Information Literacy Commons^™

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 and Staff 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 and Staff 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 and Staff 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 and Staff 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? …

Book Review: Not Just Where To Click: Teaching Students How To Think About Information, Margy Macmillan

Communications in Information Literacy

Book Review: Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information

A Survey Of Librarian Perceptions Of Information Literacy Techniques, Simone L. Yearwood, Nancy M. Foasberg, Kenneth D. Rosenberg

Communications in Information Literacy

Teaching research competencies and information literacy is an integral part of the academic librarian's role. There has long been debate among librarians over what are the most effective methods of instruction for college students. Library Faculty at a large urban University System were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the effectiveness of common information literacy instruction techniques. The system includes both two-year and four-year programs, as well as degree granting institutions. This research was undertaken for the purpose of better prioritizing institutional teaching activities in the current academic climate. The research shows that librarians within the University System believed that …

Ideology And Critical Self-Reflection In Information Literacy Instruction, Jessica Critten

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy instruction traditionally focuses on evaluating a source for bias, relevance, and timeliness, and rightfully so; this critical perspective is vital to a well-formed research process. However, this process is incomplete without a similar focus on the potential biases that the student brings to his or her interactions with information. This paper describes a case study of a semester-long information literacy course that utilized neo-Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser's figurations of ideology and ideological state apparatuses as a site of critical self-reflection for students and a method by which students could become empowered to recognize themselves as not just consumers, …

Book Review: Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises, Kevin M. O'Sullivan

Communications in Information Literacy

Book Review: Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises

First Thoughts On Implementing The Framework For Information Literacy, Trudi E. Jacobson, Craig Gibson

Communications in Information Literacy

Following the action of the ACRL Board in February 2015 in accepting the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education as one of the "constellation of documents" that promote and guide information literacy instruction and program development, discussion in the library community continues about steps in implementing the Framework. The spectrum of possibilities for implementing the Framework encompasses both curricular and co-curricular settings within colleges and universities. At this early stage of implementing the Framework, we suggest five curricular and instructional structures that can be thought of as a continuum of deepened engagement with its core ideas. The second half …

First Thoughts On The Framework, Robert Schroeder

Communications in Information Literacy

Introduction to the special section of vol. 9, no. 2 entitled "First Thoughts on the Framework."

Evaluating A Pre-Session Exercise In A Standalone Information Literacy Class, Joseph E. Goetz, Catherine R. Barber

Communications in Information Literacy

In this study, researchers evaluate a homework exercise assigned before a standalone information literacy session. Students in a Master of Education program completed a worksheet using the ERIC database thesaurus. The researchers conducted pre- and posttests within a single library session to assess student learning, using a control group for comparison. The treatment group did not demonstrate better thesaurus skills than students who had regular library instruction alone, but results pointed the way to targeted improvements of pre-session learning materials. This approach could inform other information literacy homework applications such as flipping the classroom.

Colleges Of Education Librarians In Nigeria: An Investigation Into The Self-Perception Of Ict-Related Information Literacy Skills, Ebikabowei Emmanuel Baro, Monica Eberechukwu Eze

Communications in Information Literacy

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the level of ICT related IL skills of librarians in COE libraries and to know some challenges librarians face in acquiring IL skills. Descriptive survey method was adopted using questionnaire.The study covered professionals and para-professional librarians in federal, state and private Colleges of Education libraries in the South-South and South-East geo-political zones of Nigeria. The findings revealed that the librarians rated their information literacy skills to be average. A correlation of the overall assessment of the librarians' IL skills with variables such as institution, gender, years of experience and qualifications revealed differences …

Teaching Information Literacy Through "Un-Research", Allison Hosier

Communications in Information Literacy

Students who write essays on research topics in which no outside sources are cited and accuracy is treated as negotiable generally should not expect to receive good grades, especially in an information literacy course. However, asking students to do just this was the first step in the "un-research project," a twist on the familiar annotated bibliography assignment that was intended to guide students away from "satisficing" with their choice of sources and toward a better understanding of scholarship as a conversation. The project was implemented as part of a credit-bearing course in spring 2014 with promising results, including a more …

A Pedagogy Of Inquiry, Nicole Pagowsky

Communications in Information Literacy

Library instruction continues to evolve. Regardless of the myriad and conflicting opinions academic librarians have about the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, the debates and the document itself have engendered greater discourse surrounding how and why librarians teach. The Framework provides an additional push toward designing instruction with big ideas rather than a skills-based curriculum. However, we still must contend with constraints imposed upon us by higher education taking on business models and enforcing a skills agenda. To enact the pedagogy of the Framework in contrast to changes in higher education presents a challenge. We should consider ways in which …

Book Review: Curriculum-Based Library Instruction: From Cultivating Faculty Relationships To Assessment, Maureen Knapp

Communications in Information Literacy

No abstract provided.

This Is Really Happening: Criticality And Discussions Of Context In Acrl's Framework For Information Literacy, Kevin Patrick Seeber

Communications in Information Literacy

The development of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy has sparked an immense amount of conversation among academic librarians, though the profession is still far from consensus with regards to if, when, or how the document should be implemented. This essay argues that despite debates over various points within the text, the overall theme of the Framework is a call for librarians and educators to recognize the importance of context when discussing information literacy. As this relates to the curriculum of higher education, instruction and assignments can no longer afford to separate "school" from "real life." Classroom instruction must recognize …

Seeking Social Justice In The Acrl Framework, Andrew Battista, Dave Ellenwood, Lua Gregory, Shana Higgins, Jeff Lilburn, Yasmin Sokkar Harker, Christopher Sweet

Communications in Information Literacy

The scope of this article is to address the possibilities and challenges librarians concerned with social justice may face when working with the ACRL Framework. While the Framework recognizes that information emerges from varied contexts that reflect uneven distributions of power, privilege, and authority, it is missing a cogent statement that connects information literacy to social justice. In this article, authors concerned with social justice and civic engagement will share their reflections on the Framework from a critical pedagogical and social justice orientation.

Continuing The Conversation: Questions About The Framework, Megan E. Dempsey, Heather Dalal, Lynee R. Dokus, Leslin H. Charles, Davida Scharf

Communications in Information Literacy

Given the prevalence of the Information Literacy Competency Standards in the library profession for the past 15 years, and the heated debate that took place regarding whether or not the Framework for Information Literacy and the Standards could harmoniously co-exist, the article raises questions about the future of information literacy in higher education. We do not necessarily have answers to these questions, but offer our own perspectives, some insight into how the Standards have served New Jersey academic librarians in the past, and how we envision using the Framework and the Standards together to further information literacy instruction at our …

Why Digital Problem Solving Matters: A Closer Look At How Education And Skills Online Can Be Used To Inform Educational Outreach Efforts, Jill Castek, Cindy Gibbon

Presentations and Publications

This presentation focuses digital problem solving and the approaches and strategies digital problem solvers use.

Book Review: Designing Information Literacy Instruction: The Teaching Tripod Approach, Dominique Turnbow

Communications in Information Literacy

No abstract provided.

A Decade Of Critical Information Literacy: A Review Of The Literature, Eamon Tewell

Communications in Information Literacy

As information literacy continues in its centrality to many academic libraries' missions, a line of inquiry has developed in response to ACRL's charge to develop information literate citizens. The literature of critical information literacy questions widely held assumptions about information literacy and considers in what ways librarians may encourage students to engage with and act upon information's complex and inherently political nature. This review explores the research into critical information literacy, including critical pedagogy and critiques of information literacy, in order to provide an entry point for this emerging and challenging approach to information literacy.

Education Theory And Pedagogy For Practical Library Instruction: How To Learn What We Really Need To Know, Molly Montgomery

Communications in Information Literacy

The majority of librarians who have taken on instruction responsibilities have had little to no formal training in educational theories or pedagogical practices. We do the best we can without a foundation for our teaching. This Perspectives column looks at how much theory we really need to know, and how can we gain this knowledge in order to become effective and engaging instructors.

Teaching Matters: The Interplay Of Information Literacy Instruction And Professional Statements, Patrick P. Ragains

Communications in Information Literacy

This column examines the Association of College & Research Libraries' new Framework for information literacy for higher education and Information literacy competency standards for higher education in the context of professional practice.

Connecting Inspiration With Information: Studio Art Students And Information Literacy Instruction, Katie Greer

Communications in Information Literacy

This article discusses the partnership between the library and the studio art faculty at [Institution name], that led to the integration of information literacy instruction into the studio art curriculum. The author outlines the importance of information literacy to artistic practice and student success, and discusses the program of instruction and learning outcomes. Early assessment of student needs and the program's effectiveness, using both citation analysis and anecdotal feedback, reveals that the program has contributed to the maturation of student research and inquiry skills, and positively affected the relationship between the department and the library, and provides preliminary conclusions about …

Book Review: The Embedded Librarian's Cookbook, Nicole C. Eva

Communications in Information Literacy

No abstract provided.

Teaching And Learning Information Synthesis: An Intervention And Rubric Based Assessment, Kacy Lundstrom, Anne R. Diekema, Heather Leary, Sheri Haderlie, Wendy Holliday

Communications in Information Literacy

The purpose of this research was to determine how information synthesis skills can be taught effectively, and to discover how the level of synthesis in student writing can be effectively measured. The intervention was an information synthesis lesson that broke down the synthesis process into sequenced tasks. Researchers created a rubric which they used to assess a student's level of information synthesis demonstrated in their final research essays. A form of counting analysis was also created to see if other methods could help in measuring synthesis. Findings from the rubric analysis revealed that students appear to benefit from the synthesis …

Motivational Design In Information Literacy Instruction, Amanda Kathryn Nichols Hess

Communications in Information Literacy

Motivational design theory complements instructional design theory and, when used together, both principles can impact learning, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge retention. In information literacy instruction, motivational design exists throughout the appropriate standards documents. However, there is limited current research on the best practices for using motivation in information literacy or library-based instruction. The existing research does indicate that librarians who deliver information literacy instruction attempt to implement motivational design theories such as Keller's ARCS model into their teaching, although often at a low level. Furthermore, studies of face-to-face and online library learning environments illustrate that using the ARCS model – …