I've been doing some reading on pedagogy, due in large part to a discussion I had with a new administrator at Texas State, where I worked as a temp librarian for about 5 months. She suggested that I read some work by Paulo Freire because of my interest in teaching and active learning techniques. Which lead me to my current reading material A Pedagogy of Liberation with Paulo Freire and Ira Schor.
The book is structured as a discussion between Freire and Schor. A structure which I find engaging and representative of the authors' styles of teaching. So far, I've only read 25 pages, but the text is rich with insight and the history of education. One of the major themes I've picked up on is that we need to communicate with students in a language that they understand. At first this may seem like an obvious and easy thing to accomplish, however, I find that the library is awash in terms that students unfamiliar with libraries are not likely to know: Database, Catalog, E-Journal, E-Book, Record, Call Number, etc. Therefore, to effectively communicate with students, librarians may need to completely rethink our vocabulary during reference transactions, information literacy sessions and on our library websites.
In restructuring library terminology, at least on the public side, Target #1 for me is the term catalog. A little personal background, I am 28 years old, and I do remember card catalogs. There was one in my local public library until I was around 10 years old, 1991. Now, stop a minute and think about that. People born in and after 1991 probably have little or no concept of what a physical card catalog was. They have no frame of reference for that term. Students born in 1991 are now college freshmen or sophomores. At the reference desk, I often have students come in and ask how they can 'find books'. Many of them seem to know that there is a way to find out what books a library has, online, but they don't know where to go.
Many library websites that I've worked with make a stab at user friendly vocabulary, often having catalog search boxes on their homepages labeled with terms like 'Start your Research', 'Books & More' or 'Find Books & Videos'. However, many of these quick search boxes are keyword only, which offers users little control, and links to the full catalog are labeled with terms like 'More Library Catalog Options', 'Advanced Catalog Search', or simply, 'Catalog'. I think that libraries could make the purpose of their catalogs clearer by linking user vocabulary with library vocabulary on the homepage. So, if a user is thinking 'I need to find a book', the library web page should label the catalog search box with something like 'Find a Book - Library Catalog'. This would help the terms 'book' and 'catalog' to become linked in the user's mind.
This could work for other library jargon as well, 'Find Articles' connected with Journals or Databases, or 'Research Strategy or Skills' with Library Instruction or Information Literacy. Schor mentions that this alteration of vocabulary is perceived as a lowering of standards by some. However, he argues that some level of student understanding is necessary for knowledge to be attained. Once that basic level of knowledge is achieved, more specific or technical vocabulary can be added. In other words, once a student learns the function of the catalog, they can apply the official label, much like an infant who can signal the function of an object before they learn the word symbolizing that object.
I hope to do more research on these ideas in the future. I would love to measure how changing terminology affects learning during IL sessions. I also think that user friendly vocabulary will be very useful for library outreach. I believe that if more students understand the services the library offers, more students will feel comfortable using the library and its resources.
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