Questions of transparency and access were explored on the third day of the International Federation of Library of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress in Wroclaw, Poland. In a nod to the topics, many of the August 22 sessions included a Q&A or structured discussion, bringing together many voices and political … Continue reading Call for Transparency: Day Three at IFLA WLIC
The course also covers things you’re less likely to find in Libraryland on a regular basis: design thinking, user experience, interface design, accessibility, data science, visualization techniques, information assurance, and cybersecurity. As an exercise, I gave students several excerpts from the World Almanac, ranging from birthstones to home-run leaders to statistics on homeschooled students and … Continue reading Facts through Fresh Eyes
Two recent publications envision this type of instruction as a shared responsibility of the librarian and the disciplinary instructor. The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, adopted by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in 2016, represents a significant departure from the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. It recognizes … Continue reading Information Literacy Toolkits
Social justice and information literacy The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has declared that information literacy is a human right. If it’s a human right, what does this look like in practice? That question fueled the Social Justice and Information project discussed in “What’s Social Justice Got to Do with Information Literacy?” a … Continue reading ACRL Closes with Carla Hayden
Given the care that librarians bring to this task, the recent explosion in unverified, unsourced, and sometimes completely untrue news has been discouraging, to say the least. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of US adults are getting their news in real time from their social media feeds. These are often uncurated spaces … Continue reading Fighting Fake News
Librarians and youth services staff members are already experienced and qualified mentors, but the real question is: Will librarians continue to be the trusted source for media and literacy needs in all their forms? For media mentors, the answer is yes. In order for individual youth services staffers to successfully take on the role of … Continue reading Becoming a Media Mentor
If libraries are a cornerstone of our democracy, librarians are the key to their riches. Librarians are also the key to enabling library users to unlock those riches on their own, whether through one-time bibliographic instruction or a more embedded form of instruction—information literacy. At its January 2016 meeting, the board of directors of the … Continue reading Information Literacy
The panel included: moderator Breanne Kirsch, public services librarian at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg; Joelle Pitts, instructional design librarian at Kansas State University Library in Manhattan, Kansas; Camille Chesley, reference and instruction librarian at the University of Montevallo in Alabama; Jami Schwarzwalder, teen librarian at South Hill Pierce County (Wash.) Library; … Continue reading Gamification for Teens and College Students
“It’s a very depressed area economically,” Gromalski says of Mahanoy City. “The coal region, which is made up of small towns, used to be booming. Now the mining industry has been gone for several decades, older people are getting older [and] younger people are moving away because there are no jobs.” To re-create pride in … Continue reading Community Reporting
One of the sources I suggested is Find It Fast: Extracting Expert Information from Social Networks, Big Data, Tweets, and More, 6th edition, by Robert Berkman. While intended for the business searcher, the chapters on sources, searching, and experts confirm and expand upon what you may know intuitively. Starting with structuring the search, Berkman moves … Continue reading Accessing Information
ALA President Courtney L. Young opened the session, drawing a parallel between the mission of the Knight Foundation and ALA, both of which, she said, believe in the democratizing effect of keeping the public informed and engaged. This year’s News Challenge received 680 submissions, which were narrowed down to 41 semifinalists. In the end, 22 … Continue reading Knight News Challenge announces winners of $3 million in grants
