Information Literacy Commons^™

Assessment Of Information Literacy Instruction In Reference: Applying Vanscoy’S Conceptual And Procedural Framework In Practice, Vanessa Arce

Publications and Research

The instructional aspect of reference work has long been acknowledged, especially in academic libraries. The current RUSA guidelines include helping users develop information literacy as a goal of reference. In this context, investigating the presence and nature of information literacy instruction can be used to assess the quality of reference services. This study applied Amy VanScoy’s conceptual/procedural framework for point-of-need instruction to a sample of chat reference transcripts at Lehman College, City University of New York. One of the assessment’s goals was to determine the prevalence of instruction and type of knowledge addressed in reference interactions. Another goal was to …

Reframing Library Instruction Towards Belonging, Vanessa Arce

Publications and Research

A reflection piece about a small, spontaneous adjustment I made to an introductory library session for first year students. In the essay, I reflect on the potential impact of this relatively minor change in the context of the student population at our college.

An Autoethnographic Study Of A Technical Services Librarian’S Teaching Journey During The Tenure Track: “Define Myself For Myself To Both Survive And Thrive”, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This autoethnographic study explores the disorienting dilemma that a technical services librarian experienced while alternating between working behind the scenes to fulfill professional responsibilities and teaching in the library to meet organizational expectations as a faculty member. The analysis of personal data accumulated during the tenure track period reveals three themes: teaching as learning to become, teaching as learning to challenge the system, and teaching as learning to research. Reflection focuses on three themes interconnected by the concept and practice of mindful learning. With the acknowledgement of limitations, this autoethnography concludes it was the self-reflective lifelong learning mindset that helped …

A Sample Teaching Portfolio For Technical Services Librarians, Junli Diao

Open Educational Resources

This teaching portfolio only includes the author’s perspectives and practices on one-shot library classes, workshops, and LibGuides. The goal is to offer technical services librarians some insights.

Evidence-Based Shared Agendas For Scholarship On Teaching With Primary Sources: Reflections On A Bibliometric Analysis, Jen Hoyer, Anne Bahde

Publications and Research

This article explores how scholarship about teaching with primary sources (TPS) has evolved over time and what future directions past work might suggests. Using bibliometric analysis and visualization tools, we examined how TPS work has grown; what fields and disciplines focus on this work; key themes and issues; and what scholarship has been influential to the field. These insights led to reflections on disconnects across the field, considerations for publishing about TPS, and the potential of pedagogical standards and guidelines. Finally, this article concludes with recommendations on how this analysis points to possibilities for shared education, space, conversation, and products.

Building A Professional Learning Community To Improve Technical Services Librarians’ Teaching Preparedness: Assess, Act And Reflect, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This action research was conducted to address the gap between having all librarians prepared to teach and technical services librarians’ unpreparedness to teach in a university library system. The implemented intervention was developing a professional learning community among technical services librarians with a variety of teaching experiences to improve teaching preparedness by sharing, discussing, and reflecting. The learning topics covered library teaching basics, motivating students, self-assessment, planning to teach, using Wikipedia for critical thinking, embedded librarianship and credit-bearing courses, teaching and research, and building a teaching portfolio and librarianship portfolio. A qualitative approach, including the implementation journal, reflective writing, and …

Artificial Intelligence In The Library: Assessing Chatbots And Chatgpt Presentation, Michelle Ehrenpreis, John P. Delooper

Publications and Research

In Spring 2023, the Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College (CUNY) conducted an assessment of its library chatbot which uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT API with the goal of improving its functionality and performance. This presentation highlights the assessment’s findings, including types of questions asked, and areas where the chatbot succeeds and where it struggles. Additionally, the presenters will detail the creation of a rubric to measure the accuracy and completeness of the chatbot’s answers for users. Through this presentation, the authors will showcase best practices for libraries looking to implement or experiment with chatbots at a time when use of artificial …

Bibliographic Instruction And The Need For “Librarian-First” Oer Repositories, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Educating The Educators: Six Frames For Three Identities, Eric Silberberg, Laura Cameron, Christina Jones, Amy James, Alison Lehner-Quam, Robin Ewing, Margaret Gregor

Publications and Research

Educating tomorrow’s teachers is a complex and evolving process. !ey are preservice teachers in undergraduate programs, current teachers pursuing career advancement in master’s programs, and aspiring educational researchers in doctoral programs. Perhaps nowhere else on campus does information literacy instruction have more potential to affect generations of information users than when librarians educate the educators as education students will, in turn, impart information literacy skills to the students in their classrooms for many years.

Education students inhabit three overlapping identities as they progress through degree programs: as students fulfilling assignments, professionals conducting evidence-based research, and future teachers responsible for teaching …

It’S So Liberating To Do The Work: Education In Archives Creates Space For People With Disabilities, Jen Hoyer, Julia Pelaez

Publications and Research

What are the barriers and possibilities archives education presents to the disabilities community? More specifically, how can archives education and teaching with primary sources provide opportunities for disabled students that they might not find in mainstream education settings? What matters when working with students with disabilities in archives, and what does it feel like to be a disabled educator in an archive? How can education in archives provide opportunities for vulnerability, connection, and liberation? Sharing a passion for the possibilities of education work in archives and special collections, Jen Hoyer and Julia Pelaez sat down for a conversation about these …

Evaluation Of Undergraduate Research Topic Skill Development, Vanessa Arce, Katelyn Angell

Publications and Research

Inspired by the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy frame Research as Inquiry, Lehman College Library conducted an assessment to measure its undergraduate students’ ability to formulate research questions that are appropriately scaled, encourage critical inquiry, and can be supported by available information resources. Using a sample of first-year students enrolled in an English composition class, the assessment revealed that students performed best at locating information resources and struggled most with scaling down a topic. Lessons learned from this study can be extrapolated to outside institutions to improve information literacy learning outcomes.

The News Is History: Building News Literacy Skills With Historic Primary Sources, Jen Hoyer

Publications and Research

The news is inescapable, and simultaneously headline-laden advertising-as-news follows us on scrolling video screens through public transit, at the gym, and on billboards lining the sidewalks. As the news and its lookalikes feel more and more omnipresent, the need for news literacy skills and their implementation feels more and more urgent. At the same time, continually morphing media platforms and news formats make it seem impossible to know: which of these things actually is the news? What’s most important for me to pay attention to?

What if, instead of teaching skills for understanding the next shiny news format, we turn …

Digital Literacy Activities, Sharell Walker

Publications and Research

In an increasingly technological-focused environment, it is paramount that library instructors infuse digital literacy skills into their teaching. Librarians as information professionals are in a prime position to impart digital literacy skills into patrons. This not only creates a more exciting lesson plan but also has the potential to teach students necessary digital literacy skills that are transferable beyond their schoolwork. In this chapter, the author examines the position of digital literacy in instruction and as a way to build employable skills. Examples of digital literacy activities’ that can be incorporated into information literacy instruction sessions no matter the length …

The Information Literacy Class As Theatrical Performance: A Qualitative Study Of Academic Librarians’ Understanding Of Their Teacher Identity, Mark Aaron Polger

Publications and Research

This qualitative study examines how academic librarians understand, conceptualize, and describe their teacher identity. The role of the academic librarian has greatly changed due to the advent of information technology. Traditionally, they were generalists, who were responsible for selecting and maintaining library collections. Academic librarian roles have evolved into web developers, information literacy (IL) instructors, emerging technology innovators, marketing and outreach coordinators, open education resources (OER) advocates, and scholarly communication experts. This research investigates the academic librarian as teacher phenomenon, how they describe their professional identity as teachers, the skills, knowledge, and competencies they teach, and their beliefs of how …

A Journey Through The Library, Anne Hays Adkison

Open Educational Resources

This chapter describes core services in a library by imagining a narrative tour of the physical space of the library. Students are invited to download and print an accompanying zine, which takes them on a scavenger hunt through the library. By reading about core services and actively using these services, students will learn the basics of how to use their college library.

Topics covered include: the circulation desk, the reference desk, textbook reserves, the reference reading room, library computers, library archives, media services, exhibition spaces.

Academic Librarians And Pedagogical Approaches To Deterring Predatory Publishing, Monica Berger

Publications and Research

This chapter discusses the perspectives and experiences of an academic librarian related to the challenging phenomenon of predatory publishing. Academic librarians have extensive scholarly communications knowledge and mitigate predatory publishing when they educate authors on journal and publisher selection as well as how to recognize and avoid predatory publishers. Unintentional predatory publishing is an outcome of deficits in scholarly information literacy—inadequate knowledge and critical thinking related to scholarship. This chapter traces scholarly information literacy from undergraduates to graduate students to its main focus, faculty; it also touches on other factors that underlie unintentional predatory publishing, for example, considerations of an …

Engaging, Reflecting, Listening: The Undergraduate Research Process, Maura A. Smale, Mariana Regalado

Publications and Research

This study investigated the kinds of information literacy and library support that undergraduates found useful when completing a research assignment. Through weekly questionnaires with students on their experiences doing research for their English composition class, we explored the ways in which college students study, research, and complete their assignments, including the tools and processes that they find most helpful as well as the ways in which they need more support. Our research provides insights into the student experience for both library program development and English composition faculty and program directors.

Effects Of Library Workshop Attendance And Library Website Visit Frequency On Health Professions Students’ Libguides Awareness, John Carey, Ajatshatru Pathak, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

This research article examines data from an in-person 2017 survey on LibGuides usage, perceptions, and awareness of health professions students seeking bachelor and graduate level degrees. Almost 45% (n=20, N=45) of participants who visited the library’s website at least once per week indicated awareness of library-created LibGuides. Nearly 90% (n=8, N=9) of health professions students who had not visited the library’s website were unaware of the guides. The statistical analysis shows significant associations between various variables (academic level, library workshop attendance, research guide type usage, research guide page usage) and library guide awareness. The data did not reveal any significant …

What’S Art Got To Do With Politics? Show Me The Evidence, Nandi Prince

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Pulling It All Together: Teaching Genre, Disciplinary And Career Literacies, And The Framework For Information Literacy In An Associate Degree Capstone Course, Linda Miles, Elisabeth Tappeiner

Publications and Research

We team teach a semester-long credit-bearing information literacy course for urban community college students in New York City’s South Bronx. It is a capstone course, designed to support students at the end of their first two years of college as they consider the next stage in their own development, be that transferring to a four-year institution or entering the workforce. For this course, we have constructed an approach to critical reading that combines explicit exploration of academic and disciplinary genres with an investigation into the processes of knowledge production and communication shared by the individuals who produce them. This chapter …

Insights: Qualitative Study To Reevaluate And Redesign Online Learning Self-Guided Tools For English First Year Writers Learning Self-Guided Tools For English First Year Writers, Nandi Prince

Publications and Research

The library faculty teaches approximately three hundred one-time instructional classes per year. This study explored the role of the library instructor in support of serving the needs of first-year writers (FYW) in a discourse community (DC). The English faculty teach English Composition I, the FYW develop their writing skills in a community with shared goals and an established means of communicating. This qualitative study explored: (1) in-depth experiences of the English faculty during library one-time instructional classes; (2) their perceptions of what students need most, in the new curriculum; (3) new findings that would guide the design of digital tools …

Coping With Constant Obsolescence: A Lifelong Task, Di Su

Publications and Research

Knowledge and skill obsolescence is a common obstacle in individual, organization, and society development. Thanks to the modern technologies, the rate of obsolescence accelerates rapidly in the information age. In the library workplace, obsolescence occurs constantly. We may be used to routines, but changes are inevitable as we have witnessed the evolution in library services and librarian workplace since the advent of the internet. To cope with obsolescence, it is crucial to have a lifelong learning mindset, make it a habit, and find ways to update our knowledge and skills to stay competent and serve the clientele effectively.

What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons For Every Classroom, Jen Hoyer, Julia Pelaez, Kaitlin Holt

Publications and Research

Build confidence in delivering primary source–based instruction with easily adaptable, skill-based lessons that can be used in a variety of learning environments. Each lesson offers suggestions for differentiating instruction with diverse audiences, worksheets, and activity templates.

What Primary Sources Teach provides practical and transferable lesson plans focused on skill-based instruction, including step-by-step instructions; ideas for differentiation; corresponding teaching tools, such as worksheets and activity templates; and suggestions for assessment. This book includes resources that are intuitive to classroom teachers and easily adoptable by librarians and informal educators tasked with translating their current primary source-based instruction to a K–12 environment.

This …

Your Discomfort Is Valid: Big Feelings And Open Pedagogy, Liz Pearce, Silvia L. Lin Hanick, Amy R. Hofer, Lori Townsend, Michaela Willi Hooper

Publications and Research

This article explores the affective reactions of 13 community college students engaged in an open pedagogy textbook creation project. The instructor and first author, a human development and family services faculty member and department chair at a community college in Oregon, received feedback from her students that the project impacted them differently than past learning experiences. Student engagement with research and the diverse personal experiences of their classmates fostered both personal challenges and growth. This article groups these experiences into themes and explores different theoretical lenses, including scaffolding (constructivism), transformative learning, threshold concepts and safe spaces/brave spaces. We discuss the …

Using A Standards Crosswalk To Adapt Resources For Teaching With Primary Sources Across K–12 And Higher Education, Jen Hoyer

Publications and Research

This article explores the work of archivists and special collections librarians in teaching with primary sources (TPS) for K–12 and higher education audiences and argues that the resources created for this work have largely targeted either audience, but not both. Building on a trend in the TPS literature toward skills-based instruction efforts, this article introduces a crosswalk between skills-based standards typically used in higher education (the SAA/RBMS Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy) and K–12 education (Common Core State Standards). This crosswalk demonstrations how resources created with one audience in mind can be adapted for use with other audiences. Examples of …

Assessing The Impact Of An Information Literacy Course On Students' Academic Achievement: A Mixed-Methods Study, Wilma L. Jones, Tara Mastrorilli

Publications and Research

Objective – The aim of this study is to demonstrate the impact of a stand-alone, credit-bearing information literacy course on retention and GPA for students at an open access urban college.

Methods – Researchers conducted a mixed-methods study with a two-part focus. The first examined the impact of a credit-bearing course using propensity score matching (PSM) techniques to compare academic outcomes for students who participated in the course versus outcomes for similar students who did not enroll in the course. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to measure impact on GPA and performance in 100-level introductory English general education courses. Logistic …

Creating An Interpretive Edition Of "Sage And Spirit", Michael Crowley

Publications and Research

This paper reports on a practice-based research project designed to create a critically edited score of Bob Weir’s Sage and Spirit for solo guitar. Since no score exists for the piece, potential performers must first go through the time-consuming process of transcription as a way to learn how it works. This may deter potential performers who are either unfamiliar with the Dead’s music or lack formal training to undertake this preliminary work. This project was designed as an attempt to bridge the gap between what musical information is available through published sources and the concerns of the music’s potential performers. …

Redesigning Program Assessment For Teaching With Primary Sources: Understanding The Impacts Of Our Work, Jen Hoyer, Kaitlin H. Holt, John Voiklis, Bennett Attaway, Rebecca Joy Norlander

Publications and Research

This article describes how redesigning a program’s assessment practices for teaching with primary sources (TPS) can provide a clear framework for talking about the impact of educators’ work in archives and can provide feedback on how to refine instruction practices for greater results. The authors share a description of their assessment redesign process accompanied by analysis of the implementation of our new assessment tool in the hope others will consider the design and goals of their own assessment practices. The authors’ work demonstrates that reflection on existing tools, development of new goals, and design of new assessment strategies can yield …

Fostering Information Literacy: A Call For Collaboration Between Academic Librarians And Msw Instructors., Sarah C. Johnson, Margaret Bausman, Sarah Ward

Publications and Research

Genuine collaboration between academic librarians and social work faculty in which information literacy is embedded in social work education is lacking. Drawing from the results of the authors’ 2016 quantitative study surveying academic social work librarians across the United States, this qualitative follow-up uses data from 27 semi-structured interviews concerning the prevalence and nature of information literacy instruction (ILI) in social work education, how ILI is introduced and sustained in social work curricula, and the alignment between ILI efforts with institutional goals, guidelines from accreditation authorities, and professional social work practice standards. The literature review engages the reader in a …

Instructional Design With The Ice Approach In Academic Libraries: A Framework That Integrates Assessing, Learning, And Teaching, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

One-shot instruction in academic libraries is a librarian-controlled bibliographic instruction that responds to the point of information need for subject-related courses. The assessment of teaching effectiveness tends to take a summative approach, which provides an answer to what students learned but does not address how they learned. This column theoretically explores the framework of Ideas-Connections-Extensions (ICE) in library instruction and the classroom setting, which demonstrates learning outcomes and explores the learning journey, and integrates assessment, learning, and teaching through collaborative efforts by academic librarians and classroom faculty.