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Lijuan Xu, instruction coordinator at Skillman Library, has been chosen as winner of the Association of College & Research Libraries’ Instruction Section (IS) Publication Award along with coauthor Trudi E. Jacobson for their book, Motivating Students in Information Literacy Classes.
The annual award recognizes an outstanding publication related to instruction in a library environment published in the preceding two years. The book was released last year by Neal-Schuman Publishers (New York).
“Motivation is a key component of student learning, perhaps made even more important by the limitations many librarians have to work within when teaching information literacy concepts,” said Kendra Van Cleave, IS award committee chair. “Jacobson and Xu have created a well written and accessible introduction to motivation and learning theory as they apply to the various types of information literacy instruction, while at the same time presenting practical models that can be applied to many different modes of instruction and different types of institutions.”
Motivating Students in Information Literacy Classes focuses on developing student interest in information literacy courses and sessions. Addressing credit courses, course-related instruction, drop-in sessions, first-year programs, and Web-based instruction,
Xu and Jacobson, coordinator of user education programs at SUNY-Albany, provide practical suggestions for increasing student engagement. Included are exercises and assignments, models of teaching behaviors, methods for increasing student participation, and advice for assessment and grading.
Their 2002 collaboration, “Motivating students in credit-based information literacy courses: theories and practice,” portal: Libraries and Academy 2, was selected by the American Library Association’s Library Instruction Round Table as one of the 20 best articles that year.
Xu earned her B.A. in library science from Wuhan University, China in 1991. She received her M.L.S. from Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 1997.
She and Jacobson will receive a citation during the 2005 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago at the IS program Sunday, June 26.
ACRL is a division of the American Library Association, representing 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the particular needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning, and research environments.