Class Discussion - Week 1

Class discussion on the Information Literacy Education

 What is the difference between Bibliographic Instruction and Information Literacy?

Bibliographic Instruction 

Bibliographic Instruction has a long history in Academic Libraries dated back to 1880s (Hardesty, 1995: 340). Bibliographic Instruction is a historical term used for the library instruction, also called user education. Librarians or Teacher Librarians used to give instructional programs designed to teach library users how to locate the information they need quickly and effectively. This kind of instruction did not have the critical and cognitive thinking skills.

Information Literacy 

Information Literacy on the other side according to ACRL 2015, is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.The Information Literacy Framework is based on a cluster of interconnected core concepts, with flexible options for implementation, rather than on a set of standards or learning outcomes. At the heart of this Framework are conceptual understandings that organize many other concepts and ideas about information, research, and scholarship perspectives. In this framework, there is a flexibility in giving instructions as a librarian and in the changing scholarly communication and information environment.

What key factors have led to the evolution of the teacher librarian’s role over the decades?

  At the outset of the twenty-first century, academic libraries confronted the need to reconceive and reconstruct the means by which they support faculty and students in teaching, learning, and  research. The changes that are occurring in technology, in research, teaching, and learning have created a very different context for the missions of academic and research libraries. Many librarians find it necessary to cancel journal subscriptions and acquisitions, devoting more time and resources to negotiating licensing agreements with digital providers, acquiring access to important databases and digital collections,  re-profiling approval plans, or implementing new software to provide federated searching (ACRL, 2007).

What are some of the changes that have occurred in academic library instruction?

Open Scholarship -

The trend for Academic Libraries of the 21st century is to embrace e-strategies/ technology rich content for teaching, learning, and research; open access and tools including open educational resources. Open scholarship, which encompasses open access, open data, open educational resources, and all other forms of openness in the scholarly and research environment, is changing how knowledge is created and shared. For research libraries, open scholarship offers opportunities for campus collaborations and new service roles (Association of Research Libraries).

 Information Technology -

Other environmental factors that may be affecting library instruction are the increasing technological savvy of users who can transfer skills from one vendor's databases to another, or student and faculty use of information resources and services not provided by the library, in which case library instruction is not in step with user need or behavior. Subject guides, Vimeo, Digital teaching & learning, Social Media, Virtual or distance learning, and Embedded Librarianship. According to Troll 2001, the number of traditional library instruction sessions and participants now appear to be on the decline, perhaps because distance-learning technologies are being deployed to deliver library instruction.

Changes in Students and the Curriculum -

Today, they have no difficulty using the Web-based catalog, but they cannot find the books they want on the shelf because they do not understand the classification system.Students today want 24-hour access to digital library collections and services, as evidenced by a study of the online habits of 2,000 American college students conducted by NetLibrary (Troll, 2001).

The following 2 minutes video caught my attention in answering the changes in the academic libraries:

 

References

Association of College & Research Libraries. 2015. Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.[online] Available from <http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework> [12 August 2017].

Association of College & Research Libraries. 2007.Changing Roles of Academic and Research Libraries. [online] Available from <http://www.ala.org/acrl/issues/value/changingroles> [12 August 2017].

Association of Research Libraries. (no date). Open Scholarship. [online] Available from <http://www.arl.org/focus-areas/open-scholarship#.WZGnPVFLfIU> [14 August 2017].

Conversations | Changing Role of the Academic Library. 2015. [online] Available from <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxrQjUn5r0k> [12 August 2017]

Hardesty, L.L. 1995. Faculty culture and bibliographic instruction: An exploratory analysis.

Troll, D. A. 2001. How and Why Are Libraries Changing? [online] Available from < https://old.diglib.org/use/whitepaper.html> [14 August 2017].