Schedule of Events - Monday, August 8, 2016, 9 am - 1:30 pm
NOTE: All presentations now linked below.
Keynote: "Crystal Balls and Light Bulbs: Shining Light on Library Futures"
Dr. Lesley Farmer, Librarianship Program & Department Chair of Advanced Studies in Education & Counseling at CSU, Long Beach will be the keynoter. Dr. Farmer has worked as a library media teacher in K-12 school settings as well as in public, special and academic libraries. This conference offers opportunities for creative thinking, cooperation and collaboration among different types of libraries for a common goal: supportive, sequential information literacy instruction for all levels and in all types of libraries. Dr. Farmer will offer her ideas and vision for partnership in support of this goal.
9:00-9:30: Registration & Refreshments
9:30-9:40: Welcome to Pierce College & logistics: Esther Grassian; LILi Conference Welcome: Lisa Burgert, LILi Chair
9:40-10:20: Keynote: “Crystal Balls and Light Bulbs: Shining Light on Library Futures” - Dr. Lesley Farmer, Librarianship Program & Department Chair of Advanced Studies in Education & Counseling at CSU, Long Beach
10:20-10:30: Break
10:30-10:50
What would it look like if students had college-ready research skills? Strengthening the pipeline from high school to college with College-K12 collaborations - Allison Carr, Tricia Lantzy, Torie Quinonez (+Toni Olivas and Melanie Chu, unable to attend), California State University San Marcos (CSUSM)
First year college students bring a range of experiences and skill sets when it comes to college-level research. Collaborating with regional high schools, librarians may have a significant impact on student achievement transitioning into their first year experience. With a library strategic plan that encourages K12 partnerships, and a university-wide commitment to community engagement, librarians at California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) reached out to the local middle and high school educators in effort to create a mutually beneficial relationship in which we share our goals and curriculum for our students.
The goal was to share the first year curriculum of the University Library's Teaching and Learning Program, demonstrate our integration with our first year courses, and discuss our principles, philosophy and learning outcomes for our first year curriculum. Conversely, the high school teachers and librarians shared their perspectives on information literacy, insights into their current (and our future) students, and struggles they have in helping high school students develop critical thinking and information literacy skills for both college and the job market.
During this presentation, CSUSM librarians will briefly describe the creation of the 2-day institute, and share assignments completed by the participants. We will also discuss what we learned about our community during the institute and how that experience is shaping our pedagogy, curriculum, and ongoing outreach efforts to local high schools. Finally, there will be an overview of the institute curriculum along with ideas on how to implement this program at other universities.
10:55-11:15
What Would it Look Like if Students Taught the One-Shot? Using ACRL Frames to Construct Information Literacy Competencies in a Learning Community - Yvonne Wilber, California Lutheran University
One-shot library sessions can be difficult, at best, especially when they may be the only opportunity for students to receive library instruction. The challenge is keeping students engaged, learning, and retaining the information they encounter, especially in light of increasing complexities of the contemporary information environment and reduced library staffing.
The ACRL Framework turns library instruction from objectives-focused instruction toward student-focused exploration. The framework puts the student in the driver's seat of his or her own information-seeking experience. Allowing students to construct knowledge by exploring library resources and then articulating their experience provides an environment where students can become peer instructors alongside the librarian.
During the Spring 2016 semester I developed a one-shot session that engaged every section of our Religion 100 course (required of all freshmen). I worked diligently with the department toward this goal, as librarian-led Information Literacy instruction is not a university requirement. I chose to focus on ACRL frames "Scholarship as Conversation" and "Searching as Strategic Exploration."
My objectives for the students was to increase competency in standard IL areas, e.g. authority, citations and plagiarism, strategic keyword searching, etc.
We began with a discussion about the conversational nature of research as well as strategic exploration, centering on the idea of visiting a new city and the strategies students would take to make the trip successful. I then divided them into six small groups. Each was asked to find, explore, and discuss a specific resource on the library website (Libguide, database, etc.). Groups worked for five minutes and then each group instructed the class on the use of the resource. I engaged with the "instructors" by asking leading questions. Finally, students were asked to participate in a Quick-write to assess their engagement with the session. I found students highly involved, intuitively competent, and successful at expressing their understanding to one another.
11:20-11:40
Rethinking our Aims for Teaching the Evaluation of Information - Mark Lenker, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Handout
Evaluating information is fundamentally a matter of judging an information source according to its value. Current practice in library instruction is somewhat limited insofar as it equates the value of information with credibility or usefulness in a persuasive argument. Philosopher Richard Kraut proposes a theory of value that links a thing's goodness to its capacity to promote well-being. Applying this idea to information, I argue that information is most valuable when it disrupts our current ways of thinking and feeling and leads us to consider new possibilities. We need to incorporate this aspect of value into our current strategies for teaching students to evaluate information.
Given unlimited time and ideal collaboration with partners in K-12 and higher education, I would teach my undergraduates that the most important aspect of a source's value lies in its capacity to stimulate the researchers' growth intellectually, affectively, and socially. When teaching, it is easy to overlook this sense of information's value, particularly when one is engrossed in teaching criteria for assessing a source's credibility (e.g., the CRAAP Test) or discussing the ways that sources can contribute to a persuasive argument (e.g., Bizup's BEAM categories). A complete education in evaluating sources, one that reinforces the threshold concept that "research is inquiry," will deepen students' thinking about information's trustworthiness, its rhetorical usefulness, and its value as a catalyst for growth.
In this conceptual talk, I will briefly introduce Kraut's "developmentalist" account of value and apply it to information. I will also show how considerations of credibility and rhetorical strategy are not sufficient to promote "deep learning" in student research and writing. Finally, I will suggest goals for collaborative partnerships to provide an information literacy education that imparts skills for the persuasive use of information while also developing students' appreciation for information that stimulates lifelong learning.
11:45-12:05
Exploring the Role of Public Libraries in Providing Primary Sources to K-12 Schools - Emily Meehan, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA
Primary source usage in K-12 education is growing beyond the history classroom and beyond the textbook, with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and a noted shift in education from fact-based to inquiry-based learning. Their use in the classroom allows students to criticize and contextualize the past, making it more of a reality to them. Archival institutions have noted the importance of making their historical resources accessible to K-12 students and teachers, but public libraries may also have something to offer in that area, as many retain local history collections.
Last year, Emily Meehan undertook exploratory research within the L.A. area to survey use and accessibility of local history collections within public libraries and found that K-12 students and teachers were often not considered important users of the materials. Furthermore, it was found that in certain situations, the management of these materials by public libraries hindered use to the general public, for reasons including inadequate finding aids, lack of physical space, and ineffective search engines.
As institutions of community outreach, public libraries have a unique opportunity to promote their local history collections to K-12 students, especially given the increase in primary source use in public education and local history units in certain grades. What does this mean for public librarians? Will they need to add basic archival literacy to their skill set in order to properly teach students and teachers how to use them? Do they need to know basic archival theory in order to maintain and preserve their collections effectively? Collaboration between the public library and archival professions may be the best solution in order to exchange such knowledge and ultimately ensure K-12 students and teachers have access to valuable primary sources to support learning.
12:05-12:15: Break
10-Minute Lightning Talks
12:15-12:25
Design for Learning: 21st Century Online Teaching and Learning Skills for Library Workers (D4L) - Lydia Smith-Davis, Orange Lutheran High School
Always on the lookout to integrate 21st Century Skills into the overall school curriculum, I would like to share a project I am working on as a participant of the Design for Learning Program.
About the Design for Learning Program (D4L)
Design for Learning: 21st Century Online Teaching and Learning Skills for Library Workers (D4L) is a three-year continuing education project. It is developed as a partnership among the South Central Regional Library Council, Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, and the Empire State Library Network. It is funded as a three-year grant, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
The goals for the introductory session of my project proposal include:
#1: alleviate anxiety about librarians and the library
#2: familiarize students with the school's library portal; how to find it and how to navigate it
#3: introduce the AP Capstone QUEST Framework, a method for considering and evaluating multiple points of view to develop perspectives on complex issues and topics through inquiry and investigation
12:30-12:40
Better Together: Academic, Public, & School Libraries - Matthew Tabizon and Erik Jackiw, City of Commerce Public Library
Even with limited staff and resources, libraries often manage to work wonders with great programs and services. Unfortunately, sometimes reaching an audience is itself a challenge, so patrons fail to take advantage of all the library has to offer. We envision a library collective in which academic, public, and school libraries work together to better serve communities.
Academic libraries host resources unavailable to the general public. This includes books and databases and access to faculty experts. Some schools are even instituting service requirements, creating an opportunity for libraries to help coordinate partnerships with other libraries.
Public libraries cast the widest net, offering resources and services to the general public. As such, they can help find an audience for faculty experts, who do not typically share their work and ideas with the general public. Showcasing the importance of such work can help to create a culture that values education both for itself and the life that comes along with it. Public libraries also have programs and services for children and teens, who might be easier to reach at their schools if only librarians knew the right person(s) to contact.
School libraries often do not have librarians, but may be tasked with helping teens to navigate databases and other resources for academic research. Likewise, they have students who may be contemplating college and various fields of study. College students could share their experience and help mentor them. Public libraries could host programs to bring in authors and others. Reaching our vision means taking the time to examine and better understand the roles our respective libraries play inside the community. With that insight, we can work together to better allocate our collective resources toward empowering our community.
12:45-12:55
Planning an Information Literacy Boot Camp for High School Students - Michael Barb, Palos Verdes Library District
The Palos Verdes Public Library (PVLD) has received a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the California State Library to design and implement an information literacy "boot camp" to be conducted in early 2017. The program will consist of a series of hands-on research workshops for high school sophomores, as well as companion workshops for high school teachers. Michael Barb will give an overview of the program and the challenges of planning and preparing for the boot camp.
Here is an excerpt from the project proposal:
As part of the boot camp, students will concentrate on competitive, game-based tasks such as "super-Googling," electronic resources scavenger hunts, and media literacy (video analysis), while teachers will learn to incorporate the research process into their existing lesson plans. A series of eight to ten workshops (each two hours in length) would seek to reach approximately 200 students and 100 teachers. In preparation for these workshops, the project team will work in close concert with a high school teacher, a teacher-librarian, a local academic librarian, and a university-level instructor of information literacy acting as a consultant.
During the grant period, two PVLD librarians will do the following: develop a model for an engaging program for high school sophomores; design a lively curriculum; develop outcomes metrics such as in-class surveys and follow-up assessments with teachers and students; employ marketing and outreach efforts to excite and rally support from local parents, teachers, professors, and librarians; carry out workshop sessions (in early 2017); and gather statistical results and lessons learned. The larger plan would be to continue the series of boot camp sessions after the grant period, as well as to create a workshop model that could be replicated in other communities through the collaboration of school, public, and academic libraries.
12:55-1:05: Q&A for Lightning Round presenters
1:05-1:25: Q&A/Audience Interaction/Evaluations
Presenters will circulate to different tables to talk with attendees at those tables and answer questions, and attendees will also be able to discuss presentation topics with each other, in addition to filling out evaluation forms.
1:25-1:30: Closing remarks & Evaluation Form Completion