Some 75 teachers representing a selection of high schools in and around Doha took part in a recently held library literacy course, organised by the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA).
The half-day session forms part of MIA’s commitment to support teachers, inspire and educate young people in Qatar.
In a statement, MIA noted that the specially developed session was designed to enable participants to access the world-class resources at the museum as effectively and efficiently as possible. It aims to educate, inform and inspire students, helping them to become expert researchers.
The in-depth course combines both theoretical and practical elements to enable teachers to become highly organised resource managers and information specialists and to equip them in teaching their students how to access and utilise information.
MIA said another aim is to provide students with the highest quality reading experiences, allowing teachers to recommend literature that their students will enjoy reading.
“The feedback from all participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Schools, students and the wider community have so much to gain from this globally acclaimed museum, its world-class collection of Islamic Art and one of the largest libraries of its kind in the region,” MIA’s learning and outreach deputy director Salem Abdullah al-Marri said.
The course provided high school teachers with the foundation for helping their students to become experts in using library resources. It also helped them present their findings and teach critical information literacy skills in ways that capture and hold student interest.
According to MIA, the course also provided a solid grounding in the foundational skills required to be information literate in a library setting – covering an understanding of the resources available to teachers at MIA, practical steps on how to access information, evaluate results, how to communicate and share findings, as well as considerations such as ethics and responsibility of use.
Some of the topics discussed include an overview of the importance of libraries, particularly given the widespread proliferation of online resources; and tips on how to identify the most important resources in a school library.
Teachers also had the opportunity to tour the library at MIA – one of the largest in the region. The tour provided an overview of key parts of the collection, including the children’s section, scholars collection, handling collection, rare book room, online resources and other sources of information available.
Teachers were also given an overview of how MIA library staff deal with an information request, including what information is needed to process a request, where to find the information, reviewing the validity of sources, presenting information, and a review of tools available to check for plagiarism.