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Communities of Interest: Information Literacy

A page for all of the Communities of Interest

Information Literacy

This community is founded and managed by Fenway Libraries Organization (FLO). Professionals involved Library and Information Science outside of FLO are welcome and encouraged to join. Our focus is on academic libraries in the Boston-area.  This community of interest will focus on Information Literacy including topics such as reference and instruction services, working with faculty, user instruction, and more.

Events

2023 Information Literacy and Online Learning Symposium 

Wentworth Institute of Technology

May 3, 2023 | 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

The FLO Information Literacy Community of Interest is hosting a free, half-day workshop and networking event on May 3rd at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Sessions will include a keynote presentation and workshop centered around the topic of Open Educational Resources (OER) and online learning. All are welcome to attend! 

Registration: Please register here. Registration closes on Friday, April 14. 

Lightning Talks: Are you interested in giving a 5 minute "lightning" talk about information literacy, OER, or online learning at your institution? Please sign up here. Timeslots will be assigned first come, first serve. (Note: If you are interested in giving a lightning talk, please also fill out the general registration form.) 

Schedule of events:

  • 9:30AM-10AM: Registration and refreshments
  • 10AM-12PM: Welcome, Keynote, and Interactive Workshop
  • 12:15PM-1PM: Lightning Talks
  • 1PM-1:30PM: Closing Comments
  • 1:30PM- (optional): Dine together, options provided

Keynote & Workshop: 

The Power of the Remix: Collaborating to Create Sustainable Library Instruction through OER by Erin McCoy

About the speaker: Erin McCoy has been part of the library world since her first student library job in 1997. She has worked in Access Services, Archives, Reference, and Library Instruction, earning her MLIS from Southern Connecticut State University along the way. Her publications and presentations focus on reference and instruction work, and recently she has explored the growing role of librarians within the professional development sphere of academia as part of her Master’s in Critical and Creative Thinking at UMASS Boston (Class of 2022). Erin is currently the Coordinator of Library services as Massasoit Community College. 

Erin first engaged with the topic of OER in 2013, presenting to her college faculty about the advantages of open access resources and the then-growing movement toward information and content sharing. A recent OER project with the Reference and Instruction team at Massasoit Community College rekindled her interest in OER, this time not as a supporter of faculty projects, but as a creator and mixer of OER to meet information literacy goals.  

Getting to Wentworth: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LKz9CYKxwEJjrHXXD4GBFLe2jfGJo_II-qa9tdPm4hc/edit?usp=sharing

Date Event - Location Description
May 14th

Information Literacy Active Learning Conference

Emmanuel College, Fenway Room

The event will include an active learning workshop followed by a panel with time for discussion. It will feature instructors from the Dartmouth Librarians Active Learning Institute (LALI).


Schedule:  

10:00 – 10:30        Registration and morning refreshments

10:30 – 10:35        Welcome 

10:35 – 10:55        Keynote speaker (Annie Soisson)

10:55 – 11:10        Break

11:10 – 11:30        Panel Discussion

11:30 – 11:40        Questions for the panel and speaker

11:40 – 12:40        Active Learning Workshop (LALI)

12:40 – 1:00         Q&A/Wrap Up

Related Files
Date Event Description
May 11th Information Literacy Instruction and Assessment

Please join us for the next Fenway Library Organization, Information Literacy COI event centered on the intersection of information literacy instruction and assessment.

We will start the morning hearing from our keynote speaker, Megan Oakleaf, Associate Professor in the iSchool at Syracuse University where she teaches “Reference and Information Literacy Services” and “Planning, Marketing, and Assessing Library Services.” Her research interests include outcomes assessment, evidence-based decision making, information literacy instruction, information services, and digital librarianship. She is the author of the Value of Academic Libraries Comprehensive Review and Report and Academic Library Value: The Impact Starter Kit.” Megan will be presenting via Zoom webconferencing.

Later in the morning we will have a panel discussion with an interesting balance of perspectives between librarians providing instruction, library administrators, faculty, and learning technology innovators. Our panelists include:

Elizabeth Berman, Assistant Director, Tisch Library, Tufts University

Shanti Freundlich, Online and Educational Technology Librarian, MCPHS

Juval Racelis, Assistant Professor, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tes Zakrzewski, Learning Innovation & Technology Director, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Related Files
Date Event Description
January 19th

Not Throwing Away My One-Shot:

Implementing Critical Information

Literacy Pedagogy in One-Shot Instruction

Sometimes librarians only get one shot to connect with their users in instruction sessions. How can staff make the most of these one-shot sessions and still incorporate critical pedagogy? Explore this question in a conversation with a panel of library and information science staff, and in a hands-on discussion workshop.

Critical pedagogy in librarianship means providing users with an understanding of the power structures behind information production and with the research skills and thought processes to find resources that go beyond the peer-reviewed journal, to include content from diverse contexts, nontraditional media, or other valuable materials outside the typical publishing hierarchy.

This event will feature a round-table panel discussion with an introduction to the concept of critical pedagogy and how to incorporate these ideals into one-shot instruction sessions. Explore the challenges librarians face in incorporating critical pedagogy into their educational services and learn more about the strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Panelists include: Dawn Cadogan and Caro Pinto, chapter authors for the ACRL Handbook of Critical Library Pedagogy, Shanti Freudlich the Online and Educational Technologies Librarian at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Maric Kramer the Academic Outreach Librarian for the Social Sciences at Brandeis University, and Dawn Stahura the Research and Instruction Librarian for Social Sciences and Zine Librarian at Simmons College.

September 27th Trivia Fun Night!  Please join us for an evening of trivia, chatting, and networking to start your semester off right! 

 

Date Event Description
October 5th SpringyCamp Virtual Conference 2016 For those who use Springshare products, such as LibGuides, or those who would like to learn more about these products, SpringyCamp is a series of free, virtual sessions presented by librarians and users of Springshare tools and products. 
November 2nd Taking Stock: Best Practices for Designing Library Learning Space Today

In this presentation, the Director of Project Information Literacy (PIL), Alison Head, presents qualitative findings from their latest study on library learning space design, which is part of a new research initiative at PIL called "The Practitioner Series." During 2016, PIL team of researchers conducted 49 in-depth interviews from 22 different academic library projects in the U.S. and Canada, including two projects in Massachusetts at Stonehill College and Northeastern University.

The session will feature a discussion about what library learning space means today, based on coding results from the interviews, and what best—and worst—practices librarians and architects have learned from their recent projects. Attendees will learn how students' information and learning needs are being met so they can make informed decisions about, and investments in, their own library projects.

Alison Head, Ph.D. is an information scientist and social science researcher. She is founder and director of the national and ongoing research study, Project Information Literacy (PIL), a study of college students' research habits in the digital age. She is a Fellow at the metaLAB at Harvard University and a Visiting Scholar in University Libraries at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Since 2009, she and her small research team have interviewed or surveyed over 13,000 U.S. college and university students at 60 different US institutions. A research report from the library learning space study will be released in the mid-November 2016.

 

Mailing List

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Communities of Interest