As Time Goes By...: Revisiting Fundamentals

As we reinvent libraries for the twenty-first century, it is appropriate that we revisit our vision of library instruction-an emerging dimension of library services which has been largely pragmatically based. Such a review suggests that four main areas require attention and redefinition: (1) the reference/instruction relationship; (2) the vision of creating the self-sufficient user; (3) the importance of replacing courses with curriculum; and (4) the need for significant outcomes. Firsthand examples from a variety of ARL libraries are used.