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Season 3, Episode 1 - Amanda Folk and Hilary Bussell, Information Literacy

Michael: This is

Sherita: Write.

Chris: Think.

Genevieve: Teach.

Michael: A podcast brought to you by the Writing Across the Curriculum, a program in the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing at The Ohio State University.

Michael: Welcome to Write. Think. Teach. I’m Michael Blancato. What exactly are we asking students to do when we ask them to research? To help us answer this question, we’ll be hearing from from Ohio State University librarians Amanda Folk and Hilary Bussell.

Amanda Folk is an Assistant Professor and the head of the Teaching and Learning Department in the University Libraries. Hilary Bussell is also an Assistant Professor in the University Libraries and the Subject Librarian for the departments of Political Science, Economics, and International Studies as well as the School of Communication.

In this episode, Amanda and Hilary point out some of the skills instructors may miss when asking students to conduct research. To help instructors better account for these overlooked skills, Amanda and Hilary advocate a broader understanding of information literacy, that is the ability to find, gather, and use information meaningfully and effectively. This episode of Write. Think. Teach., the first in a two-part series where we will hear about the work of university librarians, focuses closely on the topic of information literacy and its importance. Here’s Hilary with a brief introduction to information literacy:

Hilary: I guess you can look at information literacy as this kind of broad concept that isn’t just within the academic realm, right? So I think just in general: thinking critically about information sources, understanding the kind of socioeconomic factors behind how information is produced and disseminated, understanding what the publication processes are that go into creating different types of information and how those processes might shape what information is presented, understanding issues about information access – who has access, who doesn’t have access, whose voices are privileged, whose voices aren’t, who is in control of how information is shaped and who isn’t, and the effects that has on people. So that’s kind of just like a broad [understanding] that can be either within or outside of academia. I also think with information literacy, it’s really important to think about it in terms of disciplines. I think what information literacy means in history is going to be very different from what it means in neuroscience or something like that just because the way that researchers in different disciplines work with information is different and so I think when students learn to be information literate, it’s always in the context of the particular disciplines their working with.

Michael: Amanda explains how conceptions of information literacy have shifted over time.

Amanda: When we think of information literacy, I think it is important to note that our professional association, the Association for College and Research Libraries, we call that ACRL for short, recently re-conceptualized how we think of information literacy. The older conceptualization was really rooted in more discrete tasks or behaviors. “Students will be able to efficiently find the information they need and be able to select the appropriate tool to be able to do that.” “They may follow a checklist of criteria that they will use when evaluating sources.” And while that’s not bad, it doesn’t really uncover the more critical or reflective or analytical modes of thinking that we would like to see demonstrated in our students, particularly after graduation. So adding this layer of metacognition and really being conscious of the decisions that you’re making when you’re looking at information, evaluating information, and selecting which information to use for your particular context – whether it’s in school, or deciding who to vote for, or making medical decisions, those sorts of things. So now it’s conceived as this set of integrated abilities which are conceptualized as six threshold concepts. These are conceptual portals that students or learners need to pass through in order to develop expertise. Some of those threshold concepts are recognizing that authority or credibility can be constructed and contextual. So what’s authoritative in one situation may not be authoritative in another. Scholarly articles may be best when you’re in college, but when you’re making decisions about your life, scholarly articles may not be the best source of information to turn to or might not have the information that you need. Also, thinking about research as inquiry. When I, in particular, have worked with WAC and Chris Manion, we often frame the work that we do around inquiry and getting students curious and asking questions and digging deeper in thinking about what these kinds of things mean. So that’s an initial stab at what information literacy is.

Michael: In a digital era when technologies enable us to produce and circulate information on a scale never seen before, information literacy takes on added significance. Amanda describes the relationship between technology use and information literacy, noting that librarians can help students become more responsible users of resources beyond what exists in university libraries.

Amanda: I think that we take for granted that information is so valuable and is actually a commodity because information flows so freely. You can pick up your cell phone now and do a Google search and seemingly access the information that you want or need, though that’s not always true. In addition to that, with students who are of a generation probably younger than us, I think they have this assumption and others sometimes also have this assumption that because they’ve always been somewhat technologically literate, that that means that they are also information literate and that’s actually not the case at all because the context in which they are using their technology is often not for the purposes of some of the higher level thinking skills that we may want them to be exhibiting when it comes to information use, either in college or once they graduate and become…they are members of society, but solidify that. And this reminded me too, one thing that people may be surprised about in terms of our positions – sometimes folks think we only want to talk about library resources. “Oh, I’m not having my students use databases or books, so I don’t really need a librarian.” We’re information experts. Library sources are great and we’ll continue to provide those, but we can talk about so much more than just what’s available through university libraries. That’s one thing I think folks are surprised about quite frequently.

Michael: You may be wondering how students and teachers can benefit from the expertise of librarians like Hilary and Amanda. Hilary provides additional details about the services she offers as a subject librarian.

Hilary: I tend to work with a lot of instructors who maybe have a certain outcome in mind when it comes to research and understanding information, but maybe…often they’ll come to me and say like “I’m not happy with the research papers my students are writing, with the quality of sources. Do you have ideas for how these skills can actually be taught?” So I’ll work with them to come up with a session where I introduce these concepts to them or depending on what level they’re at, sometimes do a deeper assignment. But it really depends on the department and the level the students are at. And I do try to tailor what I do to the specific class, the specific discipline. So, for example, with political science, a lot of the emphasis is on data, finding data, understanding data sources - for their own research because a lot of them are actually taking data and analyzing it. So a lot of my emphasis with that department has been knowing about different data sources, what’s accessible and which types of data have licensing restrictions, which are open and free for them to do whatever they want with. In communication, I’ve done a fair amount of work with their research methods course and other courses where students have to do literature review type things, so they are understanding the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly sources, so it’s kind of geared more towards that. I really try to work with whichever faculty member, instructor’s class I’m working with, to actually make sure that the assignment and what I talk to them about, that they fit together. That what I say isn’t just kind of a spiel about the library database, but it’s really targeted towards whatever their learning outcomes are having to do with research.

Michael: Amanda explains the variety of programs and projects she uses to promote information literacy in undergraduate students. She also describes how the general overviews she provides in her consultations complement the work of subject librarians like Hilary who meet individually with faculty members and students.

Amanda: I think we provide a nice complement to one another because my department will work directly with lower level undergraduate students. We’ll promote information literacy, even if we’re not calling it that necessarily, through First Year Success Series Programming, through programming related to the STEP program, through an assignment that we developed for the university survey courses, and also through our credit bearing courses – lower level credit bearing courses. And then, again, we also work with teaching and learning partners across campus to promote information literacy in a cross disciplinary way. So to instructors that are participating in a CDI, a course design institute or ODEE’s Kickstart Week or hosting programming with WAC about making sure that we’re using best practices when teaching inquiry to our students. So I take a more high level overview in promoting information literacy to instructors…The reason that we’re complementary, I don’t think I made this explicit, is that when I go into a course design institute, for example, I’ll speak very generally about information literacy and I’ll promote our open textbook Choosing and Using Sources, but then I’ll also say “If this sounds really interesting or helpful to you, you should reach out to your subject librarian” and let’s see who here doesn’t know who their subject librarian is. Let’s make sure that you know who you can contact after today’s session so that the subject librarians can do more of a deep dive with individual faculty members.

Michael: We’ll hear more from both Amanda and Hilary about open educational resources in part two of this Write. Think. Teach. series on the work of university librarians. Until then, check out the transcript for this episode on the Writing Across the Curriculum website, that’s cstw.osu.edu/wac, for links to more information about the programs, projects, and services referenced in this episode. Thanks for listening.