On Tuesday, October 22, 2013, during the Pennsylvania Library Association conference’s College & Research Division Luncheon, academic librarians in attendance were treated to a presentation by Char Booth, author of – among many other things – Informing Innovation: Tracking Student Interest in Emerging Library Technologies at Ohio University (ACRL, 2009) and Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning: Instructional Literacy for Library Educators (ALA Editions, 2011; the 2012 ACRL Ilene Rockman Publication of the Year Award winner). Booth’s talk was titled “Curriculum Mapping as Strategy and Structure” and addressed the need for mapping the intersection of library instruction across and within departmental courses as a “conceptual investigation” of what is happening at the local level, which will facilitate both streamlining of efforts and consistency in delivery.
Booth noted that while there are numerous broad studies about users’ needs (such as the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology 2012, Project Information Literacy, The ERIAL Project and its published report College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know [ALA Editions, 2012], and Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester [ACRL, 2007]), it’s important to also look inside our institutions at the specific needs of our individual campuses so that we don’t make inaccurate assumptions. One way to accomplish this is the development of curriculum mapping – a visual method of laying out the courses offered within a college, academic department, or program, and how those may cross-list with other programs. Once courses are mapped out, we can then note which ones involve a library instruction or research component, what information literacies are incorporated into each, and where there are either gaps or duplications.
By identifying and reducing duplicated efforts, we can be more efficient and more course-specific. Reduced repetition will increase student engagement by making library instruction sessions even more relevant and focused. Booth asked us to consider, “What can we focus on for THIS class as one part of the program requirements with multiple sessions with librarians throughout?” which eliminates the sense of needing to cover all of information literacy in a single session.
Booth described curriculum mapping as a “knowledge management tool” that can provide both insight and strategy, which can help us think about library instruction in a holistic way that can break us of a tendency toward tunnel vision.
If we use curriculum maps the way that we use geographical maps – to ground us in the landscape and to guide us toward a destination – we can create library experiences that are more deliberate and more relevant.
THATCamp coming to Harrisburg, October 25-26
THATCamp, a hybrid conference/unconference interdisciplinary event focusing on the Digital Humanities is coming to Harrisburg! If you have any interest in the Digital Humanities, including supporting faculty projects, or coordinating local history projects through the library, this event is for you. I plan to attend and have proposed two sessions with faculty from my institution about using Zotero and WordPress for the digital humanities. I hope to see you there!
http://hbg2013.thatcamp.org/ To register, select the Registration menu option at the top.
THATCamp Harrisburg 2013
Call for Participation
October 25th and 26th, Harrisburg University
What Is THATCamp?
THATCamp stands for The Humanities And Technology Camp. THATCamp Harrisburg is a professional development opportunity for humanities professionals in both academic and non-academic settings. It serves to introduce newcomers to the tools and purposes of the Digital Humanities and give veterans an opportunity to deepen and broaden their skills, and to share them with others.
THATCamp Harrisburg offers opportunities for new conversations and relationships, and contributes to further work in the digital humanities that will benefit the Central Pennsylvania region, as well as the larger community of humanities professionals.
Call for Participation
Proposals we are soliciting
- Workshops that will teach participants new skills or introduce them to new digital tools.
- Sessions that will a) discuss topics of interest in the Digital Humanities, b) demonstrate tools, c) create participatory projects.
- Dorkshorts – short presentations on current projects that participants have under way in the digital humanities.
For a list of sample sessions from other THATCamps, check the “propose” tab on the website: http://hbg2013.thatcamp.org/propose/
To propose a workshop, session or dorkshort, register for THATCamp Harrisburg at http://hbg2013.thatcamp.org. Then follow the instructions on the “Propose” tab.
Featured Speaker
William Pannapacker, Professor at Hope College and regular columnist on the digital humanities for the Chronicle of Higher Education, will be joining us on Friday morning for a session focused on the present and future of the digital humanities, especially at smaller private colleges and universities.
Diverse Literacies: Connect & Communicate session now available
Yesterday’s Connect & Communicate session, “Diverse Literacies: PA Forward as a Framework for Academic Outreach” by Barbara Eshbach and Erin Burns is now available at the following links.
To view the full session (PaLA Members only): http://www.palibraries.org/blogpost/951701/College–Research-Division
Diverse Literacies Resource List
If you attended the session, please fill out this online evaluation form and let us know how we did. http://goo.gl/pMR2VV
Links:
ACRL Value of Academic Libraries: http://www.acrl.ala.org/value/
PA Forward website: http://www.paforward.org
PA Forward Toolkit materials : http://www.palibraries.org/?Toolkit
Currently working on a session that incorporates the 5 Literacies of PA Forward? Tell us about it here: http://tinyurl.com/PAFshortform
Additional links for Financial Literacy:
Promotional Materials from ALA: Money Smart Week @ your library
http://www.moneysmartweek.org/
http://www.ala.org/offices/money-smart-week-promotional-materials
Money Matters on Campus: http://moneymattersoncampus.org/
It’s official!
The results for the CRD election are in. The 2014 CRD Vice Chair/Chair Elect is Larissa Gordon, Information Literacy Coordinator/Reference Librarian for the Landman Library at Arcadia University. The 2014 CRD Treasurer is Allyson Valentine, Reference and Instruction Librarian at HACC York Campus. Congratulations to them both, and thanks to all for their willingness to serve.
The Flipped Classroom in an Information Literacy Session
Flipped classrooms are gaining popularity in academics; in fact, I’ve heard quite a bit about their use in various subjects and I was considering giving this a try with my one shot information literacy session for Nursing 100. Around the time I was beginning to plan my upcoming session and had to make a decision regarding how to structure it,, I came across the Datig and Ruswick’s (2013) article Four Quick Flips; this article reinforced my desire to use the flipped classroom, and the session was very successful.
According to Datig and Ruswick (2013), “In a flipped classroom much of the instruction takes place outside of class time, in the form of tutorials, readings, and quizzes. Actual class time consists of active learning activities in which the students practice and develop what they’ve learned” (p. 249). As is often the case in information literacy instruction, my one shot session was only one hour so I didn’t have much time to divide between lecture and in class work. This session is the first library session that Nursing 100 students have, and it takes place just as they are receiving their first research assignment. In the curriculum at my school, nursing students take one year of pre-clinical science courses at local colleges, then come to our campus to begin their nursing courses. Because the students have varied information literacy backgrounds, we believe it’s imperative to have a session in Nursing 100 that introduces them to our library’s resources, explains the research process, and teaches them how to do some advanced searching in our databases. This session is also the foundation for future one shot information literacy courses that have been integrated into the curriculum schedule. Clearly this is not an easy task to do in an hour and still have time for active learning.
Because the students, who are a mix of traditional and non-traditional, all have had previous college work, and because most of them have used databases or at least search engines in that work, it was safe to assume that I did not have to start with the mechanics of a basic search; thus the PowerPoint presentation I prepared for them to view before class focused on some advanced search tips that we discussed in more depth as they came up during in class searches, some advanced tips that we did not discuss in class because they were things that were nice for the students to know but were not absolutely necessary to review at the time, an introduction to the library services, and an overview of library resources. In class, we discussed the research process, primary vs. secondary research, scholarly vs. popular sources, and the search process which included the CRAAP test for evaluating sources; they were also provided with a Popplet so they had a quick visual overview of these processes. The next step was to use what they learned about advanced searching in the assigned PowerPoint and the research process to walk me through a search; this was done as a complete class. After that, the class was given a search scenario and they were divided into an equal number of groups with some groups searching databases and some searching the Internet; the groups were to plan their search, perform the search, find three credible resources, and then informally present these resources to the class and discuss their search process.
I thought the class went very well. The students were engaged, we discussed search tactics, and they saw that there are multiple ways to search for information and still find credible resources. As with all of my sessions, I had students complete brief surveys at the end and I received many compliments about the class, and students appreciated the search scenario work. Many thought it was helpful to all work on the same scenario as examples; I made sure the scenarios were similar to those they would see on their upcoming research assignments.
Overall, I think this went well and I plan to use the flipped classroom again in Nursing 100 next year. I will also consider using it in sessions for higher level courses. I did not work in any quizzes or assessments to make sure the students did the assigned reading before class; however their instructor did support me in telling them that this was required for them to be able to do the in-class work, and judging by the session dynamics the vast majority of students appeared to have read the material. I may incorporate some type of assessment into the work in the future.
Have you used the flipped classroom for information literacy? Do you have any reflections to share about it? Are you considering using the flipped classroom? Do you have any readings for further information? Please share your thoughts.
Reference:
Datig, I., & Ruswick, C. (2013 May). “Four quick flips: Activities for the information literacy classroom.” C&RL News 74(5), 249-257. Retrieved from http://crln.acrl.org/content/74/5/249.full.pdf+html
