New articles: Teacher agency; Disciplinary difference; Empathy; Badging

The latest issue of portal: libraries and the academy (priced journal) is vol. 24 issue 4, 2024. Articles include:
- Baer, A. (2024). The Role of Librarian-Faculty Relations in Academic Instruction Librarians' Conceptions and Experiences of Teacher Agency. portal: Libraries and the Academy 24(4), 867-891. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a938746 "This article reports on findings of an online survey about academic instruction librarians' conceptions and experiences of teacher agency in relation to their instructional work, and, more specifically, on the role of librarian-faculty relationships in these conceptions and experiences."
- Buckley, C.E., Scott, R.E., Shelley, A., Thayer-Styes, C., & Murphy, J.A. (2024). Disciplinary Differences and Scholarly Literature: Faculty Experiences with Discovery, Browsing, and Formats. portal: Libraries and the Academy 24(4), 737-763. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a938741 "The findings detail several ways in which disciplinary and personal experiences shape scholars' practices. The authors discuss the perceived disconnect between browsability, discovery, and access of scholarly literature and explore solutions that make the library central to discovery and browsing."
- Davis, L., Albro, M., Mack, T., & Royse, M. (2024). Authentic Connection: Engaging with Students through Empathy. portal: Libraries and the Academy 24(4), 689-703. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a938738.
- Young, L.M. (2024). Digital Badging for Information Literacy Instruction: Diffusion of Innovations Analysis and Case Study. portal: Libraries and the Academy 24(4), 705-723. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a938739 "This paper offers an analysis of badging in higher education and considers the strengths and weaknesses of digital badging for asynchronous information literacy instruction by employing Dr. Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations theoretical lens"
Photo by Sheila Webber: lost item series, 2024

New articles: Using wikipedia in biochemistry; Undergraduates and IL

New articles from portal: libraries and the academy (priced publication)
- Finkel, I & Kleiman, F. (2024). Spanning Literacy Instruction: A Wikipedia Editing Assignment in an Upper-Level Biochemistry Course. portal: libraries and the academy, 24(2), 343-360. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a923710
"The authors, a chemistry professor and a librarian, used a qualitative survey to assess student perceptions of a Wikipedia editing assignment that they included in a large upper-level biochemistry course. The assignment was initially intended as a public-facing alternative to a short research paper, emphasizing information literacy and scientific literacy. The goal of the survey was to use the results to enhance the assignment. The results of the survey and research for the literature review inspired a novel approach to the assignment using the perspective of metaliteracy. This approach encourages students to think critically about their role as scholars in a participatory environment." 

Vanderwerff, M., Sharun, S. & Thomas, C. (2024). “In the Greater Context of the Field”: What Undergraduate Reflections on the Research Process Tell us about Information Literacy. portal: libraries and the academy, 24(2), 405-426. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2024.a923712.
"Thematic analysis of 24 student award essays identified three strong themes in student reflections about their research experiences. Students experienced research as a social process, made meaning closely tied to disciplinary ways of knowing and practicing, and underwent a transformative process from beginner to apprentice researchers. Through a discussion of these themes, the authors highlight implications for information literacy instruction and suggest this instruction be closely connected to disciplinary practices."
Photo by Sheila Webber: red tulips and forget me not, April 2024

#LILAC22 Information literacy: elements of a maturing discipline

 Pam McKinney here live blogging from the Lilac conference. Dr Karen Kaufmann and Dr Clarence Maybee presented a session about the discipline of information literacy. IL is a soft applied discipline (c. Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston!) “emerging” in 1999 and “maturing” in 2017. Sheila and Bill outline the historical progress of IL, and a case for IL as a discipline, and the factors that negatively affect this (see here). Il is a sociocultural practice through the life course. The elements of a discipline are outlined by Becher and Trowler (2001), as having knowledge practices and knowledge community. Karen mentioned the paper very recently published by myself, Alison Hicks, Geoff Walton, Annemaree Lloyd and Charles Inskip where we examine the way that IL has been leveraged in other disciplines, where we say that IL is often conceptualised as a skill, but this impoverishes our view of IL. 

Karen spoke about the need to theorise IL, and understand how this relates to practice. We need a shared vocabulary, to strengthen our IL narrative. In the university context, If IL is understood by other disciplinary faculty, it’s easier to integrate into the curriculum, and it’s possible to develop credit-bearing courses, which in turn allows for more dialogue about IL as a transdisciplinary concept. 

Karen then introduced some characteristics of a discipline, developed by a global interdisciplinary group, and how these relate to IL as a discipline. First is that there is a community of scholars, with groups, organisations and communities, that meet and discuss, present research findings and methods. Next communication networks e.g. academic and scholarly avenues for publication, online platforms and special interest groups. The third element is about having ethical concerns, addressing equity in the use of information such as privacy. Next is the tradition and history of inquiry, so we can identify a timeline of maturation and history of the literature, and that we have standards and frameworks adopted by professional bodies. The next characteristic is having specific modes of inquiry, using specific methodologies e.g. phenomenography, acknowledging epistemological approaches, or ways of knowing. The last element is knowledge and curricula, the body of knowledge, skills and values that comprise IL.

Karen posed the question, say we said that IL was a discipline (like Psychology), what would be the sub disciplines? E.g. media literacy, digital literacy, visual literacy etc. We then had a small group discussion to explore the idea of IL as a discipline. There were some really interesting ideas shared in a lively discussion, but I really feel that this was a useful and timely discussion to have at LILAC.
Photo: Karen with Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston, 2022

Developing Disciplinary Companion Documents to the ACRL Framework

The ACRL Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards Committee is hosting a virtual discussion forum on Developing Disciplinary Companion Documents to the ACRL Framework on  May 15 2019, 12-1 US Eastern time (which is, e.g. 5-6pm UK time). Anyone can register to participate. "This virtual forum is an opportunity for groups updating disciplinary standards, or creating new documents, to share their processes and progress, and have an opportunity to ask questions of each other. There will be short presentations from the members of the Health Sciences Interest Group (HSIG) working to update the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing, the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Communication Studies Committee working to update the Information Literacy competency Standards for Journalism Students and Professionals, and other groups working through this process." You need to register at https://events-na8.adobeconnect.com/content/connect/c1/1087453682/en/events/event/shared/default_template_simple/event_registration.html?sco-id=2469748584.
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry tree in bloom, Sheffield, April 2019

Recent articles: #infolit assessment; ACRL Framework; multicultural approaches; rubrics; format confusion; social justice; interdisciplinary collaboration

The latest issue of open access journal Communications in Information Literacy (volume 12 issue 2) has been published. It includes:
- Closing the Loop: Engaging in a Sustainable and Continuous Cycle of Authentic Assessment to Improve Library Instruction by Teagan Eastman, Kacy Lundstrom, Katie Strand, Erin Davis, Pamela N. Martin, Andrea Krebs, and Anne Hedrich
- Navigating Roadblocks: First-Year Writing Challenges through the Lens of the ACRL Framework by Glenda M. Insua, Catherine Lantz, and Annie Armstrong
- Meeting Students Where They Are: Using Rubric-based Assessment to Modify an Information Literacy Curriculum by Brianne Markowski, Lyda McCartin, and Stephanie Evers
- Everything Online is a Website: Information Format Confusion in Student Citation Behaviors by Katie Greer and Shawn McCann
- A Multicultural Approach to Digital Information Literacy Skills Evaluation in an Israeli College by Efrat Pieterse, Riki Greenberg, and Zahava Santo
- Librarians in the Lead: A Case for Interdisciplinary Faculty Collaboration on Assignment Design by Rachel Wishkoski, Kacy Lundstrom, and Erin Davis
- Engendering Social Justice in First Year Information Literacy Classes by Conrad R. Pegues
- Development, Interest, Self-direction and the Teaching of Information Literacy by Steve Black
- Understanding Financial Conflict of Interest: Implications for Information Literacy Instruction by Heather B. Perry
Go to https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit/vol12/iss2/

Recent articles: Collage effect; Engineering IL; International students; LibGuides; Embedded librarians

Volume 44 issue 6 of the priced Journal of Academic Librarianship includes the following articles:
- Effective Engineering Information Literacy Instruction: A Systematic Literature Review by Margaret Phillips, Amy Van Epps, Nastasha Johnson, Dave Zwicky
- How Are We the Same or Different: Information Needs and Barriers of Domestic and International Students by Sei-Ching Joanna Sin, Kyung-Sun Kim
- Lessons Learned From a Failed Research Project: An Informal Examination of LibGuide Design and Use Became a Professional Growth Opportunity by Doris Van Kampen-Breit, Renée H. Gould
- The “Collage Effect” – Against Filter Bubbles: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Combating the Pitfalls of Information Technology by Péter Kiszl, János Fodor. "Based on our experiences we believe that current and future readers can be reached through intriguing collages of credible information. The use of collages can compensate for the effects of filter bubbles, and librarians may become the masters of creating digital information collages."
- Embedded Librarianship in Research in Nigerian Universities: Practices and Sources of Practice Knowledge by Samaila Inuwa, A. Abrizah. "Six themes that emerged from the embedding practices are (a) doing research and publishing papers; (b) being editor of a national journal/reviewing manuscripts of publication; (c) managing the life cycle of data; (d) disseminating research output; (e) providing scholarly publication service and bibliometrics analysis; and (f) conducting research method course."
Go to https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/vol/44/issue/6
Photo by Sheila Webber: sprout stalks, December 2018

Rethinking information literacy through understanding disciplinary information practices @edwardluca #i3rgu

The next session I attended at the i3 conference was Edward Luca (an academic librarian at the University of Sydney) on Truly embedded librarianship: rethinking information literacy through understanding disciplinary information practices in higher education.
Starting as a subject librarian in pharmacy, his question to the literature was "how can we embed information literacy within a disciplinary context". The conclusions seemed to be that information literacy was genrally left to librarians, and that is was dominated by one-shot sessions, which may not be contextualised. He noted that the solution to this was often aiming to tie the IL education to student needs for assignments. However, there did appear to be a lack of real collaboration between librarian and faculty.
The value of "embedded" librarianship was seen as it being user-oriented, with closer collaboration, with sometimes even physical embedding within a department. Luca moved on to look at varying information practices within disciplines, and relating information literacy to that.
In terms of "embeddedness" he cited Bowler and Street (2008) and then went on to discuss the approach described by Farrell and Badke (2015) that they have employed at CUNY. This stimulated him to use qualitative action research with his own interventions in a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree. A key lens was the IL framework adopted in his university. He gave the example of "Foundations of Pharmacy" (year 1) where they had 3 weeks: but looking at sessions at level 3, they were actually teaching very similar things (assuming no retention of prior learning). There was also a "disconnect between expectations from faculty member in supporting documentation" and material actualy covered by the librarian.
Talking to colleagues, Luca discovered that integration varied depending on tehextent to which an individual librarian developed a relationship with faculty. The sessions tended to be orientation to the library, searching, and database searching. There was evidence that they were often "legacy" arrangements, that weren't well aligned and scaffolded.
Therefore he was advocating getting greater involvement of librarians in the disciplinary world. For the future in his institution, they are doing curriculum mapping and build in more scaffolding, as well as developing better disciplinary knowledge.
There was an interesting conversation afterwards about the challenges of getting engaged and collaborating with faculty (considering the power imbalance; the imbalance in interest on co-creation of knowledge - i.e. the librarian having to do all the work).
Photo by Sheila Webber: Aberdeen University Library

New issue: Communications in Information Literacy

Volume 8, issue 2 (2014) of the open-access journal Communications in Information Literacy has been published. Articles include:
Teaching Matters: The Information Literacy Implications of the Bohannon Sting by Rudy Leon (the Bohannon Sting was a bogus article being accepted by a large number of journals).
- Engaging Beyond the First College Year: Exploring the Needs of Second-year Students by Elizabeth L. Black
- Peer Review of Teaching: Best Practices for a Non-Programmatic Approach by Jaena Alabi, William H. Weare, Jr.
- Pedagogies of Possibility Within the Disciplines: Critical Information Literacy and Literatures in English by Heidi L.M. Jacobs
- How We Got Here: A Historical Look at the Academic Teaching Library and the Role of the Teaching Librarian by Susan Andriette Ariew
- Information Literacy and the Flipped Classroom: Examining the Impact of a One-Shot Flipped Class on Student Learning and Perceptions by Andrea Wilcox Brooks
Go to: http://www.comminfolit.org/index.php?journal=cil&page=issue&op=view&path[]=16
Photo by Sheila Webber: 'Annunciation' by Andrew Burton, Holland park, December 2014

Scholarly communication: research report and handbook

Earlier in the year was published:
Harley, D. et al (2010) Final Report: Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: An Exploration of Faculty Values and Needs in Seven Disciplines. Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
"The report is divided into eight chapters and can be read in its entirety online (733 pages) or can be downloaded in a PDF file, as can any individual chapter." It "brings together the responses of 160 interviewees across 45, mostly elite, research institutions to closely examine scholarly needs." The disciplines covered are: Archaeology; Astrophysics; Biology; Economics; History; Music; and Political Science. Assuming the search function is working properly, it manages to go 733 pages without mentioning information literacy, which is rather disappointing. http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc
Thanks to Richard Wakeford for pointing me to this resource.
Another, more recent, publication is the JISC Scholarly Communication Action Handbook. This "provides guidance and suggested actions that if undertaken will help to address researchers’ concerns with scholarly communications and improve current practices." This resource could be useful, also in raising awareness generally about issues to do with creating and publishing knowledge and information. It's available at http://misc.jisc.ac.uk/scholarly_communications_handbook/cms/
Photo by Sheila Webber: apple stall, plus organic quinces and medlars, October 2010

i3 reports: Kendra Albright

Very belatedly I am catching up with the last two reports from the the i3 conference held in Aberdeen in June. Dr Kendra Albright (University of South Carolina) gave the last keynote speech Multidisciplinarity in Information Behaviour: Expanding Boundaries or Fragmentation of the Field? (that is a link to the presentation). I will pick out some points that I found particularly interesting.
Referring to the legal, emotional and safety needs of abused women, she talked about information seeking as a coping strategy; the process of answering their needs helping them to cope.
Kendra talked about the brain functions involved in decision making, or wrestling with emotional issues - and how most decisions get based on emotional elements. Thus she wondered whether some concepts from psychology can help us with understanding information behaviours (IB). Models of IB have tended to be limited, with a lack of focus on use, and looking at individuals rather than the socio-political context.
Kendra emphasised the interconnection between cognition and emotion, by referring to the physical construction of the brain. Turning to psychology, she characterised a cognitive science approach that focuses on language and thought as neglecting emotion. In contrast, pyschoanalysis aims to "bring about change in emotion and thought" and is interpretative (rather than focusing on explanatory theories). There is an move towards integrating these two views. This carries through to research methods: quantitative methods do not seem sufficient to investigate all these areas and interviews also may not be the only way to gather qualitative data. Kendra talked about Rorschach tests (ink blots), pointing out is is not a "quick reaction" method, but involves getting the patient to discuss their interpretation, and observe physical reactions etc.
She presented some research identfying that afective attitudes are stronger pedictors of decision making than cognitive issues: we might think we are making "logical" decisions but emotions may well be affect them. We should bear this in mind when approaching IB research, and she mentioned Diane Nahl's work which links IB and affect (Diane gave a talk about this as part of my Second Life discussion series).
Transferring to her own work, she talked about how information may contribute to the decline of HIV/AIDS, but "linking HIV information with mortality could deter people from either actively seeking or passively assimilating information that could save their lives". Focusing on death may not be the most productive thing: young people may feel this doesn't impact them, and it associates the information with negative emotions. Repackaging the information in an emotionally intelligent way is better.
As this discussion illustrates, we need to use knowledge from more than one discipline, also, to answer questions such as: How does, say, health information change human behaviour? Possibly fragmenting our field by looking across disciplines was a "risk worth taking" in her view: the "Neccessity of transdisciplinarity".
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield bus station, July 2009