Digital Commons Network^™

Engaging Graduate Medical And Health Sciences Students In Scholarly Communication: The Des Moines University Library’S Research & Scholarly Communication Peer Associate Program, Gina Schlesselman-Tarango, Jill Edgerton, Elizabeth Pryor, Rainie Valencia

Communications in Information Literacy

This piece introduces the Des Moines University Library’s Research and Scholarly Communication Peer Associate Program, focusing on the curriculum of a five-day summer institute developed for graduate medical and health sciences students and rooted in a critical information literacy framework. The authors outline the institute’s philosophy and approach and provide readers with key content areas, materials, activities, and homework prompts. Initial program assessment is discussed, and the authors share their thoughts on how the program might continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of students. The article concludes with reflections from two peer associates who participated in the program …

Quality Matters: Using A Peer-Review Process To Create A Cohesive Multi-Campus Library Online Instruction Program, Stephanie Jacobs, Maryellen Nash, Theresa Burress, Kaya Van Beynen

Communications in Information Literacy

Librarians within a newly combined, multi-campus research and instruction department undertook a large-scale peer review of their online instruction program and materials. This collaborative assessment project sought to unite three library departments with a cohesive vision for self-guided online library instruction while establishing consistent quality standards and building a shared sense of ownership and accomplishment. These goals were achieved through a collaborative assessment of online instructional modules that included the development of a novel rubric based on the Quality Matters Course Design Standards. This article reports on that ongoing journey, as well as the goals, challenges, and outcomes of the …

Working Conditions Are Learning Conditions: Understanding Information Literacy Instruction Through Neoliberal Capitalism, Romel Espinel, Eamon Tewell

Communications in Information Literacy

Neoliberal capitalism’s demands for efficiency and innovation have greatly impacted North American academic libraries and the work conducted in them, including information literacy instruction. The divisive forces of neoliberalism must be met with resistance, and libraries hold the potential for generating an information literacy praxis where learners engage information with a critical consciousness instead of a consumerist one. Using library labor conditions and the contradictions between innovation and student learning as focal points, we argue that academic library workers should seek to center attention to inequities and injustices in the information economy and scholarly information systems in their instruction, identify …

Truth Or Consequences: Academic Instruction Librarians As Information Literacy And Critical Thinking Activists, Laureen P. Cantwell-Jurkovic, Heather F. Ball

Communications in Information Literacy

The graphic edition of Snyder’s On Tyranny (2021) states "truth dies in four modes," which is a contemporary synthesis connected to Klemperer's Language of the Third Reich (1957). The researchers connected these four modes to information literacy (IL) instruction—but would others? The researchers surveyed academic librarians engaged in IL instruction on whether they felt they addressed any of the modes in their work. The researchers also asked whether they believe the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education works to circumvent any of the four modes. Nearly 150 librarians responded and, while most respondents were unfamiliar with the two …

Expanding On The Frames: Making A Case For Algorithmic Literacy, Susan G. Archambault

Communications in Information Literacy

Traditional information literacy skills (e.g., effectively finding and evaluating information) need to be updated due to the rapidly changing information ecosystem and the growing dominance of online platforms that use algorithms to control and shape information. This article proposes additions to the current ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education that relate to algorithmic literacy. The “Authority is Constructed and Contextual” frame can be applied to recognizing the need to question algorithmic authority (including algorithmic bias), the Information Has Value” frame can be used to acknowledge online platforms’ use of proprietary algorithms allowing third parties to access personal data, …

Exploring The Role Of Information Literacy Instruction In Student Co-Creation Of Community-Based Research Products, Robyn Hall

Communications in Information Literacy

Supported by institutional commitments to community engagement, undergraduate students at universities across North America are participating in community-based research projects. These experiential learning activities allow students to collaborate with community partners to address issues in their communities, often resulting in co-creating research products that seek to have a real-world impact. This article reports on ways that academic librarians can support students engaged in these activities, informed by interview data gathered from university administrators and faculty members from across Canada with expertise in conducting and overseeing students' participation in research connected to university–community partnerships. This growing area of scholarly activity in …

Contemporary Library Censorship Tactics: Reviewing The Literature, Lex Faller

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Library censorship efforts in the U.S. have broken records annually since 2021, spurred by social, technological, and political developments. These censorship efforts most frequently target diverse media representing Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and/or lesbian, gay, bisexual+, trans+, queer, intersex, and asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) communities in and at libraries. The current surge in attempts to censor library materials constitutes part of a greater conservative political strategy in the contemporary culture wars. This literature review analyzes the academic and professional literature alongside the gray literature regarding these censorship efforts to make sense of these trends. By investigating bodies of knowledge …

Gen Z And Millennials How They Use Public Libraries And Identify Through Media Use, Kathi Inman Berens, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Gen Z and millennials have some surprising attitudes and behaviors regarding media consumption and library use. 54% of Gen Z and millennials visited a physical library within a twelve-month period. Libraries attract even Gen Z and millennials who don’t identify as readers. This report examines Gen Z and millennials' book-related behaviors (such as borrowing, buying, downloading and socializing) and and how media use shapes Gen Z and millennials' identity claims as Readers, Gamers, Fans and Writers. The report is intended for specialists such as librarians and book publishers, and broad public audiences.

Instruction Librarians’ Perceptions Of The Faculty–Librarian Relationship, Lisa Becksford

Communications in Information Literacy

This study investigates instruction librarians’ perceptions of their relationships with teaching faculty. Respondents to a survey of U.S. instruction librarians indicated that they tended to agree that their teaching was valued and they had autonomy in what they taught. However, the often one-time nature of library instruction limited their effectiveness as teachers, and respondents felt that faculty did not view librarians’ teaching as equivalent to their own. Respondents also reported a disconnect between their professional identities and others’ viewpoints, describing having their teaching role minimized or misunderstood by others, especially faculty. Additionally, a relationship was found between some aspects of …

Listening To First Generation College Students In Engineering: Implications For Libraries & Information Literacy, Emily Dommermuth, Linds W. Roberts

Communications in Information Literacy

First-generation college students (FGCS) in engineering bring a wealth of knowledge to their academic and social experiences in higher education, in contrast to deficit-based narratives that students are underprepared. By listening to FGCS’ own experiences navigating higher education and using information literacy in their project-based work, librarians and educators can better understand students’ funds of knowledge, social capital, and identities, as well as the institutional barriers that must be removed. This paper shares interview findings with (n = 11) FGCS and suggests implications for professional practice that are relevant to information literacy for design, project-based, or practitioner focused disciplines.

Metacognitive Awareness For Il Learning And Growth: The Development And Validation Of The Information Literacy Reflection Tool (Ilrt), Sara Robertson, Michele Burke, Kimberly Olson-Charles, Reed Mueller

Communications in Information Literacy

This article describes the development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a metacognitive self-assessment for use with undergraduate researchers. It was developed as a teaching and learning tool with the intent to help students recognize and engage the metacognitive domain as a step toward developing personal agency and self-regulation as lifelong, metaliterate learners. Throughout the scale development, three studies were conducted with nine expert reviewers and 44 community college students to consider content and face validity and 542 community college students as part of an item-reduction and construct validation effort. The resulting scale is most appropriately construed …

The Stories We Tell: Engaging With Authority In Critical Health Pedagogy, Rosalinda Hernandez Linares-Gray, Sara Newman Carroll, Emily K. Smith

Communications in Information Literacy

This Innovative Practices piece details the design of a scaffolded project in a public health course that paired a narrative inquiry assignment with an empirical health literature review assignment to highlight both the positivist and constructivist epistemologies of critical health research in public health. The authors discuss and reflect on the five parts that constitute the project, student learning outcomes, and the benefits of engaging with critical information literacy in an undergraduate public health course. The goal of this article is to provide practical applications of critical information literacy to librarians in the health sciences who work with undergraduate students.

Climate Justice And Racial And Gender Equity: Creating And Promoting Featured Collections, Sherry Buchanan

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDXScholar, the repository for Portland State University, showcases three main collections that are automatically curated based on filters – tags that collect and display the content: Climate Justice, Racial and Gender Equity, and COVID-19. In this presentation, I will give an overview of our featured collections, their development and promotion, including the criteria for inclusion, technical aspects, and impact. The Digital Commons automated collection tool and system configuration will be briefly explained.

Meet Students Where They Are: Centering Wikipedia In The Classroom, Diana E. Park, Laurie M. Bridges

Communications in Information Literacy

There is a common classroom refrain, “Don’t use Wikipedia; it’s unreliable.” Unfortunately, this simple dismissal of the world’s largest repository of information fails to engage students in a critical conversation about how knowledge within Wikipedia is constructed and shared. Wikipedia is available in almost 300 languages, it is the top result in most Google searches, and it provides free, well-sourced, information to millions of people every day. However, despite these positives, there is uneven geographic, historical, and cultural representation; there are well-known information gaps related to women, gender, and sexual identity; and the majority of Wikipedia editors are white, …

Open Education Faculty Panel, Jenny Ceciliano, Lindsey Wilkinson, Staci Martin, Norma Cardenas

Open Education Week 2022

Many faculty at PSU have been involved in the Open Education movement. This panel of PSU faculty members discusses how Open Education has affected their teaching practice and how Open Education relates to equity and inclusion.

Our panelists are:

• Jenny Ceciliano, Senior Instructor II of Spanish/Coordinator of First-year Spanish, World Languages and Literatures
• Lindsey Wilkinson, Associate Professor, Sociology
• Staci Martin, Assistant Professor of Practice, CYFS Practicum Coordinator Child, Youth, and Family Studies, School of Social Work
• Norma Cardenas, Assistant Professor of Practice Child, Youth, and Family Studies, School of Social Work

Pdxscholar Annual Report 2021, Karen Bjork, Sherry Buchanan, Bertrand Robinson, Stacey Schlatter

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report details the eleventh year of operation for PDXScholar, Portland State University's institutional repository. The report covers the period between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021.

The 2021 report highlights the continued growth of PDXScholar with over 2.7 million (2,704,624) full text downloads.

An Investigation Of Anti-Black Racism Libguides At Arl Member Institutions, Gemmicka Piper, Mahasin Ameen, M. Sara Lowe

Communications in Information Literacy

This study sought to analyze anti-Black racism LibGuides created by ARL member institutions to determine strengths and weaknesses of the guides based on LibGuides best practices. Institutional and LibGuide author demographic information were also gathered to determine correlations or trends, if any. Rubric evaluation of LibGuides found that guides were strongest in areas related to guide design, materials included on the guides, and links to resources. Guides were weakest in areas related to the framing of social justice and pedagogy. Results from this study have the potential to inform the structure and revision of social justice LibGuides at a time …

Opening Peer Review In Lis: Identities, Dualities, And Multiplicities, Emily Ford

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

What does it mean to peer review in library and information science? What does it mean to be reviewed? How do our professional identities intersect with this vital research and publishing role? And what does it mean when peer review is opened to reveal these identities? In celebration of Peer Review Week 2021, this free webcast with Emily Ford will share insights into peer review in LIS as discussed in Stories of Open: Opening Peer Review through Narrative Inquiry, a newly published book from ACRL.

Introducing Critical Librarianship To Information Professionals: Using Critical Pedagogy And Critical Information Literacy In An Lis Graduate Course, Marcia Rapchak

Communications in Information Literacy

Critical librarianship, which critiques the role of libraries and information professionals in maintaining systems of oppression, has been growing in popularity in the profession, and instructors in Library and Information Science (LIS) have begun to address critical librarianship in their coursework. While critical pedagogy and critical librarianship have influenced approaches to LIS education, the intersection of these two has not been as thoroughly addressed. Additionally, the literature on critical information literacy focuses largely on library instruction. This case study explores a critical pedagogy approach in a critical librarianship class that prepares students for critical information literacy instruction. The instructor implemented …

The Library Language Game: Information Literacy Through The Lens Of Wittgenstein's Language Games, Kathleen A. Langan

Communications in Information Literacy

Labeling information is a precarious and risky enterprise. Catalogers have the task of fitting unique concepts within established and rigid language frameworks while also minimizing personal bias. The way information literacy librarians interact with labeled information also influences how users interact with information. Labeling moves beyond the role of categorizing, it also contributes to meaning making and knowledge building. Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations serves as a philosophical footing to illustrate how the labeling of things, in this case information, shapes the way we give things meaning. Critical librarianship and philosophy of information theory add to the discussion by considering how personal …

“This Is Just What We Do”: Phd Students On Becoming Scholars In A Community Of Practice, Linds Roberts

Communications in Information Literacy

Increasingly librarians are interested in how the Community of Practice (CoP) framework can provide a more complete picture of how information literacy practices are influenced by situated and social learning. Doctoral students are socialized into the practices of the academy and gradually take on the identity and work of a scholar in their field. As an illustration of the CoP framework among doctoral students, the author shares data from a qualitative study with a small group of early-career education PhD students who are developing their information literacy skills within their disciplinary and social contexts, using the CoP as a source …

Investigation Of The Validity Evidence Of The Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (Ilses) Among Undergraduate Students, Max Sommer, Angela M. Kohnen, Albert D. Ritzhaupt, John Hampton

Communications in Information Literacy

The purpose of this research was to provide validity evidence for the Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES), a widely used instrument that was constructed in 2006. The researchers were interested in investigating the validity of this instrument due to the evolution of the information environment that has taken place since the scale’s original development, mostly as a result of the prominence of the Internet. Data were collected from N = 253 undergraduate students participating in a broader information literacy research study. Data were subjected to descriptive analyses, internal consistency reliability, and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). After evaluating three different …

On "Developing Information Literate Abilities": Uncovering Whiteness At The Center Of The Acrl Framework For Information Literacy, Anders Tobiason

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

What does it mean to be information literate? Who is the model information literate individual? Taking its cue from Critical Discourse Analysis and Antiracist Black Language Pedagogy, this presentation questions the foundational image of the information literate individual lying at the heart of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. Using critical race theory and an understanding of how whiteness functions as a presumed neutral background in our society, we begin to understand the whiteness of this individual. In this presentation, I briefly outline how whiteness functions and then move on to show how whiteness functions within the Framework more specifically. …

Engaging Conversations: Foregrounding Twitter Feeds In Library Guides As A Way To Critically Promote Discussions Of Social Justice, Anders Tobiason

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Academic librarians have often been hesitant to foreground real time engagement with social justice in our public facing library guides. The guides, more often than not, serve merely to provide access points to “academic” materials and traditional news sources. Perhaps there is a different path. Driven by the events of the past year (though these issues are not new), I have been working on ways to point patrons towards the real conversations happening outside (and sometimes inside) academia that are missed when we rely on traditional news sources. The real critical engagement with social justice issues such as race and …

How Does Oer Meet Our Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Goals?, Jenny Ceciliano, Lisa Notman, Karen Bjork, Jaime R. Wood, Scott Robison

Open Education Week 2021

Eliminating textbook costs through the use of Open Educational Resources may seem like a simple change, but it's one that can have a big impact. Research has shown that using OER in place of traditional textbooks helps to create more equitable and inclusive learning experiences for marginalized students. In this workshop, learn more about how OER is a DEI tool and how PSU faculty are using OER in their courses.

From Story To Research: Storying Human Experience Narratives, Emily Ford

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation discusses the qualitative research methodology narrative inquiry. It then presents some of the background theory to Coralie McCormack's storying stories approach to narrative analysis of interview transcripts. Finally, the speaker uses examples from her own research using storying stories to reflect on the relationship that power has to the particular methodology and methods discussed in the presentation. This presentation was given as part of the 2021 Institute for Research Design in Librarianship's (IRDL) Speaker Series: Thinking Critically about Research and Power.

Pdxscholar Annual Report 2020, Karen Bjork, Sherry Buchanan, David Coate, Bertrand Robinson, Stacey Schlatter

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report details the tenth year of operation for PDXScholar, Portland State University's institutional repository. The report covers the period between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.

The 2020 report highlights the exponential growth of PDXScholar with almost 2.1 million (2,094,796) full text downloads. This is an increase of approximately 800,000 downloads from 2019, representing a 62% increase.

The report also focuses on our work to bring online new collections and to highlight research impacting our communities, academics, and personal lives.

Not A Blank Slate: Information Literacy Misconceptions In First-Year Experience Courses, Michelle Keba, Elizabeth Fairall

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy is the primary instructional focus of many librarians. With the development of a core set of information literacy threshold concepts, librarians often strive to impart these concepts to undergraduate students during their years of study. However, when students come to school, they are not blank slates. They arrive with preconceived ideas or misconceptions which can impede this process. In this article, the authors report on the results of focus groups held with first-year students at a private, liberal arts university. During the focus groups, participants were asked to share their perceptions of the misconceptions identified by Hinchliffe et …

Analyzing Information Sources Through The Lens Of The Acrl Framework: A Case Study Of Wikipedia, Trudi E. Jacobson

Communications in Information Literacy

Might the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education be used to analyze information resources? Would a Framework-focused analysis of one commonly used resource, Wikipedia, yield valuable insights for the teaching and learning of key information literacy concepts? Each of the six frames is explored in the light of Wikipedia, and metaliteracy, a founding principle of the Framework, is introduced when it provides additional scaffolding in connection with the goals of a particular frame as a way to enhance student learning opportunities. There are a number of components in Wikipedia that align with the Framework …

Building On What We've Learned: Approaches To Library Publishing From Three Different Universities, Johanna Meetz, Karen Bjork, Annie Johnson

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Panelists from Portland State, Pacific University, and Temple University will discuss three different models for library publishing, with a focus on collaboration, sustainability, and accessibility. Panelists come from small programs with one or two people at the helm, as well as a program that includes people with diverse publishing backgrounds. We will discuss how our programs grew out of different priorities within our libraries, including a desire to address the high cost of textbooks for our students, as well as an interest in advancing open access more generally. Other things that shaped our programs include a repository platform that supported …