I'll read #ILread

Unfortunately I had to miss yesterday’s #ILread discussion, since I was in attendance at our state’s information literacy summit. I was impressed with Barbara Fister's talk at LOEX. As I recall, every one of her "outrageous claims" was loudly cheered by a large section of the audience. After I got home, I discussed her claims with a group of colleagues who were aghast that a librarian would say such things. I thought it was an interesting divergence of opinion. The claims were framed to get attention, so the statements appear more outrageous than they actually are, once we consider the underlying thoughts.

This is how I interpret them:

1. Emphasize process over product. The research paper is the end product of the process. The learning is in the journey; the end product is just an artifact.
2. Finding stuff is not hard. Coming up with good questions is more important.
3. Citations are an academic thing. Incorporating the work of others into one’s own is the real skill.
4. We're educators, not enforcers.
5. There are reasons why students are expected to use scholarly sources. It is important for students to understand those reasons.
6. “Librarians should spend as much time working with faculty as with students.” Actually, I think this is more obvious than outrageous. Faculty are our route to the students. We need to connect with them because we need them to advocate for us to their students.

One other thought about the discussion: I know that there are differences between how education is structured and how it operates in the US and UK, but I don't really know what all the differences are. It seems to make for a strange little language barrier that popped up now and then in the discussion.

Information literacy on the job

Niamh Tumelty / Page started an information literacy discussion group with the hashtag #ILread and a Zotero group. Here's my initial contribution.

Something that I think is worth discussion is the recent Project Information Literacy report, Learning Curve: How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once They Join the Workplace by Alison Head. She also wrote an op-ed about it in the Seattle Times. The report looks at the gaps employers see between what they expect and what recent graduates bring to the job. Some of these are predictable: an over-reliance on Google, lack of persistence/thoroughness, and an aversion to asking coworkers for help. The report also looks at the situation from the perspective of the recent graduate. Focus group participants found workplace information problems to be more ambiguous and more deadline-intensive than what they were used to. They also mirrored the aversion to asking for help: "the biggest hurdle … was getting used to talking to strangers." 

As the Library Instruction Coordinator, a big part of my job is reaching out to faculty, promoting information literacy, and trying to find ways to bring the library and its resources into various courses. While the faculty see the value of information skills, many of them tell me, "Everything we do is project based. There is very little library research." So I have to talk about the information inputs and outputs of the projects, how information literacy is more than library skills, and how the library is more than what's in the building. Trying to get students on board with info lit is an even bigger challenge. If it's not required, they (for the most part) don't care, and if it is required, they don't see why it should be a requirement. I think the PIL report could be a great help in this situation.

The report reframes information literacy from "library skills" or "something students have to do in school" to a workplace expectation, and a workplace struggle. The idea that the first page of Google hits doesn't cut it, or that Google by itself isn't good enough, is more than an academic thing. Getting the findings of this report in front of faculty and students could accomplish a good part of the sales job. Getting them to read it could be another challenge.

I'm curious to find out: Do others think they could use this report in this way? How would you go about it?