Your Name
GEL 101 / Kornher
Library Module Final Project
October 12, 2006

          I am researching claims made about librarians’ reactions to overwhelming instruction duties (overload). There is literature discussing both the causes of overload and means to alleviate the situation. My primary investigation will be into the currently popular means to relieve the overload situation, with some background review of the causes to establish the study.

#1: Scholarly Journal

Downie, J. A., Meulemans, Y. N., Sonntag, M. G., Carr, A., & Fiegen, A. M. (2005). Electronic instruction delivery as a means to reach more with fewer. Quarterly Journal of Librarians and Instruction, 4(2), 15-26. Retrieved September 11, 2006, from Librarians Literature database.

Authority-Author & Source: The authors are all instruction librarians in various disciplines at California State University San Marcos. This appears to be the first work by each of these authors in this field. The Quarterly Journal of Librarians and Instruction is renowned for publishing on lesser-known and controversial research topics in librarianship.

Main Idea & key information: This article focuses on the use of pre-recorded instruction sessions that are available for anytime-anywhere delivery through course management software. This provides me with one method of instruction overload relief.

Contribution to your research: A number of other articles cite this one which demonstrates a scarcity of information on this topic. It is useful for providing information on one delivery format that can be reused as opposed to live instruction.

Quotation: Downie, Meulemans, Sonntag, Carr and Feigen (2005) claim that "electronic delivery of instruction can reach almost five times as many users as in-person instruction" (p. 16).