This document discusses strategies for meeting the learning needs of adult learners in libraries. It begins by defining andragogy as the instructional practices for teaching adult learners, who are self-directed, draw on life experiences, and want learning relevant to their lives. A case study describes a digital humanities course for faculty that provides an overview of the field through readings, projects and discussions. Potential barriers to adult learning, like technology anxiety and fear of incompetence, are identified along with solutions such as empathy, flexible scheduling and building on prior knowledge. The document concludes with questions about identifying learning needs of adult patrons and approaches for addressing them.

2. Where We’re Headed…
1. Defining “Andragogy”
2. Characteristics & Motivations of Adult
Learners
3. Identifying learning needs/interests
4. Case Study: Intro to Digital Humanities
Short Course at the Claremont Colleges
5. Barriers to learning and potential solutions
6. Discussion

3. 1. Defining Andragogy
Instructional practices to meet the (arguably)
unique needs of adult learners
Malcolm Knowles

4. 2. Characteristics & Motivations
of Adult Learners
0 Self-directed
0 Their life experiences
inform their learning
0 Highly motivated
learners
0 Desire to actively
participate in the learning
process
0 Learning needs to be
relevant to their lives
0 They need to know why
they should learn the
material

5. 3. Desire to Learn:
Digital Skills

6. Definitions of DH
0 Digital humanities is a conglomeration of professional practices
that simultaneously enhances and disrupts humanistic inquiry
through interactions with technologies.
0 Digital Humanities means tackling both old and new questions in
the humanities using newly digitized sources and tools for
exploring new digital cultures. The digital humanities embraces
new forms of scholarship that value open access and
collaboration.
0 …it offers new ways of reaching hearts and minds in community
and in the classroom. It is a powerful tool that can be taken up by
many, but it must remain critical and accountable, and bound to
the ethics of humanity.

7. 4. Case Study:
Intro to DH Short Course for Faculty
This six-week group provides an overview of what DH is and
how it can enhance your research and teaching. Each week
we will read several articles or book chapters, explore digital
projects, and get our hands dirty as we learn how to use
digital tools. Our discussions will interrogate the underlying
epistemologies of the practices and theories we're
investigating that week, as well as how those tools and
approaches support our scholarship and pedagogy,
specifically.
http://www.claremontdh.com/ashley-sanders-dh-
reading-group/

8. 4. Intro to DH – Syllabus
Objectives:
0 Understand what
Digital Humanities is
0 Develop interest in a
specific area that
enhances your own
work
o Determine the next
steps to explore that
area further
0 Prepare you to lead
your own discovery
group
Learning Modules by Week:
1. Defining “Digital
Humanities” & “Digital
Literacy”
2. Data
3. Spatial pattern finding
4. Temporal pattern finding
5. Social networks
6. Topic modeling

9. 5. Identifying & Addressing
Barriers to Learning
Barriers Potential Solutions
1. Technology anxiety
2. Library anxiety
3. Fear of looking
incompetent and/or
unknowledgeable
4. Work and childcare
schedules
5. Investment in their own
prior knowledge
1. Empathy, patience, and
courses that teach digital
skills
2. Personal invitations,
openness, welcoming
environment
3. Scaffold learning to build
confidence
4. Flexible scheduling
5. Assess prior knowledge &
ask them to reflect on how
their new learning
compares to their previous
conceptions

10. 6. Discussion
0 Have adult learners in your library expressed interest in
learning something new? If so, what? If not, what learning
needs can you identify based on your interactions and
experience?
0 How might you address those needs?
• Workshop
• Multi-session class
• Drop-in consulting
• Online tutorial
• Handout
• Other ideas?

11. References
Cannady, Rachel E., Stephanie B. King, and Jack G. Blendinger. “Proactive Outreach to Adult Students: A
Department and Library Collaborative Effort.” Reference Librarian 53, no. 2 (April 2012): 156–69.
doi:10.1080/02763877.2011.608603.
Cooke, Nicole A. “Becoming an Andragogical Librarian: Using Library Instruction as a Tool to Combat
Library Anxiety and Empower Adult Learners.” New Review of Academic Librarianship 16, no. 2 (November
2010): 208–27. doi:10.1080/13614533.2010.507388.
Ismail, Lizah. “Closing the Gap.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 53, no. 2 (Winter 2013): 164–73.
———. “Getting Personal: Reaching Out to Adult Learners through a Course Management System.”
Reference Librarian 52, no. 3 (July 2011): 244–62. doi:10.1080/02763877.2011.556993.
Knowles, Malcolm S. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Houston: Gulf Pub. Co, 1973.
Knowles, Malcolm Shepherd, Ed Holton, and Richard A. Swanson. The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic
in Adult Education and Human Resource Development. 6th ed. Boston: Elsevier, 2005.
Norman, Anne E. C. “Librarians’ Leadership for Lifelong Learning.” Public Library Quarterly 31, no. 2 (April
2012): 91–140. doi:10.1080/01616846.2012.684577.
Ruthven, Joan. “Training Needs and Preferences of Adult Public Library Clients in the Use of Online
Resources.” Australian Library Journal 59, no. 3 (August 2010): 108–17.