Book: A Slow Approach to Visual Literacy

This book has three sections "Slow looking" "Slow creating" and "Slow using", and within each section there are lesson plans for novice, intermediate and advanced learners.
Statton Thompson, D. & Beene Statton, S. (2024). A Slow Approach to Visual Literacy in Higher Education: Lesson Plans for Critical Discernment. ALA. ISBN 979-8892555685. Information at https://alastore.ala.org/slowlearn
Photo by Sheila Webber: nice, slow potatoes, February 2025

New Book: Spatial Literacy in Public Health

Newly published: Cantwell-Jurkovic, L. & Parece, T. (Eds) (2024). Spatial Literacy in Public Health: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations. ACRL.
"A collection of ideas and plans for collaborative spatial literacy teaching and learning initiatives focusing on geographic information systems (GIS)-based and GIS-related instruction through the lens of public health topics."
Full information at https://alastore.ala.org/spatial-literacy-public-health-faculty-librarian-teaching-collaborations?_zs=SUvvg1&_zl=DUMj9
Photo by sheila Webber: goslings in Vancouver, May 2024

Navigating Changing Information Landscapes Using Visual Literacy and Metaliteracy #wilu2024

Continuing liveblogging from the WILU conference In Vancouver, Canada. Katie Greer (Fine and Performing Arts Librarian, Oakland University, USA) and Dana Thompson (Research and Instruction Librarian, Assistant Dean of Libraries, Murray State University) talk about Navigating Changing Information Landscapes Using Visual Literacy and Metaliteracy in Instruction Practices.
The speakers had served on the working group developing the Framework for Visual Literacy for Higher Education (a companion document to the ACRL IL framework).
They started by introducing the Framework: the Image Research Interest Group was asked to create this companion to the IL Framework in 2018. They defined visual literacy as "an interconnected set of practices, habits and values for participating in visual culture that can be developed through critical, ethical, reflectiv and craetive engagement with visual media". Thegroup identfied four themes for the VL framework and created the associated knowledge practices and dispositions. By talking about "learners who are developing their visual literacy" the companion document emphasises that this is an aspect of lifelong learning.
The speakers went on to define metaliteracy (as developed by Mackey and Jacobson) which they see as now being its own pedagogical model. They described the model, whic is shown here https://metaliteracy.org/ml-in-practice/integrated-metaliterate-learner-figure/
Moving to compare the two frameworks: the first VL theme is that Learners participate in a changing visual information landscape. Elements covered include attribution of visuals, privacy issues, visual life cycle, using analog and digital. This maps well to the first goal of metaliteracy (evaluating content and biases) and to the civic-minded disposition. Addressed in the metaliteracy framework, but not so much in the companion document are: affective considerations, ethical use of information and collaborative intent.
The 2nd VL theme is Learners perceive visuals as communicating information (with elements: visual as primary mode of communication; constructing meaning; context as important; ethical creation). This maps well to the Metaliteracy goals: evaluating content and biases; ethical considerations; participatory characteristics. The metaliteracy goals concerned with the active role of the learner, becoming informed and adaptable were lacking from the VL companion.
The 3rd theme is Learners practice visual discernment and criticality (with elements visuals are not neutral, critical and reflective evaluation; slow looking). This maps the best with metaliteracy goals: evaluating content, lifelong, informed and civic minded. The gaps were ethical and collaborative elements.
The 4th theme is Learners pursue social justice through visual practice. Subthemes were that visual practices can promote social justice, respect creators IPR and BIPOC community values, accessibility. This maps onto the metaliteracy goals: evaluating content; critical evaluation; lifelong learning; civic-minded. However metaliteracy does not explictly have a goal about social justice or accessibility.
There were 3 Metaliteracy objectives that did not map onto the VL framework (3.6, 4.5 and 4.9).
Looking at use of both frameworks: when incorporating VL into the curriculum, aspects such as incorporating peer learning can be drawn from the Metaliteracy framework.
The authors gave some examples. The first was from librarians at Miami University, which had learning objectives to do with discussing AI generator outputs critically. It fosters dispositions such as acknowledging that no platform is neutral. The metaliteracy characteristics of Civic minded and Informed could be used as a lens to inform the design and conversation in learning. The 2nd example was from Dana Statton Thompson (one of the speakers) who described the DIG method used to critically read "deep" images. The 3rd example was on visual bias and belief, with a learning objective to examine social media visuals reflectively and critically (I'm afraid I wasn't quick enough to capture all teh details of these examples).
An article is due to be published soon, covering the same ground as this presentation, in more detail. There was also a QR code for resources which I will upload later if the image turns out to be good enough.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Kafka cafe, Vancouver, May 2024

New book: Visual Literacy Pedagogy in Academic Libraries and Information Spaces

ACRL has published (2024) Unframing the Visual: Visual Literacy Pedagogy in Academic Libraries and Information Spaces, edited by Maggie Murphy, Stephanie Beene, Katie Greer, Sara Schumacher, and Dana Statton Thompson.
"This collection provides new ideas and inspiration for how to unframe, adapt, and apply visual literacy pedagogy and praxis in your work. ... In four parts, Unframing the Visual: Visual Literacy Pedagogy in Academic Libraries and Information Spaces explores: Participating in a Changing Visual Information Landscape; Perceiving Visuals as Communicating Information; Practicing Visual Discernment and Criticality; Pursuing Social Justice through Visual Practice.
"Twenty-four full color chapters present a range of theoretical and practical approaches to visual literacy pedagogy that illustrate, connect with, extend, and criticize concepts from the Framework for Visual Literacy in Higher Education: Companion Document to the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Topics include using TikTok to begin a conversation on academic honesty and marginalization; supporting disciplines to move to multimodal public communication assignments; critical data visualization; and exclusionary practices in visual media."
Cost is US $120.00, or for ALA Members, $108.00 (or US $84.0 as an e-book). Item Number: 978-0-8389-3991-8
More info at https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/unframing-visual-visual-literacy-pedagogy-academic-libraries-and-information-spaces

Designing an Information Comic

An open access publication from the International Visual Literacy Association is the IVLA Book of Selected Readings at https://ivla.org/category/ivla-book-of-selected-readings-publications/ and the 2022 edition has been published.
One chapter that caught my eye is Designing an Information Comic by Maaike Wessels-Compagnie. It describes (with illustrations) the process of turning textual material on education (by another author) into a comic (it is an "information comic" in the sense that it is informational, as opposed to purely entertaining). The author consulted a small pool of critical friends, including the author of the original material, to give feedback alongthe way, and it is interesting to see the feedback and how Wessels-Compagnie responded to it.
The abstract is "This study revolves around the idea that using the visual language of comics to communicate scholarly knowledge benefits learners in higher education. The researcher transformed the written academic prose of pages 58-70 of Mayer’s Multimedia Learning (2009) into a 12-page information comic with help of expert informants and found that it is possible to create an information comic that communicates academic ideas provided the researcher has 1) a high level of visual literacy, 2) accepts that intersemiotic translation always leads to new meaning, 3) accepts that emotion will become part of the final product, and 4) accepts that it takes considerable time to create the imagery. Based on the literature, experience and expert feedback, the researcher identifies 12 possible steps for the design of information comics and six reasons why information comics demonstrate great potential for learning" https://ivla.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1-Designing-a-Information-Comic.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life, April 2022

Call for chapters: Unframing the Visual: Visual Literacy Pedagogy in Academic Libraries and Information Spaces

There is a call for chapter proposals for a book to be published by ACRL Press in 2023: Unframing the Visual: Visual Literacy Pedagogy in Academic Libraries and Information Spaces, "As the first major work on visual literacy pedagogy for academic librarians since the publication of the 2016 Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, this work aims to offer innovative ideas about, perspectives on, and approaches to visual literacy instruction across the disciplines in higher education. We are seeking proposals for chapters for each of the book's four thematic sections: Participating in a changing visual information landscape; Perceiving visuals as communicating information; Practicing visual discernment and criticality; Pursuing social justice through visual practice".
There is a lot more detail at https://sites.google.com/view/unframingtheviz/home#h.ghwfm2uthorv Proposals should be about 500 words, submitted by October 15, 2021 via their website https://sites.google.com/view/unframingtheviz/home. First chapter drafts are expected in February 2022.
Photo by Sheila Webber: from the bear pit, July 2021

Feedback on Visual Literacy Framework Companion Document

Feedback on the Visual Literacy Framework , a Companion Document to the ACRL Information Literacy Framework, is sought by the Image Resources Interest Group of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) by 7 July 2021. "We are asking you to consider how you might use this document. We would also like to understand how it could be improved to better align with your needs. We thank you in advance for your input to ensure this document is thoughtful and useful." The draft is here https://acrlvltf.org/feedback/ This is the successor to the 2011 Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Visual Literacy Standards)

"From fall 2019 to spring 2021, we interviewed a broad community of practitioners and scholars, including architecture and planning librarians. Participants were asked to define visual literacy, identify necessary skills and competencies for their discipline, and discuss what they perceived as challenges and opportunities. By coding the interviews, we identified four themes that serve as the backbone for the current Visual Literacy Framework Companion Document draft. These themes are: Perceive visuals as communicating information; Participate in a changing information landscape; Practice visual discernment and criticality; and Pursue social justice through visual practice."

Photo by Sheila Webber, taken in Second Life, May 2021

International Visual Literacy Association grants

The International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) has a call for proposals for research, with grants of up to US $3,000, deadline August 15 2020. You have to be a member of the Association to apply. "The purpose of the IVLA competitive Research Grants Program is to encourage and support empirical research in visual literacy. Grant funds may be used for direct costs associated with the research project, including materials, software, tokens of appreciation for research participants, travel to collect or analyze data, transcription services, research assistants, etc. Grant funds may not be used for release time, salary, or conference travel, or to pay indirect costs or other overhead." The details are at https://ivla.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IVLA-Research-Grants-CFP.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: redberries, July 2020

New articles: Il practice and theory; mapping information literacy; playful learning; visual literacy; autoethnography

​​There is a special issue of the IFLA Journal (Volume 46, No.2, June 2020) focusing on information literacy. You can download the whole issue as a free pdf (see link below). The contents are:
- Information literacy: From practice to research and back again (Editorial) Gaby Haddow and Min Chou
- Knowledge visualization and mapping of information literacy, 1975–2018 Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha
- Refining information literacy practice: Examining the foundations of information literacy theory Michael Flierl and Clarence Maybee
- Theory into practice: Challenges and implications for information literacy teaching Deborah Schachter
- Playful learning for information literacy development Andrew Walsh
- Curating knowledge, creating change: University Knowledge Center, Kosovo national transition Mary M. Somerville, Anita Mirjamdotter, Edmond Harjizi, Elham Sayyad-Abdi, Michele Gibney, Christine Bruce and Ian Stoodley
- Adult learning theories and autoethnography: Informing the practice of information literacy Karen Bordonaro
- Studying visual literacy: Research methods and the use of visual evidence Krystyna K. Matusiak
pdf at https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/ifla-journal/ifla-journal-46-2_2020.pdf journal homepage for all issues https://www.ifla.org/publications/ifla-journal
Photo by Sheila Webber: hydrangea, July 2020

Visual literacy and the expression-idea continuum #lilac19

My (Sheila's) final liveblog from the LILAC Conference is Visual literacy and the expression-idea continuum will be a presentation from Vicky Grant, Amy Haworth and Ruth Mallalieu (University of Sheffield Library, so the library of my own university).
Firstly Grant asked us what we could learn about visual literacy from LOLcats! She quoted Milner (2014) who talked about how LOLcats were an example of how people could convey ideas, emotions, identity through using images.
Grant highlighted a move to student learning with a more active role, engaging more creatively and critically as a way of knowing. It is also part of being more inclusive and acknowledging the value of the everyday, and expression through the visual. Grant presented the practice of creative bricolage "the remixing of creative sources, through digital skills and tools". She used an example from her own doctoral research, which is exploring experience of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Medical pictures of those with IBS usually present them as headless (showing the patient torso), so the people in her project created pictures of their heads and framed them in wood, like the formal portraits of male academics round the university.
Mallalieu then talked about the expression/idea dichotomy: that the expression of an idea is subject to copyright (e.g. a drawing of a penguin with a blue beak), but the idea (e.g. of a penguin having a blue beak) is not. However, it may not be so clear cut in practice, and the issue is important given the growth in remix culture.
Mallalieu identified scholarly culture and copyright culture and the extent to which they do and do not overlap (e.g. a scientific article might follow a scholarly tradition of having a large number of authors, some of whom did not have a direct intellectual input to the text). She talked about the framework and material used at Sheffield http://sheffield.ac.uk/library/copyright
Finally Haworth talked about the Information and Digital Literacy framework developed and used at Sheffield University, which integrates visual literacy in the various elements of the framework. The library runs co-curricular workshops, including understanding and questioning images, and copyright of images. They also cover referencing and attributing images; creating and editing images (including both the practical tools and the ethical issues); and creating infographics. The subject guides include visual sources where appropriate (and where copyright allows!) There is a workshop on using images which is aimed at academic staff, and this has proved popular.
They are scoping what they are doing against the Association of College and Research Libraries' current Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy (which is under revision).

Recent articles: #IBL; assessment; research; transfer students; outreach #infolit

The latest issue of open access publication College and Research Libraries (volume 80, No 1, 2019) includes the following:
- Library User Education as a Window to Understand Inquiry-Based Learning in the Context of Higher Education in Asia: A Comparative Study between Peking University and the University of Tsukuba by Qianxiu Liu, Bradley Allard, Patrick Lo, Qingshan Zhou, Tianji Jiang, Hiroshi Itsumura
- Authentic Assessment of Student Learning in an Online Class: Implications for Embedded Practice by Jessica Alverson, Jennifer Schwartz, Sue Shultz
- Research is an Activity and a Subject of Study: A Proposed Metaconcept and Its Practical Application by Allison Hosier
- Instruction and Outreach for Transfer Students: A Colorado Case Study by Lindsay Roberts, Megan E. Welsh, Brittany Dudek
- Visual Literacy in Practice: Use of Images in Students’ Academic Work by Krystyna K. Matusiak, Chelsea Heinbach, Anna Harper, Michael Bovee
The table of contents is at https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/view/1120/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: Pitcher plants and moss, Glasgow Botanic Gardens, January 2019

Fake news, quality images

Browsing the Information Today site, two recent short articles that caught my eye:
Badke, W. (2017) Post-Truth, False News, and Information Literacy. Online Searcher, 31 (4). http://www.infotoday.com/OnlineSearcher/Articles/InfoLit-Land/PostTruth-False-News-and-Information-Literacy-119319.shtml
Burke, J. (2017). Finding Quality Free Images. Marketing Library Services, 31 (4). http://www.infotoday.com/mls/jul17/Burke--Finding-Quality-Free-Images.shtml
Photo by Sheila Webber: my camera is saying goodbye: those lines weren't added in photoshop! Time for a new one. Autumn anemones, August 2017

New book on visual literacy

Brown, N., Bussert, K., Hattwig, D. and Medaille, A. (2016). Visual Literacy for Libraries: A practical, standards-based guide. ALA Editions [in the UK it is published by Facet, with a discount for CILIP members].
In US$ at the ALA: http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=11543 (there is also a sample of the book there)
In UK £ at Facet: http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=301447&category_code=13#.V0Qg0ObdiZM
The publisher's blurb says "Ideal for the busy librarian who needs ideas, activities, and teaching strategies that are ready to implement, this book: shows how to challenge students to delve into finding images, using images in the research process, interpreting and analysing images, creating visual communications, and using visual content ethically; provides ready-to-use learning activities for engaging critically with visual materials; offers tools and techniques for increasing one’s own visual literacy confidence; gives strategies for integrating, engaging with and advocating for visual literacy in libraries."
Photo by Sheila Webber: My apple blossom, May 2016

World Sketchnote day #SNDay2016

Today is World Sketchnote Day (I only just noticed). Given the interest in visual literacy, and information literacy encompassing non-textual information, I thought it was worth blogging. The sketchnote movement encourages people to capture information in pictures as well as word. There is information about the day here http://rohdesign.com/weblog/2016/1/9/world-sketchnote-day-2016-monday-january-11-2016.html and people are tweeting etc. their sketchnotes using this hashtag #SNDay2016 e.g. https://twitter.com/hashtag/SNDay2016?src=hash
I encountered this information because of a sketchnote artist I follow on flickr (if you browse back you can see interesting sketchnotes on visual methods, UX etc.) - Makayla Lewis, https://www.flickr.com/photos/makaylalewis/

Data Visualisation / visualisation literacy

Yesterday I attended a workshop on visualisation literacy. This was part of dissemination from the Seeing data research project.
I'll skip straight to the "what might you want to use yourself" part, since there is a website http://seeingdata.org/ which includes a section for people to work through, to develop their data visualisation literacy. It includes a "rate these visualisations" subsection http://seeingdata.org/understanding-data-visualisations/rate-these-visualisations/. This presents you with some real examples of data visualisations, and then asks you to decide whether you "Disliked it but learnt something", "Disliked it and didn't learn anything", "Liked it and learnt something" or "Liked it but didn't learn anything" and then drag and drop them onto a grid. In the workshop, we first of all examined visualisations and were told to place paper copies of the visualisation on the relevant quadrant of a paper copy of the grid. After this we had to stand up and stand in the relevant quadrant (e.g. "Disliked but learnt something") of a giant grid pencilled on the floor. We were then asked to say why we'd gone into that quadrant. If you have the space, this is something you could do in an information literacy class (using either the examples on the site, or your own examples).

Another exercise involved looking, in small groups, at a data set and proposing different ways to "tell the story" or "answer a question" through a particular kind of chart. As a final exercise we were asked to think of the elements that affected our engagement with a data visualisation e.g. subject matter, source, beliefs, emotions, confidence and the amount of time you have to devote to engaging with the visualisation.

There is some good material in the Understanding Data Visualisation part of the Seeing Data website. For example, one of the speakers took us through some of the different chart types listed on this page http://seeingdata.org/sections/inside-the-chart/: if you click on a chart type it gives some summarised information on "What it shows", "How to read it" and "What to beware". Another section defines 10 key terms i.e. Format, Chart type, Dataset, ata source, Axis, Scale, Legend, Variables, Outliers and Input area.

Helen Kennedy (Professor of Digital Society at the Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield) is the project director, with Andy Kirk ("a UK-based freelance data visualisation specialist" (he has got a useful site, http://visualisingdata.com, which lists loads of data visualisation tools), Rosemary Lucy Hill (a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds) and Will Allen (a researcher at The Migration Observatory based at the University of Oxford). The project is funded by the AHRC and their twitter stream is https://twitter.com/seeing_data
Picture: Mario Klingemann's Dada Visualization I, used under Creative Commons license: original at https://flic.kr/p/6W1ewA (do go there and read the notes about the picture, I think they are amusing)

Post- #ecil2014 report - visual literacy in Puerto Rico; Serbian children's review website

I found some notes on a couple of presentations I attended at the European Conference on Information Literacy last week which I hadn’t blogged. One was on a book review website for Serbian primary school children, and the other on assessing photographic work.

Sharpening of Little Quill Pen: Research on MIL in primary schools by Slađana Galuška (Primary school „Milorad Mića Marković“, Mala Ivanča, Belgrade, Serbia, Anđelka Tančić-Radosavljević (Primary school „Ratko Mitrović“, Belgrade, Serbia) and Gordana Ljubanović (National Library of Montenegro). The authors described an initiative from the Association of School Librarians of Serbia which aimed to improve pupils Media and Information Literacy (MIL). The aim was to encourage the young children’s creativity and critical thinking by getting them to contribute reviews, posters, descriptive/promotional videos, author interviews, create plays etc. about books they had read, on a specially created website. The presenters showed some creative examples from the website. This initiative had been running for four years, with 500 students from 20 different primary schools involved in the 4th year. The presenters had carried out two evaluation surveys with mostly multiple choice questions, one for students (299 respondents) and one for teachers and school librarians (94 respondents). One finding was that the teachers were not using the web very creatively and had limited conceptions of MIL. The teachers underutilized librarians and librarians felt they did not have influence: the relationship between teachers and librarians was characterised as “co-operation, co-ordination, but not collaboration”.

Development of Visual Skills: Digital Photography as a Tool for Research and Teaching in Architectural Education by Mayra Jiménez-Montano and Laurie Ortiz-Rivera (University of Puerto Rico). This presentation described an initative where they had developed a rubric for assessing a photographic sequence. Architectural students had to take 5 photographs at a place of their choice in the city, that captured that place’s function as an architectural space. The four headings on the rubric used for marking were: General Image, Cinema Conventions in Photography, Visual Narratives, and Design Process.
Photo by Sheila Webber: blue and gold sea, looking out from Lokrum island, Croatia, October 2014

Report from #ecil2014 - Use of Infographics in Education

Next at the European Conference on Information Literacy, held in Dubrovnik was Pınar Nuhoglu Kibar talking about A New Approach to Equip Students with Visual Literacy Skills: Use of Infographics in Education. She started by defining infographic ("visualization of data or ideas that tries to convey complex information to an audience in a manner that can be quickly consumed and easily understood") and visual literacy. The two questions addressed by the speaker in her PhD are (in abbreviated form) Could infographics be used in the learning process? and Could infographics be a way of ensuring qualified learning?
Participants were 64 students in the Computer Education and Instructional Design Department, taking an instructional design module. The tutors used an infographic to describe the instructional design process, as a roadmap for students. It presents the position of an instructional designer in the team, and presents at the kind of instructional design that should be recommended. The students then had each to create an infographic, which was subsequently assessed.
The educator developed a rubric to assess the infographic under the categories: visualisation, fonts, colours, layout, organisation, elements and title, though they want to work more on what to put in the rubric. She found that they needed to give the students more teaching about page design (the students were better at producing the text than they were at creating the visuals), that the students could have benefited by seeing the rubric, and to give more opportunities for peer feedback.
Infographic (nothing to do with the presentation!) by DimitraTzanos under Creative Commons license, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dimitratzanos/4604061808/

Using visual literacy in teaching and learning #lilac13

Second day at the LILAC conference #lilac13 in Manchester, UK, and I attended a session on Using visual literacy in teaching and learning, from Gwenda Mynott and Catherine Bonser, Liverpool John Moores University.
They gave "The ability to understand and produce visual messages" as a straightforward definition of visual literacy. They also referred to the ACRL guidelines http://acrlvislitstandards.wordpress.com/. Then the speakers gave examples of what they did with their students.
Visual boards. They ask students to put together images that represent their experience e.g. if the subject focus is management, the learners were encouraged to select images about work experience, that represent what they think work is, hobbies and clubs that might have a managment aspect to draw out. It gives a good focus for discussion, drawing out reflection around the subject. Also it is good for getting to know the students.
Selecting photos of leaders. The photos selected by students were put physically on the wall, and they could be grouped in different ways (e.g. sector, male/female) to stimulate discussion around the notion of leadership.
Drawing - for example drawing pictures of themselves as learners. At this point the speakers highlighted that of course not everyone is a visual learner, some people don't like being asked to draw things, so that examples can include text as well as drawings.
Concept maps of key key concepts and theories - they used this for assessment, and stressed that you needed to develop the learners' confidence in developing them. I have found this myself when I've used concept and mindmaps in teaching and assessment of information literacy - there are usually some people in the class who are immediately pleased we are using them, and a few who say they hate having to do them. The presenters highlighted the need to think-through what criteria you will use for assessing the concept maps.
The photo shows me taking a picture of someone taking a picture of the presentation

Designing a workshop; Architecture students

Practical Academic Librarianship, an open access journal, was mentioned on the ili discussion list, and I noticed that it had a couple of information literacy articles:
Walking the Walk, Talking the Talk: A learning-centered approach to the design of a workshop on teaching for McGill Librarians by Amber Lannon, Sara Holder, April Colosimo (in Volume 2 number 2, 2012)
Visual Imagery Styles of Architecture Students in the Context of Library Instruction by Jeanine Williamson, Jennifer Beals (Volume 1, number 2, 2011)
The journal is at http://journals.tdl.org/pal/index.php/pal/index
Photo by Sheila Webber: snow, drain, February 2013 (it's all gone now)

Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

Last week saw the announcement of the new Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education by the (US) Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). They define Visual Literacy (VL) as "a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media". The VL Standards include: an introduction & definition; brief discussions of VL as it relates to higher education and to information literacy; "suggestions for implementing the Standards"; a bibliography, and, obviously, the standards themselves. The document is at http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/standards/visualliteracy.pdf and the ACRL VL blog is at http://acrlvislitstandards.wordpress.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Winter trees, Sheffield, January 2012