Library Instruction Mission and Purpose

Purpose

The J. Willard Marriott Library instruction plan has been created for threefold reasons. First and foremost, to promote the growth of critical usage of licensed and purchased library research resources by graduate & undergraduate students, faculty and community users to further the mission of the University of Utah. Second, to continually improve librarian involvement in the better value of the investment of federal, state and student tuition dollars. Third, to innovate, research and lead the myriad institutions of the academic library towards a future of greater and greater impact on our constituencies and communities.

Library Instruction at the J. Willard Marriott Library

Instruction at the Marriott Library has a long history of innovation and quality, and therefore roles related to outreach & instruction are scattered broadcast throughout the population of academic librarians. There are also dedicated areas, primarily Graduate & Undergraduate Services, and Faculty Services that perform traditional roles of student & faculty outreach, embedded librarianship and library instruction. Collectively, in addition to supporting University and Library goals, we are strongly informed by the Association of College & Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We practice outreach & instruction in myriad ways to meet the needs of our constituency and to reduce barriers to their success. We teaching online via course management systems (such as Canvas), video conferencing environments (such as Zoom) as well as other synchronous and asynchronous online communication (e-mail, youtube, etc.). While the library is traditionally our base of instruction with many classrooms in our building, we also meet students in group consultation areas, reference desks, and in the library in general. We have a strong practice of going out of the library and embedding instruction in the classrooms throughout campus, and satellite campuses (Murray and Sandy, for example). As the University grows, we will continue to respond dynamically to reduce barriers to students from wherever they engage with the library.

Mission Statements

• We design, deliver, and assess library research instruction and outreach for the education of all undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Utah.
• We build strong relationships with faculty, campus liaison roles, labs, mentoring groups, and other constituencies. Together we grow a community of students, faculty and other researchers which supports the development of undergraduate research competencies.
• We actively develop faculty partnerships at the University of Utah to further build strong communities with embedded librarians as key members.
• We strive for specific outcomes in student interactions (ranging from formal library research instruction to informal library research consultations) where students become:
  • Comfortable and confident in utilizing many library spaces & services, as well as empowered with the confidence to ask for more.
  • Discerning and ethical consumers/creators of knowledge & information.
  • Empowered to contribute to their own success and success of their peers in academic, professional and community environments.
  • Imbued with the skills, dispositions and motivations of critically thinking life-long learners.
• In myriad functions of librarianship, we strive to reduce the effect of barriers such as, discrimination, gender bias