It's Academic

Access to information has never before been easier or more convenient. Conversely, the structures that have allowed technology to make information accessible have also helped to restrict access. Please join us for an event that will raise the awareness of the social, political, economic, technological and ethical issues surrounding the access to information.

Social Justice in the Information Society is a four part speaker series which will give faculty, staff, students, and community members the benefit of participating in a forum with a highly respected scholar doing critical work in the interdisciplinary field of information science. Invited speakers will be asked to present on the ethical and social justice issues associated with information access and the information society. The speakers will videoconference into the forum and a local scholar will navigate the event. Following the presentation, the guest lecturer and facilitator will participate in a Q & A period so the audience can interact with the material and the lecturer. These events will be free and open to the public and a dessert reception will follow.

The Ethics of Information Access
November 4, 2014, 7:00 p.m.
Marywood University
Swartz Center, Conference Room B.
2300 Adams Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18509

Dr. Johannes Britz, Provost & Vice Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will discuss the implications of, and raise awareness to, the social, political, economic, technological, and ethical issues surrounding access to information. This event will be facilitated by Dr. Aaron Simmons, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Marywood University

Privacy, Security, and Government Surveillance
Wikileaks, Big Data and the “New Accountability”
November 10, 2014, 7:00 p.m.
The University of Scranton
Moskovitz Theater, The DeNaples Center
900 Mulberry Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18510

Dr. Adam D. Moore, Associate Professor of the Information School & Adjunct Associate Professor of the Philosophy Department at the University of Washington argues that accessing and sharing sensitive information is morally suspect and that we simply do not owe each other the level of information access promised by “big data” or Wikileaks. The “Just Trust Us,’ “Nothing to Hide,” and “Consent” arguments will be presented and critiqued. The event will be facilitated by Dr. Michael Jenkins, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Scranton.

The last two forums in the series will be scheduled in the spring semester.

This speaker series has been funded by the Marywood University/ University of Scranton Cooperative Grant. For more information email lchristianson@maryu.marywood.edu or george.aulisio@scranton.edu

How Learning Objects and OERs Position the Library to
Enhance Student Success

October 17, 2:00pm EST

by John Shank, Head of the Boscov-Lakin Information Commons & Thun Library
at Penn State Berks

The Connect & Communicate Series Planning Committee is pleased to offer this virtual presentation, in which John Shank will discuss how learning objects and open educational resources can change the perspective of how librarians can help enhance student learning.

A 2005 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, John is co-founder and advisory board co-chair of The Blended Librarian Online Community, and is involved in teaching, administration, research, and service. John has given presentations and written extensively about integrating the library into learning management systems, on open educational resources and interactive learning materials, and on developing instructional design librarian positions.

Register at the following link: http://goo.gl/mHQuqp

Connect to the session on Friday, October 17 at 2:00 p.m. at http://centralpenn.adobeconnect.com/crdccs/

• For this program, participants will need speakers to hear the presenter speaking, but will not need any additional audio equipment. Participants may ask questions via the Chat box; moderators will monitor the Chat box and facilitate question and response.
• A recording of the program will be made available to PaLA members following the program.

If you would like to be emailed directly about this and other upcoming Connect & Communicate Series events, you may provide us with your name and email address here: http://goo.gl/4urXl . (If you submitted previously, you are still on our list.)

Please continue to share your ideas for programming topics, speakers, or formats with us! We’re getting some great suggestions and themes are starting to emerge, but we could also use some more speaker names. If you or someone you know is doing something great in Pennsylvania’s academic libraries, tell us about it!

Before the Discussion:

To test your computer (recommended): http://centralpenn.adobeconnect.com/crdccs/

To run the Adobe Connect Meeting Connection Diagnostic: http://admin.adobeconnect.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm

The Connect & Communicate Series of online programming offered by the PaLA College & Research Division aims to help foster a community of academic librarians in Pennsylvania. Please contact Jill Hallam-Miller at jillhallam-miller@centralpenn.edu or at 717-728-2415 with questions.

During the Pennsylvania Library Association’s annual conference, the College & Research Division sponsored a luncheon on Tuesday, September 30^th.  Approximately 200 people were in attendance to hear Alison J. Head, Ph.D., speak about “What Librarians Should Know About Today’s Students.”

Dr. Head is a Principal Research Scientist in the Information School and is a Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Within academic librarianship, she is best known for directing Project Information Literacy (PIL), an ongoing series of research studies examining how college students and recent college graduates navigate information in the digital age.  PIL seeks to collect stories and data about what it’s like to be a student in the digital age, and participating institutions have ranged from Ivy League institutions to community colleges.

Project Information Literacy is in the midst of its eighth study, examining how recent graduates locate information for “real life” inquiries (such as financial matters or health issues), what their information needs are, and what resources they use.  Dr. Head suggests that academic librarians should look more closely at public libraries and how those are used for these post-higher education information needs, specifically how the two types of institutions can mesh.

PIL has identified seven aspects of student information practices:

1. Students say that research is more difficult than ever before. They described their thoughts about research assignments using words such as fear, angst, tired, dread, excited, anxious, annoyed, stressed, disgusted, intrigued, confused, overwhelmed.  Interestingly, freshmen often pair concepts such as overwhelmed and excited.
2. Getting started is the hardest part of research, from defining a topic to honing its scope. Students aren’t having as much trouble with searching as we may think, but they are having significant trouble with topic/thesis/question development.
3. Student frustrations begin with finding context. They need to identify the big picture (summary, background) and learn the language (meaning of terms, selecting keywords) before they can begin gathering information.
4. Students use the same few go-to sources, regardless of the course or assignment.
5. Students describe Wikipedia as “my presearch tool” – it’s not the first step, it’s the 0.5 step. They acknowledge that it’s a great place to start, but a horrible place to end.
6. Students say that instructors are “my research coaches.” When assignment handouts offer research guidance (which is rare), many recommend a “place-based source” (i.e. the library or a specific book), only a few recommend consulting librarians, and even fewer define what ‘research’ is or means.
7. The library is “my refuge.” Students may seem distracted while they’re in the library, using a lot of sites and media, but they are working.  Many prefer to use computers in the library to do work because their personal computers have more distractions of social media, games, etc.

So what’s a librarian to do?

These findings indicate that librarians need to reevaluate how they approach information literacy with undergraduates.  Dr. Head emphasized the shift from a time of information scarcity to the current information abundance – she stated that information evaluation is the critical 21^st century competency.

Because students tend to use the same resource for all of their information needs (and often these are the sources they knew from high school research experiences), it’s more important than ever for librarians to go beyond the “one shot” or even a “three shot” model to embedding.  The in-depth, course-specific work with students can help them learn to differentiate so that they can choose the best library resource for the assignment.

Students are having a harder time selecting, defining, and honing a topic, than they are in finding sources.  To address this need, librarians should place less emphasis (and thus spend less time on) search mechanics and instead place more emphasis (and thus spend more time on) the tools and techniques for developing thesis statements and research questions.

As an academic librarian in a strictly undergraduate college, I appreciated the work of PIL and the words of Dr. Alison J. Head.  It was reaffirming to see that the things I’ve observed in students at my college are consistent with larger trends – and I look forward to changing my own teaching to better address the challenges students have shared with PIL.

The Western Pennsylvania/West Virginia Chapter of ACRL presents its fall meeting:

“Under Construction:  Building Community Among Students, Faculty, and Library Staff”

Friday, October 24, 2014, 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA

Keynote Speakers:

Loanne Snavely, Head Librarian and Coordinator for Library Services, Penn State World Campus and Andrea Gregg, Manager of Instructional Design, Penn State World Campus

Program:

Morning Keynote –

• Loanne Snavely and Andrea Gregg – “Building Geographically Distributed Communities and Working Relationships: Libraries, Online Learning and Beyond”

Afternoon Sessions –

• Gail Reese and Brian C. Gray, Case Western Reserve University – “Transforming the First Year Experience and Other Relationship Efforts of the Library”

• Robin Wagner, Gettysburg College – “Building Community in a Small College Setting”

• Jon Cawthorne, West Virginia University Libraries – “Diversity Residency Program and Outreach Initiatives”

Optional Tour of the Jennie King Mellon Library

Registrations will be accepted until October 17 at http://tinyurl.com/wpwvcFall14. Seating is limited; no walk-in registrations.  Join or renew your chapter membership and attend the meeting for free! $30 for non-members.

For more information, visit the chapter website at http://wpwvcacrl.org. For questions about the meeting, contact the WPWVC Program Committee at program.wpwv.chapter@gmail.com.

• Development of a timeline of 2015 CDF activities;
• Participation in the 2015 PaLA Annual Conference;
• Participation in 2015 Chapter and/or division workshops, and one or more PaLA leadership gatherings, TBD;
• Participation in a PaLA-sponsored webinar;
• Involvement with periodic PaLA/CDF publicity; and,
• Regular updates for the PaLA board on CDF activities.