197

Book Reviews

Claire McGuinness. Becoming Confident 
Teachers: A Guide for Academic Librarians. 
Oxford, United Kingdom: Chandos 
Publishing, 2011. 227p. $80.00 (ISBN 
9781843346296). Distributed in the Unit-
ed States by Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Claire McGuinness’s Becoming Confident 
Teachers: A Guide for Academic Librarians 
is a book that I wish that I had had when 
I was an MLIS student formulating my 
sense of professional identity, or when I 
was a freshly minted librarian navigating 
the job market and preparing to interview 
for instruction librarian positions. In clear 
and engaging prose, McGuinness neatly 
encapsulates the critical elements of what 
it means to be an instruction librarian or, 
as she terms it, a teaching librarian. Any-
one looking for readable and accessible 
work on the roles of teaching librarians, 
the basics of information literacy instruc-
tion, and building confidence in your 
identity as a teacher will find this to be 
an invaluable volume.

M c G u i n n e s s ’s  w o r k  h a s  m a n y 
strengths, and first amongst them is an 
emphasis on interaction with the text. In 
a sense, the book provides a model for 
the type of active learning McGuinness 
espouses. Five of the six chapters end with 
exercises and reflections that encourage 
the reader to think about and apply the 
concepts covered in that chapter. This 
emphasis on practical application is also 
reflected in chapters such as “Confidence-
zappers and how to handle them,” which 
provides concrete strategies for overcom-
ing the challenges that many teaching 
librarians often face in the classroom. 
And this focus on confidence is another 
distinguishing feature of this book. While 
other information literacy instruction 
texts might focus solely on building com-
petence, McGuinness emphasizes devel-
oping a sense of self-efficacy in addition 
to knowledge, skills, and abilities. This 
positive attitude permeates the text and, 

indeed, inspires the reader 
to become a more confident 
teacher. 

Each of the six chapters 
builds upon the other chap-
ters preceding it so thor-
oughly that at times the 
information seems repetitive, which is 
perhaps the only weakness to be found 
in this work. However, this exhaustive 
coverage makes it possible for chapters 
to stand alone as reading assignments for 
a LIS class, for example, or to prepare a 
teaching librarian team for an instruction 
meeting addressing a certain topic. 

McGuinness’s emphasis on the prac-
tical in his book is nicely balanced by 
theoretical overviews that help the reader 
contextualize the practices she describes. 
McGuinness’s discussion of learning 
theories and broad learning frameworks 
is especially well done. In fact, the chapter 
in which these discussions appear, “Pre-
paring teaching librarians for practice: 
Focusing on the basics,” provides such a 
thorough, yet concise, overview of what a 
teaching librarian should know, that this 
chapter should be required reading in 
LIS courses on information literacy and 
library instruction. Indeed, McGuinness 
has written such a sound and satisfying 
work on teaching librarianship that the 
whole book itself would serve as an excel-
lent primary textbook for such courses. 

But new and novice teaching librarians 
are not the only ones who will benefit 
from this book; seasoned veteran teach-
ing librarians will also be stimulated and 
inspired by the ideas and strategies pre-
sented in McGuinness’s text. Moreover, li-
brary administrators seeking an updated 
perspective on the primary concerns, is-
sues, and challenges of teaching librarian-
ship in today’s academic library—and the 
future academic library—will also want 
to consult this work.—Maria T. Accardi, 
Indiana University Southeast.