A Flexible Instruction Program: How Demographics Drive the Design

As the University of Nevada, Las Vegas continues building its new library, questions arise: Will the library instruction section be responsible for teaching students how to use word processing software? How will the new location affect the demand for bibliographic instruction? What will the new classrooms look like? In addition, staffing limitations, the library’s electronic environment, support from the teaching faculty, the library’s budget, and user demographics produce pressures that drive the direction an instruction program ultimately follows. The library staff can influence and control all of these pressures except one: user demographics. In this article, the authors discuss UNLV’s user population, how it has affected the development of a flexible library instruction program at UNLV, and how the online tutorial at another large urban university relates to its user population.