal you want actually on the shelf. However, in an institu­ tion of higher learning the goal is to develop the intellectual capacity of the students. The process is essential to the finished product. If you don’t do it, you don’t learn it. I believe a more apt analogy would be to compare our job to that of a coach. A good coach spends tremendous amounts of time teaching his or her young charges the finer points of the game, running them through endless practices, and correcting their errors. But when it’s time to perform, they have to do it themselves. Coach doesn’t come in and shoot the free throws. Another point of contention involves the notion of students paying for research service. Many may be willing to pay, but how many will actually be able? Does anybody seriously think that it would be a good idea to put it about the academic community that if you can afford it, the librarians will do your homework for you? And make no mistake; in many cases the research process is part of the assignment. Not only would this create inequity between the haves and the have-nots in terms of ser­ vice; most schools consider the buying and selling of course work to be grounds for ex­ pulsion. As for any librarian even implying that re­ search is easy and that anybody can become an expert in minutes, I’ve never seen it. Every librarian I’ve ever observed acknowledges to Sandra Weingart is science reference librarian at Utah State University; e-m ail: sanwei@cc.usu.edu mailto:sanwei@cc.usu.edu 712/C&RL News the patron that it can be difficult and frustrating and that it takes practice to develop compe­ tence. In classes we make it a point to tell stu­ dents that they aren’t expected to be experts on the basis of one 50-minute session. We li­ brarians a r e experts and we are here to help. Library instruction is designed to introduce concepts and skills. If they aren’t practiced, they aren’t mastered. Nobody expects a freshman engineering student to build a bridge after his or her first class. Neither do we expect students to become exp^n researchers without effort. Fee-based research service performed by experts is quite common and effective in cor­ porate environments, law firms, and other spe­ cial libraries. In the academic world, under­ graduates are supposed to learn the basic skills of information literacy. Without those skills, they will be unable to evaluate the quality and va­ lidity o f the information they encounter. This premise is applied in many other areas of edu­ cation as well. Nearly everybody uses a calcu­ lator to perform basic mathematical operations; but students are still taught to do addition and subtraction by hand. You won’t understand the results if you don’t understand the underlying concepts. That is why librarians are supposed to teach students how to access and analyze information. ■ (IFLA cont. fr o m p a g e 709) • Library’s integration into core function of university. • Support IFLA’s focus on the electronic en­ vironment: • Copyright laws • Electronic formats. Else w h e re at IFLA IFLA’s Roundtable on User Education spon­ sored another successful program during its fourth IFLA conference, this one entitled “Li­ brary Gateways and User Education.” Sp ecial k ey n o te sp eak ers such as Ms. Sibanyoni, South African Woman o f the Year for 1997, combined with special cultural events in libraries and Copenhagen’s cultural institu­ tions, made this meeting most enjoyable and educational. Sight-seeing within the city and quick boat trips to Sweden provided additional benefits for all conference participants. O f course the Danish drink and food, including the famous smorgasbord, were most delicious. P a r tic u la r ly s trik in g w as th e fa c t th at Copenhagen is such a safe yet very open city. It really does feel like living in a “butter hole,” as several natives referred to their city and country. ■