information literacy Archives | American Libraries Magazine

Question the Bureaucracy

By Lalitha Nataraj | September 1, 2023

As of late, bureaucratic practices in higher education have been steeped in a neoliberal ideology that manifests as managerialism, or applying a corporate model to run a nonprofit or academic institution. Neoliberalism emphasizes capitalist free-market values, including a focus on efficiency, maximizing productivity, and individualism over collectivism. With managerialism, academic libraries are asked to adopt … Continue reading Question the Bureaucracy →

Photo of ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall. Text says "From the Executive Director by Tracie D. Hall"

Growing Our Own

By Tracie D. Hall | July 19, 2023

At a break, one participant and I agreed that a key factor in libraries becoming an equalizing force in information literacy is serious and intentional workforce planning. To reach individuals and communities that most need support, we need to grow capacity within the field, both in terms of skill set and demographics. This is especially … Continue reading Growing Our Own →

Katie Strand, first year experience librarian at Utah State University, speaking at the “Connecting Library Experiences: Collaboration Across Library Types to Better Support our Patrons” session at the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2023 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 24

Library Collaboration to Improve Information Literacy

By Greg Landgraf | June 25, 2023

USU’s efforts are one example of the benefits that can be gained when different types of libraries collaborate. Librarians from USU and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, shared success stories in the session “Connecting Library Experiences: Collaboration Across Library Types to Better Support our Patrons” at the American Library Association’s 2023 Annual Conference and … Continue reading Library Collaboration to Improve Information Literacy →

Literacy in a Post-Truth World

By Ken Bigger | May 31, 2023

Like this earlier period of our history, the rise in social media and the 24-hour news cycle has made our ability to distribute information or messages (including false or misleading ones) grow faster than we can manage socially or politically. My hope for our current era is that we quickly come up with ways to … Continue reading Literacy in a Post-Truth World →

Busting Brain Myths

By Yvonne Mery | September 1, 2022

Focus on andragogy when teaching adult students. Pedagogy centers on how children learn, while andragogy is about how adults learn. Activating our adult students’ prior knowledge allows them to reflect on what they may already know about a topic and build on that with new information. Allow adult students to choose different paths and skills … Continue reading Busting Brain Myths →

Headshots of three speakers from the “Smooth Transitions: Developing Information Literacy in the In-Between Places" panel

Information in the In-Between Spaces

By Carrie Smith | June 26, 2021

As manager of knowledge services for a special library that is also open to the public, Zoe Magierek found herself in “a really in-between place.” Forefront, an association for Illinois grant makers and nonprofits, has a library that provides services to nonprofit professionals and volunteers. Magierek has found herself helping patrons learn skills from saving … Continue reading Information in the In-Between Spaces →

Illustration: Open laptop that looks like theater with people sitting in rows of seats and instructor pointing at image on screen (©wei/Adobe Stock)

Fighting the Spread

By Timothy Inklebarger | March 1, 2021

“As medical professionals and librarians, we tell people what to do, but we don’t often explain why,” she says. “A lot of times people are like, ‘I don’t want people telling me what to do.’ But if they understand the science behind it, I think it really helps.” In response to the unfolding crisis, Daly, … Continue reading Fighting the Spread →

Defending the Fifth Freedom

By Tracie D. Hall | January 4, 2021

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. About 698 per 100,000 of the national population are in some form of detention. According to a March 2020 report from the Prison Policy Initiative, the US criminal justice system detains almost 2.3 million people in various facilities in the US and its territories. Chief … Continue reading Defending the Fifth Freedom →

Novel coronovirus 19 (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Fighting Fake News in the Pandemic

By Sarah Ostman | March 20, 2020

Originally published at Programming Librarian, March 19, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is rife with misinformation. Use your library’s digital reach to help people sniff out fake news. Misinformation runs rampant during times of unrest, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Your library may be closed to the public, but you can still help thwart … Continue reading Fighting Fake News in the Pandemic →

After the Census

By Emily Udell | March 2, 2020

“Census data is the mother of all open data sets,” says Jeffrey Lambert, assistant director of digital inclusion and workforce readiness at Queens (N.Y.) Public Library (QPL). “It’s a huge resource about people who live in the United States, and it’s accessible to anyone.” Libraries have an important part to play in accessing that data, … Continue reading After the Census →

Graphic: Libraries use tech tools to fight fake news (Illustration: Drew Bardana)

Check Your Facts

By Jessica Cilella | November 1, 2019

The Albuquerque Journal’s coverage of the event was headlined “Drag Queens Dazzle at Library Storytime,” while enthusiastic parents voiced support on the library’s Facebook page. Other Facebook commenters voiced opposition, sharing links to conservative websites and articles with headlines like “Parents Beware—Registered Sex Offenders Are Performing for Small Children at Drag Queen Story Hours in Public Libraries” … Continue reading Check Your Facts →

Battling Information Illiteracy

By Natalie Greene Taylor and Paul T. Jaeger | July 17, 2019

“California wildfires are being magnified and made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!” This tweet was a statement by a US president about … Continue reading Battling Information Illiteracy →

Latest Library Links

1d

Genevieve Trainor writes: “The Guinness World Record holder for Most Prolific Book Thief is Ottumwa (Iowa’s) Stephen Blumberg. The 23,600 volumes he accumulated between the 1970s and his arrest in March of 1990 were all stashed in his 17-room home. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, got involved with Blumberg as part of the FBI’s efforts to return the stolen manuscripts and rare books to their museums and libraries. Referred to as the Omaha Project, the information science proving ground involved four weeks, 44 catalogers and reference librarians and 600 volunteer hours to determine who might be the rightful owners.”

Little Village (Dubuque, Iowa), Dec. 4
1d

Casey Newton writes: “At the moment, no one knows for sure whether the large language models that are now under development will achieve superintelligence and transform the world. And in that uncertainty, two primary camps of criticism have emerged. The first camp, which I associate with the external critics, holds that artificial intelligence (AI) is fake and sucks. The second camp, which I associate more with the internal critics, believes that AI is real and dangerous. Today I want to lay out why I believe AI is real and dangerous.”

Platformer, Dec. 5
2d

Latia Ward writes: “One way to keep current with what students think of the library and its services is through Student Library Advisory Committee meetings. These meetings are a way to gather feedback and reinforce the library as a welcoming place. How do librarians create a welcoming environment within Student Library Advisory Committee meetings? Librarians create a welcoming environment through community, purpose, and dedicated space.” Also see part 1 of this blog post.

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
2d

Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

Smashing Magazine, Dec. 6
3d

Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
3d

Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
4d

Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9

View more Latest Library Links