Comments on: What is a Library Function, or, When should the mission creep? Instruction Controversies.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:55:47 +0000

Great post, Aaron, and a perspective that I’ve shared for a long time. There’s actually quite a bit of work out there on the shared responsibilities of librarians and writing faculty in educating students about academic discourse, much of which focuses what Amanda rightly calls the “larger intellectual issues around remix, reuse, and attribution.” Squabbling over citations is a classic can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees moment — what’s important about citation isn’t where you put the comma or what you italicize, but the function of acknowledgment in scholarly communication. Librarians and faculty both need to support the enculturation of students and teaching about citation is only part of that. When a professor wants me to teach citation, I wouldn’t approach it as “here’s how to cite things in MLA style” but here’s WHY we cite things at all — which is absolutely part of my job.

By: Colleen Harris

Colleen Harris — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:09:28 +0000

I agree, for a number of reasons. First, citation is a way of developing an information pathfinder for readers who read the work and want to backtrack to sources – that’s certainly a library and information science concern, in terms of teaching best information practices.

Second, while I know we’re all buckling under budget cuts and increased workloads, librarians cannot take up the cry of “We are relevant!” while at the same time eschewing work that the teaching faculty want us to engage in. I would add this in with our other instructional opportunities as a chance to connect with both students and (perhaps even more importantly) faculty, as a gateway for opening the conversation about what *else* we can do for them and their students. It may start with citations, but faculty are well aware that their students have research knowledge deficits. If we can start the conversation with our good work on the side of citations, it will likely develop into a deeper relationship and liaising with faculty to further develop students’ information practices.

By: AmandaR

AmandaR — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:27:44 +0000

Great post — I particularly agree with you here: “framing this responsibility as a new burden rather than a new opportunity is unfortunate”. To me, proper citation is part of a whole constellation of interesting critical thinking issues around information use, not just a matter of mechanical details.

On the other hand, I have had the experience where faculty ask me to go over citation because they see it as purely mechanical and a waste of *their* time, so I can understand pushback against that experience. Even in those cases, though, that doesn’t mean I can’t teach citation it in a way that deals with larger intellectual issues around remix, reuse, and attribution.