Conference Agenda

Professor Jenna Hartel loves to survey the landscape of ideas in Library and Information Science. To that end, over her career, she has employed metaphors, performance, and multimedia to take students, educators, scholars, and practitioners to new places of understanding in our field. Jenna will bring this same adventurous spirit to her invited talk at the 2023 European Conference on Information Literacy. This time, she guides the audience across a recently surfaced and linked island chain of ideas that extend from the Library and Information Science mainland. The trip explores information experience, embodiment, contemplative practice, a multispecies perspective, and one additional (surprise!) destination. In an accessible manner, each conceptual islet will be defined simply, placed into historical context, and then related to research, pedagogy, and practice in Library and Information Science. Professor Hartel’s goal is to give all attendees an intriguing set of potentially uncharted notions to enliven conference conversations. There will be many souvenirs to take home! An avid video-maker and creator of the YouTube channel, INFIDEOS, the presentation will include a few original multimedia snippets on these topics.

Research Background and Methodology

The study investigated how students’ personal characteristics and information and communication technology (ICT) skills relate to their level of information literacy (IL), with the aim of identifying the ICT/psychological concepts that are most closely related to IL and could help in planning future IL education in terms of focus, methods and timing. The study determined the IL level of 498 undergraduate students using a 40-item knowledge test (Boh et al., 2016), examined the influence of demographic parameters (gender, study major, year of study), compared the IL with two aspects of ICT literacy measured by the 26-item questionnaire (Šorgo et al., 2016), and examined IL’s relation to seven psychological characteristics, using a 70-item questionnaire (Juriševič et al., 2016).

Results

Students demonstrated moderate IL knowledge (M=67.3%, SD =12.3%). Gender and study major type (science vs. social science) were not significant factors, unlike year of study. Factor analysis revealed three areas of ICT tool use: a) general (e.g., search engines, social media, videos), b) learning (office tools, virtual classrooms, bibliographic databases), c) working (image/video editing, programming). IL correlated best with general use (r=0.16). Factor analysis revealed three areas of Internet confidence: a) general (e.g., search engines, social media), b) advanced (forums, presenting work), and c) specialized (scientific databases). General factor correlated best with IL (r=0.23). Of the seven psychological characteristics (PSY), self-concepts about learning (r=0.25) and problem solving (r=0.23) correlated best with IL. Factor analysis on PSY revealed three factors: a) learning/motivation, b) problem solving/self-efficacy, c) external motivation. Factors a) and b) correlated best with IL (r=0.23 and 0.17, respectively).

Conclusions

Our results offer some suggestions for IL practice. Although studies often show that digital natives are not necessarily information literate, we found that students’ IL was associated with both frequency and confidence of search engine use and confidence using social media. Therefore, ICT skills conducive to IL should be emphasized in IL education. Students’ problem-solving ability correlated positively with both IL and ICT literacy, implying that IL education would benefit from incorporating a problem-based approach wherever possible. External motivation did not have a significant effect on IL in our study, so students’ autonomous motivation should be addressed more during IL instruction. The characteristics of the curriculum combined with small differences in IL between 1st and 2nd year students suggest that the 2nd year of study may be optimal for introducing an IL course.

Acknowledgements

The study was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, project J5-5535.

References

Boh Podgornik, B., Dolničar, D., Šorgo, A., & Bartol, T. (2016). Development, testing, and validation of an information literacy test (ILT) for higher education. J. assoc. info. sci. technol., 67(10), 2420–36.

Juriševič, M., Baggia, A., Bartol, T., Dolničar, D., Glažar, S. A., Kljajić Borštnar, M., Pucihar, A., Rodič, B., Sajovic, I., Šorgo, A., Boh Podgornik, B. (2016). Motivational aspects of information literacy in higher education. In The International Conference on Excellence & Innovation in Basic-Higher Education & Psychology, Rijeka, Croatia, May 18-21, 2016 (p. 93).

Šorgo, A., Bartol, T., Dolničar, D., & Boh Podgornik, B. (2017). Attributes of digital natives as predictors of information literacy in higher education. Brit. J. Educ. Technol., 48(3), 749–67.

The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship between game literacy (GL) and information literacy (IL), in order to provide cross-disciplinary insight as a foundation for future research. This will be done:

• By examining the origins, definition and treatment of the two literacies in scholarly literature in the disciplines of Games Studies and of IL, and;

• By using examples drawn from two recent mixed methods research studies of information behaviour and information literacy in video games, to illustrate the connections between GL and IL.

Previous studies investigating video games and IL have tended to focus on the elements of IL used in gaming (e.g. Beutelspacher, & Henkel, 2021), rather than, as in this paper, the conceptual intersection between IL and GL. IL and GL developed in different disciplinary contexts. Whilst the concept of IL emerged from the field of librarianship and the online information industry (Nazari, & Webber, 2012), GL emerged in the field of literacy studies, influenced by the New Literacies movement’s focus on multimodality and social practice, and stimulated by a desire to include cultural media popular with young people (Squire, 2008). Initially, definitions and frameworks of IL focused on practical skills applied to published print or digital material. However, more recently IL experts have identified IL as socially situated, involving production as well as consumption, and engaging with multimodal information, for example in Mackey & Jacobsen’s (2022) definition of metaliteracy. This brings IL ontologically closer to Hayes & Gee’s (2010, p. 69) conception of GL as “a family of different practices engaged in by different social groups with a variety of cross-cutting similarities and differences”.

Despite this, the information literacy component of GL is not surfaced in GL definitions, and nor does engagement with games feature explicitly in IL definitions and frameworks. This paper aims to fill this research gap by (1) drawing on the scholarly literature to compare and relate definitions of GL and IL, and (2) illustrating the connections between GL and IL with findings from two investigations supervised by the author (both of which received ethics approval). Wang (2022) used questionnaires (n=600) and six interviews with Chinese gamers to investigate information behaviour in the ban-pick phase of League of Legends (an internationally popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game). Using similar methods (164 questionnaires; six interviews) Meng (2022) researched Chinese gamers’ IL in playing the social deduction game Dread Hunger. The three dimensions of Bourgonjon’s (2014) model of game literacy (i.e. operational, critical and cultural) will be used to identify how IL is intertwined with GL. For example in compiling and analysing clues that indicate whether a player is the traitor in Dread Hunger IL and GL are required in both operational and cultural dimensions. Further examples will be given in the final paper.

References

Beutelspacher, L., & Henkel, H. (2021). Information literacy in video games’ affinity spaces: A case study on Dota 2. In S. Kurbanoğlu, S., Špiranec, S., Ünal, Y., Boustany, J., Kos, D. (Eds.), Information Literacy in a Post-Truth Era, The Seventh European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL 2021, online, September 20-23, 2021: Revised Selected Papers. Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) 1533. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Bourgonjon, J. (2014). Meaning and relevance of video game literacy. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 16(5), 8.

Hayes, E. R., & Gee, J. P. (2010). No selling the genie lamp: A game literacy practice in The Sims. E–learning and digital media, 7(1), 67–78.

Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. E. (2022). Metaliteracy in a connected world: Developing learners as producers. Chicago: Neal-Schuman.

Meng, X. (2022). Investigating social deduction computer games’ impact on players’ information literacy, using Dread Hunger as an example. [Unpublished master’s dissertation]. University of Sheffield.

Nazari, M., & Webber, S. (2012). Loss of faith in the origins of information literacy in e-environments: Proposal of a holistic approach. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 44(2), 97–107.

Squire, K. (2008). Video-game literacy: A literacy of expertise. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, D. J. Leu. (Eds.), Handbook of research on new literacies. (pp.635–670). London: Routledge.

Wang, Y. (2022). Information behaviour in ban pick phase of League of Legends. [Unpublished master’s dissertation]. University of Sheffield.

Nowadays, the web is where we most often search for information, and generalist search engines are the access point and filter that lead us in the overwhelming ocean of digital documents. One key challenge for current Information Literacy (IL) education is understanding how young people search online and interact with search engines. While algorithms grow more and more complex and efficient, research suggests that online search practices can take many different forms depending on topic, situation and searcher’s expertise. When teaching IL and online search, teachers grapple with a compelling difficulty: while search results can be made tangible as a report or a presentation, the search process remains often confined to individual screens and hidden from the teacher’s eye (Botturi et al., 2022b). Research evidence also indicates that users are often unaware of their own actual search process, and post-search accounts are mostly inaccurate (Teevan, 2008). This prevents teachers from capturing “teachable moments” (Hansen, 1998) and and providing effective process-oriented feedback, which is important for the development of self-awareness and self-regulatory skills (Corral, 2017; Bruce, Edwards & Lupton, 2006). The invisibility of the search process also hinders learning from peers, as search behaviors cannot be compared and discussed.

In a research project funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation we investigated online search behaviors, and developed techniques to capture and analyze search stories. Search story is the digital record of the actions that a user performs to solve an online search task (Botturi et al., 2022a). We developed a system to generate graphic and interactive visualizations of search stories to allow researchers and teachers to inspect them (Botturi et al., in press).

Between November 2022 and March 2023, 29 lower and upper secondary school classes (involving 535 students aged 12-18 and 16 teachers) participated in a two-phase IL education activity aimed at developing online search awareness and self-regulatory skills. In the first phase (1 contact hour or at home), students engaged in 3 pre-defined online search tasks. Their navigation actions were captured and visual search stories generated. The second phase (2 contact hours) started with an analysis of their own search stories in order to discuss a selection of relevant topics (e.g., the use of queries, reading time, search strategies) and included the solution of a new search task.

The activity was evaluated through an online post-session questionnaire with both closed and open items. Results so far indicate that students found the activity useful (average score 8/10); the content analysis of open answers reveals that the most appreciated learnings included reflecting on the reliability of online information, and the increased awareness that searching online is not so easy or “natural” as one might think.

References

Hansen, E., J. (1998). Creating teachable moments... And making them last. Innovative Higher Education, 23(1), 7–26.

Botturi, L., Addimando, L., Giordano, S., Hermida, M., Luceri, L., Bouleimen, A., Galloni, M., Beretta, C. & Cardoso, F. (2022a). Finding visual patterns in information Search Stories. European Conference on Educational Research 2022, Yeerevan (August).

Botturi, L., Addimando, L., Hermida, M., Beretta, C., Bouleimen, A., & Giordano, S. (2022b). Understanding Online Information Search Practices with Search Stories. American Educational Research Association – AERA Annual Meeting, Chicago (13-16 April).

Bruce, C., Edwards, S., & Lupton, M. (2006). Six Frames for Information literacy Education: A conceptual framework for interpreting the relationships between theory and practice. Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Sciences, 5(1), 1–18.

Corrall, S. (2017). Crossing the threshold: Reflective practice in information literacy development. Journal of Information Literacy, 11(1), 23–53.

Teevan, J. (2008). How people recall, recognize, and reuse search results. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 26(4), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1145/1402256.1402258

This communication is the result of an ethnographic research about a digital device created by a French publishing house to make pupils and students write, read and print short stories: the “Cub’Edito”. I count this device as an action apparatus (Barrère, 2013), a tool made to support selected cultural practices.

Objectives

The analysis of such an apparatus by studying how it is used by teachers and students is one way to question links between written culture and information literacy in a digital era. I am trying to critique “digital dualism” (Gourlay, et al., 2015) and demonstrate that there is a practice’s and skill’s continuity between written culture and digital culture. I seek to show that digital devices are both communication and documentation machineries. Digital information literacy could be regarded as a reconfiguration and amplification of written literacy because digital devices are textualization devices (Després-Lonnet & Cotte, 2007), technologies to make, share and record documents.

Methodology

Analysis of the digital device and pupils’ works employed a semiotic approach. I observed training sessions, pedagogical projects with pupils, and evaluation meetings concerning those projects and this apparatus. Semi-structured interviews with teachers, librarians, and teenagers’ focus groups were also conducted.

Outcomes

Uses of Cub’Édito appears like a way to practice and understand computers and Internet as document technologies. The Cub’Edito interfaces set ways to access, read and publish texts: it depicts text’s visibility and readability at a digital era. This device re-enacts written culture (digital or not) by introducing terminology and injunctions about literary genres, collections, authors, indexation, editing, approval and print processes. Moreover, most of the observed pedagogical projects play with textual materialities and genres by relying on the device’s platicity. Thus, they participate in the covenant between a long-term written culture and digital textual practices and norms. They show the cultural and skills’ continuity between writing and reading, the cultural poaching (De Certeau, 1990) between ordinary written culture and school written culture, and between literacy, information literacy and digital literacy. I count this device, its uses and its escort discourses as an apparatus (Foucault, 2001) to regulate writing and reading practices.

References

Barrère, A. (2013). Les établissements scolaires à l’heure des «dispositifs». Carrefours de l’éducation, 36, 9–13.

De Certeau, M. (1990). L’invention du quotidien: 1. arts de faire. Paris: Gallimard.

Després-Lonnet, M., & Cotte D. (2007). La sémiotisation d’une pratique professionnelle. L’activité de montage numérique dans l’audiovisuel. In C. Tardy, & Y. Jeanneret (Ed.), L’écriture des médias informatisés: espaces de pratiques. Paris: Hermès science.

Foucault, M. (2001). Le jeu de Michel Foucault. In Dits et écrits II (pp. 298–329). Paris: Gallimard.

Gourlay, L., Lanclos, D. M., & Oliver, M. (2015). Sociomaterial texts, spaces and devices: Questionning “digital dualism” in Library and Study Practices. Higher Education Quaterly, 3, 263–278.

The aftermath of the crisis generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the dangerous infodemic that has emerged in parallel, has made the importance of fostering information literacy even more evident. Information literacy is fundamental in all ages to enable us to participate in contemporary society, and is therefore specifically a key competence to be developed starting from early childhood (Baji, Bigdeli, Parsa, & Haeusler, 2018; Batool, & Webber, 2019; Chu, Tse, & Chow, 2011; Gardner, Goldstein, Pavey, & Secker, 2020).

In some countries, for the primary education stage, the socio-educational need to promote information literacy has obtained an institutional response with the inclusion of information and digital competence in the school curriculum and in current legislation. But the reality is that there is no sound educational approach, no updated and transferable curricular design, no substantial support for the school library, and the results of both the PISA Programme (2018) and recent academic research (Martínez-Piñeiro, Gewerc, & Rodríguez-Groba, 2019) regarding information literacy of primary school students show huge gaps that urgently need to be addressed.

The aim of this panel is to describe the preliminary results of the research carried out within the European project BRIDGE (“Information and Digital Literacy at School. A Bridge to Support Critical Thinking and Equality Values for Primary Education Using Children’s Literature and Transmedia”). Current legislation, curricula, and practices of promoting information and digital literacy in the six countries of the project, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Finland, Greece and the United Kingdom, have been reviewed and accompanied with results from a questionnaire survey for teachers and librarians working with 8-11-year-olds. The questionnaire addressed how primary school teachers and school librarians support their students in developing information literacy, digital literacy, critical thinking and equality values as part of their teaching practices, and also included open-ended questions to collect information on the challenges they encounter, as well as their suggestions for materials and best practices. In the panel, the main results obtained in the six countries of the project will be presented to identify and reflect the needs and challenges shared and those that are specific to each country.

References

Baji, F., Bigdeli, Z., Parsa, A., & Haeusler, C. (2018). Developing information literacy skills of the 6th grade students using the Big 6 model. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 23(1), 1–15.

Batool, S. H., & Webber, S. (2019). Mapping the state of information literacy education in primary schools: The case of Pakistan. Library and Information Science Research, 41, 123–131.

Chu, S. K. W., Tse, S. K., & Chow, K. (2011). Using collaborative teaching and inquiry project-based learning to help primary school students develop information literacy and information skills. Library & Information Science Research, 33, 132–143.

Gardner, G., Goldstein, S., Pavey, S., & Secker, J. (2020). Information Literacy for Education. A call for expressions of interest. Retrieved January 3, 2021 from https://www.informall.org.uk/news/il-school-education/

Martínez-Piñeiro, E., Gewerc, A., & Rodríguez-Groba, A. (2019). Nivel de competencia digital del alumnado de educación primaria en Galicia. La influencia sociofamiliar. Revista de Educación a Distancia, 19(61). https://doi.org/10.6018/red/61/01

PISA. Programme for International Student Assessment (2018). PISA 2018 results. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2018-results.htm

Data stories are a way of presenting data and information in a narrative format that is easy for people to understand and engage with (Li, 2018). They can be used to promote information literacy by helping people to understand and critically evaluate data and its sources. They can also be used to help people become more informed by helping them understand and make sense of the data that increasingly shapes our world.

Following Averroes’ principle of writing three general types of commentary based on Aristotle’s works (Adamson and Di Giovanni, 2018), namely literal, metaphysical and political, we propose a similar methodology that separates the data from the possible narratives and allows the promotion of data literacy at different levels by tailoring it to different audiences of different expertise and age.

We explored this topic in two projects carried out by the Department of Information Science at the Haute Ecole de Gestion, HES//SO-Geneva. With the VIDAS (VIsualisation of DAta Stories) project, we provided a comparative in-depth study of the distinctive nature of data stories (VIDAS, 2023). In MIDAS (MIcroclimate DAta Stories), we then put the concepts into practice and developed three data stories based on the same dataset and developed at three different levels (MIDAS, 2023), targeting scientists, policy makers and children.

We started our study with a thorough literature review seeking to find a clear definition of the term data story. As a result, data stories encompass various types of elements that need to be considered when telling a story: the data, the visual form, and the narrative component. The balanced combination of these elements is intended to drive behavioral change through the integration of narrative into the data presentation, and last but not least to lead to a call to action (Duarte, 2019).

While looking for ideas of relevant data stories relevant, we came across the history of a local chestnut tree, located in the old town of Geneva. Since 1818, the date of the first leaf hatching has been observed and recorded as a marker of the arrival of spring. This subject seemed particularly relevant to us because it is rooted in local history and it provides a tangible illustration of the impact of climate change on our environment. Data Stories developed on this topic seemed to us an appropriate communication tool to raise awareness among different audiences (children, adults, decision makers) about the impacts of global warming. The time shift of the first leaf hatching date of the chestnut tree to earlier and earlier dates could be put in parallel with the warming in Geneva due to climate change. In the paper we will present the genesis of the three data stories developed on this subject.

Our study shows that data stories can be used to help people make informed decisions by providing them with a clear and concise representation of the data. This can help people understand the implications of different choices and make decisions based on evidence rather than intuition. So far, data stories have been created for two datasets using the principle of Averroesian commentary. After creating the first set of data stories, self-evaluation procedures were used to gain insights that were subsequently applied to the second data set.

It is worth noting that the impact of data stories on data literacy will vary depending on the audience, the type of data presented and the way the story is presented. Overall, however, data stories can be a powerful tool to promote data literacy and help people become more informed and engaged citizens.

References

Adamson, P., & Di Giovanni, M. (Eds.). (2018). Interpreting Averroes: Critical essays. Cambridge University Press.

Duarte, N. (2019). Data Story. Explain data and inspire action through story. Ideapress Publishing.

Li, Q. (2018). Data visualization as creative art practice. Visual Communication, 17(3), 299–312.

MIDAS (2023). MIDAS (Microclimate Data Stories). Retrieved from https://campus.hesge.ch/id_bilingue/projekte/MIDAS/index.html

VIDAS (2023). Comprendre et expliquer la VIsualisation des données et les DAta Stories. Retrieved from https://campus.hesge.ch/id_bilingue/projekte/vidas/index.html

Introduction

Data literacy is defined as “a specific skill set and knowledge base, which empowers individuals to transform data into information and into actionable knowledge by enabling them to access, interpret, critically assess, manage, and ethically use data” (Koltay, 2017, p. 10). It has become an important professional as well as civic skill necessary for functioning in the society of the 21st century (Nayek & Sen, 2015; Bowler, Acker & Chi, 2019). Data literacy has also become part of daily library programs designed for local community in effort to minimize the shortcomings of digital divide in society (Shafiq, Bhatti & Naeem, 2020). On the professional level, data literacy has become necessary in management of public libraries as directors’ decisions are frequently based on growing quantities of data collected during daily library operations. In addition to library programs for users and data managerial decision making based on data, public libraries have an opportunity to devise partnerships with data-sharing and data-using organizations and strengthen the perception about them as a key information hubs (Enis, 2020). This would make them interesting to users who want to become familiar with data literacy but don’t have a place or whom to ask about it.

Research

The paper presents results from the nation-wide empirical research study in public libraries in Croatia about recognition of the term data literacy and its characteristics. The paper also aims to contribute to the advancement of data literacy in public libraries in Croatia. Literature review showed that previous research studies worldwide have most frequently had their focal point on academic libraries while public libraries have been neglected in this matter. In Croatia there were no recent research studies in public libraries about data literacy. The goal of this research study is therefore to collect data about the data literacy and its recognizable characteristics. The hypothesis of the research study is that heads of public libraries are still not fully acquainted with the term data literacy, and they lack more thorough education about it. A questionnaire was chosen as the principal research non probabilistic quantitative method as it provided the ability to reach many respondents scattered over large geographical region. It was distributed by e-mail to heads of all public libraries officially registered at the National and university library in Zagreb. The results of the research indicated strong use of data by managers in public libraries in decisions making process. At the same time, library managers lacked more extensive knowledge of math, statistics, data visualization and logic. On the positive side, they were aware about the elements of data life cycle and recognized important characteristics of data literacy. The results also showed recognition of data literacy related competencies necessary for successful public library management. Not a single public library employed a data librarian, but they defined clearly what activities such a person should do if employed. The public libraries used data mostly for library management and for user-oriented analyses and studies. When acquiring basic or additional knowledge about data literacy public library heads preferred short courses and webinars but they also liked for future librarians to acquire such knowledge during their university studies. Finally, they perceived data literacy important for development of public libraries in future.

References

Koltay, T. (2017). Data literacy for researchers and data librarians. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 49(1), 3–14.

Nayek, J. K. R., & Sen, D. (2015). Data literacy and library: An overview. College libraries, 30(1/2), 38–51.

Bowler, L., Acker, A., & Chi, Y. (2019). Perspectives on youth data literacy at the public library: Teen services staff speak out. The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, 10(2), 1–21.

Shafiq, M., Bhatti, R., & Naeem, S. B. (2020). Digital resources integration & data literacy perspectives among LIS professionals of university libraries in Pakistan. Library Philosophy and Practice, 4455. Retrieved December 1, 2022 from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/4455

Enis, M. (2020). Civic data partnerships: By working with local experts on civic open data projects, libraries can become the heart of the smart city. Library Journal, 145(1), 26.

Background

Cities are pioneers in opening data. Moreover, the phenomena of smart cities, open cities, and open government are strongly based on open data. Finnish open data includes information relating to households, energy use, transport, and infrastructure (Avoindata.fi, 2022). In addition, many research institutes provide open information and data that relate to our urban living environments.

Large open data sets have changed the way cities are investigated (Ruoxi, Xinyuan & Nan, 2022) and designed (Ying & Lun, 2016). Therefore, openness of information and data has an impact on the information sources used by those involved in planning processes. The information sources are utilized in a very multi-professional information-intensive work. Consequently, new capabilities are needed in evaluating this kind of information sources. According to the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2015) the abilities of an information literate individual include detection and evaluation of issues relating to access to information and information sources.

Methods and Data Collection

We based this study on the theme interviews and a small-scale survey we carried out in a large multidisciplinary research project. In Spring 2022 we conducted fifteen interviews among Finnish city employees involved in urban planning processes. We used the Microsoft Teams videoconferencing platform and transcribed the interviews verbatim. We focused on multi-professionality of the urban planning process. Furthermore, we examined information practices and use of information sources relating to the urban planning process. We followed an inductive approach to investigate the role and value of openness of information and data, as well as abilities needed. We will further untangle the practices through a small-scale questionnaire survey targeting the interviewees.

Preliminary Results and Discussion

According to preliminary results of the interview data, we emphasized the openness of data and the important role of different kinds of openly reported surveys and statistics. On the other hand, we found it difficult to evaluate and use the large amount of information and data in the decision-making processes of urban planning. The information literacy related abilities and information practices of participants of urban planning processes have not received a lot of attention in literature, except for some rare exceptions (e.g., Serola, 2006) and this study partly fills in the research gap.

References

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. Retrieved from https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/issues/infolit/framework1.pdf

Avoindata.fi. (2023). All Finnish open data from one place. Retrieved from https://www.avoindata.fi/en

Ruoxi, W., Xinyuan, Z., & Nan, L. (2022). Zooming into mobility to understand cities: A review of mobility-driven urban studies. Cities, 130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103939

Serola, S. (2006). City planners’ information seeking behavior: Information channels used and information types needed in varying types of perceived work tasks. In Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Information interaction in context (IIiX) (pp. 42–45). New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/1164820.1164831

Ying, L., & Lun, L. (2016). Transformations of urban studies and planning in the big/open data era: A review. International Journal of Image and Data Fusion, 7(4), 295–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/19479832.2016.1215355

Objectives

The presentation will focus on the partial results of a project on the effectiveness of social media (SM) posts by medical experts to encourage people to be vaccinated against COVID-19 that I conducted within the “New Ideas” grant, no. 622-62/2021, financed by the University of Warsaw. In this presentation I will demonstrate how the authors of the posts used scientific data to present visualizations and cite sources of information they used. I conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the material and the results are discussed within the perspective of the data literacy and visual literacy dimensions of the assumed audience. Data literacy is defined as “a suite of data acquisition-, evaluation-, handling-, analysis- and interpretation-related competencies” (Prado & Marzal, 2013, p. 124), while “visual literacy” as “a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media “ (ACRL 2022).

Methodology

The project involved the triangulation of research methods and was implemented in three stages:

1. Mapping experts (physicians) active in SM and aggregating their posts on vaccinations;

2. Analysis and typology of posts in terms of content and form; and,

3. Experiments using surveys, eye tracking, and face tracking measurements.

Mypresentation will focus on the partial results of stages 1 and 2. Thus, I will answering RQ1. How, in terms of form and content,are the physicians’ messages on vaccination against COVID-19 in social media structured? The sample selection was purposive: I selected posts in Polish by doctors in 2021 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter containing the key term “vaccination” or “vaccine” used in the context of COVID-19. Following these criteria, the sample consisted of 220 posts from 49 medical doctors.

I examined the collected posts using a content analysis technique with narrative and rhetorical analysis elements in a codebook of 53 categories. During my presentation I will show the results obtained for the following categories:

• visuals included in the posts (photos, infographics, videos, memes, and others);

• quoted data and its source(s);

• quoted statements and theirs source(s),

• linked profiles; and

• external links.

Outcomes

The study enabled conclusions to be drawn, to some extent, regarding the projected audience of health content on social media in Poland. I used the analysis of the collected data, juxtaposed with the literature, to determine the level of digital literacy that the audience should be able to find, properly decode, and interpret. In particular, I defined the dimensions of digital literacy to encompass visual literacy and data literacy.

References

Association of College & Research Libraries. (2022). The framework for visual literacy in higher education approved by the ACRL Board of Directors. Retrieved January 20, 2023, from https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/standards/Framework_Companion_Visual_Literacy.pdf

Calzada-Prado, F. J., & Marzal, M.A. (2013). Incorporating data literacy into information literacy programs: core competencies and contents. Libri, 63(2), 123–134.

Demand for Change

The information specialists in Tritonia Academic Library, a joint library in a multilingual environment, are used to finding new and innovative ways to support students in the field of information literacy (IL). Our information specialists have given hands on tutorials, lessons on request, and one credit courses in IL for both first-year students and bachelor degree students for the past 15 years. Some courses are developed or held together with the teaching staff. The ever-changing scientific landscape demands a change in how we support the students’ IL (Lokse et al., 2017). As our IL teachers have the possibility for only one lecture of two hours per IL course, the risk of overloading students with information is imminent (Lokse et al., 2017). To keep the lectures quite light, our library offers as much IL support as possible in various other ways.

IL Services Close at Hand

Since the pandemic, students seem to prefer receiving library services online (Baker & Ellis, 2021). Therefore, IL questions and support takes place in channels preferred by the students. Our library has a live chat service for students, researchers, and staff. We feel that a chatbot does not empower students to evaluate, use, and create information effectively. Other ways of getting IL support is to use the Ask the library form or send us e-mail. Questions from both the form and e-mail go to a ticket system managed by information specialists. For these online library services to be successful, it is important to keep up with the evolving technology and to maintain and develop the information specialists’ knowledge and expertise through relevant training (Laaro, 2021).

We also offer a weekly drop-in thesis workshop together with the university’s study psychologist. The workshop aims to solve the students’ thesis-related problems regarding IL issues, time management, and writer’s blocks. Students also give and get peer support. Before the pandemic, the workshops were on campus, but now the workshops are held online.

In addition, students can get personal IL guidance by booking an appointment with an information specialist through the Book, a tutorial service. The service helps students with issues, such as finding suitable information resources, upgrading their search strategies, and creating literature reviews. These appointments are generally held online. The library gives open online sessions on subjects including e-books, reference and data management, and open science.

At Tritonia, we acknowledge that we have an important role in giving our university students sound IL support when they need it so that they can thrive in their academic studies and also later in their work life. Offering different kinds of easily accessible IL support services favors not only the students but the whole university. IL support does not have to be that complicated, but it needs professional and flexible information specialists.

References

Atkinson, J. (2021). The times they are a-changin’: But how fundamentally and how rapidly? Academic library services post-pandemic. In D. Baker & L. Ellis (Eds.), Libraries, Digital Information, and COVID: Practical Applications and Approaches to Challenge and Change (pp. 303–315). Cambridge: Elsevier.

Laaro, M. D. (2021). Library services amidst covid-19 pandemic: Adjusting to the new normal. Emperor International Journal of Library and Information Technology Research, 1(3), 24–27.

Lokse, M., Lag, T., Solberg, M., Andreassen, H. N., & Stenersen, M. (2017). Teaching Information Literacy in Higher Education: Effective Teaching and Active Learning. Cambridge: Elsevier.

Published research regarding the differences in the impact of services, resources, methods, and tools between the college and university library environment in the United States is, overall, lacking. The methods for transferring knowledge of information literacy practices between smaller, often two-year, college institutions and the progression through the remaining four-year environment of the university brings shifts in approaches to information literacy instruction. Additionally, the expansive changes brought by the 2020 global biological crisis formed the basis for the vast expansion of remote and asynchronous instructional methods. I aim to present examples of the differences and similarities between the styles utilized in different higher education environments for the purposes of expanding knowledge regarding practices suitable for students developing information literacy skills in higher education between academic environments serving different purposes. Kennette and McIntosh (2022) promote an analytical approach to the means of assessing the effects of library information literacy instruction. Assessment is critical in both the college and university environments, simultaneously the discussion regards academia as a whole with the subtleties between two- and four-year academic institutions. Shi, Peng, and Sun (2022) promote a multi-pronged approach in the methodology of deploying a heuristic space, yet the work does not differentiate with depth the variety of methods deployed between teaching and research institutions. Anders (2021) takes the approach of focusing solely on graduate students and leaves the issue of undergraduate two-year students, separate from the conversation entirely, while the scholarly conversation regarding information literacy surrounding university library research begins with first-year undergraduates, a view Valenza, et al. (2022), promote. Finally, Bennedbaek and George (2021) take the steps needed when seeking common ground between similar sized colleges and universities, though this approach does not cover consistency and longer-term planning when creating information literacy instruction between institutions of vastly different scales. Though the research grapples with aspects of the information literacy via library instruction across multiple institutional models there lacks a common thread illustrating the differences between types of academic institutions and the pathways available to support students in the transfer from college to university learning spaces. Though the community college environment is arguable a rather uniquely North American institution, planning for the successful deployment of library information literacy instruction between varying academic spaces, online, in-person, and synchronously and asynchronously is of benefit to scholars and teachers across geographies and disciplines. I have been both a college library director and a university faculty research librarian and seeing the scope and scale between two institutions serving different roles, but often with the same students continuing from one school to another, the need for collaboration and deployment of impactful information literacy strategies is critical. I propose to present on the differences between such institutions, the lack of representation in the research literature regarding the nuances between two- and four-year schools, and the means through which teaching and research schools promote, deploy, and evaluate the means of successfully enacting impactful information literacy instruction through library services.

References

Anders, K. (2021). Information literacy and instruction: Building a multi-format graduate student information literacy program. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 59(3/4), 156–. https://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.59.3/4.7712

Bennedbaek, D., Clark, S., & George, D. (2021). The impact of librarian-student contact on students’ information literacy competence in small colleges and universities. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 28(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2020.1830907

Kennette, L. N., & McIntosh, E. A. (2022). Your information literacy practices (YILP): A new measure of information literacy. Partnership, 17(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v17i2.6680

Shi, Y., Peng, F., & Sun, F. (2022). A blended learning model based on smart learning environment to improve college students’ information literacy. IEEE Access, 10, 89485–89498. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3201105

Valenza, J. K., Dalal, H., Mohamad, G., Boyer, B., Berg, C., Charles, L. H., Bushby, R., Dempsey, M., Dalrymple, J., & Dziedzic-Elliott, E. (2022). First years’ information literacy backpacks: What’s already packed or not packed? The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 48(4), 102566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102566

Introduction & Literature Review

Instruction librarians are at the forefront of introducing learners to new concepts and skills such as evaluation strategies, searching techniques, and trends in scholarly communication. But how do instruction librarians themselves learn new concepts and skills? Especially if they have been a professional for a significant amount of time and have experienced multiple changes in the profession. We conducted a study to learn how mid-career and experienced instruction librarians seek out and learn new professional information, how they find curiosity sparks to keep them engaged in their work, and how they choose to incorporate new ideas or professional competencies into their instructional practice.

Mid-career professional development has been characterized by stage-like models depicting growth, stability, and sometimes frustration (Maskit, 2011). These stages have been explored in K-12 teachers, and we wanted to determine how well these stages describe the experiences of mid-career and experienced instruction librarians. We were especially interested in these librarians because many workplaces have multiple generations of workers and must find ways to encourage growth in an age-diverse environment. However, much of the literature and professional development opportunities focus on supporting newer librarians (for example, Flatley and Weber, 2004). We enthusiastically agree that newer librarians should receive significant and thoughtful supports, but we were curious to explore the unique challenges mid-career and experienced librarians face based on their accumulated experiences as well as how they sustain their engagement with new ideas.

Objectives, Methodology and Outcomes

Our objectives were to learn:

• how mid-career and experienced instruction librarians seek out and learn new professional information,

• how they find inspiration to keep them engaged in their work,

• how they choose to incorporate new ideas or professional competencies into their instructional practice.

In an online survey and follow up interviews, we asked mid-career and experienced instruction librarians from North America to share their experiences about how they engage with and incorporate new professional ideas into their instructional practice. Recognizing the systemic changes brought about by the global pandemic, we asked participants to reflect on how these changes impact their learning preferences, what inspires their curiosity, for their self-evaluation of where they are now situated in the career cycle stage, and what they think are currently the most pressing issues in librarianship. We used convenience sampling to recruit up to twenty library workers who conduct instructional activities in an academic setting and who have worked for at least 10 years--regardless of full or part-time employment. To extend our participant pool, we used snowball sampling. Participants were asked to respond to an online survey consisting of nine multiple choice and short answer questions and were invited to participate in an hour-long virtual interview to expand on their survey responses.

We discuss how our findings and analysis, along with our suggestions, can inform institutional training efforts and retention strategies. We will also discuss how we can use these findings at the individual level to inform how we adapt to professional changes in rejuvenating and productive ways.

References

Flatley, R. K., & Weber, M. A. (2004). Perspectives on... Professional development opportunities for new academic librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(6), 488–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2004.06.011

Maskit, D. (2011). Teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes during various stages of professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(5), 851–860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.01.009

This best practice case presents the development of information literacy workshops embedded in a bachelor’s thesis course when moving the teaching to an online environment. On-site information literacy (IL) lecture on the principles of information searching, presentation of the most important databases and hands-on information search training given by an academic librarian had been part of the on-site course curriculum in LUT University since the early 2010s. When the Covid pandemic restrictions started in March 2020, IL teaching had to be moved to an online environment. To find the best IL e-learning methods, iterative student feedback evaluation for continuous development was utilized.

The Two Phased Development Process

To develop the online IL workshops, a new model was implemented in the autumn of 2020. In this model, students (n=35) got a preliminary assignment based on online learning material. The assignment consisted of an essay where students described their information search process for their thesis and reported the results. In the online workshops librarians then gave them feedback and pointers based on the essays, moving on to demonstrations using the University Library’s search portal and the Scopus database. After the demonstrations, students performed searches in smaller groups and reported their results at the end of the workshop.

Webropol questionnaire was used to collect feedback from the students to find out about their satisfaction with the workshop. According to grounded theory-based analysis, the result was twofold. In their open answers, some students appreciated the group work, while others considered it not being as beneficial as the rest of the workshop. In addition, comments were made on the scheduling and heaviness of the session with back-to-back demonstrations.

In the following revisions, the preliminary assignment was split into four narrower questions covering the scope of the essay. In the workshop, the group work was replaced by two independent search sessions, giving students an opportunity to both have a little breather and to do searches based on their thesis topic. Other parts of the workshop remained the same. Lastly, feedback was collected.

Conclusion

Like other flipped and online classroom initiatives report (Fisher et al., 2017, Yap and Manabat, 2021), students appeared to benefit from getting acquainted with the learning material in advance and from using class time for active learning activities. According to citation analyses of preliminary assignments, students had learned the skill to find scientific documents on their topics by reading the online learning material (Talikka et al., 2022). Students considered independent searching for information on their thesis topic very useful, and group work did not appear to support it sufficiently. The overall satisfaction with the renewed workshop was good.

References

Fisher, R., Ross, B., LaFerriere, R. & Maritz, A. (2017). Flipped learning, flipped satisfaction, getting the balance right. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 5(2), 114–127. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.5.2.9.

Talikka, M., Naukkarinen, J., Mielonen, K. & Eskelinen, H. (2022) Guided process to enhance undergraduate engineering students’ thesis work. In 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Uppsala, Sweden (pp. 1–6). https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE56618.2022.9962441

Yap, J. M., & Manabat, A. R. (2021). Are we in-sync? Students’ virtual instructional experience and perceived information literacy skills in time of pandemic. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 25(4), 169–184.

Utilizing board games, information professionals teach critical thinking, visual literacy, and communication skills in a low-stakes environment, encouraging otherwise reluctant students to participate. Disabled individuals have the same needs and uses for information literacy, but most popular games are not designed with accessibility in mind. Lack of accessibility, rather than creating community and encouraging participations, further alienates already marginalized students. By combining the lowered stakes of board games and demonstrating consideration for disabled people, events such as these expand the audience for information professionals.

As games and gamification have become more intrinsically linked to both education and libraries, two librarians at a public university developed a tabletop gaming event to raise awareness of accessible and inclusive design in gaming. While games work very well in building communities, much of the tabletop gaming industry does little to mitigate exclusionary design. The vast majority of games use color alone to distinguish player pieces from each other despite the prevalence of distinct types of colorblindness. For example, approximately 8% of the male population experiences some form of colorblindness. The simple design change of adding shapes, textures or patterns would make these games accessible to color blind players.

Using their expertise in game design and human factors, the authors carefully reviewed and play-tested multiple games for inclusion in the event. While no individual game can be created or modified to have universal accessibility, playing games with an eye toward accessibility is the only way to determine which games have better design. Providing descriptions of what specific games do well (or poorly) along with tested modifications prompt players to consider how design can be improved for accessibility. Workshop attendees will play sample games used in the event and evaluate them for accessibility.

Successful gaming events or use of games in instruction requires partnerships. In this case, we developed partnerships with the Student Access Center and the University’s acculturation class.

In developing events like these, the greatest expense comes from building game collections. While more familiar board games are quite affordable, these are generally among the worst when it comes to accessible design. That said, certain companies have created modified versions, including large print, braille, and tactile modifications. While these do expand human diversity in playability, most of these are post-market modifications which increase costs by as much as 500%. With the rising prevalence and falling costs of 3D printing and makerspaces, replacing or modifying the pieces and parts of existing games is far more effective if the right facilities are available in your area.

Participants will work together in this active session to play, evaluate, and describe how various games meet or fail to meet accessibility standards. The authors will also share informational resources, including informational sites that will help in growing your own list of games suitable for playtesting, with factors such as popularity, time investment, complexity level, and design mechanics. 3D printing files are free or inexpensive, and multiple online communities devoted to accessibility in games can be found through both gaming and disabled perspectives.

Writing a short literature review at university can be a useful assignment to develop a variety of academic (Sharples, 2022) and information literacy (IL) skills. However, recent technological developments have provided students with a new shortcut, artificial intelligence (AI), which can provide a coherent, albeit somewhat technical and stilted output (Sharples, 2022, p. 1122). As “AI-assisted writing is already deeply embedded into practices that students already use” (Fyfe, 2022, p. 2), the faculty and librarians at universities face numerous questions that challenge traditional practices of teaching students academic writing and supporting IL skills. The issues of plagiarism and bias (Fyfe, 2022), fake references (Sharples, 2022), opacity of algorithms (Lloyd, 2019), and questions about trust and neutrality (Haider & Sundin, 2022) are but a few of these questions.

This presentation focuses on an intervention of applying the GPT-3 in the process of writing students’ short literature reviews. Writing a short literature review has been a traditional task to support Information Management students’ IL skills during ‘Information Behavior Theories and Practices’ course at University of Tartu. During the spring semester of the 2022-23 academic year, this task was enhanced by adding a request to use GPT-3 (such as OpenAI playground) in the writing process and reflect upon using the new technology. Of particular interest in the reflections was the students’ perceived usage of AI, hence the research questions:

• How do students evaluate the usability of AI in terms of searching, evaluating, and presenting information?

• What are the benefits and problems related to using AI in process of writing?

During the introduction of this assignment, the usage of reflections in research was covered, including the possibility to opt-out at any time without any negative consequences. The students’ reflections (N=26) were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify themes related to using AI in academic writing process. Despite the initial excitement, the students presented critical attitudes toward the results provided by GPT-3. Nevertheless, AI provided help with translations, and sometimes finding new perspectives. In line with Dinneen & Buginger (2021), this study contributes to the discussions around the usage of AI in academic tasks that have predominantly benefitted from the domain of information literacy.

References

Dinneen, J. D., & Bubinger, H. (2021). Not quite ‘Ask a Librarian’: AI on the nature, value, and future of LIS. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 58(1), 117–126.

Fyfe, P. (2022). How to cheat on your final paper: Assigning AI for student writing. AI & SOCIETY, 1–11.

Haider, J., & Sundin, O. (2022). Paradoxes of media and information literacy: The crisis of information. Taylor & Francis.

Lloyd, A. (2019). Chasing Frankenstein’s monster: Information literacy in the black box society. Journal of Documentation, 75(6), 1475–1485.

Sharples, M. (2022). Automated essay writing: An AIED opinion. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 32(4), 1119–1126.

Due to a rapid development of digital services and digital transformation in a wide range of disciplines, new challenges have emerged seeking out to acquire digital skills and gain digital competence (Vuorikari et. al., DigiCompEdu 2.2, 2022). Learning about information technology can be quite challenging for STEM-oriented students, and it’s even more challenging for non-STEM students (May, 2022). However, new possibilities to teach non-STEM students about fundaments of information technology have emerged as a result of new developments in the fields of artificial intelligence, gaming, virtual reality, etc. In order to provide an effective education approach for non-STEM students a model that uses advanced artificial technology has been formed. In this model students learn about a non-STEM subject by using information technology paired with artificial intelligence. More precisely, students boost their literacy skills by writing a story that will be used as a scenario. This scenario has to be structured well-enough to be processed by algorithms based on artificial intelligence that generate a video game based on a created scenario. Regarding the scenario, technics and methods, students learn more about both structured writing and literacy, and information technology at the same time.

Gamification as a method, among others, describes a social context by game-elements such as awards, rule structures, and interfaces that are inspired by video games. Mathias Fuchs et. al. (2014) analyses the role and impact of gamification method in business and wide society suggesting revising the question of re-thinking the method by applying it in a number of other fields (e. g. education, business, health, wide society, etc.) (Hartmann, 2022).

By integrating literacy and creativity fostered by gamification method, non-STEM students learn about literacy and coding simultaneously and boost-up their STEM skills. They get more familiar with STEM aspects by mapping information literacy in the field, and their motivation is increased since they are provided with engaging and assisted environment. This process has been based on the gamification method with an aim to support process of strengthening four different competences 1) literary competences, 2) writing in a foreign language, 3) coding and STEM skills and 4) lifelong learning competences.

References

Fuchs, M., Fizek, S., Ruffino, P., & Schrape, N. (Eds.). (2014). Rethinking gamification. Lüneburg: Meson Press.

Hartmann, F. G., Mouton, D., & Ertl, B. (2022). The Big Six interests of STEM and non-STEM students inside and outside of teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 112, 103622. Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103622

Kampylis, P., Punie, Y., & Devine, J. (2015). Promoting effective digital-age learning - A European framework for digitally-competent educational organisations. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Kergerl, D., Heidkamp-Kergel., B., Arnett, R., & Macino, S. (2020). In Communication and Learning in an age of Digital Transformation. Routledge Press.

May Brienne, K., Wendt, J. L., & Barthlow, M. J. (2022). A comparison of students’ interest in STEM across science standard types. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 6, 100287z. Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2022.100287

Vuorikari, R., Kluzer, S., & Punie, Y. (2022). DigComp 2.2: The digital competence framework for citizens, EUR 31006 EN. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. https://dx.doi.org/10.2760/115376

ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) software and tools are already changing the world. ChatGPT can pass an MBA exam from an Ivy League Institution (Terwiesch, 2023). It can also create disinformation on topics like “vaccines, COVID-19, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, immigration and China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority” (Associated Press, 2023). Current AIs have the ability to provide seemingly valid information that is, in fact, devoid of any relationship with reality.

Consider a state actor who uses a propaganda model leveraging the fact that “information overload leads people to take shortcuts” in deciding on the trustworthiness of information (Rand, 2016). New AI systems can more cheaply and easily than ever before create plausible, yet ultimately false, information about healthcare choices or a political candidate. It is not difficult to imagine a deluge of mis- or dis-information that becomes extremely difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to separate the true from the mostly true from the blatantly false.

Information Literacy (IL) theorists and practitioners are uniquely positioned to lead and facilitate important discussions around these topics as there are real implications for healthcare, education, and democracy. Yet existing IL theory, practices, and research are not currently adequate to address the challenges new developments in AI pose. Accordingly, this conceptual paper will identify three specific areas IL professionals can devote time and resources to address some of these problems.

First, we can advocate for new kinds of AI systems designed with specific limitations and parameters. Similarly, we can further explainable AI (XAI) research that aims to help users “understand, trust, and manage” AI applications (Gunning et al., 2019). Secondly, we must reconsider IL and higher education instruction in light of the new ability for students to easily create AI-generated text. Embracing certain elements of AI tools intentionally could lead to pedagogical innovation yielding new ways to teach and learn—including new strategies to sift through a tremendous glut of AI-generated content of unknown veracity. Lastly, information professionals have the opportunity to refine or develop IL theory that can provide holistic, strategic thinking and justification for how educators, policy-makers, and the general public should treat and approach AI systems.

The future of AI is uncertain. What is clear is that without intentional forethought for how we design and use such systems we invite serious, and likely deleterious, consequences.

References

Terwiesch, C. (2023). Would chat GPT get a Wharton MBA? A prediction based on its performance in the operations management course. Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved February 1, 2023 from https://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Christian-Terwiesch-Chat-GTP-1.24.pdf

Associated Press. (2023). Learning to lie: AI tools adept at creating disinformation. Retrieved February 1, 2023 from https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2023-01-24/learning-to-lie-ai-tools-adept-at-creating-disinformation

Paul, C., & Matthews, M. (2016). The Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” propaganda model: Why it might work and options to counter it. RAND Corporation. Retrieved February 1, 2023 from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/perspectives/PE100/PE198/RAND_PE198.pdf

Gunning, D., Stefik, M., Choi, J., Miller, T., Stumpf, S., & Yang, G.-Z. (2019). XAI—Explainable artificial intelligence. Science Robotics, 4. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.aay7120

Objectives

People all over the world are experiencing information overload (IO). Its definition has long focused on a large amount of information (Bawden and Robinson, 2009). Today, we can see that the problem is not only the quantity of information but also its reliability. The authors of the Information Overload Scale (IOS) defined it as “a distress associated with the perception that there is too much information” (Williamson, Eaker, and Lounsbury, 2012, p. 1). Due to the emotional burden of the situation, the emotional aspects of IO become more critical. Specifically, COVID-19 is the factor that increases the number of information and its evaluation (e.g., de Bruin, 2021) or fake news (Bermes, 2021). IO has also been the subject of research focusing on information literacy (e.g., Lauri and Virkus, 2018).

The aim of the study was to indicate the challenges and recommendations for information literacy, based on the results of national surveys on IO, providing an insight into different experiences, attitudes, emotions,, and/or education needs based on the specifics of demographic characteristics (such as age or level of education), or other potential correlation phenomena (e.g., problematic use of social media or FOMO).

Methodology

The Information Overload Scale (Williamson, Eaker, & Lounsbury, 2012) was used in two waves of representative surveys of Polish Internet users aged 15 and older. IOS focuses on emotional aspects and subjective perceptions of information overload, thus revealing individual perceptions of one’s information skills.

Outcomes

The results do not confirm the differences in IO perception between sexes. Instead, they show a reduction in perceived burdens between 2021 and 2022, which can be linked to a suspension of lockdowns and the termination of online work. The way to respond to the elements of perceived IO may be a tip for information literacy education that is tailored to a specific social group and reflects the challenges of time and circumstances.

References

Bawden, D., & Robinson, L. (2009). The dark side of information: Overload, anxiety, and other paradoxes and pathologies. Journal of Information Science, 35(2), 180–191.

Bermes, A. (2021). Information overload and fake news sharing: A transactional stress perspective exploring the mitigating role of consumers’ resilience during COVID-19. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 61, 102555.

de Bruin, K., de Haan, Y., Vliegenthart, R., Kruikemeier, S., & Boukes, M. (2021). News avoidance during the COVID-19 crisis: Understanding information overload. Digital Journalism, 9(9), 1286–1302.

Lauri, L., & Virkus, S. (2018). Information overload of academic staff in higher education institutions in Estonia. In S. Kurbanoğlu et al. (Eds.), Information Literacy in Everyday Life, The Sixth European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL 2018, Oulu, Finland, September 24-27, 2018: Revised Selected Papers. Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) 989 (pp. 347–356). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Williamson, J., Eaker, P. E., & Lounsbury, J. (2012). The information overload scale. Proceedings of the ASIST Annual Meeting, 49(1), 1–3.

Information literacy supports higher education learners in becoming conversant in scholarship, including “sources of evidence, methods, and modes of discourse” (ACRL, 2015, p. 20). Grounded in their own expert practices, academics often have difficulty identifying challenges faced by students (Riegler, 2020), including engaging with disciplinary information. Drawing from research on publishing practices, this paper identifies specific information challenges encountered by students studying the history of science and outlines learning activities that may enable them to successfully navigate history of science scholarship.

History of science, including history of medicine, and history of technology, are burgeoning subdisciplines of history. Engaging with these fields can present information challenges for students encountering publications in these scholarly specializations. Pursuing published research in history of science and its attendant specializations requires students to, among other things, ascertain the dualistic externalist and internalist approaches in history of science. An externalist approach is concerned with larger contexts, such as social, political, and cultural issues and phenomena, whereas the internalist approach is concerned less so with context outside of the phenomena itself (Shapin, 1982).

The externalist versus internalist debate among historians in these fields results in two overarching approaches in their publications (Shapin, 1992; Yturbe, 1995). Examining these approaches informed the development of an educational model that can be used with undergraduates to focus their attention on the interpretation of the externalist versus internalist debate. Novice students’ ability to navigate this problematic space is crucial for their learning in these specializations. Students understanding the difference between both approaches can inform their information seeking, interpretation, and efforts in producing responsive and valid history of science research projects.

Hypothetically, this model can be applied with undergraduates in an introductory history of science course by introducing students to both approaches theoretically, and critically, though an examination of scholarly articles from a spectrum of history journals, including humanities and social science journals not generally associated with historical scholarship per se, but publishing historical research. Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life databases provide target databases for information triage. Utilizing a template of questions, students would be asked to categorize journal articles according to the externalist/internalist paradigm. Students further embed their categorizations within the context of historiographic best practices explicating the choices they made. Knowledge of externalist and internalist approaches equips history of science students to identify critical information aspects necessary to assess the scholarship.

References

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Riegler, P. (2020). Decoding the disciplines. A roundtrip from novice to expert back to novice. DiZ-Zentrum fur Hochschuldidaktik. Retrieved from https://diz-bayern.de/images/cwattachments/506_549cb112bb9684e079d3fb2f5ca21787.pdf

Shapen, S. (1992). Discipline and bounding: The history and sociology of science as seen through the externalist-internalist debate. History of Science, 30, 333–369.

Shapen, S. (1982). History of science and its sociological reconstructions. History of Science, 20, 157–211.

Yturbe, C. (1995). The history of science: Internal or external? In S. Ramirez, R. S. Cohen (Eds.), Mexican Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 172). Dordrecht: Springer.

Discussing the impacts of COVID19 pandemic requires both critical and reflective thinking. One approach is to introduce the idea of digital maturity (Dwivedi et al, 2020). This implies that a strategy must be developed in such a way to deal with complexity and a hybrid thinking. This approach might enable us to create the digital future of cultural institutions– (Levi et al, 2019). Our paper aims to synthesize international research and debates around the impact of the digital transition in two aspects:

• in competences, strategies and practices of information literacy in the area of digital convergence of libraries, archives, and museums; and

• in the forms of best practice and innovation in library and information science (LIS) Education by presenting the epistemological and pedagogical formats developed in new collaborative lines of action.

There is still little knowledge among the various stakeholders about the necessary changes needed to develop and update skills in information literacy for professionals employed or seeking employment in emerging markets in the cultural sector. It is up to the universities to promote the emergence of courses suitable for introducing digital skills that are needed in the redefinition of disciplinary boundaries. To meet these needs, the Lisbon Region Consortium of the Universities Portugal Project - Connecting Knowledge, the Open University and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa structured, in 2022/23, two different types of LLL courses:

• “Specialization Course in Culture and Digital Communication in Archives, Libraries and Museum (3 months); and

• “Post-graduation Degree in Digital Information Management for Libraries, Archives and Museums” (2 semesters).

The courses adopted the advantages of distance and online learning based on the methodological pillars and outcomes of the Virtual Pedagogical Model (VPM) of the Open University (Mendes et al, 2018). Thus, the courses incorportedstudent-centered learning, following the construction of the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process); the primacy of flexibility, allowing the student to carry out his learning; the primacy of interaction, as the student is not understood as simple content receiver, but as an active element of a collaborative network of learning, where information literacy is the result; and the principle of digital literacy as a factor of social inclusion.

This cooperative experience in higher education, especially in the LIS scientific field, represents a strategical focus on the link between knowledge management and information and digital literacy in Portugal.

References

Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, D. L., Coombs, C., Constantiou, I., Duan, Y., Edwards, J. S., & Upadhyay, N. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on information management research and practice: Transforming education, work and life. International Journal of Information Management, 55, 10221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102211

Levi, H., Wally, S., Lenh, D., & Cooke, S. (2019). The Routledge international handbook of new digital practices in galleries, libraries, archives, museums and heritage sites. London: Routledge.

Mendes, A., Bastos, G., Amante, L., Aires, L., & Cardoso, T. (2018). Modelo pedagógico virtual. Cenários de desenvolvimento. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta. Retrieved from https://portal.uab.pt/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/MPV_01.pdf

The promotion of information literacy is a standard task in many university libraries in Germany and an important part of their range of services. Ten years ago, the German Rectors’ Conference (2012) called in its resolution “Higher education institutions in a digital age: rethinking information competency – redirecting processes” for standardizing the teaching of information literacy and changing structures to strengthen information literacy within the framework of internal university governance. This contribution analyzes which organizational structures libraries have set up to teach information literacy and which standards they use. I will present the results of a survey that will provide answers to two main questions:

1. Was a a library department, a working group, or individuals responsible for teaching information literacy? and,

2. Which tasks are carried out and which management structures exist in libraries for teaching information literacy?

It became clear that no organizational model has prevailed in Germany to date and that many libraries work with in-house standards or without any standardized specifications at all.

The contribution discusses which form of IL governance the teaching librarians saw as successful and which organizational and management structures they considered sensible. Finally, I will discuss successes and failures, opportunities and challenges of the various models.

References

German Rectors’ Conference. (2012). Higher education institutions in a digital age: rethinking information competency – redirecting processes. Retrieved February 15, 2017 from https://www.hrk.de/resolutions-publications/resolutions/beschluss/detail/higher-education-institutions-in-a-digital-age-rethinking-information-competency-redirecting-proc/

Flexibilization of higher education is a hot topic in the Netherlands. One of the conditions for making this flexibilization possible is the use of open badges, which are digital certificates that allow students to visualize the knowledge and skills they have acquired. A national infrastructure for awarding open badges to students, called edubadges, has been set up for this purpose.

Edubadges are normally created and awarded per institution. The Dutch Working Group on Information Literacy is now working on a scoop. In order to give edubadges added value, work is being done on institution-wide Information literacy edubadges. The IL taxonomy has been used as the basis for these badges.

The added value of these interchangeable badges is that students who transfer to another institution or curriculum can use the badge to show what level of IL competency they have. In this way, it is easier to catch up with the required IL competency level of the new curriculum. Moreover, because multiple institution are involved in its creation, it can contribute to the quality improvement (Raish & Rimland, 2016) of IL education and testing as part of it. Finally, IL badges allow for visibility of information literacy within the curriculum (Rimland & Raish, 2017).

The biggest challenge in this project is reaching consensus on learning outcomes to be tested and an edubadges format related to this. During this session we will take you on a journey towards institution-wide badges.

References

Raish, V., & Rimland, E. (2016). Employer perceptions of critical information literacy skills and digital badges. College & Research Libraries, 77(1), 87–113. htttps://doi.org/10.5860/crl.77.1.87

Rimland, E., & Raish, V. (2017). Design principles for digital badges used in libraries. Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 29(4), 211–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2017.1378540

Van der Meer, H. A. L., & Post, M. (2020). Information literacy taxonomy. Retrieved from: https://www.shb-online.nl/information-literacy-en/subject-matter#ac_3351_collapse4

If most papers in conference settings present success stories, I propose to share with the ECIL participants a continuing alarming situation which occurs in one of America’s largest urban areas, the City of Detroit, where the literacy rate is one of the lowest in the United States, amounting to only 47%. The 2020 US Census counted 639,111 inhabitants in the City of Detroit, the largest in the State of Michigan, ranking it the 18th largest in the country. The racial makeup of Detroit is 77.17% blacks, 9.51% whites, 8.02% Hispanics, 3% multiracial, 1.58 Asian, and .72% other. The education level of Detroit’s population age 25+ consists of 82.6% being graduates of a high school and 16.2% holding a bachelor’s degree. The median household income in the City of Detroit is $34,762 as opposed to almost double in the state of Michigan, where it amounts to $63,202.

Despite of highlights one can find in tourist guides where Detroit is presented as a major cultural center, known for its contributions to music, art, architecture and design, in addition to its historical automotive background, several higher learning institutions, a national research university with medical and law schools, the City has been facing a continued exodus of population which led to the closing of many public schools. With 48,615 students enrolled, the graduation rate for Detroit’s 107 public schools is 76%, with reading proficiency of only 18% for the 2020/21 academic year. Traditional public and charter school students in the City have performed poorly on standardized tests. Circa 2009 and 2011, Detroit traditional public schools scored a record low on national tests.

Based on the corroboration of census data and the examination of socio-economic factors, the paper seeks to determine the root causes which have led to the declining of literacy rates in Detroit (neighborhood disinvestment, politics of abandonment, crime dynamics, high incarceration rates, unemployment, low median house income) and to discuss rescue efforts several types of organizations and agencies along with policy makers have been engaging in to address the endemic issue of illiteracy in Detroit and to provide solutions for better access to information literacy programs through classes, library services and even financial incentives aimed at attracting disadvantaged groups.

The Detroit Literacy Project Coalition (DLPC) was born out of a desire to create a hub for all kinds of resources that aid reading learners of all ages and backgrounds. DLPC is a constantly evolving and growing network of organizations with the same mission: to improve literacy and foster love of reading for all Detroiters. ModEL Detroit is a project aimed at sharing tools and resources to support teachers in implementing English Language education. Additionally, the project seeks to prepare students enrolled in the Detroit Public School system to be successful in their studies, career, and life. Starting from the premises that 60% of the unemployed lack the necessary skills to train for high-tech jobs, the Pro-Literacy Detroit offers programs that address the severity of this issue. The non-profit organization aims to assist adults 16 and over to become independent readers, writers, and speakers of English, with the ultimate goal to solve adult illiteracy in Detroit. The Detroit Future Media (DFM) program is an intensive digital literacy training program to support the revitalization of Detroit communities through the use of media and technology as pathways to interconnect the City’s communities. The Detroit Future Media Guide to Digital Literacy is an open-source handbook to be used by community members to enhance their media literacy skills alongside entrepreneurship and community organizing competencies. The Siena Literacy Center is a non-profit organization with a mission to improve the lives of families in metropolitan Detroit by providing reading, math, English language, and digital literacy programming for adult learners.

With private and government support from local and national entities, programs like those mentioned above aim to address the disparities and the challenges of illiteracy in Detroit and to bring the City to par with other American cities. The efforts of diverse entities engaged in improving literacy per se to be followed by developing basic information literacy skills in Detroit could serve as a model for other parts of the world facing similar challenges.

Yuval Harari proposes the dystopian view that an algorithm can understand us and our thoughts and feelings better than our mothers, without us even recognising that this is happening, and that this can lead to a threat to democracy (Harari in Thompson, 2018). Questions of responsibility for overcoming the power vested in technologies abound in the literature, with calls for regulation by technology companies and by nation-states through legislation. Although many people are resigned to the unregulated media environment, informed citizens can also take on some responsibility, through maintaining a high level of digital literacy. As Henninger (2021) notes, this is not new information. Lloyd (2019) calls for information literacy scholars and librarians to consider how they address the impact of algorithms on everyday activities. This study aims to heed this call, drawing on accounts of the information literacy practices of librarians.

Objectives

Algorithms influence our online interactions and have real impacts on individuals and on society, in ways that are rarely apparent and which can be detrimental to a democratic society. Librarians claim to have a significant responsibility for developing information and digital literacies, through which a level of algorithmic literacy might develop, but little is known about the professional processes through which they achieve this. The purpose of this study is to position the development of algorithmic literacy in the context of an inclusive and democratic society.

Methodology

Using a practice theory approach, this study has interviewed more than twenty academic librarians who provide programs and services in information literacy services to university students in New South Wales, Australia, in order to identify how they talk about these processes and interactions (Schatzki 2012). The transcripts of the interviews, as well as resources relevant to their practices, were analysed using thematic analysis to identify elements of algorithmic and digital literacies, considerations of democratic practices, active citizenship and wider societal implications.

Outcomes

There was little evidence of a focus on algorithmic culture. Librarians’ understanding of algorithmic literacy ranged from the naïve to passive acquaintance especially through social media, with few claiming conceptual or practical expertise. Perceptions of the relationship between information and digital literacies and active citizenship were influenced by the ethos of the university, presenting a fragmented perspective on the role of these literacies. Responsibilities for regulating the effects of algorithms on citizens in their everyday lives were mostly seen to lie beyond the scope of librarians, vested in government, in technology companies and the institutions of education from earliest childhood. Taken together, these factors are likely to weaken further the position of librarians as arbiters of authoritative sources of information in a society.

References

Thompson, N. (2018). When tech knows you better than you know yourself: Yuval Noah Harari and Tristan Harris interviewed by Wired. [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-yuval-noah-harari-tristan-harris/

Henninger, M. (2021). Information literacy: Importance and consequences. Philippine Journal of Librarianship and Information Studies, 41(2), 3–12. Retrieved from https://phjlis.org/index.php/phjlis/article/view/82/67

Lloyd, A. (2019). Chasing Frankenstein’s monster: Information literacy in the black box society. Journal of Documentation, 75(6), 1475–1485. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-02-2019-0035

Schatzki, T. R. (2012). A primer on practices: Theories and research. In J. Higgs, et al. (Eds.), Practice-Based Education: Perspectives and Strategies, (pp. 13–26) Rotterdam: Springer.

The widespread use and impact of algorithms on almost every aspect of the individual and society is a significant challenge to the modern world. For effective and informed functioning in today’s societies, we need to develop algorithmic literacy (Iwasiński & Furman, 2022). So far there have been several studies aimed at defining and operationalizing this notion, but only few at developing standardized measures of algorithmic literacy (Latzer et al., 2020). In 2022 Dogruel, Masur, and Joeckel (Dogruel et al., 2022) constructed and validated a 22-item scale for measuring algorithmic literacy. It consists of two interrelated dimensions: awareness of algorithms use (11 items), and knowledge about algorithms (11 items). The first dimension relates to the awareness of the purposes for which algorithms are being used and awareness of areas and applications or devices, in which algorithms are actually used. The second dimension focuses on a more advanced understanding of the mechanisms of action of algorithmic systems and their consequences. The correlation between results in both dimensions, and the practical ability to interact with algorithms has been confirmed.

In our study, we apply this scale to measure and compare the algorithmic literacy of Polish students of several faculties. We also want to test the scale in the Polish context. Authors of the scale declare: “our original scale was developed in German (...) Items worked in the context of our study, but item length or use of words to increase or decrease item difficulty might be critical in other languages”. Our pilot research indicated that respondents had trouble understanding the intentions behind some of the items.

Our research has two main goals:

• Testing the scale in the Polish context

• Assessing algorithmic literacy among Polish students of selected faculties.

We regard our research as exploratory. Our sample is purposive. We have selected courses from Polish universities, which are available to us, and as we assume, include some form of algorithmic education in their curricula. These are: Architecture of Information Spaces at the University of Warsaw, Sociology of Media and Communication at the University of Warsaw, and Philosophy of New Media at the University of Silesia. All students of the last (third) year will be studied. We also intend to check if the items are understandable, using interviews. Moreover, we plan to study and compare the syllabuses of the above programmes, to find out if they include courses that sensitize students to the knowledge of algorithms.

We adopted two working hypotheses:

1. Not all items in the questionnaire are clear and understandable to our respondents.

2. Students of different faculties have different levels of algorithmic literacy.

The study combines elements of quantitative analysis (Algorithmic Literacy Scale) and qualitative analysis (interviews with students, sylabuses analysis). This is, to our knowledge, the first empirical research on algorithmic literacy in Poland. Furthermore, we are not aware of any other studies that use the scale developed by Dogruel, Masur, and Joeckel worldwide.

References

Dogruel, L., Masur P., & Joeckel, S. (2022) Development and validation of an algorithm literacy scale for internet users. Communication Methods and Measures, 16(2).

Iwasiński, Ł., & Furman, W. (2022). Jak być świadomym użytkownikiem algorytmów? O potrzebie rozwijania kompetencji algorytmicznych. Zagadnienia Informacji Naukowej, 2.

Latzer, M., Festic, N., & Kappeler, K. (2020). Awareness of algorithmic selection and attitudes in Switzerland. Report 2 from the project: The significance of algorithmic selection for everyday life: The case of Switzerland. University of Zurich.

Generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT are transforming how people interact with information, with significant implications for information literacy. Using ChatGPT and similar tools as information retrieval challenges many core ideas of information literacy, as it generates often quite adequate topic overviews, while claiming neither copyright nor any authority other than having been trained on a huge corpus of texts.

While this disruption is unique, it is not unprecedented. Twenty-five years ago, general purpose web search engines blurred formats and authorship on the Web, which itself had just reached a critical mass to make it a worthwhile starting point for general information needs. A few years later, Wikipedia explicitly challenged traditional notions of expertise. How librarians, and others interested in information literacy, responded to these tools, both in terms of how they thought about they discussed them among themselves and how they addressed them while teaching information literacy, can help us anticipate and understand our reactions to the use of AI today.

In this paper, I review the historical scholarly and trade literature, as well as less formal sources such as social media and email listservs, for discussions of Wikipedia, Google, and earlier dominant search engines as new tools that impact information literacy, looking for themes and approaches that might inform our response to ChatGPT and similar tools.

Broadly speaking, early analysis shows three broad categories of responses:

• Reinforcing, in other words, incorporating Wikipedia and Google into the pre-existing models of information behavior. For example, presenting Wikipedia as an encyclopedia that you might use to initially learn about a topic, but would not cite as a source.

• Rejecting or taking the stance that Google or Wikipedia are not appropriate tools and should not be used. For example, emphasizing the questionable quality of information in these sources.

• Revolutionizing or exploiting features of the tool that allow for new ways of engaging with information literacy. For example, presenting editing Wikipedia as a low stakes opportunity for learners to engage with concepts of scholarship as conversation, authority, and so on.

I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of all three responses, considering both the benefits of hindsight as well as the implications for how we approach artificial intelligence and other future disruptive tools.

In the 1960s, four scientific organizations from around the globe set up a charitable organization--a publisher--charged with serving that community’s discipline-specific information needs. This was primarily done through the creation of an A&I database, but serving those information needs also extended to enhancing the community’s understanding of information and the information ecosystem.

To do so, the publisher created a literacy and outreach manager role. Efforts to enhance information literacy amongst students and professionals in the field have included creating guidance about: good practice for literature searching; the publication process; predatory publishers; and, discipline-specific systematic review methodology.

The latest effort has been to design and build a lengthy SpringShare LibWizard quiz. This quiz is a training tutorial for the database (with one version per vendor platform), but it is also a vehicle for instilling principles of information literacy. Thanks to the publisher’s robust global networks with academic and industry-based librarians and researchers, this quiz can potentially have substantial reach and influence in the field. This PechaKucha presentation will capture the project’s challenges and solutions.

First, the motivation for building the quiz—to teach students to use the database, to understand that and how it differs from a search engine, and to have a basic understanding of controlled vocabulary. This, hopefully, can help solve the problem of poor student research skills and weak bibliographies.

Second, logistical issues. Why use LibWizard as the vehicle for the training tutorial? Why use the quiz function rather than the tutorial function? What are the challenges in building a thirty-page tutorial in a tool mostly designed for shorter objects?

Third, pedagogical issues. Where does the balance lie between showing where to click on the interface and dwelling on the quality of information and interpreting the results that a search returns? What might a person taking the quiz know already? How long can a quiz be that must be completed in one sitting? What are the most important points to emphasize and reinforce with the quiz questions? How can questions be structured so that learning is active?

Third, reception and roll out. Although the tutorial will be freely available for anyone to use who wants to—anyone who finds it online can take it—the vision of its success is for it to be integrated into library sessions and course modules at universities that subscribe to the database. One librarian at a US university has said that they will use it for a flipped learning exercise before students attend face-to-face library sessions. Another academic lecturer has asked to have a version branded with their course number and library webpage and they’ll embed it into a mandatory introductory course. Will the quiz be adopted more broadly? If so, how and where?

As this project of creating a web-based quiz to support database searching and information literacy skills is just being rolled out, a PechaKucha presentation has the potential to capture the most important lessons and challenges encountered in the earliest stages of its release.

As the world of media continues to rapidly evolve, it is crucial for librarian instructors to equip students with the necessary skills to effectively evaluate online information. However, traditional methods of information evaluation, such as the CRAAP test with a focus on close reading, may no longer be sufficient in today’s digital age.

To address this challenge an exercise teaching updated information evaluation skills has been incorporated into a one-shot librarian instructor workshop taught in a large undergraduate compulsory course at the American University of Sharjah. The exercise is based on a new method designed for evaluating web-based media called SIFT (The Four Moves), developed in 2017 by digital information specialist Mike Caulfield (Caulfield, 2019).

The SIFT method consists of four moves that are performed when encountering online information;

• Stop

• Investigate the source

• Find better coverage

• Trace quotes to original source

The new exercise is designed to teach students to determine the legitimacy of information in a fast and effective manner by reframing information evaluation skills as ‘learning to think like fact-checkers’, as suggested in Caulfield’s SIFT video series instruction of the method (CTRL-F, 2020). The exercise, taught within the one-shot workshop, has been repeated over multiple semesters to all sections of the course, taught by either one of two librarian instructors or a graduate teaching assistant. The exercise continues to be refined and updated based on feedback and new findings, ensuring that skills are delivered using the most effective approach.

By encouraging students to explore the wider context of a source, they can self-teach and build practice in using evaluative habits that are highly valuable both in an academic sense and also for their own personal media and social media literacy skills. Ultimately, this exercise aims to provide students with the necessary skills to critically evaluate online information, making them better equipped to navigate the rapidly shifting landscape of media in today’s digital age. This presentation will share strategies and learnings from delivering this SIFT-based exercise within the structure of the one-shot librarian instructor workshop.

References

Caulfield, M. (2019). SIFT (The four moves). Hapgood. Retrieved from https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/

CTRL-F. (2020). Online verification skills with Mike Caulfield [Video playlist]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsSbsdukQ8VYy88IiSJhz4NyBxxtLzsNr

Since 2021, the TLIT4U project has been implemented by ULSIT (Bulgaria), UNIPR (Italy), ULAPLAND (Finland) and FPM (Italy). The project highlights the need to improve students’ multiple literacy skills and develop a curriculum integrating a STE(A)M approach and using serious games. The numerous definitions of Digital Fluency - DF (Demir, 2015; Ross, 2015) often overlap with definitions of IL, digital competencies and even multimodality. Sparrow (2018) defines 5 skills essential for students with regard to fluency. The paper presents the results of the survey on DF carried out in the first phase of TLT4U and the focus group with students using Design thinking (DT) method realized in the second phase of the project.

Methodology

The research questions of the survey during the first phase were: How do students rate their digital fluency and what do teachers think about the difficulty of integrating digital fluency skills into their curricula? In order to investigate students’ perceptions and skills, the project team organized a workshop and presented the concepts of transliteracy, STEM and DF to trainees from the partner universities in IT, BG and FI. After an analysis of the students’ needs, in the second phase the partners involved students in the design of a curriculum to obtain DF skills applying the DT method.

Findings

The perceptions of students and teachers on DF and Digital literacy skills were analyzed and further activities with students were planned towards the design of a DF curriculum. The learning objectives set by students, the proposed learning activities and assessment methods were matched with the criteria of interdisciplinarity and employability. The outcomes of a relevant curriculum were specified and a syllabus was developed by the students using the DT method and the peer assessment approach. The project will use these results to prepare a model curriculum and promote an active learning based on Inquiry based and STEAM education.

References

Demir, K., Aydin, B., Ersoy, N. S., Kelek, A., Tatar, I., Kuzu, A., & Odebasi, H. F. (2015). Visiting digital fluency for preservice teachers in Turkey. World Journal on Educational Technology, 7(1).

Ross, P. (2015). Digital fluency, social enterprise and why they are important for HR. Huffpost Business.

Sparrow, J. (2018). Digital fluency: Preparing students to create big, bold problems. Educause review.

Educational institutions are politically the “slowest tanker” regarding their willingness to change. That is as true for schools and their curricula as it is for pedagogical adaptations and paradigms of public libraries. Given ChatGPT, Luminar Neo, and similar AI-supported image and text programs and the demands of a diversified society, these institutions face even more severe challenges and changes than those brought about by digitization and networking in Web 2.0. Schools and universities are considering how examinations can be made even safer and how undercutting can become impossible. Initial considerations are expectedly to move in the direction of restrictions and controls. They are relying on appropriate security software, which is the equivalent of using AI, to put AI on trial?. Teachers fear losing control over knowledge acquisition if artificial bits of intelligence with access to the digitally available literature create texts at a speed and complexity at which this is impossible for humans.

What is the function of libraries in this process? How do they respond to the “competition of AI”? Solutions must not be sought by taking a step backward, ignoring the existence of such systems, and relying on memorized book knowledge in oral exams as proof of performance. To borrow Henry Jenkins’ description of schools’ misadoption of innovation: we need to avoid learning for an “outdated world” (Jenkins & Kelly, 2013, p. 9). Disruptive technological developments require just such societal adjustments. Riel Miller’s (2011), theory of futures literacy, now a UN initiative, considers inculcating more effective preparation, analysis, and empowerment for what challenges and developments lie ahead for humanity.

The collective examination of different levels of future problems and possible developments and solutions should make short-, medium- and longer-term scenarios conceivable and creatively workable. In our new continuing education program, “XPRTN for futures literacies,” we wanted to create training reflective of beliefs held by public library employees while supporting their searchfor a future library pedagogy through knowledge of theory, structure, and categories as well as through collaborative development We were concerned with meeting the challenges in a diverse post- or transhumanistic mediatized society of inclusion, gender justice, democratization, linguistic and social diversity, (Ernst & Schröter, 2020). Our team at TU Dortmund and TH Cologne University of Applied Sciences addressed these concerns in our training –. The format thus replaces the “XPRTN for Reading,” which has qualified about 15 employees of public libraries annually since 2011. The reference to educational partners’ expectations and framework conditions will remain in the new offering. However, the orientation moves from reading as a cultural technique to a more action-oriented approach of participatory adaptation to continuously changing framework conditions and the social challenges of the library as a “third place (Oldenburg, 1989).” We plan to outline and reflect on the concept in a collegial circle in our conference presentation.

References

Jenkins, H., & Kelly, W. (Eds.) (2013). Reading in a participatory culture. Remixing Moby-Dick in the English classroom. New York; London: Teachers College Press.

Ernst, C., & Schröter, J. (2020). Zukünftige Medien. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Miller, R. (2011). Opinion: Futures literacy: Embracing complexity and using the future. Ethos, 10, 81–86. Retrieved from https://www.csc.gov.sg/docs/default-source/ethos/ethos10.pdf

Oldenburg, R. (1989). The great good place. St Paul, Minnesota: Paragon House .

Intellectual property plays a key role in the development of the knowledge-based economy in that it affects competitiveness and innovation. The aim of this research was to draw attention, through ananalysis and criticism of literature, to the importance of knowledge of intellectual property protection.Industrial property and copyright is important to understand in the context of new, dynamically developing information and communication technologies and the digital economy. In this context, higher education librarians, in particular scientific librarians in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas, can play an important role. The inclusion of training in the use of intellectual property skills in academic information literacy programs will contribute to strengthening students’ knowledge of intellectual property protection. This will assist librarians in developing practical skills and developing and improving professional competences related to functioning in a modern, innovative economy. In my paper I will define the concepts related to the ability to use intellectual property and the ability to use information in the area of intellectual property. I will present activities drawn from scientific librarians shaping the ability to use intellectual property with selected faculties of the Jagiellonian University including the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, and Faculty of Biophysics, Biochemistry and Biotechnology). I will collect the data as part of a survey conducted among librarians of individual faculties.

Purpose

This report highlights the extending role of libraries and other memory institutions due to the progress of Open Science and particularly Citizen Science. Citizen Science is a developing practice with various stakeholders, combining strengths and resources, engaging in research by addressing societal needs and global problems, and developing a knowledge society. Libraries play a relevant role here by promoting collaboration among various stakeholders and increasing information and scientific literacy.

Methodology

The international project LibOCS (Project Number: 2021-1-EE01-KA220-HED-000031125) was the framework for the chosen methodology and study. Two surveys were run in the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The first survey was held from April to July 2022. The second survey was built based on the data obtained in the first survey, and it was held from June to September 2022. The feedback received from both semi-structured questionnaires was 127 filled and valid for analysis responses of the first survey and 60 of the second one.

Gathered data helped to list the opinions and experiences of researchers, librarians, and specialists of other memory institutions, citizen scientists, or volunteers engaged in Citizen Science projects. The research of available information highlighted only a few Citizen Science projects aired in the Baltics with the engagement of library specialists (Kaseorg, 2022; Dobreva, 2015; Bite, 2020), therefore, it was decided to widen the range of respondents, and to run the surveys also among other memory institutions.

The QuestionPro tool was exploited to design surveys and collect data, and content analysis was used as the method of data aanalysis.

Findings

Respondents in the Baltic States expressed the willingness to collaborate with memory institution specialists in Citizen Science projects. The answers of the respondents witness the expanding role of the memory institutions specialists in research with the ability to perform the tasks related to organizing training on information, digital, data, and scientific literacy, as well as to giving support for Citizen Science projects through community conventions and promotion of knowledge sharing culture.

References

Bite, K., Daugavietis, J., Kampars, J., Kreicbergs, J., Kuchma, I., Locmele, E., Ostrovska, D., Vecpuise, E., Veisa, K., Zelve, M., & Latvijas Republikas Izglitibas un zinatnes ministrija. (2020). “Pētījuma par atvērto zinātni un rīcībpolitikas ceļa kartes izstrādi” noslēguma ziņojums 2020. gada 4 jūnijs. Retrieved September 9, 2022 from https://www.izm.gov.lv/sites/izm/files/petijums-atverta_zinatne_21_2.pdf

Dobreva, M., & Devreni-Kutsuki, A. (2015). Citizen science and memory institutions: Opportunities and challenges. [Conference paper]. Im INFORUM 2015: 21st Annual Conference on Professional Information Resources 2015, Prague, Czech Republic. Retrieved September 27, 2022 from https://www.inforum.cz/pdf/2015/dobreva-milena.pdf

Kaseorg, S., Neerut, L., Lembinen, L., & Arust, E. (2022). Drivers and barriers of citizen engagement in open science and the role of university libraries in the Baltics. Zenodo. Retrieved August 26, 2022 from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6997820

Background

Personal health and medical information can be textual, numerical, and visual. Medical information is preserved and managed in professionally maintained medical records, but also privately by patients. The ways of preservations vary, from digital to paper-based approaches, but increasingly, medical records and health services overall have turned digital. However, not all favor digital services, especially when it comes to older adults. Negative attitudes towards digital health services can reflect attitudes towards digital technology (Knapova, Klocek & Elavsky, 2020) or appreciation of direct interaction with healthcare professionals. Moreover, patient-accessible services shape people’s personal health information management behavior (Anonymized for review). This study contributes to filling the gap observed in a systematic review indicating that relatively little attention has been paid to examining people’s experiences on eHealth services, including their benefits (Anonymized for review).

Methods and data collection

A postal survey was mailed to a random population sample of 1,500 individuals aged 55-70 obtained from the national Population Information System of Finland. A total of 373 completed surveys (25%) were received. The mean age of the final study population was 63.2 (SD 4.7) years and 225 (60.6%) identified themselves as women. This study focuses specifically on the open-ended questions of the survey. These focused on personal health information management and views of current and future eHealth services. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis.

Findings and conclusions

Older adults’ experiences of personal health information management and the use of and attitudes towards the role of digital health services are divided. Fears, trust, and motivation, as well as general everyday life information practices and routines, guide their experiences and behavior with digital health records. Without any limits in resources or available technologies when developing a digital health service, according to respondents, the best possible service would contain versatile health information and combine information from different sectors of healthcare. It would be easy to use, clear and up-to-date, but would also allow the possibility to contact a real human being, a healthcare professional, for instance, via video connection.

References

Anonymized for review

Anonymized for review

Knapova, L., Klocek, A., & Elavsky, S. (2020.) The Role of Psychological Factors in Older Adults' Readiness to Use eHealth Technology: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(5), e14670. https://www.jmir.org/2020/5/e14670/

Introduction

In the last decades, our society evolved from information scarcity to information abundance. For the many things that we need to do in everyday life, we often find ourselves overloaded with information on how to do things. A visit to an Internet search engine (e.g., Google) or a visit to an online video library (e.g., YouTube) can often lead to multiple results on how to do the same thing. The problem of information seeking often turns into a filtering and evaluation problem.

In the context of information abundance, Information Literacy becomes a vital competence so that individuals can filter information (Abdallah, 2013) in everyday life. This is important in order to achieve desirable outcomes.

In this research, we built upon extant theory on information literacy (Sample, 2020), rich media (Ishii, et al. 2019) and information seeking in everyday life (Savolainen, 2017) in the context of students’ fitness and physical exercise. This is important as student practices of fitness and physical exercise can lead to desirable outcomes such as health and well-being, or negative outcomes such as pain and injury. In a world where so much information is available in multiple formats, it matters to understand how students seek information for the practice of fitness and physical exercise.

Method

This qualitative study addresses “how students seek information in the context of fitness and physical exercise”. This work-in-progress research is based on eight interviews and in-situ observations on the premises of a Nordic University that provides sports services to its students. We cover different fitness modalities such as calisthenics, basketball, weightlifting, stretching, and foam rolling.

Preliminary Findings

We found that even if students exhibited elevated levels of literacy in academic issues, they sought and evaluated the information pertaining to their fitness and physical exercise in a quite different way from their study and academic issues. As expected, students preferred rich media information in digital format, but it is striking how every student consumed information in a completely unique way – most of them consumed very different content even if practicing the same modality. This is explained by the high personalization, high interactivity, and high intrusiveness of the information providers’ platforms. Students valued the corporeal landscape of information literacy. Also, they consumed published research on sports science, but only indirectly. Some often provided information to others as well.

We will discuss the integration of our findings with information literacy theory, rich media theory, and information seeking in everyday life. Furthermore, we will also suggest avenues for future research that should engage in cooperation with other disciplines (e.g., media studies, sports science, artificial intelligence).

References

Abdallah, N. B. (2013). Activity theory as a framework for understanding information literacy. In S. Kurbanoğlu et al. (Eds.), Worldwide Commonalities and Challenges in Information Literacy Research and Practice, European Conference on Information Literacy, ECIL 2013, Istanbul, Turkey, October 22–25, 2013: Proceedings. Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) 397 (pp. 11–30). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Ishii, K., Lyons, M. M., & Carr, S. A. (2019). Revisiting media richness theory for today and future. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 1(2), 124–131.

Sample, A. (2020). Historical development of definitions of information literacy: A literature review of selected resources. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(2), 102116.

Savolainen, R. (2017). Everyday life information seeking. In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences: Fourth Edition, (pp. 1506–1515). CRC Press.

Globally academic libraries exert great efforts towards enhancing information literacy among higher education students. Academic Libraries in the United States of America boast several examples of the use of digital storytelling in libraries. One such example is the University of Reno, where librarians are deeply embedded into the process of digital storytelling. There various instructors in the college have begun incorporating digital storytelling into instruction in response to a broader push towards strengthening students’ communication skills. In Africa and southern Africa information literacy workshops still concentrate mainly on text, while visual media must also be used accurately and ethically. Regrettably, in many instances visual literacy is rarely addressed in greater depth. Visual literacy entails experiences, attitudes and orientations and are shared via images, video, and other forms of multimedia. Digital storytelling requires high levels of visual literacy. The American Library Association (ALA), the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) as well as the International Association of Visual Literacy (IVLA) describe and explain visual literacy. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyse the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials. The research question is what is the current utilisation of visuals among academic library services in the target group? This study sets out to explore the perceptions, challenges, and experiences of academic information specialists in enhancing visual literacy as a sub-literacy. Through the lens of a critical digital literacy frameworks and informed by recent research, the study looks at the potential value of visual literacy skills to the support of active learning in diverse student communities The study consists of three case studies in three South African higher HEIs. The three selected HEI Library and Information Services all responded and participated fully. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured survey questionnaires and follow up interviews sent to three institutions of higher learning in southern Africa. Thematic analysis was conducted to code and analyse collected data. The focus of the questionnaire was on their current use of DST in facilitating a range of literacies. Follow-up interviews were conducted at the selected HEIs. Thematic analysis was conducted to code and analyse collected data. In total three (3) participants from each HEI responded in answering the online survey questionnaire, making the total sample size nine (9) participants. When prompted about the Seven Steps of designing and creating a digital story, all participants conceded to lacking the foundational skills, knowledge and understanding of designing and using a digital story. They further shared that their HEIs all have instructional designers responsible for creating storyboards and digital content, but that these were mainly used for discipline-specific instruction only. None of the HEIs had a grounded understanding of metaliteracies and admitted guidelines towards best practice models in enhancing visual literacy. The value of the study lies in adding new knowledge of visual literacy skills, since they are still conducting information literacy training unchanged these past two decades, utilising PowerPoint presentation with limited use of digital storytelling techniques. The study offers communication and literacy awareness pertaining to an unexplored area and to propose best practice models.

In September 2021 the Norwegian government launched its “Strategy for digital transformation in higher education 2021-2025” (Strategy, 2021), and in November 2022 the Action plan building on this strategy was launched (Action plan, 2022). The strategy and action plan are closely related to various European Union initiatives (Digital education action plan, 2021; A Europe fit for the digital age, 2019), and also links to the overall plan for digitalization of the Norwegian society (A digital public sector, 2019).

The strategy and action plan focus on students and academics, and their need for more competencies and enhanced practical knowledge in information technology. The end goal is a more digitally competent workforce.

Neither the strategy nor the action plan mentions academic libraries specifically, but within the actions, there is room for relevant interventions where academic libraries can take a leading role.

In this paper, we would like to share some experiences from development work in this field, from the University of Bergen and the University Library, and from the University Library at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. To meet the increasing demands from the Ministry of Education and Research, the University of Bergen decided to develop a program in digital competencies and digital skills, and the library was invited to participate in the development of this program. The library’s contribution is called Digital source criticism/information evaluation. A short online course primarily targeting first years students teaches them to navigate more critically in a world of facts, opinions and arguments shared in everything from social media to academic textbooks. The three-module course follows a case regarding the increasing amount of plastic waste in the sea, and how research about this finds its way to the debate.

University of Tromsø Library has developed iKomp, a free and open online course for anyone interested in learning more about source use and learning strategies. The main purpose of the course is to make students well equipped to meet the demands and expectations of universities and colleges regarding learning, academic integrity, and use of sources. The course can be taken in its entirety with a final exam and therefore works well as a work requirement for undergraduates. A similar course for sixth form pupils has also been developed, aiming to prepare this group both for higher education and for handling information at work or at home.

In conclusion, we will compare the two approaches through a qualitative cross case-comparison of the two aformentioned courses, investigating scope, learning goals and other relevant aspects, and reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the courses (Yin, 2018). We will also give recommendations for development of second-generation information literacy training.

References

A digital public sector. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/en-digital-offentlig-sektor/id2653874/

A Europe fit for the digital age. (2019). Retrieved from https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age_en

Action Plan for digital transformation in higher education and research. (2022). Retrieved from https://hkdir.no/vaare-tenester/handlingsplan-for-digital-omstilling-i-hoeyere-utdanning-og-forskning

Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027. (2021). Retrieved from https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/digital-education/action-plan

Strategy for digital transformation in Higher Education Sector. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/strategi-for-digital-omstilling-i-universitets-og-hoyskolesektoren/id2870981/

Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods. SAGE.

Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, agendas worldwide had been emphasizing the need for the 21st century citizen to develop a wide array of competences and literacies. Hence, digital literacy is an urgency in schools, particularly for teachers, who need to be aware of the advantages and challenges posed by these new contexts, namely those emerging from the digital world. To these ends, national policies in many countries follow and connect to European guidelines. In Portugal, the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) is largely used in teacher training. Therefore, it is important to highlight it as a key tool in the process of the capacity building for the digital transformation of the teaching and learning (Redecker, 2017).

Another transversal topic in educational contexts relates to information and media literacy, drawing from the premise that the school has an important role to play with regard to the challenges of the information society. Bearing this in mind, several authors consider that we are in an era where different competences are converging (Ala‑Mutka, 2011). Moreover, Hobbs (2010) also emphasizes this diversity of interconnected concepts, which have different starting points, proposing the term “digital and media literacy” as the one that best designates the set of life skills that are necessary for full participation in a media-saturated society and simultaneously rich in information; we adopt it as an analytical category in the research put forward within the Erasmus+ project RAPIDE, Reimagining a Positive Direction for Education (2020-1-UK01-KA226-SCH-094495). For this purpose, the data were collected by all the partners, in their national contexts, namely involving teachers; in this paper, we focus on the Portuguese data, thus presenting part of the wider research.

Our study took a qualitative and interpretive approach, “attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 3). The complexity of the teachers’ personal experiences evidences significant insights about the role of digital and information literacy during the pandemic, besides the impact of these competencies for teaching and learning. The 20 participating teachers were invited to describe, in a written document, (1) a major challenge in their teaching practice, (2) how they responded to it, (3) how they reflected on their actions, and (4) what new insights this brought to them. The aim was to start from real situations, leading teachers to reflect on these situations in order to foster them to envision new pedagogical and didactic paths for the future. The situations experienced during the pandemic, often implying strong constraints in the teaching and learning processes, but also demanding the rapid learning of digital skills, emerge as contexts that provide scenarios that enhance a deeper reflection for the teachers’ professional development. The information gathered was analyzed with the goal of identifying issues related to digital and media literacies, stemming from the teachers’ dilemmas, as well as mapping possible lessons learned and good practices to sustain in the future.

References

Ala‑Mutka, K. (2011). Mapping digital competence: Towards a conceptual understanding. JRC Technical Notes. European Commission. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18046.00322

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2005). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Hobbs, R. (2010). Digital and media literacy: A plan of action. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved from https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/digital-media-literacy-plan-action-2/

Redecker, C. (2017). European framework for the digital competence of educators: DigCompEdu. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. https://dx.doi.org/10.2760/178382.

Research assignments, which are assignments that require students to form an argument or develop a question about a topic and use information sources to support their argument or to answer their question, are common across disciplines in tertiary education and often require students to demonstrate their information literacy development. However, instructors often take for granted that students have developed their information literacy to meet performance expectations or feel constrained to teach core academic skills like information literacy at the expense of disciplinary content. Because of this, the ways of thinking and knowing related to information literacy can form a hidden curriculum for some students, resulting in lower grades, frustration, and decreasing motivation. In this workshop, we will model how a team of library and writing staff have used the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) approach to help instructors to develop more transparent and equitable research assignments. The TILT approach requires instructors to think carefully about the purpose of any research assignment, identify the kinds of information-literacy related tasks students will need to do to be successful, and to intentionally articulate the criteria by which student work will be evaluated. Research has indicated that the use of TILT has positive results for students’ academic confidence, sense of belonging, and awareness of skills mastery (Winkelmes et al., 2016).

Learning Outcomes

After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe the importance of transparency and equity to design research assignments;

• Apply the Transparency in Learning & Teaching (TILT) approach to research assignments prompts, handouts, and other instructional collateral;

• Consider how to apply TILT when working with instructors.

Topics to be Covered

• Introduction to the expert/novice researcher gap, implications for student learning, and role of the librarian;

• Introduction of TILT, emphasizing how research has provided evidence of this as an equity-focused;

• Participants are encouraged to bring their electronic devices, though some paper copies of the workshop materials will be available.

Target Audience

Any librarian who works with faculty/ instructors, particularly at a college or university.

References

Winkelmes, M. A., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K. H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success. Peer Review, 31–36.

Attention to the challenges of mis- and disinformation has increased along with the recognition of the influence of mis/disinformation on successive United States presidential elections, the Brexit vote, other elections and ballot initiatives worldwide, and response to the antiviral vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. In 2013, the World Economic Forum identified mis/disinformation as one of the top three global threats (Howell, 2013), and in its 2019 report, the Forum elaborated to recognize that “among the most widespread and disruptive impacts of AI in recent years has been its role in the rise of “media echo chambers and fake news” (World Economic Forum, 2019).

The crisis of misinformation has led to calls for greater attention to information and news literacy instruction, and libraries have been identified as one of the key institutions to provide such training (Jaeger & Taylor, 2021). However, academic librarians often depend on the interest and invitation of teaching faculty to engage in library instruction. Even when they are given classroom time, they often have to tailor their instruction to the specific courses, assignments, and directions of the faculty, which might not allow them to address topics of mis/disinformation in any depth. Indeed, a study of over 700 faculty members in the United States across various disciplines found that while the vast majority of faculty agree that the mis/disinformation is a problem and that instruction in news literacy skills is important, they vary as to whether they believe it is their responsibility to teach those skills, and very few report working with a librarian to address mis/disinformation in the classroom (Saunders, 2022). This survey of faculty was followed in 2022 by a survey of academic librarians in the United States. Similar to the faculty survey, librarians were asked their perspectives on various aspects of mis- and disinformation, whether and how they were addressing mis- and disinformation topics in their instruction, and their perceptions of student news literacy competencies (Saunders, forthcoming).

The survey of academic librarians was replicated in France in fall of 2023. In this session the panelists will share the results of the surveys from both countries, exploring how librarians in each country perceive the challenges of mis- and disinformation, which tools and responses they believe to be most effective in combatting those challenges, and the extent to which they are teaching these concepts to their students. The panelists will provide a preliminary comparison of responses between the two countries and compare these to the faculty responses from the previous study. They conclude with recommendations for increasing collaboration between faculty and librarians, and further integration of mis/disinformation topics into library instruction. This session is suited to a panel presentation because the presenters will be reporting on two separate studies first, before comparing the results across the studies. The panel format allows for the studies to be presented as a series, but will also entail ample time for questions and discussion with the audience.

References

Howell, L. (2013). Global risks 2013. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2013/title-page/

Jaeger, P. T., & Taylor, N.G. (2021). Arsenals of life-long information literacy: Educating users to navigate political and current events information in a world of ever-evolving misinformation. Library Quarterly, 91(1), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1086/711632

Saunders, L. (2022). Faculty perspectives on mis- and disinformation across disciplines. College & Research Libraries, 83(2), 221–245. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.83.2.221

Saunders, L. (forthcoming). Librarian perspectives on misinformation: A follow-up and comparative study. College & Research Libraries.

World Economic Forum. (2019). The Global Risks Report 2019. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2019.pdf