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Abstract

The "teaching librarian" or "librarian as teacher" is a professional role that has been discussed in the literature of library and information science in recent decades, particularly in relation to bibliographic instruction and information literacy development. This paper reports on a small-scale research project, undertaken in 2002, that investigated the demand for library professionals with knowledge of or skills in instructional techniques and strategies. The project was based on an extensive literature review, plus content analysis of library and information science job advertisements on the international LIBJOBS listserv. The literature review has been updated for this BOBCATSSS paper, as have aspects of the content analysis, in order to provide delegates with more recent information. The idea of a teaching role for librarians is far from new. Michael Lorenzen (2002) has traced academic library-based instruction as far back as the seventeenth century when German academic libraries provided instructional programmes for library users. In academic and school libraries in the nineteenth century it usually took the form of "library orientation" - making sure that students and faculty knew how to find the books and other material for their courses. In the United States, some American university librarians were lecturing to students as early as the 1880s (Lorenzen, 2002). In nineteenth and early twentieth century public libraries, library instruction often took the form of literature promotion or reading promotion activities for children and young people, and even of "lessons" on how to look after books, right down to the need for washing hands before handling books. The introduction of card catalogues and classification systems such as the Dewey Decimal Classification resulted in a need for user education in all kinds of libraries, with sessions based on topics such as "The card catalogue: The key to the library" and "How to find a book on the shelves". The introduction of automated catalogues from the 1960s, and later, databases on CD-ROMs, online information services for end users, and the Internet, have increased the need and demand for formal and informal user education, regardless of the type and size of library. Indeed, there is no doubt that interest in library-based instruction has increased in recent decades: on the basis of an analysis of the literature related to the instructional role of librarians, Edwards (1994) noted that "during the past quarter century, interest and concern for library instruction has grown dramatically", while Marcum said in 2002 that "Over the past decade ... information literacy has emerged as a central purpose for librarians, particularly academic librarians".