Newly minted academic librarians, unaccustomed to teaching or unfamiliar with the language of information literacy, will immediately recognize the value of Ragain’s newest edition of Information Literacy Instruction that Works. By identifying the major challenges that teaching librarians face, this book acculturates readers to the field of information literacy. Moreover, by offering strategies and resources to overcome these challenges, it gives them the means to become more effective teachers.

The opening chapters provide a succinct history of the development of information literacy in academic libraries, an overview of current research and researchers in the field, and an outline of best practices for instructional design. The remaining chapters offer advice on how to tailor instruction to specific student populations (e.g., first-year students, community college students) and academic disciplines.

These practice-oriented, discipline-specific chapters are authored by experienced liaison librarians. Each chapter is intended to be a “road map” to the discipline, describing these users’ information needs, their information-seeking behavior, and the resources most important to their research and work. A bibliography accompanies every chapter, and supplemental material—related lesson plans, handouts, and examples—are available online at ala.org/webextras.

Originally published in 2006, this second edition is revised, updated, and expanded. New discipline-specific chapters cover music, anthropology, scientific literacy, engineering, and business. In total, fourteen disciplines are represented, although more still would have been welcomed by this reviewer. Nonetheless, all major areas of study are covered, and much of this advice can be applied across disciplines.

In addition to novice librarians, librarians who are new to teaching specific populations or disciplines will also benefit from this advice. LIS instructors who are teaching courses on academic librarianship should consider pointing their students to this text as well, as it provides guidance on how to be not only an effective teacher but also an effective liaison. In the same way, academic libraries that are transitioning to an embedded, curricular approach to information literacy instruction may find some helpful tips and suggestions in these pages as well. This book is not the final word on information literacy instruction, but it comes pretty close.