Getting to a culture of assessment : antecedents to change readiness.

Paramount to the success of any assessment initiative is an organization that supports and welcomes the processes that will influence meaningful change. To create this culture of assessment, librarians must generate stakeholder buy-in. By synthesizing the prior research in Business Management and Organizational Psychology, we propose antecedents to buy-in to creating a culture of assessment that can provide a theoretical framework for meaningful organizational change on any scale. We situate the conceptual antecedents to buy-in, Management Needs and Employee Needs, through a familiar tool for assessment librarians: Suggestion Systems

Getting to Culture: Strategies for Creating a Culture of Assessment

Crucial to gathering data that supports desired organizational changes is ensuring stakeholder buy-in and the creation of meaningful spaces for feedback. This presentation will focus on mapping strategies used in the corporate world in feedback spaces to create a culture of assessment

Expanding our Reach: Integrating SoftChalk Modules to Impact Student Learning Outside of the Library

Librarians are passionate about sharing information literacy with a wide audience of students and faculty. However, information literacy departments often struggle with barriers like class size and distance when trying to expand their efforts. To address these obstacles, librarians at the University of Louisville have designed interactive learning modules using SoftChalk, an easy-to-use software program that embeds the modules into Blackboard course pages. These modules bring relevant information literacy skills outside of the library and into unique classroom settings, specifically those of distance education and large lecture halls. Librarians’ implementation of online learning modules has broadened over time from integrating modules on library catalog searching to distance education (Dennis & Broughton, 2000; Mulherrin, Kelley, Fishman, & Orr, 2004). Librarians are now also creating modules that are course-specific and embedded (Bravo, Lucia, & Martin, 2013; Foster, Shurtz, & Pepper, 2014; Gomes, Linton, & Abate, 2013). University of Louisville librarians are building on previous studies by creating and embedding modules in non-traditional classrooms to provide instruction on navigating library resources and introduce information evaluation through the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Framework. By presenting a case study whose projects seek to overcome instructional barriers faced by many librarians, the presenters hope to provide avenues for others to assess their own institutional context and brainstorm ways to expand their own online information literacy instruction to impact and provide online instructional offerings that promote the library while also fostering critical thinking skills. References Bravo, R., Lucia, L., & Martin, M. J. (2013). Assessing a web library program for information literacy learning. Reference Services Review, 41(4), 623-638. Dennis, S., & Broughton, K. (2000). FALCON: an interactive library instruction tutorial. Reference Services Review, 28(1), 31-38. Foster, M. J., Shurtz, S., & Pepper, C. (2014). Evaluation of best practices in the design of online evidence-based practice instructional modules. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 102(1), 31-40. Gomes, A. W., Linton, A., & Abate, L. (2013). Strengthening Our Collaborations: Building an Electronic Health Record Educational Module. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 10(1), 1-10. Mulherrin, E., Kelley, K. B., Fishman, D., & Orr, G. J. (2004). Information Literacy and the Distant Student: One University\u27s Experience Developing, Delivering, and Maintaining an Online, Required Information Literacy Course. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 9(1/2), 21-36

A Seat at the Table: Information Literacy Assessment and Professional Legitimacy

This qualitative study explores academic librarians’ perceptions of and experiences with information literacy assessment, focusing primarily on issues of professional identity, agency, and power. Findings from in-depth interviews reveal that instruction librarians view teaching as integral to their professional identity and use assessment to legitimize that identity, both personally and at the institutional level. While this suggests that assessment has the potential to elevate the status of librarians on campus, the interviews also highlight ongoing professional and organizational tensions that hinder assessment efforts and inhibit librarian agency. The authors recommend more transparent communication, among other strategies, to address these challenges

Real Talk: Librarian Perceptions of the Professional Conversation on Information Literacy Assessment

This qualitative study investigates how academic librarians perceive the professional conversation about information literacy assessment, focusing on their characterization of the discourse and the benefits of and barriers to their participation. Findings from phenomenological interviews indicate that librarians view the conversation as valuable and inspiring, but also divisive and inapplicable to many libraries. While they find value in sharing ideas and engaging in a community of practice, they may face such barriers as feelings of inadequacy and insufficient resources. The authors provide recommendations to help librarians, administrators, and conference planners foster more inclusive and productive engagement in the professional conversation on information literacy assessment

Raising the library\u27s impact factor : a case study in scholarly publishing literacy for graduate students.

Graduate students across disciplines feel pressure to publish their scholarship, but they are often unsure how to go about it, partly due to a lack of explicit training in this area. This article discusses the collaborative development of a semester-long Publishing Academy, designed to promote knowledge of scholarly publishing and increase the library’s impact within the graduate student community. Demonstrating how librarians can draw on their unique skills to build a niche service addressing unmet needs on campus, the project also puts into practice a broader conception of scholarly publishing literacy, which can be linked to the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

Library Instruction and Information Literacy 2015

Purpose: This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types. Design/methodology/approach: This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015. Findings: This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions. Originality/value: The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL

Library Instruction and Information Literacy 2016

Purpose: This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types. Design/methodology/approach: This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2016. Findings: The paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions. Originality/value: The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy

Library Instruction and Information Literacy 2014

Purpose: This paper aims to provide an introductory overview and selected annotated bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy across all library types. Design/methodology/approach: It introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2014. Findings: It provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions. Originality/value: The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy

Understanding the Distribution of Marine Megafauna in the English Channel Region: Identifying Key Habitats for Conservation within the Busiest Seaway on Earth

The temperate waters of the North-Eastern Atlantic have a long history of maritime resource richness and, as a result, the European Union is endeavouring to maintain regional productivity and biodiversity. At the intersection of these aims lies potential conflict, signalling the need for integrated, cross-border management approaches. This paper focuses on the marine megafauna of the region. This guild of consumers was formerly abundant, but is now depleted and protected under various national and international legislative structures. We present a meta-analysis of available megafauna datasets using presence-only distribution models to characterise suitable habitat and identify spatially-important regions within the English Channel and southern bight of the North Sea. The integration of studies from dedicated and opportunistic observer programmes in the United Kingdom and France provide a valuable perspective on the spatial and seasonal distribution of various taxonomic groups, including large pelagic fishes and sharks, marine mammals, seabirds and marine turtles. The Western English Channel emerged as a hotspot of biodiversity for megafauna, while species richness was low in the Eastern English Channel. Spatial conservation planning is complicated by the highly mobile nature of marine megafauna, however they are important components of the marine environment and understanding their distribution is a first crucial step toward their inclusion into marine ecosystem management