Book Reviews

Jeff Sundquist, Julie Artman, and Douglas R. Dechow. Your Craft as a Teaching Librarian : Using Acting Skills to Create a Dynamic Presence, Chicago, IL: ALA Editions, 2022. 130p. Paper, $52.00 (ISBN: 978-0-8389-3917-8).

Your Craft as a Teaching Librarian is a revised and expanded edition of The Craft of Librarian Instruction, published in 2016. Authors Sundquist (Dean of the Library at Monterey Peninsula College), Artman (librarian at Chapman University with experience as a theatre director, producer, acting coach, and actor), and Dechow (digital humanities and science librarian at Chapman University) state on page one of the prologue that they “hope to demonstrate how acting techniques can sharpen your instructional skills and establish your teaching identity, enliven your performance, and create an invigorating (and stress-free) learning experience for your students.” They maintain that the book is “intended for newly hired instruction librarians, librarians with little or no teaching experience, those dealing with shyness or stage fright, as well as more experienced librarians in need of a refreshed perspective” (p. viii).

The book is divided into three sections. Chapters in each section contain exercises related to the content, along with questions and answers related to instructional scenarios to “identify potential challenges, offer solutions and provide tips on deepening your teaching skills” (viii). Further reading lists for each chapter are also provided.

Section 1 addresses how to prepare and rehearse to greet your students and avoid “stage fright” when conducting library instruction sessions. This section begins with a short overview of the evolution of instruction in academic libraries and rightly points out that although there is a high demand for library graduates with teaching abilities, coupled with an expectation by employers that new hires possess the abilities required to begin formal instruction immediately, “unfortunately, Library and Information Science graduate programs continue to lag in providing pedagogical coursework.…” (p. 2).

This section then covers acting-related techniques and exercises including centering, visualization, awareness, memorization, and improvisation. These techniques and exercises “provide a method to calm your inner state of mind (p. 12),” and when practiced on a regular basis will “alleviate discomfort, shyness, and anxiety, replacing nervous thoughts with attention and resulting in a clearer presentation style” (p. 13).

Section 2 details “how to perform and connect with your student audience to provide the best possible educational experience” (p. viii). Included in this section are overviews of techniques employed by actors and directors that can be used by instruction librarians when teaching and planning to teach, including characterization, role-playing, script writing, motivation, teaching and learning cues, and super objectives (overarching objectives that can help sustain focus, engagement, and direction) (p. 67). Also included is a welcome discussion of the transition from the Information Literacy Competency Standards to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education around 2015. The shift from a competency-based approach in the Standards to a theoretical approach in the Framework posed both teaching challenges and opportunities for information literacy instruction programs. The authors maintain that “the Framework and the mindset it encourages give us as teachers of information literacy the opportunity to explore a new role for ourselves in the classroom, one that also takes its inspiration from the theater” in the sense that it is “focused not on teaching, but on learning, not on the stage, but on the thresholds” (p. 56). These “thresholds” are six information literacy-based concepts that present a way of understanding, interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress.

The final and noticeably shortest section “helps you as the teacher/performer to reflect on development and sharpen your unique teaching presence” (p. viii). The authors encourage the reader to “think of reflection as involving both the class and the preparation undertaken before it: class outcomes in addition to all the preparation and performance exercises from previous chapters that you employed (or did not)” (p. 98).

Having spent nearly a quarter of a century in academic library instruction, I found this slim volume to be a worthwhile long afternoon read that will no doubt have a positive influence on how I practice my craft. If anything were to be added I would advocate for a section on dealing with persistent librarian stereotypes and approaches to disrupting them using acting techniques such as storytelling and humor. Finally, while it is productive and appropriate to consider acting techniques as we prepare to go before our student audiences, we must also remember how important and powerful it is to bring elements of our authentic selves to the classroom experience. —David M. Dettman, University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point