In the late spring 2002 Mariana Regalado and Barbra Higginbotham approached Ellen Tremper, chair of the English Department, about changing the way in which English I students receive Library instruction. Professor Tremper liked the idea enormously, and it was implemented in the fall 2002 semester: rather than requiring each faculty member to give up a class session in order to bring his or her students to the Library for instruction, they proposed to establish an English I workshop, offer it multiple times over the course of a semester, and give students a receipt for attending, enabling them to choose workshops that fit their schedules.
A syllabus created by Professor Regalado included a general orientation to the new building, the organization of library materials, an overview of reference materials and access tools, and a discussion of plagiarism and how to avoid it. More than 52 sessions enrolling a total of almost 500 students were scheduled between October 1 and December 18. All members of the Information Services professional staff participated in the program.
Beyond the English I workshops, since March 2002, the Information Services staff taught 75 Library instruction classes at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, covering numerous disciplines and reaching 1,758 students. Mariana Regalado is refining the English I workshop series and embarking on developing a series of discipline-related workshops for the fall 2003. In tandem with this effort, she is working with all the instructors and subject bibliographer to rewrite and redesign our instructional pamphlets.
