It's Academic

The College & Research Division will host the ACRL Roadshow

ASSESSMENT IN ACTION 
Demonstrating and Communicating Library Contributions
to Student Learning and Success. 

Friday, August 17th, 2018
Arcadia University
Glenside, Pa

 In this day-long workshop on strategic and sustainable assessment, participants will identify institutional priorities and campus partners, design an assessment project grounded in action research, and prepare a plan for communicating the project results.

SAVE THE DATE
MORE DETAILS SOON!

I am a little late posting this month because of changes in my own life and it occurred to me that this might be a topic for the blog.  Although support of caregivers might seem to be more in the realm of public libraries, so many families are affected by loved ones with dementia that students, faculty, and staff at our institutions might welcome information that we can provide.

When dementia strikes, it is not always gradual.   A functional human being can rapidly become completely dependent on others and most of us are not prepared.   Also, many caregiver support groups are designed for those who do not work and so they are scheduled during the day.   Academic libraries would be doing a great service to offer lunchtime or evening sessions with speakers and resources for those who are struggling to balance care with full-time work or students who are coping with dementia in their families.  We can also assist with searches for reliable medical information and clinical trials.

Here are some helpful resources.

Alzheimer’s Association

Lewy Body Dementia Association

Medline Plus – Dementia

Although dementia is not always a disease the elderly, you may also want to partner with your local Area Agency on Aging.

Dispositions outlined under the ACRL Framework suggest several ways students should gather, analyze, synthesize, create, and ultimately disseminate information. Too often these performative practices are limited by the language and parameters of the framework to purely academic contexts, however. While following the new framework, librarians typically guide students to interact with information as students only, thus limiting discussion of their eventual responsibilities as professionals, academic or otherwise. Outside departments of journalism, or those disciplines incorporating pedagogical coursework, students rarely learn how to curate information once they pivot toward a professional setting.

One field librarians overlook in this sense is healthcare. While medical and allied health departments often include communication coursework aimed specifically at preparing students to speak and interact with patients in their care, librarians are given little explicit direction in the framework for supplementing this instruction.

We are told learners who recognize that information has value should “see themselves as contributors to the information marketplace rather than only consumers of it” and “are inclined to examine their own information privilege.”[1] These respectable outcomes, however, tell us little about the ways newly-minted nurses, physical and occupational therapists, or athletic trainers, can transfer information and impart at least a fundamental level of information literacy to their patients. I fear we are doing too little to acknowledge, let alone instructionally address, the fact that these students will soon transition from seeking, vetting, and consuming information for themselves to serving a public eager to do the same for themselves.

We know that patients, caregivers, and others routinely seek supplemental healthcare information during times of sickness or injury. We also know that an abundance of misinformation is easy to find and often even impossible to avoid. As authorities in their field, healthcare professionals should feel comfortable providing valid information to patients. They should also recognize that patients are more and more likely to seek second opinions, alternative treatments, and all the knowledge they can possibly obtain.

It seems to me that librarians may provide a significant service by teaching healthcare students (and those in other disciplines as well) that they have an obligation to pass on to others both knowledge and the basic skills to discern, access, and acquire it. There is no frame entitled “Information as Obligation,” but in reality it will come with the job for many of the students we teach. Are we currently doing enough to prepare them for it?

[1] ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, 2015, http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework