‘Tis the season for instruction/teacher librarians to teach, teach, and teach some more.  I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion Jason, Rachel, and I had during episode 29 of Adventures in Library Instruction. We talked about strategies librarians can take — as individuals and as a department/instruction team — to relieve stress, specifically stress revolving around class preparation, instruction requests, and course schedules.

A few of the strategies we discussed included:

• Determining which classes can benefit from an online/e-learning alternative [strategically incorporated into their curriculum/research process];
• Requesting less shifts on the Ref Desk during high instruction times [we discuss some objectives to successfully implement such an idea!!!!]; and
• Using your schedule to negotiate with the faculty member a later [and possibly more opportune times for the students' research project] instruction dates.

While listening to the podcast, I realized a couple other ideas:

• Just say, “no” or better yet — ask for help!  I know that’s an INSANE idea isn’t it? I know when I was trying to heavily market instructional services, I *always* tried to accommodate the faculty member even if s/he requested an “orientation to the library” and there was no research component to the class. Is this the best use of our time? I could use that time to prepare for a class where the students are delving into research, and I’ve been incorporated into the class syllabus at highly strategic times. Don’t get me wrong. I am a big believer in creating a fabulous first impression of the library for students, but I began to rely on my colleagues to take on “general orientation” sessions if I couldn’t do it.
• This leads to bringing more people into your instruction team. I loved it when *anyone* in the instruction team/department led instruction sessions. Yes, those staff sans library degrees were in their leading classes, and the ones I got to see did a fabulous job. I found that they appreciated the experience and it was a great professional development opportunity for them.
• Mark off “planning time” on your calendar. I used this a LOT toward my latter years in academic librarianship. I asked my Team Leader if I could mark off time on my calendar to focus on class preparation. Let’s face it, meetings happen, and if I had to nix planning for a meeting that couldn’t wait, I did it. But for me, having that chunk of time set aside for class prep was a major stress-relief.

Give it a listen, and check out the show notes!!!

Join us for future episodes! If you’re interested, please post a comment on the Adventures in Library Instruction blog or email us! We’d love to have you be a part of our Skype discussion or participate in a one-on-one interview. OR you can record your own a segment of something fabulous you’re doing with library instruction techniques, technology, or methods!