Bibliocycle

was recently asked by one of the staff members working on the Academy’s web redesign project to submit a 50 word statement that captured the “essence” of the OWHL.  Thinking about responding to this request I was variously indignant (Don’t they understand how complicated we are?) cynical (How about “Got books”?) and philosophical.  While I do believe that we can’t be “captured” in 50 words in a marketing brochure (which is honestly what the web site has become) I took up the challenge to try to explain to a general public that is woefully uninformed about the role(s) and purposes of 21st century academic libraries who we are.

Here is what I came up with:

“Helping improve your questions” isn’t just the OWHL’s slogan—it accurately describes the intensive, one-on-one teaching that the librarians do every day. The OWHL serves as the crossroads for the intellectual life of the community and is committed to assuring that every PA graduate has the “information literacy” skills needed for academic and personal success in the 21^st century.

It reminded me that “Helping improve your questions” is a pretty succinct description of what instructional librarians do.