Book Reviews

Melissa A. Wong. Instructional Design for LIS Professionals: A Guide for Teaching Librarians and Information Science Professionals. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2019. 280p. Paper, $85.00 (ISBN 978-1-4408-6713-2). LC 2018058323.

In recent years, academic publishing has seen an explosion of works for librarians on information literacy instruction, yet surprisingly few book-length works have emerged presenting instructional design principles from within the field of library and information science (LIS). Melissa A. Wong, an adjunct instructor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science, has sought to fill that gap with a well-organized and informative book presenting both the theoretical context and practical applications of learning theory to the design of library and information science courses. The book is targeted at librarians and information science professionals teaching graduate courses in library and information science; it is thus an important acquisition for those involved in LIS education. In addition, the explanations and descriptions of theories, best practices, and common challenges of teaching more generally, alongside numerous practical examples and helpful reading suggestions, make this book extremely valuable as an instructional design textbook or reference resource for graduate students or early-career instruction librarians. What is more, Instructional Design for LIS Professionals gives equal attention to the design of online and in-person instruction, which makes the text an important addition to the extant instructional design literature geared toward librarians, which has tended to focus more heavily on in-person modalities.

Wong organizes her book into three sections that proceed organically from theories of teaching and learning through the different stages of course development to the application of instructional design to professional development contexts. The text as a whole is guided by the principles of learner-centered pedagogy, which place who the student is as a person at the center of the instructional design. Throughout the book, this focus is apparent; for example, accessibility holds a prominent place not just in a chapter on students with disabilities, but also in a chapter on instructional materials and the chapters on workshops and webinars. The particular attention given to students with disabilities in a dedicated chapter is significant, too, and relatively rare in books about graduate teaching. Wong presents universal design as one way to meet the needs of all learners, including those with disabilities, and her inclusive instructional design strategy is indicative of her learner-centered methodology. The learner-centered approach is also evident in the themes of student engagement and motivation, which surface throughout the text in discussions of learning theories as well as in sections devoted to syllabi, assignments, assessments, and professional development activities.

The first section of the book provides a concise overview of the theories of teaching and learning that shape instructional design today, each with its application to LIS teaching explained. These brief descriptions of relevant theories are accompanied by references and reading suggestions; thus, the text functions as a reference book on pedagogy that would be as useful to LIS graduate students as to their potential instructors. Particular attention is paid to the scholarship of andragogy, or adult learning, because, as returning and nontraditional students begin to make up an increasingly large percentage of those attending college, the ability to deliver effective instruction to this demographic will only become more important to both graduate teachers and instruction librarians.

The second section of the book walks the reader through course design step-by-step using the principle of backward design—the instructor starts with learning outcomes and then creates assignments and assessments that lead to those outcomes. Since each chapter tackles an individual element of course design such as the syllabus, assignments, instructional materials, and so on, it is easy to imagine the book used as a textbook in an instructional design course, with learning activities designed to match each chapter. Most of the course elements are framed as methods of communication between student and instructor instead of as independent artifacts, and this is also indicative of a learner-centered approach. Encouraging student engagement and participation comes naturally when course elements are seen as parts of a two-way communication system, and this necessitates putting the students at the center of course design. With less jargon than the first section of the book, and with the added benefit of examples of each element of course design highlighted in text boxes, this section is both user-friendly and educative and exemplifies best practices in learner-centered pedagogy. New instructors using the book to help plan a course for the first time will also appreciate the tips on managing workload provided in the chapter on assignments, as well as the examples of constructive feedback.

Wong turns her attention to professional development workshops, webinars, and courses for LIS professionals for the very short, final section of the book. Although discussed using the same instructional design principles as earlier topics, the brevity of this section and the notable differences in structure, format, and audience in these settings make the suggestions in this final section a little less obviously applicable than those in other parts of the book. Nevertheless, the point that professional development should incorporate best practices of instructional design and benefits from a learner-centered approach is a good one, and there is much of value throughout the book for those designing workshops and webinars. Additionally, with the consideration of instructional design in the context of professional development, the text begins to address a relative lack of resources in this area and suggests an avenue for further research and publication.

The significance of instructional design for current and future academic librarians can hardly be exaggerated; a review of position descriptions on current job lists shows the overlap between instructional designer and librarian in many institutions, and the predominance of teaching in the duties of many academic librarians makes experience with instructional design a real asset to job seekers. Grassian and Kaplowitz’s excellent Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice has long served as a practical and useful introduction to instructional design for librarians and LIS students, and Wong’s book, covering some similar topics while examining online modalities more extensively and providing some new approaches to instructional design, is an important addition to the literature. The fact that the book is ostensibly geared to those teaching library and information science classes in graduate schools, and not as one intended to impart instructional design principles to the students in those classes, is interesting; there are very few current texts for this audience, and yet this choice would also seem to render the book less universally applicable. However, the vast majority of what is presented in this text could be applied to virtually any instructional setting, and the originality of addressing best practices in LIS education itself is worthy of note. Useful as an addition to the available resources for the professional development of instruction librarians in academic libraries, this well-researched and instructive text will be essential to collections serving library and information science programs.—Melissa Anderson, Southern Oregon University