The First-Year Experience Cookbook

by Raymond Pun (Editor), Meggan Houlihan (Editor), Chapel D. Cowden (Contributor)

The First-Year Experience Cookbook provides librarians with a series of innovative approaches to teaching and assessing information literacy skills during a student's first year. Featuring four chapters- Library Orientation, Library Instruction, Programs, and Assessment- and more than 60 practical easy-to-implement recipes, this book compiles lessons and techniques for you to adapt, repurpose, and implement in your libraries.

Genres: Nonfiction, Library Science

164 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2017

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of freshmen orientation activities submitted by academic librarians from all over the country. The "cookbook" format was a bit kitschy but did provide a cohesive framework for laying out all the components of such a diverse set of programs with many moving parts. I especially liked the "Allergy Warnings" sections, which outlined potential drawbacks and complications to watch out for, such as costs and how a timed assignment might encourage quantity over quality.

My favorites:

> The Instagram photo booth that can be set up at an orientation fair, where students take pictures with headshots of the campus librarians (printed on hand fans) and various props.

> Another Instagram option that involved students taking photos of things they find in the library that catch their eye, which the librarian can then expound upon.

> Editing a Wikipedia article as an exercise in research and source evaluation that provides additional incentive by allowing a student to actually contribute something. I liked this one also because it allows students to work alone (most of the "recipes" involve group work).

> A card-matching game inspired by Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity, but with the correct answer read at the end of each round.

> A "Google Bytes" session that teaches students about search techniques to get the most out of Google (which is pretty much society's default search method).

> A scavenger hunt/Bingo hybrid game that has students complete a series of database searching tasks, such as "find a PDF for a scholarly article" and "email an article with an MLA citation."

> A library book club.

> A build-your-own 'zine final project incorporating various materials the student compiled over the course of their first semester.

The college where I work will definitely be looking into some of these.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and good ideas for working with first-year students and orienting them to the Library. Well worth looking up.

[Kayla]

Need to buy a copy for myself, probably.

[abbie teel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for work! Lots of fun ideas! I’m going to try translating some of them to an online platform for our distance students.