Information Creation as an AI Prompt: Implications for the ACRL Framework

There is much interest in higher education in the teaching and learning aspects of generative AI, including its potential uses in information literacy instruction. However, less attention has been paid to the educational implications of generative AI’s impact on academic publishing. Because AI can produce deceptively authentic scholarly articles and falsified data sets, it is fueling the scientific paper mill industry. This has led to record numbers of AI-generated article submissions and scientific paper retractions, even in reputable journals. As a result, AI-generated fake scholarship poses a threat to students’ information literacy and learning development. This paper discusses the implications of generative AI for the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

Digital Games For 21st Century Learning: Teacher Librarians\u27 Beliefs And Practices

Digital games as tools for learning in K–12 have been a topic of intense discussion over the last 15 years. One area of focus has been on the integration of commercial off-the-shelf games in lesson plans. A predictive factor for the adoption and integration of digital games is the attitudes or readiness of teachers. Yet, while many studies have examined this with teachers themselves, teacher librarians (TLs) have largely been ignored, despite the key role they play in education and technology adoption in schools. This study attempted to determine TLs’ beliefs and practices about digital games as 21st century learning tools, to examine similarities and differences with those of classroom teachers, and to see if and how TLs’ pedagogical beliefs impacted their perceptions of barriers toward digital game adoption. The Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Games (TATG) Survey measured TLs’ perceptions of barriers to using digital games. Findings suggest that TLs tended to use digital games to address discrete library skills—a behaviorist practice—despite the fact that they tended to hold constructivist pedagogical beliefs. Though, evidence showed that some were using games to integrate 21st century skills into classroom lessons. Similar to findings on classroom teachers, TLs perceived lack of time, lack of infrastructure, and lack of support as barriers to using digital games. Furthermore, TLs with behaviorist beliefs tended to perceive greater barriers to using digital games as compared to TLs with constructivist beliefs

Blended Librarianship—20 Years Later

In 2004, Steven J. Bell and John Shank introduced the term blended librarian to describe an emerging skill set of academic librarians in teaching and learning roles as a combination of “the traditional skill set of librarianship with the information technologist’s hardware/software skills, and the instructional or educational designer’s ability to apply technology appropriately in the teaching-learning process” (p. 373). Several years later, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) officially recognized instructional design skills as a core proficiency for instructional librarians in the Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators (ALA, 2008). Yet, alongside the ACRL’s shift from information literacy standards to framework came a parallel shift from the proficiencies for instruction librarians to its revision, entitled Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians (ALA, 2017). The Roles and Strengths of Teaching Librarians remains intentionally vague, which may make it difficult for library students and practicing professionals to determine exactly what knowledge, skills, and abilities encompass the formal competencies of instructional designers. Drawing on standards from the Association of Educational Communications and Technology (2012), this paper defines the competencies of instructional design and technology and outlines the specific areas of content and pedagogical knowledge that teaching librarians in the instructional designer role will find most relevant

Ground Truths: Engaging Kansas Public Libraries in Resilience Research

In Kansas, the NSF-funded statewide initiative Adaptive and Resilient Infrastructure for Social Equity (ARISE) was formed with the goal to create tools and programs that ensure support for communities in rural and urban areas who are most vulnerable to disaster, both natural and human-made. Data literacy has been identified as a foundational infrastructure need. This poster describes emerging findings from Data Literacy for All: A Kansas Public Library Initiative, a project within the ARISE initiative. This year-long study seeks to engage Kansas public library leaders in community-based research to identify the needs of their libraries for supporting everyday life data literacy in the communities they serve. Everyday life data literacy, defined as “the sociocultural data practices that occur within and across different domains of existing literacy practices,” is fundamental for social and economic resilience and can serve as a protective mechanism against misinformation. Using surveys and interviews with public library leaders, this study set out to uncover the ground truths of public library needs across the state of Kansas. An early and emerging picture suggests that public libraries may be best positioned to support data literacy and other resilience initiatives when they are recognized within their communities as critical infrastructure. This poster will report on continued findings in the Data Literacy for All project; the benefits and challenges of using community-engaged methods to involve library professionals in resilience research endeavors; and implications for preparing pre-service librarians for the profession

Digital games for 21st–century learning: Teacher librarians\u27 beliefs and practices

Video games as tools for learning in K-12 have been a topic of intense discussion over the past fifteen years. One area of focus has been on the integration of commercial off-the-shelf games in lesson plans. A predictive factor for the adoption and diffusion of this innovation is the attitudes or readiness of teachers. Yet while many studies have examined this with teachers themselves, teacher librarians (TLs) have largely been ignored, despite their key role in education and technology adoption in schools. This study examines the beliefs and practices of TLs concerning digital games as learning tools to determine if and how they differ from teachers with regard to games and learning. The Teachers\u27 Attitudes toward Games (TATG) survey measured TLs\u27 perceptions of barriers to using digital games. Findings suggest that TLs tend to use digital games to address discrete library skills, although there is evidence that some use games to integrate twenty-first-century skills into classroom lessons. Similar to findings on classroom teachers, TLs perceived lack of time, lack of infrastructure, and lack of support as barriers to using digital games

Hidden Inequities of Access: Document Accessibility in an Aggregated Database

Despite ongoing efforts to improve database accessibility, aggregated database vendors concede that they do not have complete control over document accessibility. Instead, they point to the responsibility of journal publishers to deliver articles in an accessible format. This may increase the likelihood that users with disabilities will encounter articles that are not compatible with a screen reader. To better understand the extent of the problem, a document accessibility audit was conducted of randomly selected articles from EBSCO’s Library & Information Source database. Full-text articles from 12 library science journals were evaluated against two measures of screen reader compatibility: HTML format (the optimal format for screen readers) and PDF accessibility conformance. Findings showed inconsistencies in HTML format availability for articles in the selected journals. Additionally, the entire sample of PDF articles failed to meet the minimum standard of PDF Universal Accessibility of containing a tagged structure. However, all PDF articles passed accessibility permissions tests, so could be made accessible retroactively by a third party

Resilient Practices in High Impact Information Literacy Learning: What and How to Teach

High impact learning in higher education is commonly understood as course assignments and projects show to benefit students and increase student retention. In addition, high impact learning has also been shown to result from pedagogy and information literacy learning outcomes that serve to positively change students’ behaviors in the areas of health, civic engagement, and personal finance. In this session, six categories relevant to high impact library instruction will be shared and discussed: everyday life information skills; information-related practices that cross contexts; holistic instructional practices and pedagogies; critical community engagement; searching and selection of resources; and information literacy learning outcomes that address students’ personal challenges and prepare them for quality of life

The (mis)Information World of Moms for Liberty: A Digital Ethnographic Case Study

Moms for Liberty (M4L) is an American organization that has played an outsized role in the dramatic increase in book bans and challenges in school and public libraries. This group provides an opportunity to study the various ways that information and attention is driven bi-directionally between the public and private spheres. The aim of this digital ethnographic case study was to better understand how the norms and values that underlie the small world of M4L influence the larger lifeworld and social milieus of communities. If public policy is ideologically constructed, what does this mean for information practitioners whose institutions exist in small worlds? Jaeger and Burnett’s theory of information worlds and Engeström’s activity theory model were combined to form the lens of interpretation to analyze the normative behavior and information values of M4L and the impact of its object of motivation for creating information poverty in the lifeworld through censorship efforts via political activism and propaganda. Data sources included public messaging from M4L and affiliated social media pages, primary sources from M4L’s official website, official interview transcripts, news headline data, and relevant public policy data. This poster reports on the early findings and emerging implications of the study, as well as the potential value of the proposed theoretical-methodological framework for ethnographic and case study research within the information disciplines

The Babbler Volume 54 (1974-1975)

The 1974-1975 volume of David Lipscomb College\u27s (now Lipscomb University) The Babbler student newspaper, which ran from August 1974–May 1975. It had 14 issues. Issue 4 is misnumbered as issue 3.https://digitalcollections.lipscomb.edu/bab/1038/thumbnail.jp