Sara DeWaay (University of Oregon Libraries)

Library pedagogy has steadily improved by moving away from lecture-based instruction to hands-on activities that allow students to learn through experience. Although research shows that encouraging students to complete tasks, work in teams, and share their ideas are beneficial to them, these activities can be difficult to incorporate into artists' book or other object-based sessions. Classes that are aimed at explaining one type of physical resource are particularly prone to “sage on the stage”, where the librarian lectures about the history, purpose, and content of artists’ books, only allowing listeners to explore the content after it has all be explained. Although this does provide some important contextual information, it takes away the students’ ability to exercise creative thinking, draw their own conclusions about the artwork, and discover the complexities of multi-modal storytelling existent in artists’ books.

This presentation outlines a series of activities that have been implemented in artists’ books sessions at a university library to change the dynamic of object-based instruction to encompass critical thinking and hands-on activities. In the sessions, students have been asked to make books, brainstorm materials, critique existing books focusing on form and structure, and in general explore the different ways storytelling is manifest in artists’ books. Additionally, the talk will discuss how the activities were built around well-written learning objectives, allowing the librarian to assess student learning, which can be particularly difficult when the scholarly output is creative in nature. Attendees can expect to learn some ideas for how to design creative and active instruction sessions focused on artists’ books or other unique objects, filling a current pedagogical need, and be part of a conversation to brainstorm ideas for implementing hands-on learning in object-based instruction.

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Sara DeWaay is Art + Architecture Librarian, University of Oregon. Sara received a Master of Science in Information with a concentration in library science in 2014 and has worked in art and architecture libraries since 2012, following a career in art museums doing education and exhibit design. Currently, as the Art + Architecture Librarian at the University of Oregon, Sara is most interested in outreach, creativity and creation in the library and revamping instruction to focus on active learning and student success.