Digital Commons Network^™

Falling Out Of Praxis: Reflection As A Pedagogical Habit Of Mind, Heidi Lm Jacobs

Heidi LM Jacobs

No abstract provided.

Questioning The Past And Possible Futures: Digital Historiography And Critical Librarianship, Heidi Jacobs, Calin Murgu

Heidi LM Jacobs

The role of history as a discipline is, as Burton and Sweeny claim, not only to transform our understanding of the past and the present but also to shape possible futures. Digital historical projects are transformative endeavors that attempt to negotiate and navigate the past and articulate these possible futures. Drawing on the foundational ideas of critical librarianship to “intervene in and disrupt” structural inequities and on examples from digital historiography, we argue for a more robust role for librarians within these transformative endeavors. In so doing, librarians can use conscious, deliberate, reflexive actions to work toward animating values central …

Valuing Librarianship: Core Values In Theory And Practice, Selinda Berg, Heidi Lm Jacobs

Heidi LM Jacobs

In 2004, the American Library Association (ALA)’s Core Values of Librarianship statement identified eleven core values: access; confidentiality and privacy; democracy; diversity; education and lifelong learning; intellectual freedom; preservation; the public good; professionalism; service; social responsibility.

As the ALA document explains, “the foundation of modern librarianship rests on an essential set of core values that define, inform, and guide our professional practice. These values reflect the history and ongoing development of the profession and have been advanced, expanded, and refined by numerous policy statements of the American Library Association.”

While the ALA is not the only national library association to …

Posing The Wikipedia 'Problem': Information Literacy And The Praxis Of Problem-Posing In Library Instruction, Heidi Lm Jacobs

Heidi LM Jacobs

Viewing Wikipedia as a difficult information literacy question allows us to consider how knowledge is created, produced, and disseminated, and to interrogate our current understanding of scholarship, scholarly authority, and the academy.

Something To Talk About: Re-Thinking Conversations On Research Culture In Canadian Academic Libraries, Heidi Lm Jacobs, Selinda Adelle Berg, Dayna Cornwall

Heidi LM Jacobs

As Canadian academic librarians have experienced an increasing presence in faculty associations and unions, expectations of librarian scholarship and research have increased as well. However, literature from the past several decades on academic librarianship and scholarship focuses heavily on obstacles faced by librarians in their research endeavours, which suggests that the research environment at many academic libraries has stalled. Though many have called for the development of a research culture, little has been said regarding how the profession might go about encouraging this development, and conversations often become mired in the contemplation of obstacles. As a way to move forward, …

"Well, Seriously, Flora, What Can We Women Do?" Sentimentalism, Suffrage And Reform In Lillie Devereaux Blake's Fettered For Life, Heidi Jacobs

Heidi LM Jacobs

Summoning but reconfiguring the sentimental novel, Lillie Devereux Blake's Fettered for Life (1874) uses pathos to incite political action and begin a radical reform of patriarchal postbellum America. Of particular interest to Blake are suffrage, legal protection of women's lives and property, educational reform, and equitable pay and employment opportunities. In Fettered for Life there are eight suspicious or unnatural deaths which Blake links to a corrupt social order and archaic, ill-founded assumptions about women and womanhood. This article explores Blake's reform agenda and her use and revisioning of sentimentalism for rhetorical purposes.

By Librarians, For Librarians: Building A Strengths-Based Institute To Develop Librarians' Research Culture In Canadian Academic Libraries, Heidi Lm Jacobs, Selinda Adelle Berg

Heidi LM Jacobs

In spite of the increase in formal and informal expectations for research by Canadian librarians, there have been few—if any—Canada-wide initiatives to help support librarians in meeting research expectations. Moreover, there have been few opportunities to address academic librarians’ needs and Canadian librarian research culture in any systematic way, especially on a national scale. As a way of redressing these absences and filling this need, a four-day nation-wide institute was proposed and conducted in order to bring together Canadian librarians interested in developing their own research programs and working toward fostering a positive and productive research culture in Canadian academic …

By Librarians, For Librarians: A Blueprint For The Carl Librarian's Research Institute, Heidi Jacobs, Selinda Berg

Heidi LM Jacobs

No abstract provided.

Information Literacy And Reflective Pedagogical Praxis, Heidi Lm Jacobs

Heidi LM Jacobs

Drawing on discussions within Composition and Rhetoric, this article examines information literacy pedagogy. It considers how academic librarians can work toward theorizing our profession in such a way that we may ask new questions of it and foster creative, reflective and critical habits of mind regarding pedagogical praxis.

Making A Third Space For Student Voices In Two Academic Libraries, James Elmborg, Heidi Lm Jacobs, Kelly Mcelroy, Robert L. Nelson

Heidi LM Jacobs

When we think of voices in the library, we have tended to think of them as disruptive, something to control and manage for the sake of the total library environment. The stereotype of the shushing librarian pervades public perception, creating expectations about the kinds of spaces libraries want to create. Voices are not always disruptive, however. Indeed, developing an academic voice is one of the main challenges facing incoming university students, and libraries can play an important role in helping these students find their academic voices. Two initiatives at two different academic libraries are explored here: a Secrets Wall, where …

Academic Librarians And Research: A Study Of Canadian Library Administrator Perspectives, Selinda Adelle Berg, Heidi Lm Jacobs, Dayna Cornwall

Heidi LM Jacobs

Within the literature exploring the role of research in academic librarianship, very little attention has been paid to the perspectives of upper libraryadministrators. This perspective is critical because library administrators play a key role in hiring, evaluating, supporting, promoting, and tenuring professional librarians. As a way of bringing the administrative perspective to these discussions, our study examines how library administrators within the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) view the role of research in their own libraries and within academic librarianship, as well as how they perceive the current and future climate for librarians’ research. Our study reveals key areas …