Learning That Lasts: Teaching for Transfer at Reference

Abstract

Imagine a librarian who is teaching a one-shot library instruction session and asks students
to share the ways they look for information in their personal lives. The librarian leans into their
examples and explains how a practical situation, such as figuring out which car to buy, is similar
to but also different from how we locate academic information for a class. This comparison leads
to the librarian explaining how looking for information and determining its credibility depend on
the context. The car example draws on a familiar experience of information seeking, which helps
students more easily understand the concept of finding information in the context of the library