Whose Responsibility is it Anyway?

The evolution of scholarly research raises questions regarding the role of research libraries in the 21st century. As information and data have taken on new forms, researchers and libraries alike have adapted their skills and services to reflect changes in how information and research are created and conducted, disseminated, and preserved – throughout shifting social and philosophical paradigms as well as in response to emerging technologies. As such, librarianship is an ever-changing field that has advanced to include data management skills as a core competency. Unfortunately, perceptions of the LIS field have not kept up with the pace of its development. Involvement of librarians in data capture and management remains a struggle because those producing data in universities may not necessarily associate their activities with the library – unless there is a system in place that makes it mandatory for them to use a library or other repository in place, e.g. grant funding or promotion requirements. This calls for information specialists such as data and academic librarians to intervene and provide guidance in numerous areas such as: information management, classification, and basic data literacy skills. The tendency in academe to avoid librarians in the research process is a missed opportunity for many researchers but also requires that librarians step up and make their voices and potentialities be known

Using Constructive Alignment to Support Metaliteracy in International Classrooms

This paper discusses strategies for promoting literacy and metaliteracy development in international and multicultural classrooms. Drawing on the first author’s observational research and the second author’s expertise in metaliteracy, we present a case study of international postgraduate students in an interdisciplinary department. The authors synthesize their different areas of work to describe how a fusion of metaliteracy, constructive alignment, and learning oriented assessments (LOA) facilitates student engagement with theories of knowledge organization and extensible markup language (XML) data-encoding standards. Our discussion describes curriculum design and redesign strategies and contextualizes observations about student success. The authors’ observations provide a basis for proposing methods for using metaliteracy to implement constructive alignment and LOA methods for promoting collaborative and truly diverse learning

New Literacies in our Global Society: Teaching Literacies Beyond Text

In our globalized world, students now have access to a variety of viewpoints in a variety of formats from around the globe. This creates new challenges for students in the evaluation and understanding of information. As a result, it is becoming increasingly more important for our students to understand where their information is coming from and be able to read and interpret the format of this information. This entails having literacies that go beyond text and includes cultural, social, critical, and digital literacies. This presentation will provide an overview of opportunities to integrate the teaching of new literacies into existing instruction programs using a constructivist method, actively engaging students in the process of assigning their own meaning and values to the skills taught in class. This includes the integration of social networking, use of multimedia and visual tools, making connections between text, social groups, and social practices and moving beyond what is written and literal to assist students in taking an appropriate means of action based on their evaluation of content

North Africa: Implications for Information Creation and Access

© 2017, Published with license by Taylor & Francis. Column Editor\u27s Notes: The “Advances in Library Data and Access” column examines technological advances internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how library data is created and used. The strength of the column is its broad, international focus and contributors are encouraged to explore issues and recent advances in information technology relevant to their geographical region, as well as the larger, global audience. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at [email protected]. Please include “IILR Submission” in the subject line of the email

International Student Perceptions of Libraries: Experiences from the Middle East and North Africa

The purpose of this study was to better understand the types of experiences which have contributed to Arab international students’ perceptions and uses of information and libraries. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand how students from the MENA region perceive and use libraries and information as international students in the U.S. During interviews, participants were asked about their past and present experiences with seeking information and using libraries in both their home countries as well as during their time as students in the United States

Is there such a thing as Least Publishable Unit ? An empirical investigation

Objective. Scientists are afflicted by what has been anecdotally referred to as the phenomenon of Least Publishable Unit (LPU). This project is an effort at empirical analysis of the phenomenon. Method. Three months of the journals JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine were analyzed to identify work that has been funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Next, the database Medline was searched to discover the total number of publications by each researcher and the publications that acknowledge the single specified funding source (the grant mentioned in the journals). Results. Biomedical researchers who published in JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine were found to have a substantial number of publications from 2010 through 2013. Those publications are indicative of a huge literature that has to be searched in order to find work relevant to information seekers\u27 needs. Moreover, each researcher has several publications stemming from work funded by a single NIH grant. Contribution. The implications of this research for libraries are primarily the explosion of content and the potential duplication of publications

News, Fake News, and Critical Authority

© 2018, Springer International Publishing AG. The purpose of this proposed work is to present a theoretically and methodologically sound grounding for the critical apprehension of what constitutes authoritative news and news sources. The presentation will demonstrate clearly that there are variations in reports of news: intentionally objective news items (“intentionally” in that there is a deliberate attempt at objective reporting), unintentional error in news items (“unintentionally” mistaken), and intentionally false news items (“intentionally” in that there is a deliberate effort to deceive readers). The proposed work will focus on the first and third of the possibilities. Within the functioning of information literacy, it is argued, there is an obligation to recognize the intentionalities for what they are—objective reporting and efforts to deceive. Ultimately, the presentation will suggest ways to realize that obligation

Influence and authority of information sources in the Highlands : exploring the immigration debate during the Scottish Independence Referendum

Dissertation supervisor: John M. Budd.Includes vita.This dissertation examines the role of the mass news media as an influencer of opinions on immigration through an examination of information sources used by host, Highland community members. There is an extensive range of research exploring the experiences of immigrants and policy responses in the UK, but little is known about how host communities process and respond to increasing cultural diversity. Addressing the latter is essential to overcome the assimilation tendencies in discourses about the integration of immigrants. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyze newspapers and interviews in this mixed methods study conducted in the year prior to the Scottish Independence Referendum. Findings of this study revealed the negative and homogenizing portrayal of immigrants in the mass news media, the importance of first and second hand experiences as sources of information on immigration in Scottish Highland communities, and the influence of sociocultural factors on how people establish authority of information sources. Findings suggest the need for stronger institutional infrastructures to address increasing diversity in the UK. Of particular interest is the context of this research, during a time of crisis, which reveals that the act of decision-making is based on the often unconscious, ontological construction of information behaviors through the worldview of participants.Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-214)

Media and information literate citizens: think critically, click wisely!

Can we improve our societies by clicking wisely? Content providers such as libraries, archives, museums, media and digital communications companies can enable inclusive and sustainable development. However, they do not always live up to these ideals, which creates challenges for the users of these services. Content providers of all types open up new opportunities for lifelong learning. But at the same time, they open up challenges such as misinformation and disinformation, hate speech, and infringement of online privacy, among others. Media and information literacy is a set of competencies that help people to maximize advantages and minimize harms. Media and information literacy covers competencies that enable people to critically and effectively engage with: communications content; the institutions that facilitate this content; and the use of digital technologies. Capacities in these areas are indispensable for all citizens regardless of their ages or backgrounds. This pioneering curriculum presents a comprehensive competency framework of media and information literacy and offers educators and learners structured pedagogical suggestions. It features various detailed modules covering the range of competencies needed to navigate today’s communications ecosystem. This resource links media and information literacy to emerging issues, such as artificial intelligence, digital citizenship education, education for sustainable development, cultural literacy and the exponential rise in misinformation and disinformation. With effective use of this media and information literacy curriculum, everyone can become media and information literate as well as peer-educators of media and information literacy