Book Review: Learner-Centered Pedagogy: Principles and Practice

In Learner-Centered Pedagogy, Klipfel and Cook fuse philosophy and learner theory to provide the instruction librarian community with the pedagogical foundation it requires. This foundation is especially vital given that many employers today require applicants for even entry-level reference and instruction positions to be well versed in both theoretical and practical educational methodologies, and the “library school curriculum has been slow to catch up” (p. xii). As Klipfel and Cook point out, despite the “professional transition toward librarians as educators,” most ALA-accredited library programs do not require or even provide adequate “courses in instructional pedagogy or user education” (xii). Although this curricular inadequacy can be debilitating to recent graduates seeking employment as instruction librarian, books such as this one can provide the theoretical base necessary for applicants to gain a foothold in the profession and for current instructional librarians to improve and expand their information literacy programs.