Carol:
For about the past 7-8 years, I've been doing all the initial training
of first year law students on WESTLAW and LEXIS. And this is how:
About 3 or 4 weeks into the semester (and since we have entering students
every semester, including summer, this "2d semester R&W" is held either
2 or 3 times a year), the students are required to attend a two-hour
lecture with me. At this lecture, the students get the little freebie
booklets from the computer companies (which, IMHO, are very nice as
far as telling you how great the systems are - but either give way too
much information about doing searches, or not enough), and software
and IDs, and a 14 page handout that I've done taking them through what
the computers can and cannot do, how the systems are organized (libraries
and files, databases, etc.), then a sample search, showing how the search
is done and the results can be viewed, then the citators. I also touch
briefly on other things I think they should know about - the eclipse
service on LEXIS, for example, and natural language. I alternate each
semester on which computer service they get first; this semester, they
had LEXIS the last week of January (and this was almost 110 students,
at once); last week, they had WESTLAW. In the fall, when R&W II is
taught again, they'll get WESTLAW first. About a week after my initial
lecture, the reps come and do hands-on training, which is not mandatory
(although I've been constantly asked by the companies to make it so), but
is highly advised.
Originally, I started doing the training this way - putting the stress
on my lecture, and leaving it to the students to decide if they wanted
hands-on - for convenience (mine, because at that time I would have
been doing all the hands-on training anyway), and for fairness (with
one hundred students, having it done any other way would result in
some students getting training days or weeks before others - and I
do know how law students can bitch. And in my opinion, that would be
a legitimate one!) However, I've stuck with doing it this way now,
for several reasons:
-1- Quality control (gee - that sounds a little egotistical, doesn't
it?) What I mean by that is, the reps vary in what they teach,
and in how they do it. We've had some who have repeatedly shown
up late for the hands-on sessions, or who just aren't that good
in putting across a point to law students. And I also want to
make sure that the students are getting what I think they need
to know, not just as a librarian but also as one of their R&W
teachers - things like the different kinds of non-legal sources
that will be helpful to them in doing their R&W papers. Last,
I've noticed many times that the reps are so exhilarated about
the latest developments in the systems (such as WIN), that
sometimes the students don't really get the basics. WIN is nice -
and so is Freestyle - but the students shouldn't rely on those,
and I tell them that.
-2-At a big lecture, the students will also get answers to questions
that I hadn't anticipated but another student might ask - and
many times these are things that the reps don't really get into.
I've had questions, for example, about how to search for a person's
name, where I can write a sample search on the blackboard and go
into detail about why you might not find the information just
by putting in "joe schmoe", but instead would want to try "joseph
or joe w/2 schmoe". These are things that might be covered in the
literature the companies give out, if the students would know
where to find it in there - and they are things that the reps don't
really have time to address (or if they do, not in such a way that
everyone gets the information).
-3-I also have the student reps attend the lecture, which enables the
first year students to have their basic questions answered about
setting up the system at home, and gives them some rapport with the
student rep.
-4-As for hands-on training - I've always had a real aversion to this
as a way to teach. As already noted, because it has to be in small
groups, some students will get training ahead (or way ahead) of
others. My biggest gripe with it, though, is that while students
can actually do a search, and see how the system actually works,
they can't take notes at the same time (many notes, anyway) and
so don't have much to get them through it the next time. And that's
why I give them, and lecture on, my handout first, and they then
get hands-on; they'll still have the handout to walk them through
a search, if they need it. (Not to mention the two other huge
pitfalls of hands-on: the person who can't type, and the person
who wants to hit every other key than the one they need to. Oh -
and the fact that the computers just LOVE to lock up during hands-
on training!)
Sorry I've been so long-winded about this! But I've received alot
of flack over the years from LEXIS and WESTLAW both about how hands-
on training, by their reps, is what we should be doing, and I just
don't think it works as well as this method. And the students, for
the most part, have said that it does - I've even had alumni ask if
they could have a copy of the last outline I've done, as well as law
students asking for copies for friends at other law schools who only
did hands-on training. So - you CAN do it another way. Arrange a time
to lecture to the students (sometimes I've had to do 2 or 3 separate
lectures in a week, just to fit in all the students), and make your
own training materials. Believe me, as a librarian, you know what the
students will be asking about, and you know what they have to be
shown in order to use the systems as well and as efficiently as they
can! (And just be prepared to take a little flack from the reps
when you say that you're taking over the training...)
*********************************************************
Sally G. Waters, Queen of Reference / "That's the way
(waters@suvax1.stetson.edu) / it crumbles....
Stetson Univ. College of Law Library / cookie-wise."
1401 61st St. S. / ---C.C. Baxter
St. Petersburg, FL 33707 /
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03/09/00 PST