Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cuny Libraries Faculty Collaboration For Information Literacy Project Survey 2014, Barbara Gray, Galina Letnikova

Publications and Research

CUNY, one of the largest urban universities in the United States, comprises eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges, five graduate and professional schools, and an honors college. The University’s system is a federation of 31 libraries, with more than 350 faculty and professional staff. As faculty members, CUNY librarians provide students and departmental faculty with a high level of professional library services, at the same time doing research, publishing, teaching, and leading information literacy programs. In the fall semester of 2013 the CUNY Office of Library Services decided to conduct a university-wide survey to explore and identify best practices for …

Case Studies And Pervasive Instruction: Using Journalism Education Techniques In The Information Literacy Classroom, Jennifer Noe

Publications and Research

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether journalism education techniques can be adapted for use in the information literacy classroom as a means of teaching the ethical use of information. The author uses personal experience as a journalist and graduate of journalism education programs to examine the similarities between journalism pedagogy and information literacy and whether any aspect of journalism pedagogy is transferrable to the information literacy classroom.

Crowdsourcing As An Approach To Customer Relationship Building In Academic Libraries, Lisa A. Ellis, Aisha Pena

Publications and Research

Library initiatives to first-year students not only present an opportunity to offer information literacy instruction for student advancement but they also serve a key marketing function by communicating the library’s ongoing value and building customer relationships. Library orientation tours are an example of how to effectively market to first-year students. Combining peer-to-peer learning and user-generated content via social media known as crowdsourcing, Newman Library sponsored a contest challenging first-year students to create a video sharing a useful library tip. The contributions and benefits of this co-creation approach to fostering relationships are examined and the implications to strengthening other library-user bonds …

From Standards To Frameworks For Il: How The Acrl Framework Addresses Critiques Of The Standards, Nancy M. Foasberg

Publications and Research

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, since their publication in 2000, have drawn criticism for ignoring the social and political aspects of information literacy. The ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards Task Force responded with the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, which rethinks information literacy by acknowledging that it is a social phenomenon and by recognizing students as participatory learners. This article contrasts the constructions of information, information literacy, and students in the Framework and the Standards to show how the Framework addresses some of the critiques of the Standards.

Opening Up The Dialogue Across Disciplines: Making Room For Inquiry And Creativity From Pre-Kindergarten Through University, Amanda Nicole Gulla, Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio, Alison Lehner-Quam

Publications and Research

Professional development with teachers, whether they are in pre-K-12 schools or in higher education, creates opportunities for discussions among teachers and teacher educators about how to find spaces for creativity and the imagination within the struc- ture of the Common Core State Standards, a set of national standards adopted on a state- by-state basis in the U.S. Two education faculty members and an education librarian from a large city university held workshops, bringing together university faculty in arts and humanities, science, mathematics and education, and pre-K-12 teachers to explore the potential for inquiry and creativity in the Common Core State …

Foregrounding The Research Log In Information Literacy Instruction, Louise R. Fluk

Publications and Research

Updating an earlier study, this article reviews the literature of information literacy (IL) instruction since 2008 for empirical evidence of the value of research logs or research journals for effective pedagogy, assessment, and prevention of plagiarism in IL instruction at the college level. The review reveals a mismatch between the acknowledged theoretical and practical value of research log assignments and the mixed advocacy for them in the literature. The article further analyzes the literature for the drawbacks of research log assignments and points toward ways of mitigating these drawbacks.

Collecting Cats: Library Lessons From Neko Atsume, Kelly M. Blanchat, Megan Brooks

Publications and Research

This blog post is the culmination of a Twitter conversation between librarians talking about their experiences playing a phone game. The game is called Nekoatsume and it involves taking care of digital cats in a virtual backyard. Nekoatsume is entirely in Japanese, a key fact that actually started the Twitter conversation (and not the fact that the game involves cats, as might be expected). Despite the language barrier, Nekoatsume is remarkably user-friendly; library databases should be just as user-friendly as a game in a foreign language, but too often they’re not. With so many variables in acquiring research — design, …

Social Media As Game Strategy: Twitter In The #Infolit Instruction Session, Kelly M. Blanchat, Lydia Willoughby

Publications and Research

The lure of distractions can entice even the strongest of student wills in a computer classroom. Research requires strategic thinking and ordered planning to drown out the noise of online distractions. This poster demonstrates a unique way to capitalize on the natural overlap of research, communication, and social media by employing game strategy to lead learning outcomes for undergraduate student research. Instead of silencing social media, this activity incorporates Twitter as a platform to introduce information literacy concepts and participatory practices of scholarship.

Embedded Librarian Ideas: Best Practices Explored And Redefined, Carl R. Andrews

Publications and Research

This paper explores the multitude of ways in which embedded librarianship can be implemented. Although the paper is primarily targeted to academic librarians in higher education settings, the literature examined and the ideas presented can support secondary and college level inter-disciplinary teaching initiatives. The ideas presented are sourced from scholarly journal articles, monographs, and best practices implemented by the author. Attention is given to programs where Information Literacy is infused into a school’s General Education curriculum. Academic librarian pedagogy, outreach, and networking strategies are also highlighted. The author is especially interested in projects that address student academic success after an …

Play A Game, Make A Game: Getting Creative With Professional Development For Library Instruction, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

Using games in the library classroom is an active learning strategy that can increase student engagement. However, not all librarians are equally familiar and comfortable with bringing game-based learning to the library. Game On for Information Literacy is a brainstorming card game to help librarians create games for information literacy and library instruction. Inspired by other successful brainstorming card games, this game was developed, playtested, and iterated over several years in workshops, graduate-level MLIS courses, and professional development programs. Game materials are all available to download, use, remix, and share.

Librarians As Advocates For Social Media Privacy, Sarah Lamdan

LACUNY Institute 2015

Librarians must continue their traditional roles as privacy rights activists and intellectual freedom upholders into the digital age, and across electronic information sources, including social media fora. Social media is quickly becoming a major source of information and center for information seeking, and librarians have an opportunity to promote and help shape social media policies that protect users’ privacy and assure that users can seek information without inhibition. One way librarians can be involved in the promotion of online privacy is by joining the social media user rights movement and advocating terms of use agreements that protect information seekers that …

"Flipped Classroom" Information Literacy In Business Management Courses--What Have We Learned?, Madeline Cohen, Deborah Sanders

Publications and Research

This presentation reports on a successful cross-department collaboration between the library and the business department at Lehman to conduct information literacy instruction as a "flipped classroom." Ways that the flipped design have been tailored to meet the needs of teaching business research will be demonstrated. Evidence of student learning and qualitative evaluation of student and faculty experience will be presented. Practical tips on implementing flipped instruction will be provided.

Embedded Librarian Program And Its Impact On Students’ Learning Outcomes, Christine (Mi-Seon) Kim, Michael Dolan

Publications and Research

The purpose of this project is to find out how effective an embedded librarian program is at increasing community college students’ performance on a course assignment on an annotated bibliography and a research paper. This is a collaborative project between a librarian and an English instructor. Participants in this study are Queensborough Community College students enrolled in English 101 and English 102 classes during the fall 2014 semester and the spring 2015 semester. There are 4 classes of English 101 and 3 classes of English 102. An annotated bibliography is the assignment used as a means of measuring students’ performance. …

Being A Lesbian Librarian, Collection Development In Lesbian Librarianship, And Archives As Lesbian Spaces, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

Edited talk From Pratt SILS Gender LIS Panel curated by Dinah Handel on March 27th, 2015
Co-presenters include: Sian Evans; #artandfeminism Wikipedia Editathon & Jen LaBarbera; Filling in the Margins: The use of Queer Theory, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and Critical Race Theory to build inclusive archival collections
This talk remarks on the role of the librarian to provide lesbian-specific content.

Library Awareness And Use Among Graduate Social Work Students: An Assessment And Action Research Project, Margaret Bausman, Sarah Laleman Ward

Publications and Research

This article details the evolution of an action research project over the fall of 2011 through the spring of 2014. The project investigates the engagement of social work students at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College with library resources and services. In addition to a review of the literature and a contextualizing discussion around the status of information literacy instruction in social work, the article describes the development and use of an online assessment tool, the introduction of new information literacy instruction strategies and materials including online research guides, and a discussion of the descriptive and inferential …

Google Vs. The Library (Part Iii): Assessing The Quality Of Sources Found By Undergraduates, Helen Georgas

Publications and Research

This study assesses and compares the quality of sources found by undergraduate students when doing research using both Google and a library (federated) search tool. Thirty undergraduates were asked to find four sources (one book, two articles, and one additional source of their choosing) related to a selected research topic. Students used both Google and a federated search (resource discovery) tool to find material they believed to be relevant. Each source was evaluated for topic relevance, authority, appropriateness, and date, and assigned a total quality score. Results showed that the books found via Google were slightly higher quality than those …

The Research Process 2016, Neera Mohess

Open Educational Resources

The guide offers some tools and contextual information about doing research.

Fully Embedded: An Esl-Library Partnership, Barbara Bonous-Smit

Publications and Research

Slides from a presentation at the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), January 15, 2015 at Baruch College, CUNY, Vertical Campus

Research has proven the importance of developing academic and information literacy skills of ELLs (English language learners) in basic reading and writing courses in order to promote student engagement and perseverance. A recent innovation and effective approach in academic library instruction, embedded librarians provide personal, targeted assistance to the class as a whole and to individual students. Hence, there is more sustained learning. In this session, the author will discuss the close partnership and collaboration between a fully embedded …

Teaching The Network: A Brief Demonstration Of The Internet’S Structure For Information Literacy Instruction, Robin Camille Davis

Publications and Research

A basic understanding of the Internet’s physical and operational structure is one element of information literacy. In this article, “traceroute” and “whois” commands are demonstrated as tools that librarians can use to illustrate how the Internet is geographically distributed, how businesses enable and control information sharing, and how to check a source's credibility by determining website ownership. With these tools, students can gain a better understanding of how online information is created, accessed, and affected in ways that may be otherwise invisible.

The Flipped Classroom As A Tool For Engaging Discipline Faculty In Collaboration—A Case Study In Library-Business Collaboration, Madeline Cohen

Publications and Research

This case study focuses on an innovative approach to the flipped classroom as a tool for productive library-discipline faculty collaboration on information literacy instruction. The argument is presented that the flipped classroom can be a pathway into the disciplines that can be used in overcoming the disadvantages of the one-shot, and other barriers to collaboration. The case-study will outline the reasons for a successful collaboration on integrating information literacy into this undergraduate business course, and for its extension to five additional business courses. Practical examples of learning outcomes, in-class activities, and assessment are provided.

Situating Information Literacy In The Disciplines: A Practical And Systematic Approach For Academic Librarians, Robert Farrell, William Badke

Publications and Research

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to consider the current barriers to situating in the disciplines and to offer a possible strategy for so doing.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews current challenges facing librarians who seek to situate information literacy in the disciplines and offers and practical model for those wishing to do so. Phenomenographic evidence from disciplinary faculty focus groups is presented in the context of the model put forward.

Findings – Disciplinary faculty do not have generic conceptions of information literacy but rather understand information-related behaviors as part of embodied disciplinary practice.

Practical implications – Librarians …