June 9, 2016

The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education employs scholarship as conversation as a metaphor to describe the dynamic development of scholarly discourse over time. Many standard methods for teaching information discovery may encourage students to see scholarly work as static and universal, a position that prevents them from recognizing the evolving nature of this conversation and understanding the importance of practicing how to engage in it. In this presentation, we suggest strategies for using the "Scholarship as Conversation" frame to design lesson plans, active learning activities and assignments that encourage students to understand literature in scholarly disciplines as a series of overlapping knowledge claims. We demonstrate ways to encourage students to frame their own scholarly inquiry as a response to these claims. Join us for a lively discussion as we suggest strategies for using this frame to invigorate the ways we teach students to engage in scholarship.

In order to reach an authentic approach to assessment, we sometimes need to retreat from an entrenched position in our teaching and programming. At Davidson College, we recently faced this reality when re-evaluating our library orientation. The idea of sacrificing established methods of assessment threatened our continuity, but also inspired us to think about the measures that are truly impactful to student learning. This session will explore the costs and benefits of surrendering old assessment plans for new techniques and present strategies for developing authentic assessments, specifically assessment of students' conceptions about research via case studies in surveys and discussion forums. Attendees will come away with strategies for how to rethink library orientation in ways that allow for understanding and responding to student needs, and ideas for how to create assessments that will provoke conversations on campus.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) can offer new ways for librarians to consider and study our practice, suggest new partners in classroom-based research, provide new opportunities for dissemination, and lead to better integration of our work and expertise within academia. There are strong parallels between SoTL and information literacy (IL) research and the fields have much to offer each other. The SoTL literature offers a broad range of discipline-based methods that may spark ideas for investigating student learning and research that can inform our teaching. The presenters will review SoTL basics, and ask participants to scan recent SoTL research and discuss ways to adapt ideas from these studies to their own teaching and research work. We will conclude by sharing ideas on how librarians can get started in their own SoTL work or partner with other faculty who are conducting pedagogical research.

As librarians, we often focus our teaching on helping students gather and evaluate sources. To take online learning to the next level, how can librarians teach students to engage meaningfully with sources and develop strategies for reading academic texts? In this session, a community college librarian will share her experience embedding reading activities in an online information literacy course. These flexible, adaptable learning tools can be used in a variety of instructional scenarios, including one-shot instruction. Attendees will learn ways to improve students' research skills while also increasing their reading comprehension. This session is appropriate for all librarians who are inspired to encourage and develop academic literacy skills.

There is a growing trend in academic libraries to enlist librarians with instructional design experience to assist with the opportunities and challenges of developing information literacy instruction both in-person and for online environments. In doing so, many institutions look for an individual who has the knowledge and skills to design, develop, and deploy elearning objects while also taking on more traditional public service responsibilities. Recognizing the varied expertise of instructional designers and the various skills associated with the development of eLearning objects such as sound instructional design practices, technology proficiencies, creativity and graphic arts, our institution has sought to create a team of instructional design librarians. The result has been the ability to create innovative and effective in-person and online instruction across the organization. Attendees will learn how two instructional design librarians are able to systematically work together to address the instructional design needs of a large university library.

Empathy, or cultivating a shared understanding and experience with others, has emerged as a central component of communication, collaboration, and problem solving - skills all librarians rely on to craft successful instruction experiences for students, negotiate teaching relationships with faculty members, and cooperate with colleagues to create cohesive and effective instruction programs. In this session, attendees will explore a creative approach to developing an empathetic perspective as part of their professional teaching identity. After a brief introduction to the history and importance of empathy as a concept, attendees will practice using the User Experience (UX) method of "Empathy Mapping" as a tool to develop empathy in their instruction practice. This is a hands-on session, so come prepared to map a path to insightful instruction!

The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education describes information literacy as "extending the arc of learning throughout students' academic careers and as converging with other academic and social learning goals" (ACRL, 2015). Ensuring that information literacy supports learning throughout a student's academic career and beyond is difficult to achieve by only embedding information literacy instruction in early general education courses such as freshmen-level composition and providing the occasional one-shot instruction session. In this panel discussion we will explore what information literacy instruction might look like when thoroughly integrated throughout the curriculum as part of gateway courses that are required for entry into a major and senior capstone courses in the different disciplines. How can we best familiarize students with the information ecosystem and knowledge practices specific to their future professions? What are ways in which we can teach students to effectively use information for learning in their fields of interest and for individual growth?

Problem-based learning (PBL) offers a rich context for teaching using the Framework. This pairing requires planning in order to interprofessionally infuse faculty knowledge content with information literacy expertise. Explore the foundations of PBLs and a method to directly teach practical and efficient research strategies while also addressing evaluative critical thinking processes.

The adoption of LibGuides by numerous Libraries has given rise to the creation of a multitude of class or course guides within the system. Librarians have become enamored of such pages and spend hours developing pages for a number of classes. Many of these guides are then used in actual library instruction, or embedded into learning and course management systems as substitutes for face-to-face sessions. Upon examination, however, the vast majority of these class and course guides simply replicate a version of subject guides. Do these pre-determined lists of databases and ready-made widgets really offer students the opportunity to develop critical thinking and information literacy skills? How do these pages allow for assessment outside of counting the number of clicks? This program will present current research and evidence, offer suggestions for improving class and course guides, and challenge attendees to apply the Framework when creating class pages.

Discussions of critical librarianship have been taking place for over a decade, and recent developments such as #critlib show the continued influence of critical theory on librarianship. At the same time, however, many librarians have found it difficult to incorporate these ideas into their work. To that end, this panel explores why and how critical information literacy (CIL) intersects with the First-Year Experience (FYE). Presenters from four different campuses will address past successes and missteps in this area, as well as outline their future plans for elevating how librarians approach FYE. The discussion will also take the form of a #critlib chat, so audience participation is welcomed and strongly encouraged from conference participants, as well as those colleagues who might not have been able to make the trip to Salt Lake City.

Librarians develop a tremendous amount of instructional materials when they prep for teaching and are often happy to share. If pooled, librarians’ existing materials could scale up an instruction program by saving prep time and eliminating redundant development efforts. Using the easy-to-learn platform Wordpress, I implemented a simple repository to facilitate storing, sharing, and discovery of instructional materials at my library. As a result, librarians reuse and adapt their colleagues’ work and are able to make their own digital learning objects accessible. This repository is expandable to issue badges and function to as a simple Learning Management System.

The Information Literacy and Outreach (ILO) department at the University of Central Florida has gone beyond the traditional outreach model to also target specific on-campus partners who work with faculty and students. These partnerships have fostered many opportunities for librarians to teach in online and face-to-face classes. This lightning-round style session will discuss the various projects and instruction opportunities that have resulted from our alternative outreach methods. The 45 minute session will be broken into 3-5 minute descriptions and demonstrations of the various projects, and will include information on how we have evaluated and modified these partnerships over time. Attendees will be able to map out potential outreach targets, develop strategies to gain useful information about partners, identify mutually beneficial projects, and create an action plan that distributes the workload amongst their library team.

As librarians and educators we are committed to student learning as our highest goal. To be prepared for a competitive job market, undergraduate students benefit from the opportunity to produce work that is available and impactful to a global audience. Internships in libraries provide students an opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers and learn from multiple points of view. Using an internship program in Humboldt State University Library's Special Collections as a case study, we will explain how students construct meaning and knowledge as they create digital exhibits using the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. By engaging interns in the process of metaliteracy the presenters are able to observe how the students demonstrate their understanding and thoughtfully apply their new knowledge, skills and habits of mind in the context of the internship.