1. Chair S. Thompson brought the meeting to order at 2:10, welcoming us to the new year and to our speaker, Catherine Fiorello.
2. Minutes of the meeting of November 2003 were approved as amended.
3. Staff Recognition Award  (C. Lang) – Reminder to nominate staff members for the award, and to write the nominations well.  Nominations should be submitted by early February.
4. Library Book Club Announcement (M. Jerrido) – “The Secret Life of Bees” is the book that the Book Club is reading together.  The Library Book Club meets on Thursdays 1:10-1:50, and all are invited to attend.  The next book will be “The Color of Water” by James McBride, in conjunction with the “One Book One Philadelphia” program.
5. Announcement – In commemoration of the Brown vs. Board of Ed. 50th Anniversary, a presentation/forum from University Libraries will be given.
6. Interim Library Director  – J. LeBreton was asked if anything has been heard about the library interim director.  Administrative Council is still meeting to take care of library business.  Comments, questions, concerns should go to the department heads or to the administrative office.  Anything of concern should be discussed at the Administrative Office, with the department head, or ADC.

The Assembly had a break for refreshments, which was followed by a presentation from Catherine Fiorello, from the Department of Psychological Studies at the College of Education.

Understanding Learning Styles 

Catherine Fiorello led a discussion on learning styles and how to apply this knowledge to more effectively communicate with library patrons in individual consultation situations as well as in the classroom.  Many different theories exist because often this phenomenon is self-reported. The students themselves say how they think they do better, but this can be their own perception and is not necessarily substantiated by empirical research.  For example, students will report that they study better with music playing in the background, but tests may show that they do better studying in silence. Another example is that if students are asked if they learn better with a videotape or lecture, they will often respond that they prefer a videotape because they prefer  not to listen to a lecture even though they may learn better that way.

However, most individuals have innate strengths and weaknesses in learning, which can be visual, auditory, or tactile.  However, only students that have a learning disability are tested for these strengths or weaknesses.  So, in a classroom, multisensory learning is the goal.  Setting up projects so that the students are doing a variety of tasks, such as some lectures, some papers, some projects, and some group projects is an effective strategy.  This way the instructor can involve most people’s strengths and at the same time can compensate for those with weaknesses.  But, for those with disabilities, this may be still be a problem.  For example, a teacher who keeps talking while turning around and writing on the board would not be understood by a student with an auditory disability.  Multisensory education not only helps those with weaknesses, but also provides reinforcement for those students who are normal.  Also, keep in mind that students who have English as a second language are not served well with only the lecture format.  They need supporting printed materials.

Specifically, in helping students work with computers, simply telling them about how to use a computer is not effective.  Such instruction must be visual and tactile.   The most helpful approach is have the student perform the work on the computer while the instructor watches and tells him what to do.  It is best for the student to hear, see, and touch.

Other topics covered were assessing the level of prior knowledge, and motivating students to learn a new skill.  Quickly assessing the level of prior knowledge in each individual patron is important in order to match the instructional level to the level of prior knowledge.  Conveying to students that new skills need to be learned is important for providing motivation.   The social skills of the librarian during the reference interview are crucial here.  The librarian needs to be seen as both teacher and helper.