New articles: AI + IL; Data literacy; Gamification; Services to visually impaired; Virtual reference; International students

The latest issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship (vol 52 issue 3) includes the following (priced, unless it says they are open access):
- How artificial intelligence is reshaping information literacy in academic libraries: A global Scientometric analysis (2020–2025) by Munazza Jabeen, Claudia Lux (open access)
- How academic libraries can intervene in the frustrating academic information seeking of international students in China by Ming Zhu, Yidang Wang, Yixuan Cao
- Librarians' understanding of instruction in virtual reference services: A just-in-time learning perspective by Nove E. Variant Anna, K. Kiran
- Supporting blind, visually impaired, and print disabled students: Are academic libraries doing enough? by Dick Kawooya et al.
- Breaking the ice: A social exchange study on gamification, library anxiety, and the willingness to return at the University of Malta Library by Ryan Scicluna (open access)
- Digital reference tools and information literacy: Adoption patterns among university communities and their implications for libraries by Shakir Khan, Saad Alzahrani, Nazia Salauddin
- From information to data literacy: Faculty readiness and alignment in the community college by Jeonghyun Kim, Brady Lund, Nelson Santana
Go to https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/vol/52/issue/3
Photo by Sheila Webber: rhododendron, May 2026

iConference proceedings published

The proceedings of the iConference (held in March-April 2026) have been published as a special issue of open access journal Information Research (volume 31 no. iconf(2026). There's lots about AI! Papers include:
- Beyond the loop: a research agenda towards a framework for critical AI literacy in the AI-assisted literature review by Dipesh Jalui, Mary Tate, Jocelyn Cranefield 
- Disability misinformation on Facebook: a comparison of LLM-based fact-checking tools by Ian Prazak, Leah Padovani, Yool Lim, Julia (Hsin-Ping) Hsu, Myeong Lee 
- Shared agency in information behaviour research: Human–Nonhuman interactions by Niloofar Solhjoo, Jia Tina Du, Yazdan Mansourian 
- The role of misinformation in elder fraud: a conceptual framework by Jiangping Chen, Milo P. Ono 
- Breaking the mold of knowledge imposition: reconstruct the digital literacy education model in academic libraries under the Scottish enlightenment by ZhenJia Fan, YiMei He
 - Reframing creative learning: a conceptual framework for design literacy in the GenAI era by Asif H Zeshan, Xiao Hu 
- Dimensions of information search strategies: a study of blind and visually impaired users in mobile digital library environments by Iris Xie, Wonchan Choi, Hyun Seung Lee, Ning Chiao Wang, Bo Hyun Hong 
- Seeking the mission and opportunities for LIS in the AI era: a systematic review of empirical research on teenagers' artificial intelligence literacy (TAIL) by Jing Liu, Jiajing Ma, Guoye Sun, Shu Fan
 - Inclusive media and information literacy (IMIL): Building a framework for an age of preparedness and responsibilisation by Hanna Carlsson, Lisa Engström, Lisa Olsson Dahlquist 
- Scaffolding resilience: the influence of an iSchool’s media and information literacy courses by Frey Aura Galario, Dan Anthony Dorado, Benedict Salazar Olgado 
- ‘Ugh, it’s a difficult topic’: Positionality statements as information use in information and library science research by Alex H. Poole, Ashley Todd-Diaz
Go to https://publicera.kb.se/ir/issue/view/5744
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry blossom cluster, April 2026

AI Ethics, Disability, and Information Literacy: The Promise and Peril #ECIL2025

 Pam McKinney here, live-blogging from the afternoon session of the second day of the ECIL conference. Daniel Ireton from Kansas State University Libraries spoke about his and his colleague Angie Brunk's reflections on the challenge of the rapid change with AI, which makes it very difficult to create guidelines and teaching, as the technology has already moved on. The US disability act is very outdated with respect to disability and the digital world. Daniel was a member of the ethics and AI sub-committee in the university to address such questions as "what is the environmental cost of AI use?"; "Can marginalised voices be heard?". Some ethical AI applications do exist, for example, live captions for presentations and meetings, improved image descriptions for visually impaired users, and AI accelerates the availability and accuracy of accessibility tools. However, there are concerns, for example, disabled users are an afterthought in AI design, and this lack of oversight increases risks for marginalised groups. There is rising backlash against disabled communities in US policy contexts, due to an over-focus on profit. Educators must be advocates for accessibility.

AI in the job recruitment process can be very unequal and contains lots of bias, this is particularly true because AI does not pick up on visual clues such as visual impairments. AI is being used to triage college applications, and this can also exacerbate inequalities. Interfaces are designed from an abelist perspective, and some screen-reading software will not work. There are questions about what data is being used to feed large language models and how this reinforces existing biases. Daniel showed some photos of disabled people that were found through AI search, and made the point that the language used to describe people is very important, and some images were not helpful. 

Some AI tools are useful for people with ADHD, for example getting some text on the page as a first step to developing it further. Some tools for audio content are very helpful for people with visual impairment.

Photo: children's bikes in Bamberg (Pam McKinney)

New articles: Health information; Information Behaviour; Music Selection; Fake news; Listening practices

The latest issue has been published (Vol. 29 No. 2, 2024) of open access journal Information Research. This is the final issue with Professor Emeritus Tom Wilson as Editor in Chief. He founded the journal in 1995, and it a tribute to his hard work and inspiration that it remains a high quality publication with no charges for either author or reader. 

He notes in his editorial
"I thought when I started the journal that the new technologies would bring about major changes in the scholarly publishing arena: it was now possible for a single academic, like myself, to create a new journal independently of the commercial publishers who dominated the field, much to the economic costs of academic institutions. Sadly, that potential future has not been realised and the commercial publishers are as much in control as ever, and there are even fewer, as a result of mergers and acquisitions.
"There are obvious reasons for this: on one hand academics have increased teaching loads and pressure to research and publish, and the institutions are (at least in the UK) "marketised" and in competition, with a reduction in the possibilities of cooperation. On the other hand, governments are more interested in preserving their publishing industries than in genuine freedom of information. They would rather see publishing companies making massive profits from their so-called "open access" policies than support the development of genuinely open access in universities. How "open" can publishing be if authors and/or their institutions are required to pay?" 

There are two parts to this issue: regular contents and also the proceedings of the 15th ISIC conference. I will cover the latter in a future post. The regular peer-reviewed papers include:
- Reasons to fight: preliminary results on motivations to combat fake news by Wenting Yu
- ‘Alexa, play metal’: exploring music selection and personal information management via voice assistants by Jochen Steffens, Jesse David Dinneen, Sascha Donner, Tom Potthoff
- Cognitive authorities of COVID-19 information: educational differences and outcomes of trust in health experts and social media influencers in Finland Sanna Malinen, Aki Koivula
- Developing expertise and managing inaccessibility: a study of reading by listening practices among students with blindness or vision impairment by Anna Lundh
- Health information-seeking on Reddit, by people who use opioids by Margaret Sullivan, Jonah Hancock, George Shaw, Chaoqun Ni
- Approaching information-seeking habits and their contextual features by Reijo Savolainen
Go to https://informationr.net/infres/issue/view/37
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bandstand (June 2024) in Sheffield, original home of Information Research (that is: the university, not the bandstand)

New articles: Information behaviour of farmers; Health Literacy; AI and information; Personal Information Management; Information & visual disability

The latest issue of IFLA Journal (Volume 48, No. 4, 2022) is published open access at https://repository.ifla.org/handle/123456789/2317 There are lots of interesting articles, covering library issues in many different countries, but picking out ones more relevant to this blog:
- An assessment of health information literacy among women in rural Lake Zone, Tanzania by Mohamed Kassim and Faraja Ndumbaro
- Knowledge mapping and visualization of personal information management literature, 1988–2020 by Williams Ezinwa Nwagwu and Chidiebube Blossom Williams
- A model of access to information among Nigerian rice farmers by Ugonna Benedette Fidelugwuowo
- Information needs and delivery channels: Experimental evidence from Cambodian smallholders by Selina Bruns, Oliver Mußhoff and Pascal Ströhlein
- Factors influencing the use of agricultural information by Vietnamese farmers by Hung Gia Hoang, Duc Van Nguyen and Douglas Drysdale
- Framework for the provision of information to the visually impaired in academic libraries in compliance with the Marrakesh Treaty by Samuel Macharia Were, Japhet N. Otike and Emily K. Bosire
Photo by Sheila Webber: lovely autumn beech tree, November 2022

New articles: Workplace IL; Information behaviour of people with aphasia; News literacy; Virtual communities; Model of information seeking

There is a new issue of the open access journal Information Research (volume 27 issue 1). It includes
 - Muhammad Asif Naveed, and Muhammad Kamran. Workplace information literacy: the case of investigation officers from Punjab Police, Pakistan.
- Kanwal Ameen and Salman Bin Naeem. Post-truth era: news behaviour and news literacy skills of university librarians
- Naresh Kumar Agarwal. Integrating models and integrated models: towards a unified model of information seeking behaviour
- Birgit Kvikne, and Gerd Berget. "My words were completely gone." A qualitative study of the information seeking behaviour of people with aphasia
- Hsiu-Hua Cheng, and Chi-Wei Chen. Why people lurk in theme-oriented virtual communities: integrating achievement goal theory and cognitive dissonance theory.
Go to https://doi.org/10.47989/irinfres271

Photo by Sheila Webber: Daffodils, March 2022

New articles: Measuring informed learning; Undergrads and assignments; Services to users with disabilities; Search phrases

The latest issue of open access journal College & Research Libraries (Vol 82, No 7) includes:
- Developing the Informed Learning Scale: Measuring Information Literacy in Higher Education. Michael Flierl, Clarence Maybee, and Emily Bonem.
- Exploring the Development of Undergraduate Students’ Information Literacy through Their Experiences with Research Assignments. Amanda L. Folk.
- Citation and Referencing Support at an Academic Library: Exploring Student and Faculty Perspectives on Authority and Effectiveness. Lydia Dawe, Jackie Stevens, Bob Hoffman, and Morgann Quilty.
- What Information Are We Providing to Users with Disabilities? An Analysis of ARL Libraries’ Accessibility Webpages. Amelia Brunskill, Catherine Lantz, and Kavita Mundle. 
- Reference and Instructional Services to Postsecondary Education Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Mirah J. Dow, Bobbie Sartin, and Brady D. Lund.
- Phrasing in Reproducible Search Methodology: The Consequences of Straight and Curly Quotation Marks. Katie Barrick and Amy Riegelman. "The study found that 42.5 percent of platforms ignored curly quotation marks and interpreted the test term as a phrase, 30 percent of the bibliographic platforms acknowledged curly quotations and completed the phrase search, and one platform flagged curly quotation marks as an unsupported character."
Go to https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/view/1608/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn leaves, November 2021

Free new online books on education and social media from University College London #openacces @UCLPress

A few years ago I highlighted UCL Press (University College London) andd its open source pdfs of books to do with social media - notably focusing on social media in different countries of the world - (which can also be bought in printed form) https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/media-studies. It also has books in the education field https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/education. I will highlight a few from both of these collections:

- Garvy, P. & Miller, D. (2021). Ageing with Smartphones in Ireland: When life becomes craft. UCL Press. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/media-studies/products/171340 (an ethnographic study).
- Walton, S. (2021). Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Italy: Care and community in Milan and beyond. UCL Press. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/media-studies/products/171345 (an ethnographic study).
- McConlogue, T. (2020). Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: A Guide for Teachers. UCL Press. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/education/products/111601
- Scott, D. (2021). On Learning: A general theory of objects and object-relations. UCL Press.  https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/173793
- Savva, M. & Nygaard, L.P. (2021). Becoming a Scholar: Cross-cultural reflections on identity and agency in an education doctorate. UCL Press. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/education/products/130873 (It has chapters from mature students from different parts of the world, on a professional doctorate programme (EdD).
- Brown, N. & Leigh, J. (2020). Ableism in Academia: Theorising experiences of disabilities and chronic illnesses in higher education. UCL Press. https://www.uclpress.co.uk/collections/education/products/123203
Photo by Sheila Webber: floribunda rose and bee, June 2021

New articles: News credibility; Students preferred text format; Academic websites' information for those with disabilities

Articles from the latest issue (vol 81 no 5) of open access College and Research Libraries includes:
- News Credibility: Adapting and Testing a Source Evaluation Assessment in Journalism by Piotr S. Bobkowski, Karna Younger "This paper discusses the development of a source evaluation assessment, and presents the results of using this instrument in a one-semester information literacy course for journalism students."
- Beyond the Surveys: Qualitative Analysis from the Academic Reading Format International Study (ARFIS) by Diane Mizrachi, Alicia M. Salaz "The Academic Reading Format International Study (ARFIS) collected data from more than 21,000 university students in 33 countries regarding their reading format (print or electronic) preferences and behaviors when engaging with academic texts during a three-year period. Quantitative analysis shows a consistent preference for print reading among most students worldwide. This paper presents new findings from our qualitative analysis of students’ survey comments"
- “Without That Detail, I’m Not Coming”: The Perspectives of Students with Disabilities on Accessibility Information Provided on Academic Library Websites by Amelia Brunskill
Go to https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/issue/view/1582/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, July 2020

More open access articles: Disabled in library one-shots; Cross collaborative supervision in nursing; Graduate research methods

- Sheidlower, S. (2017). Accommodating the disabled in library one-shots at York College/CUNY. codex, 4(3). http://journal.acrlla.org/index.php/codex/article/view/136 (Abstract: The library is an academic department at York College of the City University of New York and offers one-shot classes in information literacy at the for all other academic departments at the college. Since these library classes are taught by library faculty rather than by the subject professors, it is quite possible that they would not be aware of, and therefore not accommodate, the disabled students who attend these specific information literacy classes. This article recommends best practices for teaching librarians who may need to make accommodations for the disabled while teaching these library classes, currently used at York’s library. The policy background that caused the library to do this is not only based in law but, as discussed here, it is also based in professional library policies put forward by the American Library Association. This article also reviews the history of services for the disabled in libraries.")
- Tonning, A.S.V. et al. (2017). Collaboration (Editorial). Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education (NORIL), 9(1). http://noril.uib.no/article/view/266/64
- Kolstad, A.K. (2017) Students’ learning outcomes from cross-collaborative supervision in information seeking processes during work placements. Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education (NORIL), 9(1). https://doi.org/10.15845/noril.v9i1.231 (Abstract starts: "This article presents student experiences and learning outcomes in information literacy (IL) and evidence-based practice (EBP) following interdisciplinary supervision of their assignments by nurse educators, nurse supervisors and librarians in real clinical settings. The article is based on qualitative and quantitative text analysis of 102 individual student logs, qualitative text analysis of 36 student group assignments, feedback from an evaluation form and 285 blog and wiki comments from students, nurse educators, nurse supervisors and librarians. It is analysed according to the first five steps of the EBP model of and feedback from an evaluation form.")
- Reilly, P. (2017). Creative Approaches to Teaching Graduate Research Methods Workshops. Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education (NORIL), 9(1). https://doi.org/10.15845/noril.v9i1.232
Photo by Sheila Webber: street art in Broomhill, Sheffield, September 2017. I'm afraid I haven't traced the artist yet

Information Literacy and chemistry: bumper issue! Wikipedia, critical thinking, embedding, peer-review and more....

The whole, open access, latest issue of the Journal of Chemical Education (vol. 93 issue 3) focuses on teaching information literacy to chemistry students: lots of useful articles here! The one that first caught my attention was the following, so I've included the abstract of that. The whole issue is at http://pubs.acs.org/toc/jceda8/93/3#Articles

- Walker, M. and Li, Y. (2016). Improving Information Literacy Skills through Learning To Use and Edit Wikipedia: A Chemistry Perspective. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 509–515. "Our students rely on Wikipedia on their mobile devices or laptops, since it is an extremely rich and broad resource. This article overviews the Chemistry content on Wikipedia and how students can learn to use it effectively as an information resource, critically evaluating content, and learning key information literacy skills. We also discuss how students’ information literacy skills can be improved through a class project where students edit Wikipedia articles. Through such projects, students may begin to appreciate where and how chemical information is generated, gathered, developed, and shared in the real world"


- Zane, M. and Tucci, V. (2016). Exploring the Information Literacy Needs and Values of High School Chemistry Teachers. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 406-412
- Shultz, G. and Li, Y. (2016). Student Development of Information Literacy Skills during Problem-Based Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiments. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 413-422
- Yeagley, A. et al. (2016). The Stepping Stone Approach to Teaching Chemical Information Skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 423-428
- Greco, G.(2016). Chemical Information Literacy at a Liberal Arts College. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 429-433
- Danowitz, A. et al. (2016). A Combination Course and Lab-Based Approach To Teaching Research Skills to Undergraduates. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 434-438
- Jacobs, D., Dalal, H. and and Dawson, P. (2016). Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: A Multiyear Case Study of a Capstone Research Report for Organic Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 444-451
- Jacobs, D., Dalal, H. and and Dawson, P. (2016). Integrating Chemical Information Instruction into the Chemistry Curriculum on Borrowed Time: The Multiyear Development and Evolution of a Virtual Instructional Tutorial. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 452-463
- Cowden, C. and Santiago, M. (2016). Interdisciplinary Explorations: Promoting Critical Thinking via Problem-Based Learning in an Advanced Biochemistry Class. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 464-469
- Baykoucheva, S., Houck, J. and White, N. (2016). Integration of EndNote Online in Information Literacy Instruction Designed for Small and Large Chemistry Courses. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 470-476
- Zwicky, D. and Hands, M. (2016). The Effect of Peer Review on Information Literacy Outcomes in a Chemical Literature Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 477-481
- Scalfani, V., Frantom, P. and Woski, S. (2016). Replacing the Traditional Graduate Chemistry Literature Seminar with a Chemical Research Literacy Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 482-487
- Currano, J. (2016). Introducing Graduate Students to the Chemical Information Landscape: The Ongoing Evolution of a Graduate-Level Chemical Information Course. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 488-495
- Kamijo, H. Creating an Adaptive Technology Using a Cheminformatics System To Read Aloud Chemical Compound Names for People with Visual Disabilities. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 496-503
- Pence, H. and Williams, A. (2016). Big Data and Chemical Education. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 , 504-508
- Stuart, R. and McEwen, L. (2016). The Safety “Use Case”: Co-Developing Chemical Information Management and Laboratory Safety Skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 516-526
- Tomaszewski, R. (2016). The Concept of the Imploded Boolean Search: A Case Study with Undergraduate Chemistry Students. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 527-533
- Härtinger, S. and Clarke, N. (2016). Using Patent Classification To Discover Chemical Information in a Free Patent Database: Challenges and Opportunities. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 534-541
- Glasser, L. (2016). Crystallographic Information Resources. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 542-549
- Rzepa, H. (2016). Discovering More Chemical Concepts from 3D Chemical Information Searches of Crystal Structure Databases. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 550-554
- Méndez, E. and Cerdá, M. (2016). Discovering Reliable Sources of Biochemical Thermodynamic Data To Aid Students’ Understanding. Journal of Chemical Education, 93 (3), 555-559
Photo by Sheila webber: blue sky, St Georges church, March 2016