You Only Get One Shot: Critically Exploring and Reimagining the One-Shot Instruction Model

Abstract

This article explores the one-shot library instruction model by asking critical questions about how it has become ubiquitous in the field. The authors developed these questions with the intent to understand how early-career librarians become acculturated to one-shots, how social identity and positionality shape instructional practices, its impact on burnout, equity, and sustainability, and how the one-shot could be reimagined. This article employs personal critical reflection as a methodology, using interviews with the team of authors and two external participants. Analysis of the interview data showed themes of organizational acculturation with one-shot training, empowerment/disempowerment to employ different instruction models, and the tension between the transactional and relational nature of library instruction. Through these reflections, the article advocates that a relational instruction model helps promote equitable, reflective teaching and learning experiences for librarians and students alike as a way to disrupt the tradition of the one-shot.