This year I have been teaching “Nuevas Tendencias en los Servicios de Información” (New Trends in Information Services), a course focused on teaching about the new developments in libraries and the changes it is going through during the 21st century. It wasn’t my first time teaching, but it was my first time teaching such an abstract topic, with older students and freedom to shape the course in the way I considered best. And, I must confess, I’ve had a lot of fun.
Designing the course was a challenge. Starting a curriculum from scratch is never easy, so I asked around to get insights from librarians and other people who have taught the course in the past. I started reading early in September, I started creating presentations and exercises in January and I started contacting people I wanted to give a talk in the course in February. And then, everything was set for late February when the course began.
Aside from the content (which can be found on the website I created for the course), one of the strengths of the course was the people that were willing to give their time to it. First, Can Lejárraga told us everything we need to know about fanzines. Then, Margot Corbacho showed us and told us everything about the Cartuja-Almanjayar library. Antonio Collados gave an amazing talk on the relationship between libraries and art, and then made us part of the new library that is being created at Casa de Porras. Arantza Mariskal, from Tabakalera, and Javier Perez Iglesias, from the Arts Faculty at Universidad Complutense de Madrid gave us online talks on their innovative and groundbreaking work on their libraries. Lastly, we visited one of the BiblioMaker of the university.
Another cool thing about the course was the final project. Instead of doing a traditional essay, the students and I decided to create a fanzine. The idea behind it was twofold: a) disseminate ideas on libraries in a doable and nice way, and b) learn how to do a fanzine, a knowledge which they may apply in their own libraries in the future. And the end result was incredible.
This course was an extremely important experience for my career. It taught me a lot about how to teach, about the possibilities of teaching and I am now less afraid to challenge future teaching challenges. I want to thank everyone who collaborated with the course and, most importantly, the students! The course would have been way less cool if it wasn’t for their enthusiasm and hard work. Let’s now enjoy the summer!
