Book Reviews

Community College Library: Reference and Instruction. Janet Pinkley and Kaela Casey, eds. Chicago, IL: Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 2022. 317 p. Softcover, $98.00. ($88.20 ALA members) (ISBN: 978-0-8389-3768-6).

The Community College Library: Reference and Instruction is the next in a series of collected works aimed at increasing research and scholarly writing specific to community college libraries. Along with another recently released collection on assessment, CCL: Reference and Instruction highlights a wide range of teaching strategies, outreach efforts, critical looks at practice in the community college, and partnership opportunities. Each of the twenty-four chapters is relatively short and infused with both informal anecdotes and ties to the greater body of information literacy research. In many ways, this mix of academic insight and informal creativity embodies community college librarianship itself.

A discussion of the community college environment is a common theme in the first few chapters. The lack of research done by community college librarians is in stark contrast to the number of community college students in the United States. Research and publication are often not high on the list of community college librarians’ responsibilities, and even when they are, most community college librarians simply do not have the time to conduct research and publish their findings due to chronic understaffing and other responsibilities. Meanwhile, community college librarians serve roughly one-third of all college students in the United States, and their voices are a critical component of the academic library conversation. Due to the lack of time and focus on publishing research, they often go unheard in the academic landscape.

Another thread throughout the chapters is description and analysis of the complex lives of community college students and how that lived experience can be incorporated into reference and instruction work. This work is perhaps the most valuable contribution found in this collection: community college librarians have found incredibly creative ways to engage students in research while acknowledging their lived experiences as first generation, non-traditional, undocumented, or homeless, just to list a few of the many aspects of community college students’ lives. In one chapter, the authors note that 40 percent of their college’s student body is under the age of eighteen. In another, the authors state that 65 percent of their student body is part-time. In a third, a community college with 10,000 students and eight locations has some campuses with no library or no full-time librarian. It is not uncommon to hear a community college student say that they have never written a research paper before. The role of community college librarians is critical in closing the knowledge gap and preparing students to transfer and continue their academic journey. In each of these chapters, authors find creative solutions to meet the needs of their unique situations. Stepping back and taking in the volume as a whole, any reader will see how challenging the work of community college librarians is and how valuable their roles are in supporting many of our country’s most vulnerable students.

The collection also offers commentary on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. Starting with a chapter analyzing the familiarity of the Framework to community college librarians, the collection addresses the ways librarians make the Framework function for their students. Several articles center on practical activities or tools to help students connect Framework concepts to actual research projects. The subtext of these articles is the chronic underpreparedness of many community college students, another reality referenced throughout the collection. Several chapters detail community college librarians’ partnerships with faculty in credit-bearing courses. Librarian-taught, credit-bearing information literacy courses are also discussed as a way to ensure that students attain these critical skills. Authors at multiple institutions note the political and bureaucratic challenges in creating and gaining approval for these courses.

This volume comes at an interesting time in history. So much has happened between when the book was finished and when it was published. One chapter details the need for critical thinking when evaluating medical information, but immediately predates the COVID pandemic. That article later goes on to discuss the authority of Dr. Oz as a medical resource without the foresight that he would later run for office. The authors do note that the pandemic hit in the early stages of the project, but perhaps a revision of some of the chapters that directly relate to current events would have been beneficial.

In many cases the content of this volume is as much aspirational as it is informational. This is not unexpected. Community college libraries are understaffed and lack resources such as robust institutional research offices. The brevity of many of the chapters is an asset to those looking for quick reads with tangible takeaways, though a research agenda/call to action concluding summary would have been appreciated. One only hopes that the title of the volume does not prevent academic librarians at four-year colleges and universities from also reading it: they too can benefit from a better understanding of this critical component of higher education, and perhaps that will lead to more partnership opportunities between two- and four-year academic librarians. — Jaime Hammond, Naugatuck Valley Community College