By Danny Dotson, Mathematical Sciences Librarian & Science Education Specialist
When visiting courses, I try to add at least a few elements of humor to a visit, even if just very brief. I find it helps make my visits a bit livelier.
Here are a few things I have done that seem to get a good response from the audience:
- Sesame Street: Cookie Monster In the Library: I use this when visiting survey courses. It usually gets laughs (sometimes even from the instructor). It serves as a bridge to dispel the idea that libraries are just a storehouse of books. I go on to show we have all sorts of materials, spaces, services and – in some cases – cookies. Although I am guessing Cookie Monster would not like the idea of paying for cookies.
- Being Lazy: I point out some of the ways in which students can be lazy when I visit some classes. First is paging books from other locations. Do not walk across campus – have the book sent somewhere closer. Also, citation management software (RefWorks, Endnote, etc.) allow people to be lazy – you do not have to key every citation by hand (although I emphasize they should still verify correctness!). In other words, make these things do more of the work for you. I also ask how many people get joy in life from creating bibliographies – I do not usually see many hands raised!
- Working Late I sometimes ask how many people in the class – on rare occasions, of course – do work late at night / early morning. This segues into using limit options (particularly in the catalog) to get items that would be available immediately – particularly ebooks and streaming videos. Of course I also emphasize the selection is much bigger if one works ahead of time!
Anyone else want to share ideas of how they use humor?