Continuous Improvement in Library Instruction

Posted by Carolyn Martin on February 3rd, 2026 Posted in: Guest Post, Medical Librarians, Training & Education
Tags: instruction, librarian roles, libraries, medical librarian

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NNLM Region 5 is highlighting the medical librarians in our region. We thank Jennifer Lantrip, Health Sciences Student Success Librarian at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR, for sharing how she integrates library instruction into the health sciences programs.

Part of my work as an academic health sciences librarian is collaborating with faculty to integrate library instruction into health sciences programs. My goal is to teach students to be critical, ethical, and effective users and creators of information in their courses, programs, and future professions. I strive to continually improve my instructional content (what I’m teaching) and delivery (how I’m teaching it) by staying current on the changing information environment and best practices in teaching.

When designing instruction, I develop student learning outcomes (what I want students to be able to do after the session) based upon Evidence-Based Practice, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, the course learning outcomes that the faculty would like me to support, and how students will use information in their future professions (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2016; Lehane et al., 2019). So, while my learning outcomes are similar across the programs that I teach for, they are tailored to each class.

I then design my instructional sessions to support students in achieving those learning outcomes in collaboration with faculty. While I work within time constraints and modalities, I often negotiate increased time or different instructional modalities to better achieve the learning outcomes (e.g., adding an online assignment for students to complete before a live class session or adding more time in class for students to explore an important aspect of the topic).

I also try to learn about the culture of the student population and some of their strengths and challenges so that I can tailor my lessons to better support and engage them. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT), and Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) have been very helpful frameworks that I’ve drawn from to make my lessons more effective and supportive of all students, including students from marginalized backgrounds (CAST, n.d.; Hammond, 2015; Vold, n.d.; Winkelmes, 2025). I want students to become invested in learning the content and to understand how it affects them personally and professionally – how it will support them, not only for a particular assignment, but in their future careers as they use and create information.

I use activities and assignments to provide students opportunities to explore and practice applying the concepts I’m teaching, and so that I can assess how well they are meeting the learning outcomes. These assessments, in addition to feedback from students, faculty, and colleagues, help me determine what was successful and what I could improve for the future. For example, if I see that many students didn’t understand a certain concept in their assignment, I try to update my future lessons to better explain it or to improve my activities and assignments when considering UDL, CRT and TILT.

While I’m always trying to improve my delivery, I’ve been working to update my content over the last couple of years to address recent changes in the information environment. For example, I’ve incorporated AI literacy into my instruction to support students in thinking critically about it and considering how to use it ethically and effectively (Inclusive Design Research Center, 2024).

As structures that support quality research, publication and information access have been eroded or removed in the last year (Dyer, 2025; Greer et al., 2025), I have shifted my focus to helping students understand markers of quality in these processes themselves. I start by focusing on how information is created and used in their discipline, how their discipline defines quality, and how to identify markers of quality in these processes. My goal here is to help students become invested in these processes – how quality information really matters for them, their patients, their communities, and the larger world.

I then point to some of the changes with research, publication and access that have affected their quality and point to things that students can do about it, including staying informed, evaluating information, and advocating for quality standards within their professions and communities. (I’m currently looking for meaningful and thoughtful methods for evaluating information within the changing information environment.) My hope is that these basic characteristics of quality will guide students in how they create, use, share, and advocate for quality information throughout their careers as the information environment continues to evolve.

References:

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2016, January 11). Framework for information literacy for higher education. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Dyer, O. (2025). PubMed is running on autopilot during shutdown, but key independent committee has been abolished. BMJ, 391, r2158. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2158

Lehane, E., Leahy-Warren, P., O’Riordan, C., Savage, E., Drennan, J., O’Tuathaigh, C., O’Connor, M., Corrigan, M., Burke, F., Hayes, M., Lynch, H., Sahm, L., Heffernan, E., O’Keeffe, E., Blake, C., Horgan, F., & Hegarty, J. (2019). Evidence-based practice education for healthcare professions: an expert view. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, 24(3), 103–108. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2018-111019

CAST. (n.d.). UDL on campus: Universal Design for Learning in higher education. http://udloncampus.cast.org/home

Greer, S. L., Jarman, H., Kulikoff, R., & Yaver, M. (2025). Trump’s second presidency begins: Evaluating effects on the US health system. The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, 48, 101173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2025.101173

Hammond, Z. (2015, April 1). 3 tips to make any lesson more culturally responsive. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/

Inclusive Design Research Center. (2024, April 15). Framework for accessible and equitable artificial intelligence (AI) in education. OCAD University. https://idrc.ocadu.ca/projects/ai-in-education/

Vold, V. (n.d.). Equity-minded open course design. Open Oregon Educational Resources. https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/coursedesign/

Winkelmes, M. (2025). TILT higher ed examples and resources. TILT Higher Ed. https://www.tilthighered.com/resources