CRD Virtual Journal Club Fall Wrap-Up

This past fall, the College & Research Division hosted a virtual journal club, which met online three times over the semester. The CRD Journal Club was originally established in Summer 2018, and runs in the summer, spring, and fall of each year. During the Fall 2019 series, the group discussed three scholarly articles, all examining students’ transitions from high school to college environments and how it relates to what we do in the library.

The first article discussed was “Secondary teacher perceptions and openness to change regarding instruction in information literacy skills,” by Sarah Crary and published in School Library Research. Participants discussed problems shared across both school and college/university libraries: a lack of relationships with teachers and faculty and the need to collaborate meaningfully with them to meet the students where they are in terms of information literacy skills. 

The second article discussed was “Fortifying the pipeline: A quantitative exploration of high school factors impacting the information literacy of first-year college students,” by Jennifer L. Fabbi published in College & Research Libraries. This article primarily generated discussion about how to authentically assess and report on our impact on students. 

The last article discussed was “Without foundations, we can’t build: Information literacy and the need for strong school library programs,” by Cara Berg, Darby Malvey, and Maureen Donohue and published by In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Participants shared their thoughts on barriers school librarians and incoming college students face, as well as ideas for building relationships between college/university and school libraries in order to make connections to better bridge gaps in information literacy skills.

Overall, this was a very illuminating series for the journal club, involving both academic and school librarians who were able to share and compare experiences. Many ideas were discussed and formulated amongst the group members, such as working closely with first-year faculty to determine and set expectations for information literacy within courses and sharing this kind of information literacy data with high school administrators, which will hopefully turn into successful projects and adaptations at individual institutions.

We look forward to our spring session, which will discuss critical librarianship. We will meet at 1:00 pm on February 19th, March 25th, and April 22nd. Participants can register for the series and attend any number of sessions that work for their schedules. Look for our upcoming emails!