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Title:

Enabling End-Users: Information Skills Training

Review:

One of the 'information skills' covered by this book is the critical appraisal of material found when searching. Criteria are given for evaluating print resources which provide us with a starting point for this review. One of these criteria is 'Author': Ann Poyner is a 'professional librarian' with experience in the (national) health service whose recent work has been through contributions to training projects; she now works as a freelance information skills trainer.

By experience, the author appears to be well qualified, although whilst she carefully generalises through the text, her health service background makes occasional, uncomfortable appearances: are 'medicine and healthcare' really 'particularly well served with a comprehensive range of information sources', by comparison to law, business or academia? Healthcare-specific search strategies such as 'is there a particular treatment or intervention or interaction to be explored?' are also included. As the book claims to be a resource for all (and not just healthcare), 'information professionals, such sector-specific examples are unhelpful. These could have been generalised, or examples appropriate to other sectors included.

Healthcare bias aside, this book is well structured and full of helpful advice which both new and experienced trainers will be able to apply to their client training programmes. The book's first sentence sums up its practical and affirmative approach: 'end-user information skills training can be fun'. For me, the core resources were the chapters covering: the searching process and searching techniques; preparing training materials; one-to-one tuition, and group training sessions. Each chapter is summarised with a set of bullet points and then subdivided by clear headings making this accessible as a reference manual for quick queries.

The book's general technique is to clarify the training process for the trainer, and its simple, step-by-step approach helps information professionals to recognise and then train in skills that we might take for granted. The chapter on 'the searching process and searching techniques' reminds the trainer to encourage clients to 'fully state their information needs and build up a search strategy covering all the aspects that are vital to their search', I suppose this might be termed the self reference interview. Other key information skills covered in this chapter include guidance around selection of resources, and search operators and commands.

The chapter on one-to-one tuition covers all manifestations, from ad-hoc queries, to structured sessions, to telephone training. It deals with one of the trainer's greatest fears: difficult people. Two examples are given: the 'independent end-user' with a misplaced confidence in their own abilities, and the senior staff-member. Difficult clients are also dealt with in the chapter on group training, although suggestions for a more comprehensive strategy than the following would have been desirable: 'try and identify anyone like this early in the session and seek to involve [them]'.

This book is a valuable resource covering the training process from planning to delivery and evaluation once training has been given. Whilst the bias towards information in healthcare is a distraction, it doesn't detract from the book's overall usefulness.

Free Pint Reviewer:

Richard Gaston works in London as a business information researcher for a global investment bank, with training as one component of his role. Richard is a chartered member of CILIP - the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. He writes for FreePint in a personal capacity.

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