Jessica: Welcome to episode number 6 of the Librarian's Guide to Teaching Podcast. I'm Jessica...
Amanda: And I'm Amanda. Jessica: So on today's episode, we're going to talk about the future of information literacy instruction and ask some kind of big questions. But before we get started with our conversation, how are you doing? Anything exciting going on? Amanda: Oh, I'm doing good! You know, we're wrapping up our semester and I sent my email off to all of my people about end of semester tasks and I'm feeling like, you know, we had to at least take a look back at what we accomplished because sometimes you forget all the things you accomplished. So I actually took the time to go back and it ended up being like a 30 bullet point list of all the exciting new concrete things that we did the past year. So it was nice to see it all together because like I said you just forget the things that you do and it was just - we really did accomplish a lot. So I was super excited to see that and share that with people, too. Because I think they forget as well in our day to day stuff. What about you? What's going? Jessica: Yea, kind of similar over here. Wrapping up the semester. Stuff like that. But what I'm doing this week is kind of fun is that I've started taking an online mini course by Mike Caulfield. I follow him on Twitter and he's actually the Director of Blended and Network Learning at Washington State University in Vancouver. But he has this website called Check, Please! And it's really about this different method of evaluating sources online. And so the course is really directed at students who would be taking it to understand how to evaluate online info but taking it as a librarian is interesting too because it's challenging the methods that we're usually taught to evaluate information and showing me a really different way that I can show students how to evaluate information. So I'll put it in the show notes but it's been kind of fun to do this week. Amanda: That does sound exciting! Yea, I definitely want to check that out as well. Jessica: Yea, it definitely makes sense. It's a cool method. Amanda: Great! So let's dive right in. So the two big questions that we're going to be tackling today is "will librarians always teach information literacy?" and "will it ever become fully adopted into curriculum and only be taught by faculty?" So why don't we get started with the first question. What do you think? Will librarians always teach information literacy? Jessica: I mean, there's definitely probably some philosophical angles we could take to this question and really do some deep diving into that part of it but I think when I was thinking about it I was thinking it from a more practical perspective and I think maybe you'll cover a little bit of the philosophical end of things. I mean, first, there's so many institutional factors first of all. We have to get that out there. At certain institutions it might be easier to hand it off to someone else whereas other institutions it definitely wouldn't work. And there's also the situation of support in the library and faculty and what their relationship is. What's the relationship with the library and administration? So it can be different anywhere you work. However, there may be some situations where it might be easier for librarians to not teach information literacy. So there may be some situations where it's just as easy for a faculty member to do the information literacy instruction as it would be for a librarian. We know that maybe some English faculty are already probably doing this which is why they don't reach out to us to come in for one-shots. So even though it seems like faculty have a lot to cover, it may be just as easy for them to do these one-shots that we're doing, right? Amanda: True, yea. I personally think that librarians will always teach information literacy. I think again, you kind of mentioned this, it depends on the institution size. If you think about a teaching college where you have a lot of faculty who are experts in your field but not necessarily experts in teaching and have formal backgrounds in teaching adding that layer of teaching information literacy might be overwhelming to them. They might not know how to fit that in. I think librarians have really have this stronghold on information literacy instruction and I think we’ve built culture around it and I just couldn't imagine us not doing it. I read this article when we were doing research for this episode about information literacy and this article was by Barbara Fister from Inside Higher Ed and she was writing how we’re in - information literacy is in third wave. First information literacy was about bibliographic instruction to show and empower students how to use the library for research. And then the second wave was when the internet exploded and it was to show students how to use resources outside of the library. And then she said what this third wave is, that it's our response to the commercialization and portability of networked information. And how it’s still more important than ever that librarians are teaching information literacy so with that being said I don't see librarians just giving up information literacy as a job task. I just don't think that faculty will ever be comfortable teaching it on their own. Especially because I had so many conversations with people about how they try to talk to faculty about the Framework and they just grapple with it and they don't understand it and so how can we expect a faculty member to teach information literacy if they’re not even comprehending our framework and our standards of how we teach information literacy? Jessica: Right, right. I’m thinking devil’s advocate for the fun of the conversation but what if there were lesson plans created for faculty? Think about how Credo Reference does modules and they’re provided and purchased and sent off for people to use, right? What if someone decided to make that happen in the future so that they could take it off librarians’ plates. Again it would depend on the institution, it would depend on the motivations behind it. Why would anyone want to do that? I’m not sure. But could be something interesting to think about. Amanda: The problem with those is that faculty don’t need to do anything with those. Those are pre-packaged and kind of run themselves. I don’t think a faculty member would take the time to interact with the Framework and then develop a lesson or even use a lesson that a librarian created to then teach it to the students. I just don't think that's ever going to be a part of their expertise. Jessica: Right. Amanda: Not that I don't think they're capable. I think faculty are definitely capable. I just don't think they’re going to add that to what they do. I don’t see that happening Jessica: That’s true because like you said their focus is their discipline area and that's what they want to focus on, rightly so. So I think that it does make the most sense. Amanda: Right, right. I know a lot of people have said that information literacy should just be part of general education. And that it's a discipline in itself if you think about it that way. We are the subject matter experts when it comes to information literacy. So I agree with that but I don't necessarily agree that it just belongs in General Ed courses. I think it belongs in all disciplines. So I guess that kind of segways a little bit into our next question which is: will it ever become fully adopted into a curriculum and only be taught by faculty? Jessica: Right, I don't know about that one. Like you said, how exactly would it be implemented in every single discipline. I mean there could be a way that it would be may be taught as a gen ed full credit course which it is at some institutions, but then I'm not sure how it eventually gets integrated later on into the disciplines and the majors without having the librarian do it. As we already mentioned you know the faculty are working in those major areas and they’re teaching those areas they’re not necessarily going to start all of a sudden teaching information literacy outside of maybe just little snippets here and there within their lessons. Amanda: Yea, I have never been a fan of the full credit bearing course. I think it's just an easy “get out of jail free card” if you will that like “okay we checked his box. They took this information literacy course. Now they know everything they need to know about the information literate”. I think we know from our personal experiences that the students don't transfer their skills as much as they should into other classes and I think if you only front load it at the beginning of their educational career they're going to forget it. And they’re not going to apply it in the majors. I think that it needs to be integrated throughout all the discipline, all the majors. And I know that can be a challenge. I'm currently living that challenge. My personal experience right now is that we are working our way through the School of Professional Studies. And it’s a very slow process. We just finished integrating it into our Legal Studies program. Now next semester we're doing a syllabi review and then we're hoping to integrate into their curriculum but it’s gonna take time. And it depends on your workforce. But I don't - I think the only way for it to work is if it's not only adopted into the curriculum but acknowledge how it's actually going to get implemented. Jessica: Right, because the way that you're talking about it and the way that you guys are implementing it into the curriculum is the standardized instruction in maybe one course? Amanda: Right. Jessica: So if it’s Professional Studies and that major has to take 10 courses, you're still only having your standardized instruction in one course out of those 10, right? Amanda: So here's how it is. So we have relationships in some of the Gen Ed classes so like we're in the Freshman seminar so they're getting exposure there. We’re in the English 101 so they're getting exposure there. And then in the majors they have two other opportunities at the 2000 level and the 4000 level let’s say in our legal studies program. So they're getting 1, 2, 3, 4 standardized opportunities for information literacy and they do build upon each other because we planned it that way. Jessica: Right. Amanda: And then we always help them in the internship and a lot of time, the Research Method classes so they’re getting additional opportunities but at least we know we're hitting them on those four courses. So that's my goal. And like I said, it required a lot. I mean it took us a whole semester to plan out the learning object, you know, draft it, get the faculty feedback. And now we’re implementing it next semester so it's time consuming. And you have to have the manpower and skill set to do it. But I just - I don't see faculty doing it. And I’ve read articles about how librarians are doing boot camps and teaching faculty how to do information literacy or trying to empower them to teach information literacy on their own with guidance from a librarian and I just, I just don't think that that's going to happen. I just don't think that's going to be successful. I did come across this white paper and I thought this was a really interesting quote that I just want to read. It’s kind of long but I think it's important. It says: “Our efforts to teach students have undermined our ability to integrate information literacy throughout the curriculum by using up time and energy that would be better focused on institutional-wide initiatives that lead to shared educational goals and objectives around the campus. Furthermore faculty control the learning environment and are in a better position than library faculty to create situations which allow students to see information seeking as an essential part of problem solving in a discipline.” (“Philosophical Shift: Teach the Faculty to Teach Information Literacy”, White Paper written by Risë L. Smith and Karl E. Mundt Library) To me, I get it. So basically she's saying that the one-shot is not worth our time and that we're losing our sight And I agree. It has to come from the top. It has to come from the institution. The institution not only has to acknowledge that it's an important skill to have but also be prepared to do something about it in a methodical way. Not just check a box and say, “Yes, information literacy is important and here’s a research assignment so they're definitely getting information literacy skills here.” Jessica: Totally. Amanda: Just because there’s a research assignment doesn’t mean they’re being taught the research skills that they need to complete that assignment. Jessica: Right and just because it's listed as one of the core competencies of a program - is it being assessed appropriately? Or are they just doing a research paper and checking the box that it's done? That doesn't equate to information literacy. Amanda: Right. Definitely, not. Definitely not. That’s been my experience. And I saw this really interesting thing that SUNY Albany is doing where they made information literacy be integrated into their general education. But in a very specific way. And there’s a form. And I'll put that in the show notes. Where they had to really sit down and explain how information literacy was being taught in the class. And I think that would have warranted conversations with the library and librarians saying, “Well how can we collaborate to do this? Because I don’t know how to do this. Let’s do this together.” So I think it was a lot more harder than just saying that information literacy is happening in this program. Jessica: Right, exactly. I mean kind of what you're talking about a little bit is reminding me of some of the classes that colleges have tried to do like the Writing Across the Curriculum? Where the classes, even if it was a math class, they’d somehow have to implement writing. I mean I kind of think something like that could potentially work for information literacy if it was - but again it has to be a real partnership situation where librarians are in the department meetings, they’re are part of the curriculum development, they're part of creating the assignment which just in our experience - me not so much at my new institution because I’m not involved in those meetings as of yet - but just our experiences together you know that hasn’t really happened on a consistent basis. Amanda: No, no. And I think going back to Barbara Fister’s article about the three waves of information literacy, I think some faculty are still stuck in that first wave of “show them the library”. Librarians show students about library resources very like “how to” and not necessarily skill-based. And I think that's the problem and I think that's the mentality that's the barrier of them accepting and acknowledging that information literacy is more than just how to access a database. Jessica: Right, exactly. I mean I think there's even still now in this third wave that Barbara Fister was talking about is kind of confusion about information literacy vs. digital literacy. I mean I was talking to someone the other day and they were trying to say that information literacy was part of digital literacy and I was like no flip that around. The umbrella is information literacy and digital literacy is a part of something that lives underneath that. Information just exists online and you need to know how to look at it in that context. So if people are still thinking about information that way then we have a language problem. We have some definition problems and we kind of have to tackle those to even figure out what we're talking about and what are we trying to teach and that's a barrier. Amanda: I mean how do you even get faculty engaged in that conversation. That’s kind of been part of my challenge. I've tried to frame it where it elevates it and talks about like “We need to collaborate together. Let's do this together to make sure your students are information literate. These skills are important.” But then I’m in a meeting and the Dean is like, “Information literacy is important. Amanda’s here to talk to you about it and the librarians are also going to do this for you.” And like, it’s true we are but we also want their feedback and we want them to engage in what we're doing. We don't want them to just plug in what we did or you know what we think and not have any feedback or recommendation or ideas about whether or not that’s a right fit, you know? I think that's my biggest challenge that I think engaging faculty is tough to get them over that hump of what it is that we do and why it's important for them to kind of accept it... Jessica: And the possibilities of what we could do. Like the fact that we could sit with them and look at their syllabus and say, “Oh, for this topic we can fit in the ACRL frame and this is what the frame means and this is the potential for what we could be explaining to them and think about the conversations that that could open about your discipline area.” So but it's like you said getting in the door to even have that conversation. Amanda: Yea, and that’s why I don’t think librarians are going to be giving up information literacy anytime soon. Jessica: Yea, that’s true. Amanda: You know, sometimes I think we spin our wheels doing one-shots but at the same time, at least what I’m trying to do at my institution like I said is implement one program at a time where they're getting those standardized opportunities. And I go back and forth about standardized opportunities because, you know, is it too cookie cutter? Is it that engaging? But I think the fact of the matter is that at least we know and we can speak to it when we have to go to our accrediting bodies that our students are getting information literacy in these courses, these are the skills that they’re graduating with and here’s our assessment. Because I don’t think that’s happening as often as it should. I really don't. Jessica: Right, exactly. And another reason why librarians are probably not going to give up information literacy anytime soon as well is that we remain up-to-date on the technology of research and the evaluating sources online and how that changes with different technology and the bias and algorithms and all that stuff. Faculty are doing their own research on their own disciplinary is so you know it’s like you said we're the experts in this area so we can stay up-to-date not only on the pedagogy but also the technology behind research and how to do it and keeping up with the databases so that's something that I think is always going to be our expertise and we'll always have that to be there as support for faculty. Amanda: Yea, I definitely agree with that. I don't think faculty are going to be keeping up with these things. And I think, the how to’s and the theoretical stuff have a place in your instruction. I do both. I don't do one of the other and I don't think faculty will be able to successfully navigate through databases the way a librarian could teach a student how to do it. Jessica: Right, yea exactly. And either way I think we're going to be there for consultations. I mean just like The Writing Center is always there for students to drop in and have appointments we’re always going to be there for them for that as well. Faculty can’t be there to counsel students on writing and research and then teach full classes. It's going to be a team effort of all the support services so. And I find that to be one of the most rewarding things that I do anyway is I'll come to the class, I'll teach and then when they come to me two days later and go, “you know I tried all these things and my topic is still really hard. Can we sit down and talk about it? “ That's some of the most rewarding stuff that I do. Amanda: Yea, the one one one consultations are really great. I think they are great reinforcers and they are great ways to get students to be more comfortable with talking to librarians and asking for help because you know they are so nervous and I think they're also overconfident. I think having that opportunity to have them come to us I think is a great resource. And I don't know if we were no longer teaching those classes if they would be going to their professors like “how do I do this research?” I don't think that would happen. Jessica: That’s actually something a lot of faculty say to me is, they say, “you know I tell them this stuff all the time but hearing it from you is that more valuable because it's another voice”. And so even that is valuable to be able to be that other voice to say, “Hey you know I know you know evaluating sources is important but let's look at it a different way” or you know I'm a different person saying it to you and maybe it's going to stick what I said. Amanda: Yeah yeah. I think in the dream ideal situation a librarian and a faculty member would develop a course together and it would just be a co-taught course and it would be a combination of discipline and then also information literacy skills that work for that course. I really think that would be an ideal set up. Again I don't think that means the student should never have exposure to information literacy instruction but I think it would add value to how faculty perceive librarians and information literacy and I think it would add value to how students see the library and what librarians do on a day-to-day. Jessica: Yea, that was actually one of the most interesting experiences I had at Berkeley was there was an English faculty member who was super supportive of the library, we had a good relationship. And she asked me to experiment on an embedded course where you know I looked at her syllabus I said “I can put modules in you know week 3 week, week 7 and week 9 but also have a discussion board open the whole semester and these are the places and topics that I feel like it would be helpful for students to get some research help”. So it was really cool to be a part of the class the whole semester and getting to interact with students every couple of weeks and having them email me when they had questions so that kind of embedded library instruction was really cool. And I know some librarians at some institutions already do that but I don't think it's as widespread as it could or should be. It would probably be valuable for a lot more places. Amanda: I mean, I think it would almost be interesting to have that in maybe one major - one course for every major. Jessica: Yeah, right. Amanda: Interesting...that would be a nice way to expose students to - especially in courses that are like Introduction to Research in Marketing. We have a lot of those courses. We have like Intro to Marketing Research and then Advanced Marketing Research, you know? I think having a librarian co-teach a course for the faculty at the intro level kind of sets the student up for the skills that they will learn about and then also the one that they that they don't even know that they're going to need that moving forward and then at least they have a librarian as a resource during their time in the program because they interacted with the librarian in that way. Jessica: Yea, that’s true. Amanda: I think that would be a unique experience. Jessica: So we actually had put out a call on Twitter about this episode and kind of asked all of you this question and we did have a response from @librarybon. She had said, “I fear worse than librarians not teaching information literacy that it just won't be taught at all. So another reason to keep info lit on the forefront of the minds of administrators and state lawmakers continuously proving our value because if librarians aren't teaching it we fear it won't be taught.” And I mean that's kind of a good point, right? And we know Bonnie and she's advocating doing amazing work in New Jersey for elementary and middle school and high school librarians to get them into the schools where they're actually missing so I know that that's something of a passion for her. But she makes a point if we're not there and we're not seen as valuable then who's going to teach it? That would be bad. Amanda: Agreed yeah. I guess from the context that you're providing it definitely makes sense why she would say something like that. Yeah but in higher ed, I just can't imagine that librarians would not be teaching information literacy and that information literacy would just be out of the conversation completely. Jessica: That like all of a sudden all of the instruction Librarians would either be gone or be put on the reference desk, Amanda: Or just a consultation research only. I couldn't even imagine it. I’d be out of a job. Jessica: Yeah, right! Amanda: So I couldn’t even imagine it but I mean I see where she was coming from in that context. But yea I mean, I guess this is something that we will just always continue to struggle with and fight for you know that quote/unquote seat at the table when these conversations are happening about curriculum development and information literacy and I just wish that we were a part of the conversation from the jump. And that we didn’t have to go in after decisions were made because I think it just makes it so much harder. Jessica: But I think some of the conversations being had in a general public, not just the library world, about this third phase of information literacy - they're not calling it that but I think all of the problems that we're having with information and digital literacy are - they may change the conversation and really bring us out into the forefront a little bit. I mean I don't think the problems as a society information-wise are going to be solved by some one-shot sessions or or by information literacy instruction in general. But I think changes that we’ve talked about in this episode and changes within higher ed could make a difference. Amanda: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think this is just one of these things that it's just going to be many more people will talk about and write about and...I don't...like if we reflect back on this conversation about five years from now I think information literacy will still be in the same place. I think my librarians will still be teaching it and it will be mostly one-shots. Jessica: I hope you're wrong. Just for the record. (Laughs) Amanda: I hope so, too, but I don't think librarians are losing their position in terms of teaching information literacy any time soon. Jessica: So let's move into our weekly segment of our Work Triumphs and Fails. So Amanda, what's your triumph and fail this week? Amanda: I have a Triumph. As I’ve previously talked about on a podcast I have been working with other librarians to integrate information literacy into our Legal Studies program and it’s been a two semester-long project. Actually three semesters. We’ve been working on this for three semesters now and we’ve actually finished the modules, with the assessment and shared it with faculty. And the triumph is that it was widely adopted and accepted and they were thrilled. They were super excited about it. They actually completed the module and had questions. So they really engaged with the material and did just yes us to death which is super exciting. And we're going to pilot in the winter and the hope is to integrate into their syllabi as a standardized assignment in the spring. So I'm so excited. It was a long project. It really took forever to get together but it's happening so I'm super pumped about it. Jessica: Yeah that's rewarding! Amanda: Definitely rewarding. So what about you? Work triumph or work fail? Or both? Jessica: I’ve got both. So one comes off of a triumph. So one of my triumphs recently was our partnership with the Writing Center and their new director. And so we had scheduled citing workshops - one MLA and one APA. And we'd reached out to faculty and classes and stuff like that but of course the one citing workshop that I was going to do - the MLA one - was scheduled for the day after the snow storm. So we had nobody come. So while that could have been a total fail if everything was super context-based and it was only for that workshop that we had created something, it really would have been crappy, but what we created can really be adapted into classroom lessons and stuff like that. So not too bad. And people did show up to the APA one the day after which we weren’t surprised about because the snow was all gone and it was ok. So that's my fail. But for a Triumph my supervisor and I met with some colleagues from the Assessment Department and so we are re-energizing an assessment project of our standardized English instruction. So I'm excited to be a part of that and we're going to be doing a combination of like a Qualtrics survey module but also looking at student work and creating a rubric to actually analyze their finished products. So we're going to have a little bit of a qualitative and quantitative assessment so I'm really excited to dive into that project at at my new job. So that'll be cool. Amanda: Yea, definitely! That’s pretty awesome! And don’t be so hard on yourself for that fail. You can’t control the weather. Jessica: Yes, it's true, I know. And I mean we are going to schedule them again so it's not like I said it's not something that is just a one-and-done. We're going to try to do it every semester and what’s the worst that can happen when you schedule something? If people don't show up we just pick new times and that's something that I've always been used to trying at Berkeley, was trying different times and methods of outreach and seeing what sticks. Amanda: That's great, that's great. Well hopefully the second time’s the charm! Jessica: Yea, exactly! Amanda: Alright so that wraps up another episode of The Librarian's Guide to Teaching! So Jessica, you want to tell them where they can find us? Jessica: Sure! So the podcast is on Twitter @librarian_guide. I am on Twitter @librarygeek611. Amanda is @historybuff820 and you can always email us at [email protected]. Amanda: Be sure to rate and subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen! We love to hear from you and your reviews as well. Send us an email or a tweet to share your questions, ideas for potential discussions or your triumphs and fails in the classroom.
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About the podcast:The LGT podcast is hosted by two instruction librarians interested in sharing their experiences teaching information literacy, discussing current trends, and having meaningful conversations about librarianship. Archives
May 2021
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