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Librarian Instruction for Faculty and Classes

A clear understanding of the college's information resources and how to get the most out of them is a crucial skill for all students. We at the library would love to help any instructors teach their students about what the library has to offer, which resources will best fit their needs in the course, and the research and information literacy skills they need to succeed. Instruction can be formatted as:

• Short demonstrations of most relevant resources, research fundamentals, or a particular database: 15-20 minutes
• Full class sessions including instruction and hands-on practice: 40 to 50 minutes
• One-on-one or group appointments 

Instruction can be tailored to the specific topics and goals of your class. A librarian can either come to your classroom or we can instruct in the library classroom, room #327 on the third floor of the library, which holds 20 students comfortably.

To plan a librarian instruction or for more information about this program, please contact Aidan Sonia-Bolduc or Dr. Robert Krapohl.

Lyon College instructors may place either library or personal items pertaining to a current course on reserve at the library. Reserve items have an abbreviated loan period to ensure all the students enrolled in the course will be able to access the materials.

Reserve Procedures

1. Textbooks placed on reserve must be supplied by the instructor of his/her department.
2. Instructors should be mindful of the fact that it can take anywhere from one day to one week to have reserve items ready for student checkout depending on the amount of materials reserved for the class and where the request is in the queue.
3. Place items on reserve for one semester, two semesters, or a semi-permanent timeframe. Checkout times range from 2 hours to one semester.
4. To place an item on reserve, contact Dr. Krapohl or Aidan Sonia-Bolduc.

OER, or Open Educational Resources, are "teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission" (OER Commons). Most often, these will take the form of materials that have been openly licensed, which means that their creators have allowed reuse of their works under some conditions.

Specifically, openly licensed works allow for these five freedoms (commonly known as the 'five Rs'):

1. Retain. Users can "make, own, and control copies" of openly-licensed materials.
2. Reuse. Users can use content in many different contexts, such as on a website or in a video.
3. Revise. Users can adapt or modified openly-licensed materials for their own needs.
4. Remix. Users can combine openly-licensed materials with other materials to create new works.
5. Redistribute. Users can share copies of openly-licensed materials, as well as their revisions or remixes.

These five freedoms offer many advantages in the classroom. Check out our full guide on OER or email Laren Anderson to learn more!