IOPN Journals (Illinois Open Publishing Network)
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Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment through a Credit Information Literacy Course: Implications for LIS Education
Full text linkDue to the growing diversity of college students today, academic librarians face the challenge to re-envision their approaches to information literacy instruction and support the efforts of cultivating an inclusive learning environment for all. Decolonizing the traditional pedagogy of library instruction is necessary to facilitate students’ mastery of complex information literacy concepts in a setting that is safe, engaging, and equitable. This poster demonstrates how this task can be achieved within the context of a quarter-long credit-bearing information literacy course offered at a regional comprehensive university.
Meeting the university General Education requirements, the course aims to develop in students transferable information literacy skills and understanding of the academic research process which is vital for students representing marginalized communities or academically at-risk groups. The poster delineates the avenues the instructor employed to embrace diversity and create an inclusive space for all students, such as diverse methods of content delivery, various types of assignments design, and application of culturally responsive teaching practices aligned to students’ unique abilities and strengths. The poster also explains how these strategies enabled the instructor to fit the different student learning styles and thus foster a community of inquiry where each student feels comfortable to express their thoughts and ask questions.
Finally, the author uses a practitioner lens to discuss the implications for the LIS field to nurture a new generation of librarians committed to bringing positive change through information literacy education that enables the inclusion of multiple voices and means of expressio
Building sustainable relationships with Indigenous communities
Full text linkOver the past four decades, New Zealand\u27s library and information management sector has shifted from a predominantly Eurocentric focus to one that actively integrates Indigenous knowledge and te reo me ōna tikanga Māori (Māori language and cultural practices). This paper explores the pivotal role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) in shaping this transformation, highlighting how reconciliation efforts between Māori and the Crown (New Zealand government) have driven these changes. It examines the sector\u27s efforts to create inclusive environments that empower mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) through collections, service delivery, and community outreach. By detailing cultural and professional initiatives aimed at fostering strong relationships with Māori communities, the paper underscores the significance of genuine partnership. Concluding with a discussion on evolving political dynamics surrounding Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori rights, the paper considers the implications of these changes for future relationships between library and information institutions and Māori communities
Supporting Left-Behind Children in China: A Systematic Review of Literature on Library Services
Full text linkLeft-behind children are minors under the age of sixteen whose parents migrate elsewhere for work or whose sole guardian lacks the ability to provide adequate care. They represent a unique yet vulnerable population group in China. Libraries play a vital role in serving left-behind children by ensuring equal access to information and promoting educational equity and social inclusion. Following a systematic literature review approach, we analyzed 31 relevant articles from four major Chinese academic databases: CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Wanfang, VIP (Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database), and DuXiu. Based on content analysis of the included literature, we identified the following key findings: (1) The included articles primarily focus on left-behind children’s interpersonal and socioeconomic vulnerabilities that lead to deficits in family education and limitations in school education; (2) Left-behind children’s library needs center on space accessibility, reading resources, emotional support, and information literacy development; (3) Current library services for this group face challenges such as low public awareness of library services, inadequate resources and collections, and ineffective service delivery; (4) Rural libraries should not operate alone but collaborate with schools, village reading centers, public libraries, publishers, government agencies, and social organizations to build integrated educational systems for left-behind children; and (e) It is important to activate rural communities’ internal dynamics by encouraging knowledgeable left-behind youth to provide intergenerational knowledge exchange with younger peers and senior populations, thereby elevating rural cultural ecosystems. This systematic review offers practical implications for improving library services for left-behind children and advancing information equality in China
“I See Inclusive Description as the Practice That Slowly, Hopefully, Edges Out the Need for Reparative Description”: Exploring How Archival Practitioners Describe Queerness Within and Through Finding Aids
Full text linkThis poster reports ongoing research involving semi-structured interviews with 29 archival practitioners who work with LGBTQIA+-focused archives and collections. The research examines how practitioners construct finding aids for their collections and how questions of LGBTQIA+ identity and queer culture informed their construction, evaluation, and maintenance of these finding aids. This poster emphasizes findings related to tensions between practitioners’ desires to be inclusive of queer potentialities within their respective collections and professional demands to adhere to steadfast concepts of archival description such neutrality, respect des fonds, and more product, less process. Specifically, the discussed findings highlight how practitioners understand their work constructing LGBTQIA+-related finding aids as an additive conversation to emerging questions of reparative description. In particular, the research examines how collection-level description paradigms of finding aids requires examining how best to represent queer identity as both individual and collective concepts. Further, the research explores how these challenges of monolithic representations of queerness within finding aids surface concerns regarding other intersectional identities, while laying bare the role of privacy and transparency to archival collections, especially in moments of anti-queer political backlash. The research concludes with practical and theoretical implications from this research with a particular emphasis on how findings might inform archival pedagogy for describing diverse populations within archival records in an era of increasing automation and linked archival interaction
Zines in the Open
Full text link A zine is a physical, printed, folded pamphlet. This creative work is a zine series collaboratively written by a library science professor, a librarian, and a library science student to share ideas around decolonizing pedagogies. The final zine series (includes 5 numbered zines, with No. 1 as both the first and last issue: No. 2 Mo’s Mutual Aid, No. 3 Community of Inquiry, No. 4 Everyone’s So Creative, No. 5 Ethics of Care in Libraries, No. 1 Decolonizing Learning is Not a Metaphor. No. 1 Decolonizing Pedagogy is Not a Metaphor is an introduction to the foundations of decolonized learning. It provides a broad overview and a few examples. No. 2 Mo’s Mutual Aid is a campus-specific resource guide for support services to address food insecurity, mental and physical health, transportation, and other student services. It was inspired by a campus book group on mutual aid, and its production follows the tenets of mutual aid as discussed in Let This Radicalize You (Hayes & Kaba, 2023) that the group read. No. 3 Community of Inquiry (COI) presents the COI model (Garrison et al., 2000) as a framework for engaging students in critical discourse. This zine includes 5 teaching activities that LIS professors can use in online or face-to-face classes to engage students in these conversations. No. 4 Everyone’s So Creative is a very introductory explanation of Creative Commons licensing for open educational practices, such as a student zine assignment or an open syllabus. No. 5 Ethics of Care in Libraries deconstructs how librarians operate with community as a core value. The zine series is available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H9F1wP6UgyOm4ye01cD2nEaTVSMDOH0P
Investigating LIS Educator and Practitioner Perspectives of Professional Development: The 2025 ALISE Leadership Development Intern Panel
Full text linkThroughout our history, the field of librarianship has adapted to rapid changes in society and technology. In recent years, the list of challenges to which librarians must either adapt or push against has only continued to grow. In this context, the evolving field of library and information science (LIS) demands renewed attention into how LIS as a domain supports its researchers, educators, and practitioners and prepares students for practice in a field where our work is often subject to transitions, disruptions, and transformation. These challenges occur at many levels, from the macro-level of the social and political climate, the field-level with shifting demands on library practitioners, the education-level with the need for educators to meet these shifting demands, and the individual-level where personal circumstances shape our career trajectories.
Much has already been written about the evolving nature of LIS and the need for library education to respond, though the nature of these recommended responses varies (Abels et al., 2015; Cronin, 2012; Godsett & Koziura, 2016; Lillard & Wales, 2003; Myburgh, 2003; Sutton, 1999; Van House & Sutton, 1996; Wilson, 2002). This research is often motivated by the belief that “a system of professional education can purposefully adapt and that an understanding of environmental change and the strategies by which its components can enhance their survival is therefore useful” (Van House & Sutton, 1996, p. 133). Sutton (1999) describes both the slow, incremental changes and the discontinuous, rapid changes that the library field experiences and points to the need to prepare professionals for both. He argues that while the field may prepare librarians for the former, it may not be adequately preparing them for the latter.
LIS professional associations exist to support the profession and the professionals engaged within it (Henczel, 2015). They, along with LIS education, engage with and define the LIS habitus, or perceptions and assumptions, in the field (Van House & Sutton, 1996). Loan (2019) expands on this, offering five laws of Library and Information Science associations that outline ways associations can or should support individuals and advance the profession. The five laws include the “law of mission,” “law of action,” “law of identity,” “law of recognition,” and “law of unity” (p.1-6). ALISE, founded in 1915 as the Association of American Library Schools, is a professional organization that serves the LIS educator (ALISE, 2025). Summers (1986) notes that the organization has undergone many different and sometimes disparate themes. As a professional organization, ALISE supports its members through the annual conference, annual awards and grants, and the doctoral poster competition, designed to help engage and welcome new future LIS educators into the field (Julien, 2007). However, how ALISE’s support is perceived by its members and information professionals outside of the organization is unknown.
This panel shares preliminary findings from the 2024-2025 Inaugural ALISE Leadership Development Internship project, which examined how practicing information professionals (both educators and practitioners) understand and experience the benefits and challenges of our field, including the professional organizations that support us. This project aims to help bridge the gap between LIS practitioners and educators, which was noted among participants and has been observed in the field more broadly (Lillard & Wales, 2003; Van House & Sutton, 1996). Drawing on 38 semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews with both information science educators and practitioners conducted between February and May of 2025, this panel centers on three key research questions (RQs):
RQ1: What challenges do LIS educators and librarians experience in the field of library and information science?
RQ2: What do practicing librarians want LIS educators to know about their jobs and preparation to work in the field?
RQ3: What is the role of professional organizations in supporting both LIS educators and librarians?
Through qualitative thematic analysis, we developed a four-domain framework (M.L.I.S) which we used to further organize how participants articulated challenges and opportunities: Macro Domain (M); LIS (L); Institutional Domain (I); and Self Domain (S). The Macro Domain included participant responses to national and structural forces shaping LIS work, including national referendums, policy, funding, and shifting technologies. The LIS Domain included participant responses to pedagogical approaches, potential gaps in their Master\u27s curriculum, and research relevance within LIS education. The Institutional Domain included participant responses on organizational culture within their institution (library or university), administration, and the expectations of LIS professionals on the job. Finally, in the Self Domain, we included participant comments focused on professional identity, self-efficacy, and emotional labor.
Findings reveal gratitude for LIS training yet persistent disconnects between education and professional demands. Within the Macro Domain, participants noted a need for LIS programs to better engage with professional challenges like funding cuts and censorship as well as build advocacy skills. In the LIS Domain, interviewees emphasized the importance of grounding curriculum in practical skills, including management training and adapting to new technologies. Within the Institutional Domain, participants discussed the pressure to manage workloads, navigate internal hierarchies, and respond to emergent crises (e.g., book challenges). Many felt LIS programs did not adequately prepare them to understand institutional dynamics or practices. Participants described how their personal values, well-being, and evolving identities shaped how they approached their work. They acknowledged the emotional dimensions of the profession, like burnout and the resilience required in public-facing roles.
In this panel, the 2024-25 internship cohort will share the findings from this project, explain our motivations for pursuing this project, and seek input from participants on how they might consider these findings in the context of their own instruction. This panel session features three segments: (1) A 30-minute presentation of qualitative findings from the 2024-2025 Inaugural ALISE Leadership Development Internship Project; (2) A 30-minute moderated panel discussion of each domain’s tensions and opportunities; and (3) A 30-minute facilitated interactive segment inviting participants to share experiences and reimagine the MLIS framework. This panel is especially relevant for LIS educators and practitioners, doctoral students, early-career professionals, and professional association leaders. It encourages a nuanced, reflective conversation about how to co-create a more responsive, sustainable, and values-centered vision for LIS education and professional development
Brilliance of the Black Unicorn: Poetic Expression of One Black Female School Librarian’s Lived Experiences
Full text linkAs a Black woman scholar and former school librarian, Cynthia Johnson’s work is deeply rooted in promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion within school librarianship. Her research focuses on the lived experiences of Black women school librarians, a group that remains largely underrepresented in both scholarship and professional conversation. By amplifying their voices, Johnson aims to challenge systemic inequities and advocate for culturally responsive practices that affirm Blackness in school library spaces. Moreover, her scholarship and service work to remove barriers to recruitment and retention for Black librarians, fostering a more inclusive and fair profession.
Using Black feminist-womanist storytelling, she shows how these librarians navigate challenges, build resilience, and create affirming spaces for themselves and their communities (Baker-Bell, 2017; Toliver, 2022). The inclusion of poetry provides an intimate, creative way to express their lived realities, capturing both struggle and triumph in ways traditional academic approaches often cannot. By highlighting these stories, her research broadens the discussion on Black women’s knowledge production in the field and underscores the importance of addressing racial and gender barriers within librarianship.
This presentation shares key findings from her dissertation, especially focusing on the poetic expressions created from one participant’s stories. These poems serve as powerful symbols of resilience, resistance, and a strong commitment to fostering inclusive school library environments. Through her words, a deeper understanding of how the cultural wealth, expertise, and leadership that Black women librarians contribute to the profession, despite systemic obstacles meant to marginalize their roles.
Through this work, Johnson aims to challenge dominant narratives within the field, advocate for systemic change, and amplify the voices of Black women whose contributions have been historically overlooked. By embracing both scholarship and creative expression, her research underscores the necessity of integrating multiple ways of knowing into academic discourse, ensuring that school libraries become spaces where Blackness is not only acknowledged but celebrated. This presentation invites educators, scholars, and library professionals to engage in meaningful conversations about equity, justice, and the transformative potential of school librarianship when all voices are valued and heard
The Eye in I
Full text linkIn Marcia J. Bates’s article “Fundamental Forms of Information” she lays out the argument for conceptualizing information and the organization of matter and energy (2006). If information is organized matter and energy, then the embodied self is nothing short of informational (Bates, 2018). The embodied self creates information, interacts with information, is a source of information, an information receptor and interpreter. Or as Marlin-Bennet writes, “In short, we are embodied information and we are knowing bodies. We serve as sources and recipients of information” (2013, p.621).
For this artwork, I explore embodiment and information by creating a triptych multi-fiber media quilt. “The Eye in I” contains three parts of the embodied self: the mind/self/soul, body, and the social. While these things can be seen as separate, as is true for a triptych they say more together and in relation to each other. While Cartesian dualism likes to pretend that the mind and body separate, this piece directly counters that highlighting the interconnectedness that embodiment provides and contributes to the feminist dismantling of the mind-body separation.
Exploring Intersectionality Theory and Its Implications for LIS Pedagogy:: Insights from LGBTQIA+ Communities Across Age, Gender, Immigrant Status, and Race/Ethnicity
Full text linkThis paper explores how intersecting forms of marginalization shape health information access for diverse LGBTQIA+ populations, focusing on sapphic individuals across generations and LGBTQIA+ people of color. Guided by Collins’ matrix of domination, we identify structural, disciplinary, cultural, and interpersonal barriers to health information across multiple identities produced by interlocking power systems of race, gender, sexuality, age, and citizenship. Based on these findings, we provide suggestions for how the LIS curriculum can incorporate intersectionality theory into training future information professionals to work with equity-deserving populations within health contexts
How do reading habits influence the health outcomes of adult readers? A longitudinal analysis
Full text linkSince the onset of COVID-19, the boom in streaming platforms and television seems to have replaced the sense of escape that many people once found in reading books. Meanwhile there has been a global revival of reading promotion initiatives within public libraries. Existing studies, primarily small-scale action research or empirical research, emphasize the impact of reading on early literacy development, lifelong learning, and the enhancement of mental health and cognitive function in later life.
To provide research-based evidence, this longitudinal analysis utilized survey data from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS, 1996–2021) and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS, 2010–2025). A cross-lagged panel model was used to examine relationships among reading, memory and depressive symptoms (i.e., CES-D) from 2016 to 2022. The results show reading predicts later improvements in memory, but has no direct effect on depressive symptoms. In contrast, memory decline strongly predicts subsequent depressive symptoms, while the effects of depression on later memory is minimal. Accordingly, reading may indirectly protect against depression by supporting memory.
The findings highlight the essential roles of public libraries in reading promotion among older adults to strengthen cognitive function and lower the risk of depression. Key library services span from readers’ advisory, author signings and readings, new book exhibitions, book clubs, and bookmobiles. These initiatives aim to meet the information needs of the growing aging population and promote their overall health and well-being worldwide