Oral Histories -- Interview Questions

List of questions used for the LIRT oral histories.
  1. Please tell me a little bit about your career. When and where did you start in libraries? What path has your career followed until now?

  2. What first drew you to library instruction?

  3. How did you initially become interested in participating in LIRT?

  4. When you were most involved in LIRT, what interesting things or new ideas did LIRT implement or establish?

  5. What were the instructional issues of the time? Did belonging to LIRT help you address those issues?

  6. Library instruction as a specialty was new to many libraries. Did you face challenges from colleagues in implementing your instruction programs?

  7. [For earlier presidents] What challenges did you face in getting LIRT off the ground and active in the library community?

  8. During your time as a member of LIRT, can you remember any LIRT programs or publications that made an impact on the profession a whole? Were there any programs that made an impact on your personal career?

  9. Describe how LIRT as on organization has helped to transform the field of library instruction and information literacy into what it is today.

  10. Thirty-five years ago no one could have predicted the impact of the Web and Internet on information seeking behavior. How well do you think LIRT and its members (instruction librarians) have met the challenges of teaching the important skills set we now call information literacy?

  11. Some say that librarianship is a dying field, especially since “everything is now on the Web.” How do you respond to that? What do you predict for the future to library instruction?