James Thull
Montana State University Library- Bozeman
Reference Librarian/Associate Prof
This poster will provide an overview and history of a project, designed with librarians, for a large freshman seminar class at Montana State University-Bozeman. Our University Studies 101 class is required for all undeclared freshman and typically sees enrollment of between 800-900 students each fall. The class serves largely as an introduction to critical thinking and revolves around several assignments based on this idea, including an annotated bibliography which serves as the student’s final project. Each presidential election year the project requires the students to choose a topic that is relevant in national, state or local politics and present an overview of it to their classmates. The project is preceded by a library instruction session, for each section of the class, that focuses on finding relevant resources in our library databases and on the Internet. Things like determining bias, currency and authority are reviewed for students and required parts of their annotated bibliographies. The project is designed to increase the student’s interest in elections, improve their critical thinking skills, familiarize them with the library and library resources and help develop their overall research skills and knowledge.
Andrew Carlos
CSU East Bay
STEM/Web Services Librarian
Out and About: Information Literacy in a Mobile Environment
We are so rarely away from our mobile devices, that it’s become second nature to open it up and look for information. With the widespread development of mobile apps, we have many options with which to find the information we need. How do we know what information to trust? How do we know which app to use? In this poster session, we will discuss the various information gathering applications out there and look at their real world uses. Mobile information literacy is now an important reality – with the various tools we have at hand, we are able to stay up to date and informed about different topics.
Yuhfen Diana Wu
San Jose State University Library
Coordinator of Academic Services
Aligning information literacy with workplace expectations: a cross-cultural perspective
This poster is based on a sabbatical project. This cross-cultural study has two main purposes: to investigate how information literacy is perceived in the workplace and to discover how employees obtain information to carry out their jobs in an effective and timely fashion. This project applies a mix of research methods, including site visits, interviews, and a survey. More than 120 participants from forty companies were involved in this study. They were from a wide variety of industries in Taiwan and Silicon Valley, in Northern California, where many companies base offices or operations from around the world. Major obstacles in conducting cross-continent research are cost, time demands, scheduling, and adaptation to local culture. In this global economy, cross-cultural and cross-border research will help educators, such as librarians, understand the complexity of skills expected in the workplace. Much has been written on information literacy, yet very few can relate how information literacy is applied in the workplace. This primary study sheds some light to help academic librarians reposition themselves as researchers-educators integral to student success.
Stacy Russo
Santa Ana College
Librarian
Community Librarianship: Campus and Beyond
When an academic library is referred to as the heart of the campus, this is something positive. It illustrates how the library is understood as the central life-force. Still, for all the good that comes from beliefs like this one, we need to consider other paths. We need to decentralize certain aspects of librarianship. Some community members will never come to the library, but librarians can bring their core beliefs of access to information, freedom of speech, and information literacy to students and others where they are. This is a form of action that may lead to deeper connections and teaching experiences. In this poster, I will demonstrate actions I have taken to become more engaged with my campus community and beyond. These actions include (1) serving as a faculty advisor for a student led feminist club and book club, which has involved helping students prepare for protest actions and organizing fieldtrips to discover information sources in Los Angeles; (2) starting a social justice and ecofeminism reading group in the same city where I work to cultivate a supportive space to discuss books and related topics with members of my community; and (3) simply living in the community I serve, which allows for encounters and conversations with students outside of the library and campus. These activities have resulted in me understanding information literacy, lifelong learning, and my work as a librarian and mentor in a profoundly more meaningful way.
Maria A. Yanez
Chapman University Leatherby Libraries
Communication Studies Librarian
This poster presentation will offer ideas for ways in which information literacy skills can be used to organize community events. Whether organizing a small-scale workshop for a campus club, or a large program such as a local community festival – information literacy skills contribute to the success of event organizing.
The ability to identify, locate, and evaluate information is beneficial on any scale of community programming, from finding helpful volunteers to obtaining city permits. The ideas presented in this poster will include the following: determining a purpose for your event; deciding on event content; organizing your event; promoting your event; receiving feedback; evaluating the success of your event; and planning the next one!
Some of the tools presented in this poster will include Tumblr, Facebook, WordPress, and library resources. Those interested in activism events, workshop planning, and community organizing would benefit from this poster presentation. All of the tools to be introduced are free for any user group.
Sarah Vital
Saint Mary’s College of California
Reference and Instruction Librarian
This poster session will investigate the viability of changing the web based research guide for students in a health promotion course from a list of librarian picked resources into a tool to help students develop and evaluate their own list of resources to answer questions.
Evaluation is still king when it comes to lifelong learning, and focus on evaluation in library instruction is well covered in the literature. A recent study from Project Information Literacy (PIL) found that college graduates utilize the basic evaluation criteria they learned in college (i.e., authority, currency). Yet PIL also reports that college graduates overlook the social side of research. That is, their search strategy is limited to using specific known sources or doing general web searches, and they rarely go directly to an expert to “ask.” By highlighting “who to ask,” this project seeks to change the resource guide in the area of health and wellness from information listing to resource finding, helping students become efficient seekers of information and not passive consumers or overwhelmed Web waders. By switching from the traditional resource guide model of listing hand-picked resources, I hope to encourage students to note patterns and themes in how information is available in the field so that they can narrow their own searching from a general Google or database search to a smaller set of reliable resources.
Sarah Dahlen
California State University, Monterey Bay
Reference & Instruction Librarian
YouTubeing Our Way to Media Literacy
Visual media play an increasingly prominent role in daily life, perhaps for none more so than the millennial generation. Media literacy, the ability to critically analyze and evaluate information across a variety of media contexts, is a valuable lifelong skill and one that librarians have the opportunity to cultivate among students. Critical thinking abilities that are fostered through information literacy instruction can be widely applied to a variety of real life situations, and by intentionally introducing visual media into instruction, media literacy can be explicitly addressed.
The proposed poster will outline the presenter’s experience using YouTube videos in one-shot instructional sessions to promote media literacy among college students. Beginning an information literacy session with a YouTube video related to the course themes not only captures student attention and focuses it on the topic at hand, but also simulates students’ real life experience in that their initial exposure to new information may often be through video. Through guided discussion, the librarian prompts students to critically evaluate the information presented in the video and generate questions for further investigation. This launches students into the library research process, wherein they will identify search terms, familiarize themselves with searching techniques and tools, and compare the credibility of the information they find to that presented by the video. Such activities serve the dual purpose of preparing students to be successful in their coursework and arming them with media literacy skills that can become lifelong habits of mind.
Annie Knight
Chapman University
Associate Librarian
Taking the Next Step Toward Social Justice as an LGBTQ Studies Library Liaison
Chapman University’s annual Next Step Social Justice Retreat is a weekend-long forum for students, staff, and faculty to learn about and discuss issues on diversity, power, and privilege. Through affinity group discussions and team-building exercises led by facilitators, participants also learn how to become better change agents and leaders on campus and beyond. Serving as a facilitator of the retreat these past two years has provided this LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) Studies library liaison the opportunity to connect on a deeper level with students and colleagues while sharing applicable information literacy skills and resources to support their information needs. The information needs of participants vary as they move forward with their personal, academic, and/or professional social justice development. This poster session will highlight ways in which this library liaison has served students and colleagues at the retreat and for resulting projects. Examples include teaching a student how to locate reliable statistics for the number of self-identified LGBTQ students of color on campus, obtaining peer assessment data on existing Queer Studies programs for the University’s LGBT Faculty/Staff Committee, and demonstrating how to access the library’s and Open Access LGBTQ online resources to students and staff during a meeting of our campus’ Safe Space Committee.
Bridget Farrell
Auburn University
Business & Economics Librarian
Land that Job: Teaching Students to Find Company Information for Interview Preparation
Students know that researching a company before going into a job interview can make all the difference between landing a job and starting their job search all over again. However, many students are unaware of the plethora of company information available to them through the library. Instead, they rely on what they are able to find on the company’s website and through Google. The challenge for librarians teaching these student job-seekers is two-fold: students must be made aware of how to use the variety of tools that are at their disposal while also being encouraged to think critically about what information they need and which resource best suits their purpose. This poster will discuss these challenges and share techniques and activities utilized in two different library instruction sessions, one for senior-level undergraduates preparing for internship interviews and the other for first year MBA students.
Jodi Shepherd
California State University, Chico
Head of Reference and Instruction
Town Hall, Democracy and Informed Citizens
The American Democracy Project is a nationwide movement to help prepare college students to participate in democracy and be informed citizens. For the past four years the Chico State campus has been a participating ADP partner by hosting semiannual Town Hall meetings in which faculty, staff, and community members come together to discuss social issues with students. The students are enrolled in POLS 155, a foundational General Education course which enrolls 600 students each semester. Through a series of assignments, students are tasked with researching newspaper and magazine articles to find relevant, informative, and non-biased information on their selected social issue. Through a very specific set of requirements, including specifically approved news sources, the students learn what sources are appropriate for their social issue, how to determine if a source is or has bias, and how to critically evaluate content of news articles. The Political Science Librarian, Jodi Shepherd, has been highly involved with the Town Hall Project since the beginning and has developed learning tools such as a LibGuide, online tutorials, and a PowerPoint presentation to assist students in locating and understanding the research aspect of the project. These learning tools are geared directly to the Town Hall assignments and assist students in effective searching as well as evaluation of content. Ultimately, through participation in the Town Hall Meeting, students gain a better understanding where locate information on current social issues, how to evaluate current news, and the ability to discuss their findings with peers and citizens of Chico.
L. Meghann Kuhlmann
San Jose State University
MLIS Student
Social Media for Career Development: A Door to Deeper Information Skills
Although social media is the dominant method of communication among college students, the transition from personal to professional use creates unique challenges for which many seek support. This poster presents a workshop that engages students in strengthening their professional presence online by integrating a range of career related information literacy skills. Students are given strategies for navigating professional resources and identifying major trends in their field, while at the same time incorporating information they gather into original content—such as blog posts, twitter updates, or newsletter submissions—to begin building a professional identity. Poster also includes advice for collaboration with the campus career center as well as suggestions on marketing the workshop to students and faculty for campus wide support. The use of social media in this course allows students to approach career research from the perspective of information producers and active participants. Investigation, evaluation, and communication skills are all addressed through hands-on development of professionally oriented social media communications. This project takes advantage students’ enthusiasm for online communication and career development to as an opportunity to provide practical information skills for success in our complex and competitive job market.