Effective & Exciting Information Literacy outreach efforts for international & ESL students

1. Effective & ExcitingInformation Literacyoutreach effortsfor international & ESL students John Hickok, MLIS, MA Coordinator of Library Instruction ESL Librarian California State University, Fullerton

2. First session (1 ½ hours):A 3-fold plan for outreaching to international & ESL students

3. Introduction: Demographics • 2007-8: International students in the U.S.-- over HALF A MILLION! http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=131590 • 2006: 10.8 MILLION K-12 school children (20%) coming from a non-English speaking home http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2008/section1/indicator07.asp

4. Introduction: Demographics

5. Introduction: Demographics

6. Cal State Fullerton, 2008 = 54%

7. Library/Research Skills • What kind of library/Research (Information Literacy) skills do these students arrive at universities with? • From my 10 years of observations: a lacking in these skills among International & ESL students

8. Yes, but don’t homegrown, English-speaking U.S. students likewise lack I.L. skills???

9. Of course. However… Extra challenges: • English unfamiliarity • Culture shock • Different academic system (e.g. little independent Research) • Limited experience with libraries/ librarians due to different library conditions in their home countries

10. So…what to do?How to outreach to these students?

11. 3-fold plan: 1.Do background research about your int’l/ESL students’ countries/cultures… namely, educational & library aspects. 2. Prepare custom outreach guides (online, but print too) for these students 3. Outreach to them, by going to them! (to their clubs, ESL classes, parties, etc.)

12. BackgroundResearch 1.

13. 1a. Read the professional literature on educational aspects e.g. “Teaching and Learning in Korean Classrooms”, Asia Pacific Education Review, v4 n2 p140-150 2003

14. 1b. Read the professional literature on foreign library conditions e.g. “Information Literacy in Chinese Higher Education”, Library Trends 51 no2 210-17 Fall 2002

15. 1c. Consult campus cultural experts • Chicano Resource Center director • Asian or Asian-American Studies faculty • Education faculty (Compar. Int’l. Educ.) • School/public librarians of local ethnic areas • Int’l Education or ESL Dept. Director • Ethnic faculty/staff themselves! (younger/more recent = better)

16. 1d. Query the students themselves(pre-contact) • Administer a IL survey to them via their ESL teacher, the Int’l Office director, their student club advisor, etc.

17. 1e. And finally…establish contacts with libraries at foreign universities that send many of your Int’l students • an atypical way of doing this…

18. Travel!

19. What?! You expect us to go to those lengths?!

20. What?! You expect us to go to those lengths?! NO

21. If you like to travel, then sure, write a research travel grant…or if on a vacation, visit academic libraries then. • But even if you don’t travel, you can still make contacts and do this virtually.

22. How virtually? 1. Identify demographics at your library—what country is most heavily represented? 2. Check with your university’s Int’l Relations office and Int’l Exchange office to see what partnerships you have

23. 3. Then contact those universities’ libraries from their websites. (English is the de facto international language, so Web pages in English are increasingly common—with email contacts and bilingual staff)

24. CSUF – Fudan partnership

25. Nanjing University

27. An optional “nice touch”: • If you have a campus colleague who is bilingual, sending your intro letter bilingually is great!

29. Another optional “nice touch”: • Webcam with them! MSN, Yahoo IM, Skype are already very used overseas. • Then you can “show” them things, and vica versa!

30. For example…CSUF’s Cambodian Club

31. Network with them! • Learn about their library conditions & instruction programs (if any) • Share with them your instruction programs…and offer to link to your library’s homepage (or special page for them)

32. Some of my in-person networking:

33. Some of my in-person networking:

34. Some of my in-person networking: Indonesia

35. Some of my in-person networking: Philippines

36. Some of my in-person networking: Malaysia

37. Some of my in-person networking: Thailand

38. Some of my in-person networking: Myanmar

39. Some of my in-person networking: Laos

40. Some of my in-person networking: Cambodia

41. Some of my in-person networking: Vietnam

42. Some of my in-person networking: China

43. Some of my in-person networking: Mongolia

44. Some of my in-person networking: Korea

45. Some of my in-person networking: Japan

46. Some of my in-person networking: Taiwan

47. The resulting benefits? • You learn more about what kind of library conditions/services exist at certain universities (CAUTION: don’t stereotype the whole country from your 1 university)

48. Both are China!

49. The resulting benefits? • They learn about your library, and can better prepare their study-abroad students on what to expect And you might even meet them, in-person!

50. Vietnam Librarian visit