Library Orientation at The Alma Jordan Library: The Way Forward

Abstract

This paper describes a project undertaken at The Alma Jordan Library of the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies to pilot a new approach to Library Orientation (LO) at the start of the academic year 2012-2013. The pilot project combined three main components: a virtual tour in the form of a narrated PowerPoint presentation, a hands-on session on navigating the Campus Libraries' electronic information portal, UWIlinC, and a questionnaire designed to gather feedback and test retention from participants. The pilot programme was branded and marketed under the acronym, L.I.F.E. Library Information for Everyone and was incorporated into a newly rebranded campus-wide First Year Experience for students new to the St. Augustine Campus. The programme offered library literacy to new and returning undergraduate and postgraduate students. The pilot was designed to replace a month long programme which included physical library tours conducted over two weeks and subsequent information literacy instruction sessions. The L.I.F.E. programme, offered over a two week period, was approximately one hour long and sessions were held five times daily. The feedback from attending students was overwhelmingly positive. The authors, however, detect that there is still room for growth and improvement. This paper also presents a brief historical overview of the orientation programmes of The Alma Jordan Library, explains why a new programme was proposed, and describes and presents the results of the L.I.F.E. pilot. It ends with a section on lessons learnt; examining the way forward if the orientation programmes at the Library are to be restructured in the future.

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