Publication

Leveraging Existing Frameworks to Support Undergraduate Primary Source Research

This exploratory study aims to improve librarian support for undergraduate users as they find, access, evaluate, and appropriately use primary source materials in their research. By approaching object-based information literacy instruction via the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework), this project will promote use of academic library special collections and archives in ways that reinforce the theoretical approach espoused by that document. Primary source evaluations collected before and after one semester of Framework-based instruction indicate that the concepts identified therein are relevant to and support learning with primary sources.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License CC-BY-NC-ND

Do, or Do Not, Make Them Think?: A Usability Study of an Academic Library Search Box

This usability study explores whether patrons prefer and are well-served by specialized, format-based searches or simpler, single-box searches, and the implications of these practices and preferences for information literacy. Qualitative data suggest that format-specific searches can confuse and slow down users and single-box searches are often faster and more successful. These findings highlight the potential conflict between user experience (UX) design and traditional conceptualizations of research and library-based search.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
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All Rights Reserved

Meta-literacy in the online music classroom: Opportunities for instructor and librarian collaboration

Studying music in an online setting requires that students and instructors leverage digital resources and participatory technologies with understanding and intentionality. Meta-literacy, a framework promoting critical thinking and collaboration, is an inclusive approach to understanding the complexities of information use, production, and sharing in a digital environment. This chapter explores the implications of meta-literacy for the online music classroom and identifies ways in which the librarian and music instructor can collaborate to promote student self-reflection on the use, creation, and understanding of musical information or content.  
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Transformative? Integrative? Troublesome? Undergraduate Student Reflections on Information Literacy Threshold Concepts.

In this exploratory study the author asks students enrolled in a credit-bearing undergraduate research methods course to rank and evaluate the troublesome, transformative, and integrative nature of the six frames currently comprising the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. The results indicate that students have valid insights into threshold concept-based instruction, but may confuse the application with the theory. If practitioners are to embrace not only the frames, but also the spirit of the Framework, we must directly involve students in our teaching and research practices.
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License CC-BY-NC-ND

Accommodating Faculty Requests and Staying True to Your Pedagogical Ideals in the 1-Shot Information Literacy Session

Librarians are frequently asked to “teach” several databases in a 1-shot session, despite findings suggesting that such database demonstrations do not lead to optimal student outcomes. The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education highlights the concepts of metaliteracy and metacognition. This paper investigates ways in which I leveraged both of these concepts to reconcile my pedagogical ideals with an attempt to honor a faculty member’s request. By demonstrating question posing and making my own metacognitive processes transparent to students, I found that I could honor a faculty request for specific database demonstration while helping learners comprehend and see beyond the constructs of platform and format.

Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
MultidisciplinaryMusic
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License CC-BY-NC-ND

Performance as Conversation: Dialogic Aspects of Music Performance and Study

Although much of the classical music repertory is centuries old, musicians and musicologists participate in ongoing and lively conversations about the works. New insights on old works increasingly surface thanks to technological innovations: from data-rich digital humanities projects to casual online forums where media and text can be posted and discussed. The study and performance of a musical work--even more so than text-based disciplines--should be informed by a variety of sources in a wide array of formats. As the interplay between audience and performer becomes increasingly dynamic and the potential sources for study multiply, librarians can help students negotiate this sustained, multi-format discourse. Unlike other disciplines in which there may be an uncontested answer, a musical work is subject to interpretation in unique ways. “Scholarship as Conversation” provides a framework with which musicians might begin to navigate the many considerations of how to perform or understand a piece. In order to fully appreciate the lifecycle of the work, for example, once must synthesize a variety of contemporary and historical recordings, scholarly, manuscript, and performing scores, composer biography, and other contextual information. Academic librarians must partner with music faculty to offer instruction that specifically targets and assesses student understanding of the dialogic nature of music performance and study. By helping musicians understand the many voices engaged in this dialogue, such collaborations could make a meaningful impact on the musician’s stock-in-trade: her performance.
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License CC-BY-NC-ND

Teaching Copyleft as a Critical Approach to "Information Has Value"

The credit-bearing classroom provides librarians with expanded opportunities to connect with students as teachers, mentors, and advocates. Both the content and approach of one-shot sessions are often driven by faculty requests for resource-based instruction. Librarians teaching credit-bearing classes do not face the same constraints on their time with students or limitations on instructional content. Accordingly, librarians in credit-bearing settings can go beyond demonstrating databases or teaching discrete skills to engage students in learning research concepts and to advocate for information- related social justice issues. One such advocacy issue is copyleft, a movement responding to the constraints of traditional copyright by allowing the licensed work to be used, modified, and distributed as determined by the work’s creator. By introducing students to the copyleft movement, librarians can encourage students to make their works more freely available and to engage in the conversation of scholarship. This chapter presents a case study of a research methods course in which students created and embedded Creative Commons licenses in digital platforms in order to encourage learners to critically evaluate the production and value of information.

Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License CC-BY-NC-ND

White Paper: University of North Texas, Information Fluency Initiative

Paper discussing a proposal for an information fluency initiative at the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries.

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Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific

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License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-ShareAlike License CC-BY-SA

Revisiting Metacogntion and Metaliteracy in the ACRL Framework

In the early drafts of the Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education, metaliteracy and metacognition contributed several guiding principles in recognition of the fact that information literacy concepts need to reflect students’ roles as creators and participants in research and scholarship. The authors contend that diminution of metaliteracy and metacognition occurred during later revisions of the Framework and thus diminished the document’s usefulness as a teaching tool. This article highlights the value of metaliteracy and metacognition in order to support the argument that these concepts are critical to information literacy today, and that the language of these concepts should be revisited in the language of the Framework. Certainly metacognition and metaliteracy should be included in pedagogical strategies submitted to the newly launched ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

License Assigned: 
All Rights Reserved

Creating Learning Outcomes from Threshold Concepts for Information Literacy Instruction

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in College and Undergraduate Libraries on November 18, 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10691316.2017.1246396  Abstract: Threshold concepts theory and learning outcomes represent two different ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Finding a way to translate between the two is necessary for librarians who may wish to use concepts from the Framework for Information Literacy to shape their instruction. The following article outlines a process for transforming concepts from the “Scholarship as Conversation” frame into learning outcomes that the author developed as part of a tutorial project. This process can easily be adapted to a variety of instructional situations.

Resource Type(s):

Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
All Rights Reserved

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