Library and Information Science Commons^™

Assessing Problem Solving In Technology Rich Environments Within A Public Library, Jill Castek, Gloria Jacobs

Presentations and Publications

The presentation focuses on how critical thinking and a range of digital literacy skills may influence the ability to solve web-based information problems in diverse educational settings.

Information Literacy In The First Year Of Higher Education: Faculty Expectations And Student Practices, Meredith Esther Michaud

Dissertations and Theses

Information literacy is widely acknowledged as important for student success in higher education. Information literacy is the ability to sort through a large amount of available information, decide what is useful and believable, and apply it in an effective and ethical way. Faculty members have expectations regarding information literacy for students in the first year of college, while students have information literacy practices that may or may not match those expectations. In my study, I examined the alignment of faculty member information literacy expectations and student information literacy practices, focusing on freshman students and faculty members who teach freshman students …

Digging Deeper: Can Patrons Use Our Resources, And Are Basic Digital Literacy Classes Enough?, Cindy Gibbon, Jill Castek

Presentations and Publications

We know our resources are easy to use and our patron training is relevant...don’t we? International assessment data show the US population scores below the international average in problem solving in technology-rich environments. At risk of disrupting the status quo, a public library collaborates with an urban university on a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to assess patrons’ skills. Results will help inform how library services and digital content are presented and will help ensure patron training content includes meaningful skills. Come learn how our research might reflect the needs of your patrons.

Volume 21 Issue 4 Introduction (Library Marketing And Communications), Joan Petit

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon libraries provide an incredible array of resources and services, but sometimes we struggle to educate our users and each other about all that is available. Over the past several years, many libraries have become more intentional in our efforts to market and promote our offerings, through traditional PR and advertisements as well as newer approaches like social media. However, we may lack the formal training and expertise to do this well—marketing is not a class offered in all library school programs—and, even with appropriate training, we may lack the budget and staff to implement a large-scale marketing program.

This …

Autoethnography: Our Stories, Our Research, Anne-Marie Deitering, Robert Schroeder, Rick Stoddart

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Autoethnography is a research method, whereby researchers investigate aspects of what it means to be a librarian. Starting with a reflective examination of themselves they investigate questions of library culture, values and identity. Autoethnography has potential to help librarians answer questions that cannot be answered by traditional, empirical research methods and to reveal voices that are obscured by aggregations of data. Autoethnography blends art and science and is at turns evocative, analytical, and creative. It can help us look deeply into our library culture, critique it where need be, transform ourselves, and ultimately inspire us to change librarianship for the …

What’S Their Story? Using An Online Assessment Tool To Learn About Patron Skills, Amy Honisett

Presentations and Publications

We believe our patrons can use our electronic resources, but international assessment data tell a different story. The US population scores below the international average in problem solving in technology-rich environments, so Multnomah County Library and Portland State University are collaborating on a project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to assess patrons' online abilities and how those abilities map to common library tasks. Results will help inform how online library services are presented and will help ensure computer class content includes meaningful skills.

Exploring How Problem Solving In Technology-Rich Environments Can Be Used To Design Responsive Programming, Jill Castek, Amy Honisett

Presentations and Publications

This session explored a project that assesses community members’ digital skills using Education and Skills Online (ESO) – a valid and reliable assessment tool based on PIAAC that addresses Literacy, Numeracy, and Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments (PS-TRE). The project will use these data to determine how the abilities of patrons map to the common library tasks that libraries assume patrons are able to access and use in a meaningful way.

Who’S To Judge? The Conundrum Of Evaluative Criteria For Autoethnographic Research, Robert Schroeder

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Writing autoethnographic research is inherently subjective, messy, idiosyncratic, political, and transformative (of both the author and the reader) and is therefore the antithesis of quantitative empirical (positivist) research; research which wraps itself in the objective (the non-I) and makes claims of universality and generalizability. Obviously the criteria that journal editors, reviewers, and readers will use to evaluate autoethnographic writing must be radically new and different. What makes this new research valid or rigorous — what makes it research? Begin to explore how we might create and use evaluative criteria for autoethnographic research, or if we should even attempt to create …

Resistance Is Fertile: (Or Everything I Know About Teaching I Learned In Yoga Class) (Chapter 23), Robert Schroeder

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Looking at yoga from the outside, it seems like it’s about trying to contort yourself into awkward pretzel shapes. But from the inside, it is really about the awareness that arises when you try to ease your body into scary and unusual places. Does this sound a little like reflective teaching?

Be aware of discomfort, the resistance to discomfort, and even the resistance to being aware of discomfort—we can use this awareness in our classrooms just as we do on the yoga mat. What if we envision our class organically, as if it were a body moving through different postures? …