Teaching with Twenty-Four Hours’ Notice

The Setup

This likely won’t be my only FYAL blog post about library instruction. When I started my master’s degree, I initially looked for a path in an aspect of librarianship that didn’t include instruction. I’ve never enjoyed public speaking, and although I got better at it before I went back to grad school, standing in front of a group of people with everyone’s eyes on me has never been in my comfort zone.

However, it didn’t take me long to realize that what I loved most about librarianship – working with students in an academic setting – was going to come with teaching as a job component. With that in mind, I made a point of finding opportunities while completing my MSLS to get more experience with instruction, working with my supervisor at my Graduate Assistant position on campus to co-teach library instruction sessions and taking Library Instruction & Pedagogy, which turned out to be one of my favorite classes.

The Situation

Fast forward to October. That month, I had a lot of one-on-one reference consultations for a specific master’s program. The small program is fully remote, but in mid-October a few students mentioned that they would be at Vanderbilt for a full program convening that upcoming weekend. After the second student mentioned the convening, it clicked in my head that, since I had worked with about half the students in this program already, this would be a great opportunity to meet them in person, as well as a chance to introduce myself to the ones I hadn’t worked with yet (and encourage them to make appointments too).

Thankfully, I had already had some interactions with the professor who runs that program, so I felt like it would be okay to reach out at the last minute. The very last minute. The Friday morning before the Saturday & Sunday convening, I emailed and asked if there was a break in the programming on Saturday when I could pop in and see everyone. I would have preferred to ask about doing some actual instruction, but I was hesitant to offer that with so little time to prepare. Coming by for some informal conversation seemed like a good middle ground.

The professor got back to me at 4:03pm on Friday afternoon. What a great idea! They would love to have me come by the convening! If it was convenient for me, they could give me time for a 20-minute presentation at 4pm on Saturday. 24 hours minus three minutes of notice for an instructional session.

As I read the professor’s email (twice, to make sure I had gotten it right), I could literally feel my heartbeat speed up. My palms started sweating. I hope to get more comfortable in the future with instructional sessions, but right now I prefer to have my slides done at least a week in advance and to be able to practice a couple of times to make sure I’m saying the right things and showing the best searching examples in each class. I didn’t think there was any way I could pull off an instructional session with one day’s notice. One of my work friends happened to be in my office when I received this email. “I just got asked to do an instructional session tomorrow afternoon. What do I do?!” I asked her.

The Decision

In my Library Instruction & Pedagogy class in graduate school, one set of readings that our professor assigned was about saying no to instruction requests. Those articles have stuck with me, because saying no to instruction – or really any faculty request – wasn’t something I had thought of as an option before I read them. The authors and librarians in the articles made good points about why they had said no to instruction, including a lack of preparation time. Now, just three months into my first job, the thought flashed through my mind: was I in a situation where I could – or should – say no to this instruction request?^{1, 2}

There weren’t many other options to think through – with so little time, and the students only here for one weekend, I felt like I could either politely decline the request or try to throw together a lesson in a day. I realized quickly that with only 20 minutes, I wasn’t going to be able to do much actual searching demonstration, which right now takes up most of my preparation time. That would make it more doable. Additionally, my predecessor in this role was incredibly organized and generous when she left, and gave the library team access to a lot of her materials – including slides and lessons. Was there a lesson for this group of students?

I checked the folder, and sure enough, a “library 101” lesson was there, tailored for this master’s program. I quickly clicked through the slides and felt myself calming down. Talk about the library; I can do that. Explain the basic resources and databases that are recommended for education students; check. Emphasize that I’m here and available for research help and any questions big or small; no problem. Maybe I could do this.

Despite all of those thoughts, though, my decision to say yes to this instructional request came down to feeling like I couldn’t say no – for two reasons. First, I’m a new librarian trying to find my footing and build relationships, and declining this opportunity felt like it would be a step in the wrong direction. Right now, every opportunity to teach a group of students about the library feels like a chance I can’t miss. Second, because I was the one who had volunteered to come to the convening in the first place. Even though instruction wasn’t originally what I had volunteered for… I did volunteer.

Either way, it would be a leap of faith – and a learning experience. Around 4:45 on Friday, I emailed the professor back and told her that I would love to come teach for 20 minutes the following afternoon. Then, I started updating and personalizing the slides for the next day.

The Outcome

We actually had a separate library event that Saturday, so after volunteering at that event, I spent a few more hours in my office working on my slides. Then I walked across the quad to go teach – a little less than 24 hours after setting up the session.

In this case, everything worked out really well. The students who already knew me were excited to see me, and their excitement was contagious. Maybe partially because the turnaround was so fast, I wasn’t very nervous and so I was able to be more myself while I was presenting, which helped me land the material better. I had more fun, and I think the students did too. My 24-hour teaching turnaround was a success. (I’m still a little in disbelief that I pulled it off.)

I also learned some important lessons from this experience that I can take with me moving forward:

1. Being more “me” while teaching made it more fun, and I think made me a better teacher, too. Hopefully, as I keep gaining experience, my nerves surrounding public speaking will continue to decrease and more of my personality can come through.
2. Building relationships with students and professors really matters. A big part of why I was able to do this was because I already knew the professor and about half the students in the class, so I knew I would be walking into a friendly environment.
3. Practice is key. I was supposed to teach for 20 minutes, but ran over, largely because I hadn’t been able to do a full run-through of my presentation with so little preparation time. I also got lost at one point and started mentioning Boolean searching, only to remember mid-sentence that I didn’t have time to fully explain and show what that meant. I ended up saying something like, “I can explain more about Boolean in research consultations” – not ideal, but not the end of the world either.
4. Only volunteer to “come by” a class if I’m prepared to get up and teach too!

References:

1. Meulemans, Y. N & and Carr, A. (2012). Not at your service: Building genuine faculty-librarian partnerships. In Reference Services Review, 41(1), 80-90. doi: 10.1108/00907321311300893
2. White, A. (2023, October 11). Let ‘no’ be ‘no’: When librarians say ‘no’ to instruction opportunities. In the library with the lead pipe. Retrieved November 10, 2025, from https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2023/let-no-be-no/