LAUSR

It is not surprising, then, that academic libraries invest a lot of time and effort into instruction, both collectively and individually. In 2013– 2014, for instance, 122 member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) reported 140,510 library presentations to groups, 119,148 of which were held at 114 academic libraries in the US and Canada.2 Even accounting for other types of presentations, variations in reporting, human error, or other ambiguities of interpretation, it is reasonable to assume that about 100,000 of those presentations were bona fide library instruction sessions. Assuming an average length of an hour per session, and a very conservatively estimated preparation time of two hours per session, the ARL community spent an estimated 300,000 hours or the equivalent of 7,500 workweeks on library instruction in 2013–2014. Averaged out over the 114 academic ARL members that reported in this category, the average library taught 877 sessions and spent 2,632 hours or 66 workweeks on these classes.