1,720,970 research outputs found
Information literacy in the workplace: A step toward library equity and organizational effectiveness
No full textThe centerpiece of the knowledge society, information literacy has transcended the boundaries of the traditional classroom and become synonymous with many cognitive and transferable skills, such as problem solving, information evaluation, and communication. This presentation takes the conversation about the transformative power of information literacy education beyond the confines of the educational setting per se and throws additional light on how information literacy is experienced by diverse information users in formal and informal learning contexts, particularly those occurring in the workplace.
The author discusses the progress of a recent and ongoing study that explores the library leadership perspective on the value of literacy education for enhancing organizational effectiveness. The study entails a survey of library leaders at fifty-five regional comprehensive universities who were asked to provide feedback on specific outcomes of information literacy initiatives in the workplace, including enhanced employee decision-making capacity, awareness of the current diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges, and ability to navigate complex information infrastructure. The author uses the study results to highlight the crucial role of library leadership behaviors to promote information literacy as a tool to achieve greater levels of inclusive excellence in organizational practices by creating more equitable working conditions for individual employees. The presentation also addresses some of the implications of this research for current library leaders, practicing librarians, and other library staff involved with, or interested in, issues of literacy education for working adults
Developing library leadership competencies through experiential learning: The use of instructional scaffolding in asynchronous environments
Full text linkSince the goal of many graduate library and information science (LIS) programs is to educate students as 21st century library leaders, leadership education is one of the core areas LIS curricula have focused on. Despite an abundance of approaches to cultivating leadership skills in traditional educational settings, achieving this goal becomes considerably more problematic in asynchronous online environments. This study explores the effectiveness of instructional scaffolding as a pedagogical tool implemented across five sections of a master’s level Management in Information Organizations course. The content of this asynchronous course revolves around the foundational competencies and skillsets put forth by the Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA). The course’s scenario-based common assignment facilitates mastery of several key LLAMA leadership competencies: change management, adaptive leadership practiced through evidence-based decision making, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution, critical thinking, advocacy, and professional ethics. This research highlights the benefits of a multi-modal pedagogical approach, including instructor-led facilitation, eLearning scenarios, and experiential learning, to complement the scenario of the common assignment and thus bridge the gap between theory and practice of teaching various leadership concepts. The author also delineates ways to integrate discussion circles, field experience, and cohort peer support as scaffolding mechanisms to enhance students’ intrinsic motivation and engagement with the material, factors commonly recognized as challenges in asynchronous learning. Based on the results of qualitative thematic analysis of student assignments, recommendations are made for better aligning extant LIS curricula with established learning outcomes pertaining to leadership education and training in library and information professions
Come and get yours: Culturally responsive library services and current LIS education response
Full text linkWith the continued internationalization of the U.S. population in recent decades, much of the focus of contemporary public library work has been on helping patrons with foreign backgrounds overcome numerous barriers to acculturation ranging from limited command of English, resulting difficulties securing employment, accessibility of education and healthcare opportunities, racial or ethnic discrimination, and the pressure to immerse into culturally different environment of the host country. This poster details the progress of a two-stage research project that positions the historical development of culturally responsive library services as a key factor in facilitating the integration of foreign-born library users into the mainstream of American society. Stage I presents the results of a thematic review of professional literature to elucidate the crucial role that the funds of knowledge/funds of identity paradigm plays in the experiences these patrons tend to have with library resources and personnel. The poster then uses an adapted library-community convergence framework (Mehra & Srinivasan, 2007) to categorize selected library community-strengthening efforts aimed to change the disempowered status of Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Italian Americans, and other multicultural populations. The author brings to the foreground their compelling tales of perseverance and courage, a successful rise to the challenge of adjusting to a new country and a new culture--ultimately making it their own. Stage II, document analysis, will use the terminology developed for the literature review, to explore to what extent LIS curricular offerings are reflective of the current societal push for more diversity and cultural competence in library education
A Broader Frame of Reference: Using the ACRL Information Literacy Framework to Develop 21st-century Skills in College Students
No full textMuch of the focus in the analysis of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework in recent years has been on library instruction as a means to advance student abilities to find, evaluate, and use information. This presentation offers a broader perspective that views the ACRL Framework as integral to the development of a wide range of competencies other than information or digital literacies. Today’ global economy requires new skills like critical thinking and problem solving, initiative and self-direction, communication and accountability. Consequently, institutions of higher learning strive to respond to evolving workforce demands affecting what proficiencies the 21st-century student needs.
This presentation argues that academic libraries are well positioned to spearhead the transformative process by advocating for a universal application of the Framework to the entire realm of higher education. The presenter contextualizes the six ACRL frames within the current body of “skills” scholarship to examine how the Framework can be incorporated into the larger University curriculum.
Lastly, the author calls for a new approach to thinking about literacy in the 21st century as the foundation that prepares students to adapt to imminent change in technology, culture, and society. The main take-away for the participants is that a holistic vision of information literacy in higher education is only possible when all constituencies partake in the conversation, including administrators and faculty. Pro-active and well-planned liaison work between a library and academic departments is an effective vehicle to achieve this goal, as the example of the University of Northern Colorado Libraries testifies
Decolonizing Community-based Teaching and Learning in LIS: A Path to Equity Literacy
Full text linkLibrary and information science (LIS) education has long relied on traditional needs assessment models that often reinforce and perpetuate institutional biases inherent in the process. This poster demonstrates how contemporary LIS pedagogy can be changed to reframe this practice as a critical, reflective process that challenges systemic inequities and amplifies marginalized voices. Within the context of a graduate-level course offered at an ALA-accredited Master of Library Science program serving the needs of rural, economically disadvantaged, and otherwise at-risk communities, the author details efforts to conceptualize community information needs analysis as an act of resistance that engages students in structural critique and participatory action to recognize and eradicate systemic inequities in library service design. The poster provides specific examples of assignments and pedagogical tools that have been implemented across five sections of the course to help students identify and challenge exclusionary library practices and their impacts on marginalized groups. The effectiveness of each strategy will be discussed, such as auditing library policies, particularly regarding access restrictions and neutrality rhetoric, developing asset-based community-led assessment models, and analysis of language justice barriers at a local library serving immigrant communities. The poster concludes with a discussion of how LIS education must evolve with a greater focus on fostering student agency in learning and future professional practice. These necessary changes are discussed through the equity literacy lens to highlight the impact of anti-oppressive frameworks on information access and moving beyond urban-centric models of both education and service in the field
Library Services to Multicultural Populations through the Lens of History: A Literature Review
Full text linkIn today's increasingly globalized and interconnected world, libraries play a critical role in the integration of their culturally and ethnically diverse service populations into the mainstream of American society. This literature review traces the historical development of culturally responsive library service from its earliest format, readers advisory, to contemporary forms of library support available to multicultural communities. Current policy response to specific issues involved in library work with multicultural constituencies is also examined, along with the contributions of such work to the ongoing interdisciplinary global citizenship discourse
Crossing the Boundaries: The Role of Academic Libraries in Improving IL in Health Care Community
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Thrive in an Age of Uncertainty?: Using the ADAPT Framework to Build Resilient Academic Libraries
Full text linkContemporary academic libraries face significant and well-documented challenges brought about by a multitude of factors, including the rapidly evolving information landscape, the recent COVID-19 global health crisis, the complexity of the current sociopolitical climate, ongoing economic turmoil, and the need to address heightened user expectations and remain relevant in the digital age. As complex adaptive organizations, how can academic libraries respond more resiliently to all the uncertainty and change associated with our time?
One way for academic libraries to do so is to embrace, and act upon, the need for a nimbler organizational culture predicated on the ability to quickly respond to change, adapt to internal and external pressures, and continuously iterate on major organizational processes and services. This article argues that the ADAPT framework which is based on the findings of a recent survey of academic library leadership can help conceptualize these changes. This article defines the key components of the ADAPT operational model and explains how it can be used as the foundation for library practitioners to combine the principles of agile management, data-driven decision making, adaptive and participatory leadership, and strengthening partnerships with key stakeholders to enable libraries to transform their service models and ways of working
We Are in It Together: Community-Based Learning as a Tool for Teaching AI Ethics in Library Professions
Full text linkThe rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has drawn attention to a multitude of complex ethical issues in AI use, necessitating further steps toward a multidisciplinary AI literacy education framework and more robust guidelines for addressing the challenges faced by the library profession and society at large. In an attempt to contribute to the development of such guidelines, this article draws on the example of selected learning activities of a graduate-level library science course taught at a regional university. The article then discusses the AI literacy through community engagement concept that provides a structure to integrate AI literacy into LIS education and professional practice of librarianship
Expanding the Scope of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education: Scholarship Analysis and Practice Recommendations
No full textIn recent years, librarianship as a field has seen a shift in the analysis of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework from an initial focus on information search, retrieval, and use skills per se to a broader impact of the Framework as a transformative, interdisciplinary teaching tool applicable to the entire higher education domain.
The extent of this impact on the twenty-first century information seeker has yet to be understood. This presentation will highlight the findings of a meta-analysis of contemporary scholarship exploring the sociocultural dimensions of information literacy education. The session will delve into how learners’ “funds of knowledge,” i.e., their unique identities shaped by family, social, or cultural backgrounds, may affect their mastery of vital literacy skills.
The intersectionality inherent in literacy education will be further explained through the practical lens, drawing on the successful experience of blending the tenets of the ACRL Framework and the Building Blocks to Cultural Competence in the course of a one-shot library instruction for nontraditional students. Implications of expanding our understanding of the scope and applicability of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework beyond librarianship and onto multiple cognate areas of praxis will also be discussed
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