User instruction has lately become one of the most fashionable topics in the vast field of library and information science. At the same time, the development of experiences and activities related to user instruction is becoming more and more normal practice in information units of all types. Within the specific context of public libraries, user instruction is still to be fully developed and the implementation of instruction programmes and services still leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, an improvement of the situation seems imminent. In this respect, this paper presents and analyses the main user instruction experiences carried out at Spanish public libraries over the last few years, their results and future prospects.