Transforming Reference Education through Improv Comedy

This study sought to explore how the fundamentals of improv comedy could be used to discuss and practice the soft skills necessary for successful reference service interactions. Feedback was collected from a pilot study where students were asked to engage with selected improv comedy activities and then discuss bridges between improv and reference skills. The results presented in this paper support the continued exploration of the efficacy of using the principles of improv comedy to explore effective reference services provision

Research-Based Development of a Health Information Professional Concentration and Certificate

Health information professional (HIP) refers to “information professionals, librarians, or informaticists who have special knowledge in quality health information resources” (MLA, 2017, para. 2). The diversity of emerging HIP roles indicates daunting challenges unique to LIS students pursuing HIP careers and to LIS programs endeavoring to develop and update specialized LIS curricula for HIPs. This poster explicates action research built upon the findings of a sequential two-phase project, which included a scoping literature review of scholarly publications on the topic of HIP roles and skills and a survey of employers on the competencies and attributes expected of entry-level HIPs (Ma et al., 2018; Ma et al., 2020). This action research project seeks to create a HIP Concentration and Certificate with course learning outcomes developed and adapted from core HIP professional competencies and employer expectations identified in the two-phase project. Students planning to pursue the HIP Concentration or the HIP Certificate may customize their trajectory with courses including health sciences librarianship, consumer health information, a seminar in current issues for HIP, health informatics, health information systems and management, and health disparities for diverse health communities. Through adapting and consolidating existing courses, LIS faculty and advisors can effectively counsel students early in their studies, inform them of required professional competencies and desirable qualifications, and facilitate work-integrated or preprofessional learning opportunities within and beyond the curriculum. It is hoped that this project will provide an evidence-based approach to developing future specialized HIP programs in LIS education

Student-constructed classroom guidelines: How to involve students in the creation of a tailored classroom environment

When students begin a new class, they are often given a list of guidelines outlining how the classroom environment should look and how the students (and sometimes the instructors) should behave. These lists impose the instructor’s preferences for classroom behavior on students and may exacerbate the inherent power dynamics at play in a classroom. In addition, instructor-created guidelines may not be sensitive to the cultural needs of students in our increasingly global classrooms. This paper presents a novel way of creating classroom guidelines by asking the students themselves to construct them on the first day of class. The themes that arose from the student-identified desires included respect for others, a safe environment, clear course structure, hands-on activities, course rigor, open food policy, clear explanations, opportunity for movement, and congenial group work. The suggestions offered in this paper can assist instructors in tailoring learning environments to students and creating a safe and inviting classroom culture from day one. Filling a gap in the literature, this work offers suggestions for student-centered classroom guidelines that reflect the desires of the contemporary graduate student

Health Insurance Literacy: How People Understand and Make Health Insurance Purchase Decisions

The concept of health insurance literacy, which can be defined as “the extent to which consumers can make informed purchase and use decisions” (Kim, Braun, & Williams, 2013, p. 3), has only recently become a focus of health literacy research. Though employees have been making health insurance decisions for many years, the Affordable Care Act has brought the issues of health insurance literacy to the spotlight. For the large number of adults with lower levels of health literacy, their ability to procure appropriate levels of health insurance coverage and interact with the health care system successfully may be limited. While a considerable amount of literature has focused on studying health literacy in general, the information seeking and decision-making process regarding health insurance has not been studied as thoroughly. If this process is studied in a sample group of users, their information needs and use might be better understood. This qualitative study explores how individuals understand health insurance concepts and make health insurance purchase decisions. This study used semi-structured interview questions supplemented with a demographic questionnaire and the Health Insurance Literacy Measurement (HILM) developed by Paez et al. (2014). The study was conducted with newly hired employees at a large university in the southeastern United States. The collected data formed the foundation for the construction of a model of the health insurance decision-making process. This study identified information tactics used by individuals when evaluating health insurance materials, such as comparing plans side-by-side, calculating costs, and eliminating irrelevant information. The findings also shed light on the personal reflection individuals undertake when making their health insurance choices, including past experience with health insurance and forecasting their needs for the next year. The participants in this study characterized their health insurance choice as a shared decision, consulting others during their decision-making. The HILM, coupled with discussions during the semi-structured interviews, identified demographic implications of individuals’ health insurance literacy skills. In addition, the information needs and preferred information sources identified in this study will be of interest to human resources officers and other information professionals providing assistance with health insurance enrollment.Doctor of Philosoph

The informational “cosplay journey” of Star Wars cosplayers in the context of a Facebook group

INTRODUCTION. Research on personal information practices has increased in recent decades. Building on this current of thought, the present study explores information practices in the context of serious leisure, looking specifically at the Rey Cosplay Community Facebook group, an online community of Star Wars cosplayers. The work discusses how these fans seek, organize, and share relevant information during the process of making costumes. METHOD. This study used participant observation and semi-structured interviews to investigate information behaviours, including information seeking, organization, use, and sharing, of seventeen members in the Rey Cosplay Community with a purposive sampling strategy. ANALYSIS. The researchers transcribed and jointly coded the collected data with an open coding scheme to identify themes that emerged from the data. RESULTS. The cosplayers used a myriad of tools to seek, organize, and share information about costume making. Participants identified that their information practices had evolved over time, and they shared sophisticated strategies for sharing work-in-progress photos and updates as well as methods for organizing information for later use. CONCLUSION. There are a variety of information practices used when making a costume. Participants often seek and acquire relevant information on online platforms and use a combination of traditional physical tools and modern electronic tools to organize information. They also display a rich culture of sharing information when responding to other fans’ information needs. The overall structure that these information practices take can be neatly articulated as a sort of informational “cosplay journey”

Health Justice Education in the Time of Coronavirus (COVID-19): A Curriculum Review and Recommendations

Phase one of this study (Vardell & Charbonneau, 2020) sought to investigate the intersections of health and social justice in library and information science (LIS) curriculum. Course offerings from 60 ALA-Accredited LIS programs were extracted and comprised the study sample. Using a thematic content analysis, a total of 220 course descriptions were analyzed to assess the inclusion of health justice topics. Of the 220 courses identified using the health justice search terms, only eight LIS course descriptions closely integrated health and social justice issues. This poster will present four overarching thematic LIS course areas identified from the 212 courses that were not explicitly health justice related but nonetheless presented potential health justice connections: 1) multicultural and diverse populations, 2) health sciences information, 3) literacy concerns, and 4) social justice and libraries. These four thematic areas present conceptual pathways with the potential to further incorporate health justice aspects in LIS coursework. In phase two of the study, the focus of this work has expanded to include health justice issues emerging during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Examples of how LIS educators can make stronger connections in their courses between health justice issues during public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, will be provided. Additionally, the presenters are seeking feedback and examples from LIS educators to help shape the future of this work and timely line of inquiry. Overall, this research initiative helps to map the curricula and contributes the LIS educator viewpoint for advancing health justice conversations

Rapid resilience: Use of discussion circles in the time of covid-19

This paper describes the successful use of Discussion Circles to support student learning and promote continuing student engagement when our previously hybrid delivery MLS program courses were forced to move to entirely online delivery in Spring 2020 due to COVID-19. Although Discussion Circles, or literature circles as they are sometimes called, are not a new pedagogical technique, the use to which we put them in this unique situation is worthy of note, as are the outcomes of their use. Outcomes are described and observations are shared from the perspective of faculty both experienced in and new to hybrid course delivery and the use of Discussion Circles as well as the student experience of Discussion Circles