Information Literacy and Research-Intensive Graduate Students: Enhancing the Role of Research Librarians

This article investigates how psychology graduate students find information for coursework and research, who teaches them how to find it, and whether differences emerge over the course of their graduate careers. Findings indicate that these graduate students are comfortable using campus libraries, prefer electronic resources, ask supervisors when they need assistance locating information, and have some interest in furthering their information literacy knowledge. Finally, the master’s students use different information management skills than do the PhD students, as evidenced by the use of bibliographic management software. Suggestions for furthering the role of research librarians focus on being more proactive, rather than expecting students to come to librarians for assistance

Honouring a love of books and reading in Library and Information Science

This paper presents the findings of a research study into the “love of books” trope in Library and Information Science. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 MLIS students between February and August of 2019. Interview questions were designed to elicit motivations for entering the field and taking the degree. The study findings show that students’ decisions are animated by a love of books and reading, a love of libraries, and by a desire to work with and serve others. We argue that by putting love and desire at the centre of analysis the findings can be understand as positive affective engagement with information, information processes, information institutions, and information practices

Mentoring in English Canadian Academic Libraries

Presented in Halifax at CLA\u27s 2011 conference, this peer-reviewed research presentation presented preliminary data about mentoring in Canadian college and university libraries. This research examines mentoring expectations of recent graduates, perspectives of practicing academic librarians and library directors from across Canada

All in for Privacy: Cultivating a Community of Information Privacy Awareness

The Library Freedom Project supports librarianship’s values of freedom of information and privacy by providing relevant tools and education to LIS professionals. A group from the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western aligned with the project to encourage student participation in local and global privacy issues. Our programming encourages hands-on use of open source and anti-surveillance software, such as Tor Browser for anonymous web browsing. In addition, we detail how we configured our Tor relay to route anonymous encrypted global traffic, so that other libraries can join the 280 relays currently running in Canada and 7000 worldwide

Embedded Information Literacy: An Arts and Humanities Model

This material was presented at Spring Perspectives 2010. The presentation highlights the collaboration between the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and The D.B. Weldon Library to embed information literacy skills directly into a Classical Studies course

Beyond Obscenity: an analysis of sexual discourse in LIS educational texts.

doi: 10.1108/JD-11-2012-0150 Purpose – This research seeks to discover the type of discourse encouraged around controversial materials, particularly those of a sexual nature, in LIS educational texts. Censorship and controversial materials are often issues addressed in the LIS literature, but even with ideals of neutrality it can be difficult to remain balanced on certain issues, particularly those dealing with sex. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis of 85 LIS texts on collection development, reference, and intellectual freedom was completed using the following thematic elements: sex, pornography, erotica, curiosa, facetiae, obscenity, censorship, and controversial materials. Deeper analysis of individual definitions and usages was informed by Michel Foucault’s perspective that education “follows the well-trodden battle lines of social conflict. Every educational system is a political means of maintaining or of modifying the appropriation of discourse” (Foucault, 1972, p. 227). Findings – Findings from the investigation indicate that LIS texts are predominately pejorative when discussing sexual topics such as erotica and pornography. Few texts provide distinctions between different types or genres of sexual materials. Originality/value – Sex is one of the most highly cited reasons for challenges to materials in libraries. At the same time the mainstream popularity of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has created a new, widespread interest in the publishing, reading, and collecting of erotica. An understanding of how these texts are defined and identified in the LIS literature provides greater understanding of the discipline’s biases

Embedded Information Literacy: An Arts and Humanities Model

This material was presented at Spring Perspectives 2010. The presentation highlights the collaboration between the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and The D.B. Weldon Library to embed information literacy skills directly into a Classical Studies course

Five librarians walk into a bar... Keeping librarianship vital

Often, the most important discussions are not the ones you have in scheduled meetings. In this session we will talk about informal ways to keep librarianship vital, especially in a large multi-library university setting. Take an active approach to shaping the future of our profession, by debating the issues facing librarianship, having uninhibited discussions, and being willing to disagree with colleagues. (This was presented as a Pecha Kucha session - 20 images x 20 seconds each.

Reframing How We Done It Good Research Publications

How I done it good research papers, while important, often focus on a specialized local case. Added value comes from placing research results within the wider community of library research. Using citation analysis as an example, we share strategies for communicating results in a way that is replicable and comparable. (Poster presentation

Reframing How We Done It Good Research Publications

How I done it good research papers, while important, often focus on a specialized local case. Added value comes from placing research results within the wider community of library research. Using citation analysis as an example, we share strategies for communicating results in a way that is replicable and comparable. (Poster presentation