Knowledge

At German university libraries providing information and assuring media literacy has now become the core task. An interview with Dr. Wilfried Sühl-Strohmenger, who heads the Library System Department of the University Library of Freiburg.

Mr. Sühl-Strohmenger, the job of the librarian has changed considerably in the last centuries ...

Yes, whereas in past centuries the librarian was a collector and preserver of the cultural tradition, since the 1970s and 80s he has increasingly become a facilitator and navigator.

Among other things, this is due to the fact that the amount of information has grown gigantically. Previously, even the largest libraries seldom had more than 100,000 books – and so manageable holdings. Second, it has to do with the fact that our target groups have changed. The scholars who used earlier libraries didn’t need to be instructed in their use. The librarian had merely to provide the sources for the respective studies. In today’s mass university it looks very different.

The demand for textbooks is rising

What has been the effect of the introduction of graded courses of study?

First, the university library’s task of collecting books has changed. Today the demand for textbooks is much greater. Second, electronic availability is more important than ever. The six semesters that students have to complete the Bachelor degree is a very short time. They must therefore now gain rapid access to the media. For us, this means that we have to offer a variety of easy kinds of access to information.

Moreover, we’ve noticed significant deficiencies in students’ information and media skills. Hence university libraries have now assumed a new role in the counseling and training of students.

Training in key skills

How does that look in practice?

There are very different offers at universities. In Freiburg, we offer freshmen introductions to library services – for example, beginner’s tips about research, the presentation of electronic services and some media skills.

In the third or fourth semester, we prepare students for specialized research: a competence they will need for their thesis. Here they become acquainted with databases and scholarly search engines – for instance, in virtual specialist libraries. They practice full-text searches in e-journals and e-books, and we show them concretely how they can get at this specialist literature. This is supplemented by e-learning programs.

Are these offers then subject-specific?

Yes, because we can’t teach information literacy independently of specialty and specific contexts. In this way we have a greater opportunity of reaching the students. We have, at least at the University Library, a system of specialist librarians. These librarians seek to establish offerings in their respective fields. For example, after consultation with the university teacher, they build their training into a particular seminar.

In addition, libraries are very active in interdisciplinary offerings in the area of key skills. In this area Bachelor students have to obtain at least 20 credit points. In Freiburg, our library offers courses in information and media literacy. For example, we have the students work together in a team to compile research dossiers on specific subjects. Particularly in demand are courses on subjects such as “How do I quote sources correctly?” and “How do I avoid plagiarism?”

Still no mandatory national standard

Who designs the courses?

The librarians do that themselves – in consultation with the representatives of the subject. Here in Freiburg all librarians have completed advanced training in higher education didactics.

Is the success of the courses measurable?

In Freiburg we work with evaluation forms and oral feedback. But the evaluation should really be done much more systematically. For that we lack both the capacities and reliable, probed methods for how progress in information and media literacy can be precisely measured.

Are there national standards for such courses?

We’ve adopted the standards of the American Association of College and Research Libraries and adapted them to German conditions. These standards have now also been officially adopted by the German Library Association. But they aren’t yet mandatory. They now have to introduced into the curricula, where it is more precisely laid down what content is to be treated with what methods. At present many university libraries are working on this.

The library as a place of teaching and learning

How is the collaboration with the faculty going?

So far we’ve had good experiences. It’s important that libraries become active, move in the direction of the faculty and there present their offerings as services and themselves as a place of teaching and learning. Today the teaching capacities are almost everywhere pretty tight. This means that the responsibility for training in methods has to be spread. And there the library has now become a fairly important factor.

What are your hopes for the future?

I hope that university libraries will no longer be merely storehouses of knowledge, but also develop into living places of teaching and learning, and be so seen by the university. Libraries should be open to various forms of learning and create an imaginative, creative learning environment for them. And I hope that there will be librarians who assume their role as facilitator, navigator and promoters of information literacy and develop it further.