Elmborg: Teaching at the Desk

There were nice thoughts here about treating the reference desk as a learning desk, though I was puzzled by the special focus on comparisons with composition teaching, since Elmborg's points apply to nearly any teaching situation. It does take uncommon discipline to answer a question with a question, and doing that can encourage people to be more active learners. I was struck by parallels with the Montessori philosophy.

As technology makes access to facts increasingly mundane, it's even more important that librarians provide something beyond mere data. Teaching patrons how to explore information is a wonderful example of that.