Dr. Nancy Everhart from the iSchool is spending a month in Germany as an International Visiting Lecturer at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences Media Campus in Dieburg. The aim of the Visiting Lecturer program is to improve the international teaching program by additional teaching, teaching in a foreign language and teaching with an international focus. In particular, it offers students who cannot travel themselves opportunities to acquire intercultural skills and international experience as well as the ability to know the international context of their own subject.
Everhart is delivering guest lectures about school libraries in two courses – Digital Libraries and Information Literacy – in the Library and Information Science bachelor’s program. Everhart shared, “Less than 15% of German schools have school libraries and students do not get an opportunity to learn about them. The students I have are very curious about what school libraries and school librarians can provide to a school and what school libraries are like in the U.S.”
This current visit is another in an ongoing collaboration Everhart has had over the past decade with the German government, educational institutions, and the Goethe Institute in conducting research in Germany. Most recently, she completed a study during a four-month stay in Berlin, “The Readiness for School Library Education in Germany” funded by a fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service. Everhart presented the results of this study were presented this month at the Deutsche Bibliothekartag, Germany’s national library conference. You can find the German version of the study here.
