New articles: Library UX; Objects; Critical Thinking; Academic freedom

The latest issue (vol 83 no. 1) of open access journal College & Research Libraries contains:
- Fostering Critical Thinking in First-Year Students through Information Literacy Instruction by Mandi Goodsett, Hanna Schmillen ("Through a series of in-depth interviews, the researchers sought to understand how academic librarians who primarily instruct first-year college students conceive of, teach, and assess critical thinking skills in relation to information literacy.")
- Academic Freedom and (Anti) Social Media? by Wendi Arant Kaspar
- Toward a Critical Turn in Library UX by Maura Seale, Alison Hicks, Karen P. Nicholson ("We contend that UX would benefit from a deeper engagement with user-centered theories emerging from Library and Information Science (LIS) and critical and feminist perspectives on practice, embodiment, and power or risk perpetuating oppressive, hegemonic ideas about the academic library as a white space and its users as able-bodied.")
- Standing Out or Blending In: Academic Libraries in the Crowded Informal Learning Space Ecosystem by Erica Lynn DeFrain, Jennifer Thoegersen, Miyoung Hong ("Using mixed methods, this study examines the relationship between students’ use, satisfaction, and productivity needs at five discrete locations at a large public university.")
- Why Objects Matter in Higher Education by Joanna Cobley ("This article provides insight into what happened when students engaged with authentic historical artifacts for the purposes of learning for the first time.")
Go to https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/view/1611/showToc

Photo by Sheila Webber: Hedge and sky, Chapelgarth, December 2021