Creators in the Academic Library: Instruction and Outreach. Alexander C. Watkins, & Rebecca Zuege Luglitsch (eds.). ACRL, 2023. 312p. Softcover, $72.00. 9780838939703

Creators in the Academic Library: Instruction and Outreach, edited by Alexander C. Watkins and Rebecca Zuege Kuglitsch, is an expansive survey of research, instruction, and engagement collaborations between librarians, departmental faculty, and students in higher education institutions. Using numerous case studies, the editors compile a work featuring the librarian advancement of curriculum in service to students completing creative deliverables in degree programs. Spanning environments from creative writing courses, to engineering projects, to theater research in a community college, the author contributions represent a variety of methods, resources, and spaces giving insight for fellow library employees focusing on similar goals.

Using a similar outline and layout through the entire book, each chapter presents thorough methodologies covering the courses selected, projects completed, and student populations engaged. Multiple chapters adhere to the ACRL information literacy framework, explaining how either the entire foundation or individual frames apply to student learning outcomes and instruction processes. As a result, the work acts effectively as a teach-the-teacher resource. The edited volume presents a library as three realms: a space, a resource, and a service. Chapters highlighting the approach include: “The Web is Your Canvas,” by Carmen Cole, in which library space is used for the “Code for Her” program, providing female students a calm, supportive, and nonjudgmental physical space, and “Library Instruction That Sticks,” by Tess Colwell and Jessica Quagliaroli, where a group of Yale architecture graduate students—comprised of nontraditional, multigenerational, and international students—engage in multiple library instructional sessions.

A particular strength of the book is the variety in how contributors approach their topics. A book on “creators” in the academic library can easily fall into traditional parameters of makerspaces and traditional artistic curriculum; however, these case studies highlight the creativity of the librarians themselves, emphasizing the method they used to select which courses to engage with in the first place. “Drawing from Life,” by Lane Glisson, uses a constructivist pedagogy connecting students with their new content combined with prior knowledge experiences, while “Contemporary Research Methods for Creatives,” by Kristina Keogh and Nicole Caron, highlights an embedded librarianship approach as both an outreach and an instructional tactic. “Library as Portal,” by Carla-Mae Crookendale and Andrea Kohashi, examine special collections, not solely as a resource, but as a means for generating inspiration, highlighting the role of serendipity in the creative research process. STEM topics including computer program coding and patent research, showcase the creative process in research within fields too often misconstrued as purely mechanical and formulaic.

Another underlying theme of Creators in the Academic Library is formalizing creative instruction and engagement methodologies. “A Librarian’s Guide to Helping Creators Understand and Use Patent Information,” by Rachel Knapp, focuses on teaching students the application of resources in the creation of design patents, with “Drawing from Life” moving outside of the university setting and into community college librarianship. Theater students study materials connected with the context of the productions’ thematic timeframes. The attention on a variety of instruction approaches is a distinct hallmark of the book.

The book also considers a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate student populations. The instruction styles and assessment practices vary from chapter to chapter and show a design with a customized framework approach for addressing student needs. “Creative Research and Digital Visual Literacy,” by Giana Ricci, teaches students to make the most of both popular search engines and research databases in unison, while also addressing copyright factors with creative commons licensing. “Outside of the Digital Dark Room,” by Maggie Murphy and Kelley O’Brien, discusses engaging students in a practice of reading comprehension and information synthesis during the creation of art projects. Additionally, “Embracing Messiness: Inspiring and Creating Improvisers,” by Liv Valmestad, addresses the research process as a recursive methodology—a means of discovering new pathways while conducting background research—as well as using strategic searching to move from a form of scaffolding toward improvisation in research and writing practices.

Even though the chapters rely heavily on case studies, the conceptual approaches employed by each of the contributing authors offer insight into theoretical frameworks, understanding of the value of information, and ways of approaching the construction of authority. The organization of the work is clear and thematic, allowing the reader to either select a specific chapter or systematically work through the whole text with related examples flowing easily into each other. Ideal readers of the work are librarians in a research, instruction, and/or outreach and engagement roles at a large higher education institution. Understanding student learning outcomes, information literacy frameworks, instruction and assessment practices, and syllabus formatted curriculum are key to finding the examples in the book relatable. The work can also serve as a model to subject specific faculty who may wish to partner with the librarians at their institutions in ways professors and adjuncts have not yet considered. The work is a compilation of reliable narratives, clearly laid out methodologies, and well selected examples serving as a next step for future higher education library-based research and instruction collaborations. — Andrew Beman-Cavallaro, Assistant Librarian, University of South Florida