Information Literacy Commons^™

High School To College Transition Initiatives: Making It A Reality, Denise Woetzel, Anita B. Tarbox

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The challenge continues for both secondary and post-secondary institutions to help high school students successfully transition to college. High school and college librarians share common goals with teaching faculty in helping students succeed and include improving college students’ first-year experience as well as fostering lifelong learning. One step towards bridging this gap is for librarians to work together with their constituencies in improving students’ information literacy skills. Historically, librarians at Reynolds Community College in Richmond, VA have collaborated with high school librarians and teachers in the Richmond area on an ad hoc basis upon request. Most recently, Reynolds librarians have …

Seismic Shifts: The Framework For Information Literacy As An Integrating Force, Sharon Mader

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Sharon Mader, Ed.D. is the ACRL Visiting Program Officer for Information Literacy, whose primary responsibility is to spearhead the launch and implementation of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Dr. Mader retired at the end of January 2015 after fifteen years as Dean of Library Services at the University of New Orleans. She has worked at a variety of public and private academic institutions, including University of Illinois Health Sciences, Lake Forest College, DePaul University, and University of Memphis. Her teaching background includes service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia and being a founding faculty member …

Go Research! Building An Information Literacy Tool That Bridges The Gap, Julie Ladell-Thomas, Jennifer J. Rundels

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

With the increase in online learning, identifying new ways to develop the information literacy skills of distance learners is paramount. Developing a research question, selecting resources, searching databases, refining search results, getting full text, and citing sources in the online environment can be especially challenging for nontraditional learners who may not have the same digital know-how as traditional students or digital natives. Global Campus librarians at Central Michigan University (CMU) travel to CMU’s remote centers to provide information literacy instruction for core research courses. But how do they reach everyone, including students taking classes online? Because distance students are typically …

The Core 4 Assessment Test Bank: One Stop Shopping For Information Literacy Assessment!, Rachel Cooke, Jenna Enomoto, Kim Reycraft, Steve Rokusek, Heather Snapp

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In Fall 2013, academic librarians at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) set out to develop their own instructional assessment test bank to evaluate library program effectiveness, improve the student learning experience and determine if library services were effectively developing information literacy skills in learners. Using the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) adopted by ACRL in conjunction with their own information literacy plan, they focused on four critical competency areas: information access points, search tool selection, library website utilization, and classification schemes.

This panel presentation provides an overview of the challenges and successes they experienced in creating and …

Partnering With Teaching Faculty To Incorporate The Framework For Information Literacy For Higher Education, Tami Robinson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Whitworth University Library developed Library Instruction/ Information Literacy Objectives based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education that we have been using for the past decade. Endorsed, in 2008 by the Library & Information Resources Committee, comprised of teaching faculty, these objectives are aimed at specific learning outcomes for the First Year Seminar, writing composition, and discipline specific courses. The progression of information literacy skills reflected in these objectives begins at the basic introductory level, then moves on to basic research skills, and finally to complex discipline specific research skills. Faculty buy-in has been sporadic and uneven …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of A Pre-Class Intervention In Establishing An Information Literacy Baseline, Adelia B. Grabowsky

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

It is expected that undergraduates entering a BSN clinical program as juniors will possess basic information literacy skills. The reality is that skills vary widely, complicating efforts to provide more advanced, discipline-specific instruction. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-class intervention intended to establish an information literacy baseline in newly admitted nursing students. Setting/Participants: Nursing students in the first clinical semester of a BSN program at a large, southeastern, research university. Intervention: Before attending a library instruction class, students watch a short video and complete a worksheet which they bring to class. Outcome Measures: …

Frameworks, Standards, And Benchmarks, Oh My!, Adrienne Harmer, Patti Lee

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Are you wondering how to adapt the old standards to the new framework? We were too, but we think we’ve found a way. We deconstructed all the information literacy competencies, arranged the threshold concepts according to Bloom’s taxonomy within each frame (in order to scaffold learning from lower to higher order thinking), then mapped the big ideas and the related skills and abilities across four levels of proficiency in order to construct our own institutional benchmarks. Wanna know how we did it? Come find out! We will discuss our process and how we use our living document as the foundation …

Using Technology As A Hook For Information Literacy In The Digital Age: Go Tech, Rebecca B. Engsberg

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Under the category of “DEFINING INFORMATION LITERACY in a digital age,” I will share with conference attendees some ways of using technology as a hook to snare student interest and involvement with information literacy outreach efforts. This also includes incorporating technology into actual information literacy instruction.

As the Liaison Librarian for the English Language Institute (ELI)—an intensive English language program for international students who are preparing to begin undergraduate or graduate studies in the US—I teach students about library services and how to use the library.

Since there is no longer a designated ELI class where instructors regularly bring their …

Rebooting A Technical Writing Course: Control Instructional Design, Alt Information Literacy, And Delete Non-Collaboration, Kelly Diamond, Gregg Thumm

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Members of this panel, an instructional design librarian and a teaching faculty member, began collaborating in summer 2014 to revise and redesign English 305: Scientific and Technical Writing; the faculty instructor wanted to improve this course by redesigning it based on instructional design principles, but also to include more information literacy instruction into this online course.

This panel will discuss faculty’s perceived problems with the initial version of the class, including lack of student participation and poor choices of research materials for assignments. We will discuss how we tried to eliminate those deficiencies through instructional design and redesigning authentic assignments …

Operation Library Enlightenment: Library Instruction For Rotc Cadets, Bridget S. Farrell

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Military intelligence, the process of gathering and evaluating information, parallels skills often taught in the library instruction classroom. Inspired by this connection, two librarians worked with an ROTC instructor to create a library orientation tailored to the interests and learning styles of Army ROTC Cadets that encouraged them to find and evaluate information about the library.

Before and during the class session, care was taken to model the structure of the session as if it was a mission the cadets were trying to execute. The ROTC instructor created an “Operations Order” (OPORD) that laid out the plan for the session …

Think Inside The Blocks: Health Literacy Outreach To Disadvantaged People In Their Own Environment, Nancy Patterson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

This bilingual (Spanish/English) poster highlights six creative health literacy outreach projects that have proven to be successful in increasing participation in health-related events in their communities and in boosting health literacy in the process.

For example, in Georgetown, South Carolina, a beauty salon owner, concerned about her clients’ frequent frustration with trying to decipher medical information, partners with her local public library and is grant funded to provide a Wellness Workstation in her salon. Years later, her clients research health information between services using the workstation, evening health literacy classes are regularly conducted for community members and continued funding has …

Exploring And Preventing Accidental Plagiarism In A Digital Age, Amy Y. Sexton

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In our online only college writing center, we often hear from students that they are not sure that they need citation or references in their papers because they did not use any research but instead only looked at a few web sites. Students sometimes present with plagiarism issues in their writing and attest that they did not borrow any outside wording when a quick Internet search confirms that they did, in fact, use text verbatim without directly quoting the words. These scenarios and others seem to be instances of accidental plagiarism, and helping students work through them raises the following …

Outside The Box: An Information Literacy Course Web2.0 Project, Ru Story Huffman

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Outside The Box: An Information Literacy Course Web2.0 Project

At Georgia Southwestern State University, “Foundations of Information Literacy” is an Area B course to fulfill core requirements. The one hour course is theoretical and practical in content and offers students information beyond the “traditional” information literacy course descriptions. A theme of the course is the impact of information on the life of the college student. For the final project, students are required to use a Web2.0 tool to illustrate how information influences their everyday life. Discussions include how information is obtained, used, disseminated, and evaluated. Students develop the presentation and …

The Instructional Consultation: A Model For Fostering Teaching Partnerships Beyond The One-Shot, Andrea Baer

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Many librarians currently engage in instructional consulting as a means for supporting information literacy integration (e.g. instruction request, reference desk interactions, faculty workshops) and report significant success with this approach. In light of the traditional service model of librarianship, however, playing a consulting role can feel uncomfortable and often raises concerns about potentially overstepping territorial lines. In this interactive workshop, participants will discuss the concept of an “equal partners” consulting approach and their related experiences; will explore questions, concerns, challenges, and successes related to implementing instructional consulting; and will develop concrete strategies for engaging in instructional consulting in their specific …

Revitalize Your Research Instruction!: Applying The Engaging Constructivist Framework In The Library Instruction Classroom, Paul J. Vermette, Melissa Langridge, Kayla Jaehn

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In a workshop filled with collaboration, reflection, activity, and discussion the presenters will explore Dr. Paul Vermette’s (2009) ENGAGING framework to make meaningful classroom experiences. Whether you teach face-to-face, online, or develop online tutorials, this workshop will help you hone your teaching skills and prepare you for your instructional needs. By exploring evidence-based practices that maximize student learning, participants will leave the session with teaching strategies to incorporate into library instruction and a framework for designing future sessions. Help your students have more fun, learn more and maybe even change their perceptions about what information literacy instruction can accomplish.

Outline …

Designing An Upper-Level Research Course In An Online Environment, Susan N. Moore, Janet Ward, Lizah Ismail

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

The workshop focuses on ideas for developing an online course to provide proper knowledge of research strategies appropriate for a 3-credit hour course. During the workshop, the course development process will be shared, and there will be time for participants to brainstorm ways to deliver instruction online through various assignments and research activities so that students gain an understanding of advanced library research, critical thinking, and evaluating skills.

The presenters developed Academic Research, a 300-level course specifically for online students. The course has been so popular it has been designated as a required course for graduation in the fields of …

Using What They Know To Teach Them What They Need To Know, Lucinda Rush

Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

Social networking sites (SNS) have been integrated seamlessly into our everyday lives, and college students are one of their biggest consumers (Lenhart, et al., 2010). While we see deskilling as a result of this consumer training, we see training in other areas (Rush & Wittkower, 2013). For example, students are fluent at information grazing, sharing and building relationships online, but they cannot explain how the filter bubble works or how their Google search results are ranked (Rush & Wittkower, 2013). Students come to college as consumers of social media but are not necessarily adept at using social media to contribute …

Literacy Work In The Reign Of Human Capital [Table Of Contents], Evan Watkins

Education

In recent years, a number of books in the field of literacy research have addressed the experiences of literacy users or the multiple processes of learning literacy skills in a rapidly changing technological environment. In contrast to these studies, this book addresses the subjects of literacy. In other words, it is about how literacy workers are subjected to the relations between new forms of labor and the concept of human capital as a dominant economic structure in the United States. It is about how literacies become forms of value producing labor in everyday life both within and beyond the workplace …

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.

Beyond Graduation: Teaching Students About Open Access Resources, Teresa Williams

Scholarship and Professional Work

Poster presentation at the 2015 American Library Association Annual Conference, June 27, San Francisco, CA.

The Beginning Of Digital Wisdom, Michael J. Paulus Jr., Ryan Ingersoll

SPU Works

Marc Prensky, who popularized the term “digital natives” more than ten years ago, now emphasizes the need for “digital wisdom”: using digital technologies wisely to become wiser. Recent research reveals that so-called digital natives are often “digital naïves”—familiarity with digital technologies does not translate into facility with them. Incoming college students report declining confidence in their computer skills and report very modest improvements by the time they graduate. Employers report deficiencies in the technological skills of college graduates and, perhaps most troubling, studies of youth and young adults show that ethical and moral reasoning does not extend much beyond self-protection. …

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 …

Adult Learners In The Library–Are They Being Served?, Makiba Foster, Kristine Helbling

WashU Libraries Publications

Like many academic librarians, after completing the marathon of the traditional school year, we often use the summer semester to reflect, revise, and plan for the upcoming fall. In the summer of 2012, during a casual conversation in which we shared stories about rewarding reference interactions, we stumbled upon an “aha moment,” discovering an opportunity to connect targeted library outreach with an underserved user group. During this exchange, we realized how much we both enjoy working with adult learners and how they always seem genuinely interested in gaining skills to make themselves better library users, and therefore better students. This …

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.

Introducing Undergraduates To Open Access And The Power Of Collaboration Between Scholarly Communications And Instruction Librarians, Kristin Laughtin-Dunker, Annie Knight

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Undergraduates are often left out of conversations surrounding open access. While they may not share the same concerns about publishing and prestige as faculty and graduate students, they do consume vast amounts of information, and thus can benefit just as much as those farther in their academic careers by knowing how to find, evaluate, and use open access resources. This presentation highlights a successful collaboration between the presenters in their respective roles as scholarly communications librarian and course developer to create and implement curriculum for a 3-unit information literacy course to teach undergraduate students about open access principles. Once the …

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points: Distance Learning Library Instruction, Lugene Rosen

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

This presentation offers advice on providing effective library instruction for distance learners, and discusses the benefits of using a federated search tool such as EBSCO Discovery Service.

Preparing Today’S Learners: The Role Of Information Literacy In The Adoption Of Innovative Pedagogies, Clarence Maybee

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This presentation was given at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, Australia on April 20, 2015 as part of the Salon Series.

The presentation described how Purdue University supports teachers developing new classroom experiences through an educational initiative called Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT), which draws together expertise from areas of specialization throughout the campus to support course transformation. Drawing from four years of IMPACT programming and related research, two beneficial aspects of Purdue’s approach to this work were discussed in the presentation:

• The creation of productive partnerships between teachers, instructional designers, instructional technologists and librarians, whose …

Assessment Of A Professional Development Program On Adult Learning Theory, Melinda Malik

Higher Education Student Work

Librarians at colleges and universities invested in graduate education must understand and incorporate adult learning theories in their reference and instruction interactions with graduate students to more effectively support the students’ learning. After participating in a professional development program about adult learning theory, librarians in this study reported that, in many ways, they already employed teaching and learning strategies grounded in one or more adult learning theories. They also indicated gaining a greater awareness of student development, enabling them to more successfully tailor their interactions.

Helping The Adult Learner Succeed: How Community College Libraries In Massachusetts Are Serving This Growing Population, Katherine A. Turcotte

Librarian Publications

Education is something that is valued more each and every day. A growing number of people in today’s society realize the importance of education and the increasing need to return to school. As the number of adult learners continues to rise, so too does the need to reach out to this population to make sure they are being presented with the appropriate tools and resources needed to succeed. Because it is theorized that adults (those age 25+) who return to school are likely to enroll in a community college, rather than a four year university, this study looks specifically at …

Facilitating Peer Learning In The Library: Crafting The Perfect Batch Of Undergraduate Peer Research Mentors, Clinton K. Baugess, Mallory R. Jallas

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Librarians at a college library developed a Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program for undergraduate students in order to facilitate peer learning and expand the library's formal instruction program beyond the traditional reach of the library and librarians. The presenters will discuss recruiting the initial cohort of eight PRMs, strengthening PRMs' research skills through an intensive training curriculum, and an overview of the various instructional outreach projects that have been designed and implemented by PRMs for other students. The presentation will discuss program assessment methods, share findings from the current cohort, and outline plans for the program's development.