MLA Conference 2010 - Friday, October 8

Friday, October 8, 8:00-9:15am
A Level Playing Field?: ELM and the High School to College High Jump
Session revolved around an interesting study conducted by librarians at St. Thomas (a private Catholic university). Question was asked: “What expectations should we have as librarians of students’ information literacy skills?” A dichotomy exists between what is being taught/learned in high school and what college faculty/librarians expect students to know. The ELM (Electronic Library for Minnesota) can serve as a bridge to help narrow this gap. They also identified scaffolding opportunities related to this; scaffolding was a new concept to some of the college librarians. Their research was based on a survey to librarians at 30 Catholic schools in the Midwest. They got responses from 15 librarians and made site visits to those locations to have one-on-one conversations with the librarians. They referenced a few articles on this topic that I need to explore and compare to my own high school- community college collaboration grant I completed a few years ago. Another off-shoot of this research project we could consider exploring at Minnesota West is to focus on students who will transition from a 2-year to a 4-year college.

Friday, October 8, 9:30-10:45am
Reading 2.0: Improving Literacy in an Academic Environment
A team from Rasmussen College’s Academic Resource Team (ART) presented ways they have collaborated in attempts to raise literacy. The ART includes librarians, student support professionals, and faculty members. Strategies mentioned included SQ3R, Word Power! (Princeton Review), and other course specific ideas. They are using the MAPP assessment as students come into the college and when they graduate to help gauge literacy increases. They talked about the importance of getting all faculty on-board with the idea of including reading strategies in their courses/programs. One way they worked on this was to get all faculty enrolled in an online course about teaching reading comprehension. They have also instituted the practice that instead of faculty having office hours in their office, they tutor in the library one hour/week. Comments were made about how that time in the library helped faculty learn what students in other subject areas struggle with and also to hear how student peer tutors interacted with students.

Friday, October 8, 11:00am-1:00pm
Luncheon Keynote: Bruce Schneier
Security, Privacy, and the Generation Gap
Mr. Schneier talked about the feeling and reality aspects of Security; there are two different concepts on the same word. He spent time talking about privacy and how that is affected by the generation gap and also how the Internet is the greatest generation gap since rock ‘n roll. I laughed out loud when he said “to search is easier than to sort” = keeping emails and searching through them rather than deleting. Guilty as charged! I also thought his comparison about what was ignored environmentally in the industrial age in the 20th century that we find incredulous now will be akin to those looking back at our lack of protecting privacy in the early 21st century.

I enjoyed my MLA 2010 Conference experience and the wide-range of topics that were available. I believe I was able to gain information on aspects of my job as well as other librarian-related professional responsibilities.

Information Literacy Education: A National Overview (College of DuPage Library Learning Network)

Three panelists led today's discussion about Information Literacy: Dr. Lisa Stock from DuPage, Dr. Jean Donham from the Univ. of Northern Iowa (and a former instructor at Univ. of IA Library School when I was in Grad School there!); and Dane Ward from Illinois State Univ.
Background information about Information Literacy, including the variety of standards (and diversity of students/patrons) related to information literacy kicked off the session. Recognition was also given to President Barack Obama declaring October 2009 National Information Literacy Month -- here's a link to his proclamation.
Dr. Donham referenced an article published in the Winter 2010 edition of College Teaching entitled Mental Models of Research: Generating Authentic Questions (authentication required to access) that questions how we as educators can help students move to a position of inquiry rather than reporting. Later in the session she referred to 7 dispositions that she believes are useful in ensuring students are ready to learn:
1) open-minded
2) curiosity
3) meta-cognitive
4) strategic
5) investigative
6) reasoning
7) evidence-based
Mr. Ward focused more on the collaborative aspect of information literacy and recognized elements of the collaborative process as:
* spontaneity
* expertise
* pushing the boundaries
* being present in the moment
* knowing each other
* knowing oneself
He summed this up by stating it is important for all involved in the collaboration to be open-minded and not to judge one another during the process.
Emphasis to grow information literacy on a national level needs to focus on these three areas, according to the panelists:
1) standards - moving beyond the boiler-plates that are there and also recognizing the different needs of the communities using the standards
2) work towards a model of moving beyond information seeking
3) context and collaboration are key to success
A follow-up question that piqued my interest was about what textbook they might recommend for a 1-credit information literacy course and Dr. Stock mentioned Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog by William Badke.

Information Literacy for Life - College of DuPage Teleconference

Oh, this teleconference was on one of my FAVORITE topics!! The panel talked about their experiences collaborating with other entities to teach/discuss/introduce information literacy skills. The college librarian from American University in Washington, DC, really piqued my interest because of his collaborative work with high schools and his involvement in his college's Teacher Education program. The other two librarians discussed grant projects they had done with information literacy skills & both of those projects were interesting as well. One was on the value of peer mentoring of information literacy skills in a high school setting and the other was about teaching information literacy skills to older adults with an emphasis on health information. I would love to pursue that idea in a collaborative effort with a local public library!
The teleconference was reassuring in the sense that work I've done in the past and am currently engaged in with information literacy collaborations is on track with what other librarians around the country are doing. We are encountering some of the same challenges and have discovered some of the same rewards! A key reminder for me was that collaborations take time and consistent efforts...but it's also important not to bite off more than one can chew!
I was really intrigued by a question that was posed after the panel concluded that asked about collaborating with home school groups...no one on the panel had done that yet. That sounds like a wonderful idea to me!!! Again, another potential area to collaborate with a public library. My focus has been more on local high schools, but the home school association would be a great avenue to head down as well. I also asked a question which the moderator posed to the panel :) I asked what role college librarians can play for high schools that do not have a school librarian. They responded with Advocacy type answers and just getting involved and being a voice. I can see the value in that; it's really a big issue and difficult to know where to start. One more thing to look into...

Lakeview High School - Nov. 7

I had so much fun meeting with the Lakeview 7-12 teaching faculty and principal on Friday, November 7! The meeting was a result of the grant I did a few years ago collaborating with two local high schools using an online information literacy course that I created in D2L. One of the Lakeview teachers attended my Teaching & Learning session on the topic and asked if I would come speak with their faculty.
They want to get a "plan" in place for incorporating more information literacy skills into their curriculum. I thought this initial meeting on Friday went well and I am excited about supporting them through this process!!
This is absolutely one of my favorite topics -- bridging the High School to College gap in library/information literacy, etc. skills!!! So it was a real treat for me to get to go and get on my soapbox and really have interested listeners! :)