Who’s Teaching UC Students?

James Krusling, First Year Experience Librarian

Q: What is your job responsibility?

A: I coordinate and participate in a variety of efforts aimed at students in First-Year Experience programs. These efforts include instruction and reference, consultation on technology issues, participation in library and university committees aimed at first-year student needs, and outreach to the PK-16 community.

Q: What attracts you to librarianship?

A: The number and variety of information issues librarians solve on a daily basis keeps things very interesting for me. There is satisfaction in knowing that I am part of a field that is instrumental in the learning process -- from its most basic foundations to providing the top scholars with the skills they require to produce cutting-edge research.

Q: Tell us about the type of instruction you do.

A: I teach a variety of classes and workshops aimed at the most inexperienced student to the most knowledgeable faculty member. The classes aimed at first-year students are designed to equip them with fundamental skills they need to conduct research at the university level such as using catalogs, databases, and the Internet to find library materials. Most of the technology-oriented workshops I conduct are aimed at faculty. The main workshops are Introduction to Blackboard, FrontPage, and Dreamweaver. The latter two are Web-design workshops. I find that it is important to keep abreast of developments in technology so that I can respond to developing trends. For example, recently I adapted a Dreamweaver course into a workshop for developing e-Portfolios. These workshops allow me to keep my technology skills sharp, but also to develop relationships with faculty that often evolve into broader efforts to incorporate technology into their curricular needs.

Q: What is your personal teaching philosophy?

A: My personal teaching philosophy is that “some success is better than no success.” I develop each of my classes and workshops very carefully and I’m not afraid to challenge the students. I’m also not afraid to challenge myself, often on the fly, when one approach is not working well.

Q: What is the most challenging aspect of teaching?

A: Managing the sheer numbers. I have been very fortunate in that my work has been well-received by our community of users. The popularity of the First-Year Experience classes and the technology workshops continues to grow.

Q: What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching?

A: Knowing that at least one person benefited from my efforts. Occasionally a student will come back to see me and say “you know, that stuff seemed so boring when we first learned it, but now I’m doing the things you showed us all the time and it has really benefited the quality of my work.” Some success is better than no success!

A list of workshops taught by James Krusling is available online at
<www.libraries.uc.edu/instruction/workshop/index.html>.

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