Urban Academic Library Outreach to Secondary School Students and Teachers

Abstract

Delores Carlito is the Reference Librarian for Instruction and Outreach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Mervyn H. Sterne Library. She has an M.L.I.S. in Information Studies from the University of Alabama, an M.A. in English from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an M.A.Ed. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She frequently provides instruction to area classes and professional development workshops. In addition to her library responsibilities, she teaches a university course on critical thinking skills. Abstract The Mervyn H. Sterne Library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is located in an urban area and therefore receives traffic from the community, particularly area schools. We encourage visits from these schools in order to promote information literacy, higher education, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and we recognize the importance of the library in the development of responsible citizenship, education, and culture. Since we encourage students to develop research skills before they attend college, we collaborate with area secondary schools on projects, papers, and activities by providing research instruction and support both at the schools and in the library. This article explains the need for University collaboration, how Sterne Library integrates itself into the schools through classroom instruction and teacher workshops, and how we organize and conduct the instruction while promoting the Alabama Virtual Library, a group of online databases available to all students, teachers, and citizens of the State of Alabama.