Casting a Broader Net: How Librarians Benefit from Observing Classroom Faculty and Other Guest Instructors

Abstract

“It’s like trying to pick up a wet bar of soap that’s moving on its own,” the fisheries manager
is saying. He’s cradling a brown trout against his rubber apron. He pinches two fingers on
her belly just below the pelvic fins and strokes downward, spraying orange eggs into a beatup
steel bowl. “If you squeeze and get poop, stop,” he instructs. In a matter of about 20
minutes, he’s taught a group of 15 students how to sex fish, how to stun and hold fish, and
how to fertilize eggs. Once they’ve finished with this tank, he’ll teach them to estimate the
number of eggs retrieved by volume.