Library Instruction West 2018

A team of new librarians, including faculty, temporary faculty, staff, and MLIS graduate assistants will lead a two-part session. In part one, we will share our paths to developing library instruction identities in a panel format. Panelists will answer moderated questions relating to constructing/realizing their library identities and the challenges faced in this process/along the way. Part two will complement the panel by allowing participants to consider their own identities and how they advocate for their needs. During part two, the team will lead a breakout discussion of specific challenges and identities, focused on meaningful and inclusive solutions to deal with these issues.  Discussion topics will be sourced and voted upon by session attendees, but ideas include library school curriculum, developing graduate assistant and entry level positions that support instruction librarian development, recovering from instruction sessions that do not go well, integrating other teaching experience into library instruction identity, and impostor syndrome. These sessions will be of interest to the library leaders and MLIS faculty who are teaching and training new instruction librarians, as well as new librarians who are forming their instruction identities. Through these sessions, we hope to open a dialogue about the issues new instruction librarians face in constructing their classroom and professional identities and establish meaningful solutions to confronting issues related to librarian identity.