Library Instruction West 2014

With the ever-expanding range of emerging educational technologies that could be introduced to library instruction, including open software outside the traditional mosaic of locally supported tools, making evidence-based decisions about whether and how to best use such tools for instructional purposes is a critical yet challenging task. As educators, how can librarians make informed decisions about using particular emerging technologies when, due to their relative newness, there is often a perceived lack of available and “up-to-the-minute” research? Engaging with the conference theme of sustainability in a changing academic environment, and discussing the balance between planning with innovation, the goal of this session is to identify and propose potential solutions to several key problems regarding evidence-based decision-making for technologies in library instruction. Based on lessons learned from practice, the authors propose strategies to mitigate a lack of up-to-date evidence when deciding whether or not to use new technologies in teaching.