GRASSIAN, Esther S. 1946-

PERSONAL: Born February 15, 1946, in Columbus, GA; daughter of Elijah David (a rabbi) and Ann R. (a clerical supervisor) Stampfer; married Victor Grassian, 1967 (divorced, 1984); partner of Howard Cowan (an elementary-school science lab teacher); children: (first marriage), David Victor, Daniel Steven. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of California—Los Angeles, B.A., 1963, M.L.S., 1969. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Cooking, running, reading science fiction.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—College Library, University of California—Los Angeles, Box 951450, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1450. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of California—Los Angeles, reference librarian, 1969-84, reference and instruction librarian, 1984-95, electronic services coordinator, 1995-99, instructional services coordinator, 1998-2002, information literacy outreach coordinator, 2002—, lecturer, beginning 1984. Institute for Information Literacy, member of advisory board, 1997-99.

MEMBER: American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries (past chair of instruction section), California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction (past chair of southern chapter), Librarians Association of the University of California (past president, UC Statewide and past president of Los Angeles Division).

AWARDS, HONORS: Farband Award for Excellence in Hebrew Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages, University of California—Los Angeles, 1967; named librarian of the year, Librarians Association of the University of California, 1995; American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, Instruction Section, Publication Award, 2004, for Information Literarcy Instruction: Theory and Practice.

WRITINGS:

(Compiler, with Kathleen Coleman) Directory ofLibrary Instruction Programs in California Academic Libraries, California Library Association (Los Angeles, CA), 1980, 3rd edition (sole compiler), 1986.

(With Joan Kaplowitz) Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice, with CD-ROM, Neal-Schuman Publishers (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to books, including Recreating the Academic Library, edited by Cheryl LaGuardia, Neal-Schuman Publishers (New York, NY), 1998; and Designs for Active Learning, American Library Association (Chicago, IL), 1998. Author of a column for CCLI Newsletter, 1986-92, 1993-96. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including Hong Kong Economic Journal and Internet periodicals. Editor, CCLI Newsletter, 1985, 1990, 1997; member of editorial board, Research Strategies, 1995-97.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Leading and Managing Information Literacy Instruction Programs, with Joan Kaplowitz, publication by Neal-Schuman Publishers expected in 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Esther S. Grassian told CA: "I really like researching and discovering incredible new insights into teaching and learning. I love finding relevant, well-written, and interesting research materials in all sorts of disciplines—psychology, education, electrical engineering, design, art, philosophy—and then thinking about how they apply to librarianship and information literacy.

"I read, read, read on a topic, take many notes, think about it all, and then begin writing, using the rough chapter outline I've already submitted to the publisher. At the end of each day, my draft looks great, but the next day I see it as it really is—mostly awful. So I write draft after draft, day after day, each day thinking I'm finished with a chapter. I begin the next day in depression, editing myself and wondering if it's ever going to be any good. At the end of the day, it all looks good again, and the next morning it's only slightly better.

"When am I really done? Never: I could edit myself forever, but there's a point at which you have to stop looking for, reading, and incorporating new research and publications, stop editing yourself, stop trying to get everyone you know to read and comment on your manuscript over and over, stop revising, stop trying to extend the publisher's submission deadline, just print the manuscript for the last time, send it in, and hope for the best."

Grassian defines information literacy similarly to the definition published in 1989 by the American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: the ability to recognize when information is needed and how to locate, evaluate, and use the information ethically and effectively. She added: "Information literacy instruction, then, simply means helping people become information literate.

"It took me an awfully long time to realize that I loved to teach and loved to help other people learn to learn. It didn't take me long at all, though, to realize that I wanted to help others avoid the pain and mistakes I made as I figured out or learned many different ways to help other people become information-literate, critical thinkers.

"Who got me started? I could blame my father for my 'teaching genes.' After all, he was a rabbi from the 1920s through the 1960s, in the days when rabbis spent a lot of time teaching both classes and individuals. Among his other responsibilities, he had to teach boys how to chant for their Bar Mitzvahs, and there were no personal tape recorders for students. They all had to practice in person with him, day after day, week after week. Though he was a wonderful person, he was not the world's most patient or admirable teacher. My mother, though, has always been a natural, patient, step-by-step teacher, and I realize now I've modeled my teaching style on hers. She's also been an incredible role model for sticking to a dream. She dropped out of high school during the Depression to get a job and help her family. But education was so important to her that she took one night-school class after another for many years, until finally she earned her associate's degree from Los Angeles City College. It was quite an achievement!

"Who helped me along this path? Mimi Dudley, my great friend and mentor, a former UCLA College Library reference librarian, now retired. Mimi designed and led a highly successful self-paced workbook program at the UCLA College Library from 1970 until her retirement in 1981. Librarians from all over the world consulted with her on how to institute this type of program in their libraries, and many did. The American Library Association's ACRL Instruction Section's 'Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award' is named for her, in honor of her pioneering efforts at establishing that section. I have always admired Mimi's commonsense approach to teaching and learning, her spirti, and her positive helping hand. I am a much better and larger person and a much better teacher thanks to Mimi and also to the love and support of my life-partner, Howard Cowan. Many other people have helped me as well, including friends and every student I've ever had. I've learned so much from all of them.

"Why did I choose libraries and librarianship? My favorite memories are of biweekly trips to public libraries, especially a one-room public library in El Monte, California, when I was twelve. I loved science fiction and used the interlibrary loan system to borrow every book in the lengthy 'Lensman' series. There I saw that the librarian got to run the entire library all by herself. What a dream! I volunteered to work in my high school library. I had to pass a test on the Dewey Decimal System before I was allowed to work there. I felt very privileged and wanted more than anything to be a librarian, but my mother wanted me to be a teacher. I spent my last year of high school in Los Angeles, and went on to college, majoring in Hebrew and preparing to teach it. There wasn't much demand for people to teach Hebrew in U.S. public schools, though, so I was going to go to Israel and teach there, or teach in a religious school in Los Angeles.

"I got married instead, and then was lucky enough to get a job as a library assistant at the Education-Psychology Library at the University of California in Los Angeles. Then Frank Krentz, a librarian, talked me into going to library school after all. The Graduate School of Library and Information Science provided an incredible experience! I think they admitted me because I had a bachelor's degree in Hebrew and they thought I'd be a Hebrew cataloger. I liked everything, but I was terrible at cataloging. When it came to getting a job after library school, I got a one-year temporary reference position in the university's College Library in 1969. That one year had stretched into a full-time position by 1986.

"Having my wonderful children helped me become a better teacher and made me realize how much I loved helping people learn. I was hysterically shy, though, and the only kind of teaching I wanted to do was building tours, so I could point to the reference books and no one would look at me while I was talking. Yet reference was really all about teaching and learning, I discovered. As it turned out, I had to teach group instruction sessions at the beginning of each quarter for years, over and over, like a human tape recorder. In 1984 I was asked to teach an undergraduate course in library and information studies, and I decided to do it in spite of my tremendous fear of public speaking. Strangely enough, I began to enjoy it. I attended an incredible workshop in 1988, presented by Joan Ormondroyd, a well-known instruction librarian from New York. The overflow crowd of librarians listened avidly as she talked about all sorts of practical teaching tips that none of us had ever heard before. Most of all, my friend Joan Kaplowitz and I were entranced by Ormondroyd's story of how she had gotten the library school at Syracuse University to offer a course to their graduate students on how to teach.

"Joan and I decided to put together a proposal for a similar quarter-long course, and we were astounded at the unilateral support we got for it from faculty and students alike. Our course was approved, and we team-taught it to thirty-two students in 1990. We've alternated teaching it every year since then and have always enjoyed it. As the textbooks we used became outdated and went out of print, and as the information world took a drastic turn toward electronic everything, Joan finally convinced me that we needed to write a textbook of our own. We were fortunate enough to get a contract for our book with Neal-Schuman, a very well-known publishing company in librarianship and information studies. Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice was published in 2001.

"Joan Kaplowitz and I are now working on a second book for Neal-Schuman, called Leading and Managing Information Literacy Instruction Programs. We very much hope that both our books will be helpful to library school students and librarians alike."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of Youth Services, summer, 2002, Drew Smith, review of Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice, p. 55.
Reference and User Services Quarterly, winter, 2001, Gregory A. Crawford, review of Information Literacy Instruction, p. 200.