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Navigating the Opinions of the Colonizers on What it Means to Be You: A Pedagogical Framework for Responding to Identity Conflicts
Get PDFInformation represents the building blocks for identity construction, yet it is also full of contradictions and conflict. This is particularly true in the workplace, where workers must navigate conflicting information about their own standpoint on who they are, would ideally be, or should be (ideal standpoint); and the standpoint of management, customers, and colleagues (ought standpoint). Success in the profession requires a suite of tools and strategies for navigating these identity conflicts. This is particularly true for students with non-normative identities, for whom conflicts are increasingly likely and damaging.
Building on the work of Freeburg & Klein (2025), this poster presents a framework for supporting student development of these tools and strategies that considers identity construction as a form of conflict management. Conflict management strategies have existed for some time and are backed by empirical research. These strategies differ to the extent that they prioritize a person’s own goals (ideal standpoint) or the goals of someone else (ought standpoint). Dominating prioritizes a person’s ideal standpoint; obliging prioritizes the ought standpoints of others; integrating attempts to merge ideal and ought standards; compromising attempts to find a middle ground; and abandoning attempts to sidestep the conflict altogether.
The legacy of colonization is an attempt to subsume ideal identity standpoints into the ought standpoints of the colonizers. By adapting existing strategies to manage conflicts between information about who a student believes themselves to be and who others want them to be, students will be in a better position to successfully navigate identity issues and craft spaces for themselves in the profession.
Social Services in Public Libraries: Librarian Agency, Identity, Practices
Get PDFThis presentation, based on an IMLS-funded project, reports on how public library administrators, adult services librarians, and youth librarians see the role of librarians in the provision of social services information. To this end, a survey was conducted to learn first-hand how libraries are responding to their communities’ social services information needs, how public librarians feel about performing this work, how they compare professional librarianship to the profession of social work, and their attitudes toward responding to the social services information needs in their communities. The overarching goal of this work is to canvass librarians to assist the profession in decisions about the scope of public librarianship in the face of increased social services-related needs in communities
Are We Moving Away from Decolonizing Pedagogies?
Get PDFThe recent Executive Orders and challenges to education, libraries, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have made funding and access to intellectual and leisure resources isolated from everyday use. By conducting a literature review, the researchers are examining current newspaper articles and statements that underscore responses from individual higher education institutions. This literature review examines the indirect and direct effects of the executive order, highlighting the pattern of directions that universities and colleges have taken. This is to monitor what “compliance” may look like, such as minor adjustments to terminology, coursework, and/or hiring practices.
Preliminary research has found that challenges toward DEI in higher education and libraries began as recently as March of 2024, and present a great toll against higher education research institutes that are primarily federally funded. This strained relationship between higher education and LIS professionals could potentially disconnect researchers from library tools and collections. There may be barriers to grant funding for LIS professionals, student workers, active projects, and future professionals in this field
Towards Transformation: Faculty Engagement with DEI in Online Courses
Get PDFIn the contemporary landscape of higher education, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are increasingly vital in shaping inclusive, student-centered learning environments, even in such turbulent and uncertain times. This research examines data from San Jose State University School of Information’s annual Diversity and Teaching Survey (2018–2022) to assess faculty approaches to DEI in online courses. It also explores how these practices align with broader movements toward decolonising pedagogies—those that critically examine and dismantle settler-colonial norms and values in education, creating space for epistemological diversity in the curriculum.
The research employs a mixed-methods approach, utilizing a concurrent, convergent design to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data from part-time and full-time faculty. These instructors teach in the School’s various online programs, including the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), Master of Archives and Records Administration (MARA), Master of Informatics (INFM), and Bachelor of Information Science and Data Analytics (BISDA) degrees. The annual survey—developed and administered by the School of Information’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee—seeks to track the integration of DEI practices into teaching, identify faculty development needs, and support strategic planning aligned with institutional goals.
The foundational literature emphasizes that social responsibility, cultural competence, and critical reflection are core values of the LIS profession (Roberts & Noble, 2016; Poole et al., 2021). Yet, despite the profession’s stated commitments to diversity, scholars argue that LIS education has not kept pace with its ideals, often reproducing systems of inequality. Roy (2015) and Singh (2020) note the persistent demographic homogeneity and institutional norms that exclude underrepresented voices. These critiques echo calls for decolonising LIS education—a movement that goes beyond representation to interrogate the structural and epistemological biases embedded in curricula and pedagogy, and to integrate Indigenous ways of knowing (see, e.g., Crilly 2024).
At San Jose State University\u27s School of Information, DEI is operationalized through strategic planning and committee-driven initiatives. The IDEA Committee, comprising faculty, alumni, and student representatives, plays a crucial role in fostering dialogue, organizing events, mentoring Spectrum Scholars, and cultivating relationships within and beyond the university. The Committee’s efforts are guided by the School’s 2023–2028 Strategic Plan, which identifies two key DEI goals: (1) integrating diversity and inclusive excellence into the curriculum, and (2) supporting a diverse student body through targeted outreach and programming.
One of the most actionable outcomes of this commitment is the annual Diversity and Teaching Survey. Faculty report how they address dimensions of diversity in their courses, the sources of information they use, their teaching methods, and their affiliations with diversity-related organizations. These data inform decisions about faculty development, curricular revisions, and community partnerships. Over the course of five years, the survey collected responses for 234 courses, involving a total of 139 unique faculty participants. Participation increased over time, reaching a peak in 2022 with 60 courses represented. Courses in the Information Science (INFO) category consistently incorporated the most diversity-related content. The data also show strong faculty engagement with organizations like REFORMA and the American Indian Library Association—an encouraging sign of community involvement and professional development in DEI spaces.
Faculty addressed multiple dimensions of diversity in their courses, including culture, race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, disability, and language. Common teaching strategies included inclusive readings, case studies focusing on marginalized communities, collaborative group projects, and reflective writing assignments. However, more transformative approaches—those that align with decolonising pedagogy—were less systematically embedded.
While DEI-focused instruction is becoming increasingly standard, decolonising pedagogy necessitates more profound structural shifts. This means moving beyond inclusion toward critical interrogation of whose knowledge counts and how power operates in the classroom. A decolonising framework invites LIS educators to center historically excluded epistemologies and interrogate systems of oppression.
Some survey participants reported using open pedagogy, community-based learning, and student-led discussions, which suggest an openness to decolonial practices. However, the data also indicate a need for more intentional support and training to move faculty beyond additive approaches—such as simply including diverse authors—toward truly transformative, anti-oppressive teaching. The findings suggest several opportunities for growth in integrating decolonising pedagogies into online LIS education, including offering workshops on decolonial theory, intersectionality, and anti-racist pedagogy, conducting curriculum audits to assess the representation of marginalized voices, encourage action research and practitioner inquiry among faculty to explore how their teaching practices can disrupt systemic inequities in LIS education, and broaden the scope of the Diversity and Teaching Survey to explicitly include questions about colonial frameworks, critical theory, and epistemic justice in course content.
The findings and recommendations from this research are critical not only for SJSU but also for other institutions seeking to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in higher education. By systematically documenting and analyzing the diversity strategies employed by faculty in online programs, this study provides a replicable model for integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion principles into academic curricula. It provides valuable insights into how educational institutions can build more inclusive learning environments by continuously adapting teaching practices to reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of their student populations. Overall, this research underscores the importance of DEI in the contemporary academic landscape and underscores the necessity for ongoing reflection, adaptation, and institutional commitment
If Art Requires Words, Shouldn’t Words Require Art?
Get PDFAt the 2023 ALISE conference I presented in the Works in Progress (WIP) poster session. At this session, I not only highlighted the work that I was doing through my poster, but brought an autoethnographic shawl describing my loss of self to the library. By pairing this shawl with my poster, I was cautiously creating space for artistic expression in academic conferences and as a way of legitimate research dissemination. I presented my shawl at the WIP session, because there was no clear place that I could share this piece. And while art was not a requirement for the WIP session, out of the 68 posters, only one incorporated art–mine.
As such, I propose a visual quilt that highlights that singular presence, emphasizing the tension between art and academia. While art is expected to conform and fit into academic standards, academia rarely adapts to accommodate art.
Engaging in art in academia is not just an act of creativity and expression, it is a form of decolonial resistance. It requires additional labor not only to justify art’s place in scholarly discourse, but also to find a place to share it, and to do more work for only a fraction of the recognition and acceptance that a paper could receive. The quilt also reflects the larger dismissal of art as non-scholarly and/or non-serious. The dismissal is further amplified by the medium in which I create - quilting, knitting, and crocheting, which are often considered crafts and not art at all, primarily due to their status of being often created by women (Ball, 2008), which further impacts how the legitimacy of the output is seen in academic spaces
Zines as Education: Amplifying the Voices of Ukrainian Children
Get PDFThis collaborative project between the Cherkasy Regional University Library, and the San Jose State University School of Information (iSchool) aimed to amplify the wartime experiences of Ukrainian children. This initiative involved the digitization of 450 artworks and collecting 70 poems created by these children, culminating in the bilingual zine, “Mom, I See War,” which features ten poems and fifteen artworks centered on themes of hope, resistance, and Ukrainian solidarity. Zines serve as critical and empowering tools for marginalized voices, offering a platform for independent expression and social change (Scheper, 2023). Zines, defined by the Library of Congress as self-published and low-cost media, provide a safe space for children in this case to share their war experiences through poetry and artwork. Existing research highlights that this function positions zines as influential instruments for education and social change by challenging dominant narratives, strengthening critical thinking, and asserting agency. The creation of “Mom, I See War” was directly inspired by the artwork and poetry emerging from art therapy programs for Ukrainian children in the Cherkasy region during 2022 and 2024. These creative expressions offered a US audience powerful narratives of hope amidst the devastation of war. The curation process involved a deliberate selection of ten poems from seventy submissions. This selection aimed to carefully construct a narrative arc that progressed from depictions of devastation to expressions of resilience. Subsequently, each poem was paired with corresponding artwork to highlight thematic connections, foster a sense of community, validate individual experiences, and showcase artistic practice as a form of resistance through the incorporation of national symbols. “Mom, I See War” holds value as a curated collection of cultural records, a testament to wartime experiences, and an educational resource for amplifying marginalized voices. As a product of curation, it demonstrates information professionals acting as cultural stewards and activists, actively preserving and making accessible the cultural expressions of a marginalized community. As a record of wartime experiences, it documents the realities of Ukrainian life and the impact of conflict on children. Furthermore, as an educational tool, the zine provides a powerful means for historically marginalized voices, specifically children, to be heard (Desyllas & Sinclair, 2014). The process of creating and disseminating “Mom, I See War” offers a replicable model for information professionals to engage in cultural stewardship, ethical curation, and the amplification of marginalized narratives through accessible digital media. By digitizing and curating the children’s works, the project team ensured the preservation of these vital cultural artifacts and facilitated their reach to a global audience, fostering understanding and empathy (Mageary, 2020). This model utilizes accessible digital tools like Canva, FlipBooks, LinkTree, and QR codes. It enhances skills in multilingual publishing, ethical curation, and accessibility-centered design, which is crucial for representing diverse voices and establishing zines as effective educational tools. These tools empower marginalized youth to transform private experiences into public narratives, develop multiliteracy skills, and foster critical thinking and social change across diverse communities facing systemic injustice
Decolonizing the Discipline of Information Literacy
Get PDFThe emergence of scholarship focused on decolonizing information literacy (IL) indicates its importance and significance to the IL community. The recognition of information literacy (IL) as a maturing discipline has implications for the teaching and researching of IL, and for library and information science (LIS) education. While often associated with colonized university structures, scholars have argued that disciplines can be re-imagined to approach teaching and research in ways that are not, or not only, grounded in the colonizing epistemologies of the Western world. This paper identifies some ideas of the decolonization of IL presented in the scholarly literature and relates them to the sensibilities Warren and colleagues identify as necessary for the decolonizing of a discipline: dialogicality, multiplicity, and horizontality.
Coping with Information Poverty: Social Adjustment and Cultural Adaptation in International Students\u27 Health Information Seeking
Get PDFBackground
Information poverty occurs due to limited access to information as well as from social, cultural, and psychological factors (Chatman,1996; Dervin, 1994). International students face multiple information challenges when moving to a new country and adjusting to a new social and cultural environment (Hertzum & Hyldegard, 2019; Sin & Kim, 2013). In particular, they may face challenges when seeking health information (Pan & Rubenstein, 2024). Because they are in an unfamiliar setting without familiar support systems, there is the potential to experience information poverty.
Objective
Previous research has explored international students’ health information behavior patterns and identified barriers in accessing and utilizing health information (Pan & Rubenstein, 2024). This study aims to examine the health information poverty they may experience and assess whether social adjustment and cultural adaptation exacerbate or mitigate this issue as well as how these factors influence international students’ health information behaviors.
Methods
This study will use qualitative research methods and apply Chatman\u27s (1996) information poverty theory. Data collection is expected to be completed by May 2025, with data analysis planned for June and July 2025. Thematic analysis will be used to identify key themes.
Anticipated Results
This study is expected to identify international students’ information poverty in their health information seeking and examine how social adjustment and cultural adaptation either facilitate or hinder access to health information.
Conclusion / Implications
This study will provide valuable insights into addressing the problem of health information poverty among international students and help design targeted intervention strategies
ARCHIV-ALL MSI: Serving Students Through Archives and Special Collections at Minority Serving Institutions
Get PDFThe study set out to explore and assess the current state of academic archives in Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). Utilizing Rutger’s University Directory for MSIs, over 700 institutions were addressed, and a preliminary analysis was conducted. To further narrow the scope, a survey was disseminated to the leading individuals in their academic archives after information was obtained through the preliminary analysis. There were 167 responses with varying concerns and needs surrounding the state of academic archives within MSIs. Through the interpretation of the survey, the major areas of improvement for the archives surrounded their lack of funding, staffing issues, and minimal awareness of the archives from the student and faculty population. The results provide enough data to map out the challenges and support needs present in MSI communities. As the study evolves, the integration of focus groups will continue to help address specific concerns and challenges faced by the archivists and librarians. Ultimately, the study aims to address the gaps in awareness of the state of these institutions to begin fixing the discrepancies present through the development of a resource and community network of archivists at MSIs
Examining Black Queer & Trans Men’s Information Practice within Online Environments and Daily Life
Get PDFDigital spaces often marginalize Black trans men, yet they also serve as crucial venues for finding information, building identity, and sustaining community. Much of the existing scholarship addresses how marginalized groups use online environments, but it rarely centers the specific practices of Black trans men. This dissertation investigates those practices within social technical systems that shape visibility, participation and belonging. Based on 12 semi-structured interviews and 12 podcast episodes or digital media episodes, the analysis uses Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) and thematic coding to trace how participants curate, share, and interpret information. This work is grounded in intersectionality, Black ontology, and epistemic resistance, showing how systemic power structures regulate knowledge while also creating room for refusal and resistance. In doing so, the project highlights both the exclusions and the possibilities of digital platforms and argues for information systems that respond to the needs of Black trans men while guiding fairer approaches to digital governance