Visual literacy for libraries: A practical, standards-based guide

When we step back and think about how to situate visual literacy into a library context, the word critical keeps coming up: critical thinking, critical viewing, critical using, critical making, and the list goes on. To understand our approach, start with your own practice, add images, and see where it takes you. Do you encourage students to think critically as they research? How can you extend this experience to images? Do you embrace critical information literacy? Can you bring visual content to enrich that experience? Do you teach students to critically evaluate sources? How can you expand that practice to images? You’ll see a lot of questions in this book, because our approach is inquiry- driven. This is not to say that we don’t cover the basics of image content. Curious about color? Covered. Not sure where to find great images? We’ll show you. Wondering what makes a good presentation? We talk about that too. But what we really want you to get out of this book is a new understanding of how images fit into our critical (there it is again) practice as librarians and how we can advance student learning with our own visual literacy. This book grounds visual literacy in your everyday practice—connecting it to what you know and do as a librarian who engages in reflective practice. Heidi Jacobs put it well when she argued that, for information literacy pedagogy, “one of the best ways for us to encourage students to be engaged learners is for us to become engaged learners, delve deeply into our own problem posing, and embody the kind of engagement we want to see in our students” (Jacobs 2008). We extend this viewpoint to visual literacy pedagogy and provide many opportunities for you to embody the kind of visual literacy that you want to develop in your learners

Integration and Collaboration: Leveraging IT/Library Cooperation by Combining Traditional Research Instruction with Technology Training

Contributing institution: University of Nevada, Ren

Pleasure Reading Offers Educational, Social, and Personal Benefits for Young Teenagers. A Review of: Howard, V. (2011). The importance of pleasure reading in the lives of young teens: Self-identification, self-construction and self-awareness. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43(1), 46-55. doi:10.1177/0961000610390992

<b>Objective</b> – To investigate the role thatpleasure reading plays in the lives of youngteenagers.<br><b>Design</b> – A series of focus groups were used.<br><b>Setting</b> – Focus groups were held in ninejunior high schools in an eastern Canadianmunicipality.<br><b>Subjects</b> – Participants consisted of 68students in grades 7, 8, and 9, ranging in agefrom 12-15 years old. Seventy percent ofparticipants were girls and 30% were boys.<br><b>Methods</b> – A semi-structured interviewprotocol was used. Responses were coded andcategorized by using QSR NUD*IST, and agrounded theory approach was used toanalyze the data.<br><b>Main Results</b> – This study found that youngteenagers derive numerous benefits frompleasure reading. From an educationalperspective, pleasure reading helps improveliteracy and thinking skills, and helps youngteenagers clarify and explore career goals.From a social perspective, pleasure readinghelps young teenagers understand historicaland current events, helps them developcompassion and empathy, empowers them todevelop and act on their beliefs, and helpsthem to understand the consequences of riskybehaviors. From a personal perspective,pleasure reading provides young teenagers with entertainment, relaxation, reassurance, a creative outlet, and a means of escape.<br><b>Conclusion</b> – Reading for pleasure provides a means of everyday life information seeking for young teenagers. It helps them improve skills and learn about themselves, their relationships, and their values, all of which help them to make the transition to adulthood

Librarians View Instruction as Integral to Their Professional Identities. A Review of: Julien, H., & Genuis, S. K. (2011). Librarians’ experience of the teaching role: A national survey of librarians. Library & Information Science Research, 33(2), 103-111. doi: 10.1016/j.lisr.2010.09.005

<b>Objective</b> – To explore the ways that professional and non-professional library staff experience and relate to their instructional roles.<br><b>Design</b> – Online survey.<br><b>Setting</b> – All types of Canadian libraries, including public, school, post-secondary, medical, special, and other libraries.<br><b>Subjects</b> – A total of 788 library staff persons with instructional responsibilities.<br><b>Methods</b> – In 2009, the authors constructed a 20-minute anonymous survey that contained questions about the nature of librarians’ instructional work, their preparation for doing instruction, and their experiences as instructors. Subjects were recruited via several electronic mail lists. The authors used SPSS to analyze the quantitative data and NVivo to analyze the qualitative data.<br><b>Main Results</b> – The study found that the majority of subjects believed instruction to be integral to their professional identities, although some viewed it as an imposition. The nature of instructional work varied greatly, but included short presentations; a series of sessions; semester-length courses; and one-on-one instruction. Subjects prepared for instruction through on-the-job training; reading professional literature; attending workshops and conferences; taking a formal course in instruction; and other methods. On the whole, training helped library staff to feel more prepared for teaching and to embrace instructional work as integral to their professional identities. Study participants derived enjoyment from instruction in the form of satisfaction with facilitating student learning; relationship building; personal development; task variety; and appreciation of the heightened profile of library staff. Subjects also described several barriers to teaching, including administrative, technological, and logistical barriers; client and faculty interactions; and interpersonal challenges such as nervousness or lack of preparation. Finally, subjects described the ways that instruction has changed with the impact of new technologies, increased expectations, and changing pedagogical practices. <br><b>Conclusion</b> – Library administrators should support the teaching duties of librarians and library staff by helping to provide them with adequate preparation time, resources, emotional support, and training. In addition, formal preparation for instruction should be integrated into professional library training programs, including MLIS programs, to better prepare librarians and other library staff to participate in information literacy instruction

Quiet Students' Experiences with Collaborative Learning at the Postsecondary Level

Collaborative learning, in which small groups of two or more students are used to achieve common learning outcomes, has become an increasingly popular pedagogical strategy in postsecondary classes in the United States. Despite numerous studies reporting the benefits of collaboration for learning, many students have reported difficulties with it. At the same time, students who have quiet personalities are sometimes misunderstood in the college classroom, with their quietness often interpreted as a lack of engagement in their courses. This phenomenological study sought to understand the collaborative learning experiences of self-identified quiet undergraduate college students through an analysis of their first-hand accounts of their experiences, in which they described their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions regarding their own learning. This study followed 10 upper-division college students over the course of a single semester, collecting data about their experiences through the use of three interview sessions and brief written reflections. Analysis revealed that quiet students' experiences of collaborative learning were greatly influenced by the larger academic context in which these interactions occurred, demonstrating four themes regarding their overall participation in classes: (a) quiet students made distinct choices about how to navigate through a social academic environment, (b) they experienced difficulties in meeting their instructors' expectations for speaking aloud in classes, (c) they struggled with tensions between perceptions of unengagement and feelings of engagement, and (d) their learning experiences exhibited particular characteristics. This academic context consequently influenced how they participated in collaborations with other students. Four themes regarding their experiences of collaborative learning were revealed: (a) quiet students often engaged in a performance of sociality that could be anxiety inducing, (b) they experienced tensions between speaking and silence when communicating in groups, (c) they experienced negative emotions in groups that often interfered with their learning, and (d) they learned with others in specific types of collaborative scenarios. Quiet students' experiences indicated that they valued preparation, reflection, control, and independent thought and discovery, and they perceived that these values often were not reinforced in their learning environments and in collaborative learning situations. Quiet students' experiences also suggest ways that classroom participation in general and collaborative learning situations in particular can be reconsidered and redesigned to enhance the learning experiences for these students

Knowledge Center a la Carte : a Series of Free Hands-on Workshops

Contributing institution: University of Nevada, Ren