About the author

John Walsh is a technical services/instructional librarian at the Cochise College Libraries in Douglas, Arizona. Cochise College is a small community college in a rural county of southeastern Arizona. The Libraries have a talented staff who are actively involved with the instructional program at the college. A fundamental element of the Libraries’ mission is to increase information literacy throughout the College and community. The Libraries proudly serve as the center of academic information in the county and serve a growing and diverse population.

John began his higher education at Cochise College. He received an AS in Business Administration and was the Business Graduate of the year in 2003. He continued his education at the University of Arizona in Tucson, receiving a BS in Business Administration and graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2005. He received an MLS from the School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) at the University of Arizona in 2006 and is currently finishing his class work in the PhD program at SIRLS. John began his career in library science at Cochise College Libraries in 2001 and has worked through the hierarchy of the Libraries from part time circulation supervisor to a professional librarian position. He has also worked in a part time position as the corporate librarian for the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department (PCRWRD) in Tucson, Arizona, since 2007.

He was hired by PCRWRD to create a corporate library from a large collection of internal documents. The ever growing collection is now organized on shelves and searchable through an online catalog. As a part time circulation supervisor John developed a marketing plan for the Libraries and began teaching instructional classes for the library in 2005. He developed the Libraries’ first digital collections based on the historical background of southeastern Arizona and these are now available through the Arizona Memory Project.

John has published numerous articles on a variety of topics in the field of library science including patronage of literature, marketing of libraries, digital information, classification and organization of information and information literacy instruction. His research interest focuses on information literacy instruction, specifically assessing the effectiveness of the instruction. He has completed two scientific studies measuring effectiveness of instruction. His current research is a collaborative effort with Cochise College instructors in an attempt to develop a research based learning instructional model. The model embeds a librarian in the curriculum of a course and is designed to increase student learning and promote critical thinking skills.

John is also a member of the American Library Association (ALA), the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the Arizona Library Association (AzLA).