Schedule of Events
8:30-9:00: Registration (FREE!) & Refreshments
9:00-9:15: Welcome and Opening Remarks
Annie Knight, LILi Chair, and Esther Grassian, LILi Advisory Board Member
9:20 am - 9:40 am: "It's Never Too Late to Start: Building Technological and Information Literacy Skills for Seniors at Crowell Public Library" (documents)
Presented by Carly Lamphere (Head Adult Reference Librarian), Joyce Peng (Library Assistant), and Rebecca Russell (Librarian at Glendale Library Arts and Culture, Library Connection Branch), Crowell Public Library
Information Literacy is often framed within the area of how to find/evaluate information digitally. Most library programming and outreach focuses on helping patrons access and locate quality information to suit their needs. These programming models assume the user has some experience with basic technology operations as a starting point. At our institution, there is a population that inspired us to look at information literacy outreach in a slightly different way. The surrounding area where our institution is located boasts a high senior population, often with few if not any technological skills. Interacting with our senior patrons at the reference desk will reveal that they have access to technology but lack the skills to begin to obtain information. Seniors will bring their iPhones and lack the knowledge to send text messages, need assistance with downloading e-books onto their brand new Kindles, and sometimes request help setting up their very first email account. Technological literacy skills will assist this population greatly and open doors to teaching more advanced areas of information literacy. Teaching these skills to seniors has not always been an easy path to navigate; outreach requires patience, and an effective delivery to make sure seniors actually learn the skills needed to be successful in operating technology.
Our programming for seniors to help promote technological/information literacy has evolved several times to the model we have today-Tech Time. Tech Time is our current program offering to our senior patrons and has been overwhelmingly successful since its induction last summer. In this presentation, my colleagues and I will trace the evolution of our technological literacy programming at our institution, describe the structure, strengths and weaknesses of our current model of Tech Time as well as provide suggestions on how to formulate quality technological/information literacy programming for participants institution's unique user populations.
9:45 am - 10:05 am: "Spread Knowledge and Build Community with Reddit /r/ask Forums" (notes)
Presented by William Jacobs (Associate Librarian for STEM), San Francisco State University Library
Reddit, the fourth most visited website in the U.S., is made up of thousands of individual text or image-based forums, or subreddits, each with its own character and community. A special subset of these, the /r/ask subreddits, are devoted to sharing information and answering questions on specific topics, including academic subjects, hobbies, ideologies, and locations. I am lead moderator of /r/AskCulinary, a cooking forum with 141,000 subscribers, and /r/AskAcademia, a forum about academic life with 43,000 subscribers. In my talk, I will explain how /r/ask subreddits work, both for the users and behind the scenes. I will show you how to start and run an /r/ask subreddit around a subject you care about, and how to build communities of readers to ask questions, and experts to answer them.
10:10 am - 10:30 am: "Every Story Matters: Developing a Community Digitization Project to Preserve Family Histories with Students and the Surrounding Community" (powerpoint)
Presented by Allison Burch (Adjunct Librarian) and Elisabeth Sundby (Adjunct Librarian), Bakersfield College Delano Campus Library
Those in marginalized rural communities may feel that their lifetime experiences are not valuable or that their stories are not worth being told, however this sentiment is far from the truth. Since 2015 faculty and our library have been networking to area students and their family in order to digitally preserve photographs, documents, artifacts, family letters, artworks and family heirlooms that represent the rich international cultural history of a farming community. Additionally, the library is collaborating with History and Communication departments so that students can interview family members and create oral history projects. These oral histories will become part of our growing archive. By attending our presentation, attendees will learn how rewarding it is to develop a community digitization project. We will outline the community ties that this type of digitization project fosters for a library and tell a sampling of the stories that have been uncovered. We will discuss how we promote our project using social media, students, and events.
Our experience has taught us what works and as we look towards extending the project past our grant we will discuss how we are using metadata to categorize our digital artifacts. This presentation will allow participants to visualize how our project could be adapted for their own library organization. There will be a 5 minute activity where audience can pair off and participate by interviewing each other to identify a historical artifact at home. We welcome an exchange of dialogue on how a project like this empowers a community and want our presentation to inspire our colleagues to adapt this for their own use. Our community digitization project has given individuals a voice and demonstrated the importance of preserving stories and artifacts that contribute to a rich diverse local history that might have been lost for future generations if not archived.
10:35 am - 10:55 am: "Zombie Outbreak: Gaming Library Student Equity and Outreach" (documents)
Presented by Eva Rios-Alvarado (Student Equity & Outreach Librarian) and Brian Young (Librarian), Mt. San Antonio College Library
Library Student Equity has been part of the Mt. SAC campus fabric since the 90s. Recently, librarians were tasked with developing outreach and instruction to designated student equity populations. The answer was to game it! Zombie Outbreak is an information literacy workshop where subliminal learning allows students to use basic concepts which are key to the start of their scholarly careers. Designed to be between a library tour and a full-on workshop, Zombie Outbreak bridges students' learning from simple orientation and navigation to higher level concepts which align with our current workshop offerings.
Break
11:00 am - 11:10 am
11:10 am - 11:30 am: "Empowering Library Patrons Beyond Walls: A Perspective from a Literacy Program"
Presented by Juan Guillermo Garcia (Librarian / Literacy, ESL and Immigration Services), Glendale Public Library
Librarians don't just shelve books or provide reference services at the library, we change lives. It is our mission as librarians to ensure that patrons have a pleasant experience at the library and go out smarter than they were before. Literacy programs in libraries not only help learners improve their reading and writing, but also empower them beyond library walls.
11:35 am - 11:55 am: "Reading is Fundamental: Using the Reading Apprenticeship Framework to Encourage Metacognition and Empower Patrons"
Presented by Susan Hoang (Librarian), Santa Ana College Library
Reading Apprenticeship is a widely used framework to teach reading strategies in K-12 and higher education institutions. At its core, it asks empowers people to think critically and mindfully about how they read. By understanding our identities as readers and teaching people how to navigate a variety of texts and media, we help them build resilience in all types of information encounters. This session will give an overview of the framework, include demonstrations and practice, and a discussion of applications in a range of library settings.
12:00 pm -12:20 pm: "The Buck Does Not Stop at Your (Academic) Library" (handouts)
Presented by Lucy Bellamy (Library & Learning Resources Director), Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Games + Animation
As librarians working in academic settings, our department outcomes likely include statements that outline how the library will introduce students to credible and authoritative learning resources, or develop skills to become savvy consumers of information. This is a great learning outcome, and we spend most of our time working towards satisfying them by developing instruction sessions that focus on how to use the library online catalog, access electronic resources, evaluate information, and use information ethically. But what happens when students graduate and transition into their professional careers? How can students transfer those skills in the "real world?" Anecdotal evidence suggests that students often retreat to their familiar strategies of combing the internet to search for information because they no longer can access the resources from their college libraries. If this is true (which we know it's not) where can they turn to continue building the information literacy skills they worked so hard to achieve? Why not the public library? During my session I will share how I reached out to the local branch of the Los Angeles Public Library to co-host an on-campus event to introduce their vast collections of resources curated to satisfy the most curious and savvy information consumer. I will share my motivation to reach out to LAPL, event programming strategy, how I identified willing partners, and solicited feedback from attendees. Part of being an information literate consumer is learning how to leverage a variety of information sources. The "buck does not stop at your (academic) library." It is the door that leads to lifelong information literacy.
12:25 pm -12:45pm: "If Only I Had Time!" Pro-tips for Efficiently Making Web Content Accessible
Yi Ding (Online Instructional Design Librarian) and Melissa Rassibi (Reference, Instruction, Outreach Services Librarian), California State University Northridge Libraries
Accessibility has long been one of the core values of library services to bridge gaps of information users regardless of disability. Sadly, however, failure of implementing it in information literacy services online is also prevalent in librarians' day-to-day job due to challenges of knowledge, skills, user experiences, and of course, time. This interactive presentation aims to share with participants how librarians at our institution utilize the support from the expertise of professionals working with diverse user groups including the campus National Center on Deafness, Center for Disabilities, and additional academic programs in assistive technologies and deaf studies to most effectively and efficiently test and improve the accessibility of the information literacy content online.
Panel Discussion
12:50 pm -1:20 pm: "Panel Discussion: IL Across Libraries: Learning from Each Other"
1:20 pm - 1:30 pm: Closing Remarks & Conference Feedback Survey
1:30: No-Host Lunch Off-Site (optional)
An opportunity for participants to continue discussing takeaways from the conference and network.
Questions? Please contact Annie Knight.