Session Description:
Helping students critically engage with evidence as both consumers and creators of information is a hallmark of ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy. However, some criticize the Framework for not clearly connecting the development of information literacy (IL) competencies to civic-mindedness or social justice, i.e., moving from awareness to action. Responding to this critique, this empirical collaboration between a Librarian and a Communication professor examines the relationships between IL competencies and civic engagement attitudes among approximately 400 public speaking students (22 course sections). Join us to discuss the potential for critical IL instruction to further civic attitudes!

Session Description:
Learn how library staff addressed sexual harassment at our library by collecting data about staff experiences, using grassroots organizing, and taking action while navigating institutional structures to effect change. Results of our staff survey and details of the process to develop organizational change in our library around anti-sexual harassment efforts will be presented.

Session Description:
Find out how library directors are reinventing small liberal arts college libraries in this paper, based on extensive one-one-one interviews with a diverse set of twenty innovative library directors. Learn about trends in staffing and organizational structure, the methods of decision-making, and the planning processes, and compare the approaches in the liberal arts setting to those at larger research libraries. Consider how particular changes or trends may be expressed at your own institutions, as you identify appropriate directions for your campus.

Session Description:
This paper presents the results of a larger study on the leadership attributes of the 14 library directors at the universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance. Specifically, it examines how some of the signature initiatives they undertook in the early stages of their careers helped in forming their leadership foundations. The results show that these future library directors played key roles in initiating, managing, and leading many of the signature initiatives under study. Significantly, these signature initiatives formed not only their leadership foundations, but also propelled them to the highest positions of library leadership.

Session Description:
This session reports on a qualitative interview study exploring academic librarians’ soft skills. The results show the different skills librarians used across different work situations along with some challenges librarians faced in enacting those soft skills. The findings reveal some gaps between informal and formal behavioral expectations in the workplace and point to opportunities for organizations to develop soft skills in the workforce through clarifying expectations, improved training, and systematic evaluation.

Session Description:
How do liaison librarians develop services that meet faculty needs related to scholarly communications issues when a library is unable to provide full-time, dedicated staff to such efforts? This paper describes one university’s attempts to develop a scholarly communications agenda for its liaison librarian program. Liaison librarians conducted semi-structured interviews with faculty in their respective departments about topics related to their experiences with and perceptions regarding publishing, metrics, copyright, open access, grants, data sharing requirements, and open educational resources. Information from the interviews was used to create a strategy for developing and marketing scholarly communications services.

Session Description:
Journalism is facing a crisis of public trust. In this “post-truth” era, academic librarians are well positioned to cultivate the skills journalism students need for fact-based reporting. A key difficulty in advancing their research abilities is the uncertainty of what practices and assumptions are held by novices and experts. This research summarizes an interview project with 50 journalism students, faculty, and practitioners in order to understand information literacies at different levels. Interviews were conducted using a set of 14 open-ended questions based on the ACRL Framework. The findings will inform disciplinary-specific recommendations and learning outcomes for information literacy instruction.

Session Description:
How can academic librarians improve reference services for marginalized students? How can research into library use center students’ ideas and lived experiences? These questions were investigated through the use of Photovoice, a participatory method that combines photography, interviews, and group discussion to create change regarding an issue. Attendees will gain insight into how 11 undergraduate students from historically marginalized backgrounds seek information in their everyday and academic activities, and learn about students’ recommendations and potential implications for the development and redesign of reference services.?

Session Description:
Secondary data reference is rapidly becoming a baseline skill for library professionals across subject areas. Learn about the landscape of secondary data reference in academic libraries to prepare for this vital area of expertise. Collected survey data reveal common types of data questions received, the patron demographics where most questions arise, librarians’ reports of patrons’ data literacy skills, and how a librarian’s overall level of job responsibility and experience impacts their data reference work. Discover how librarians tackle these questions, frustrations they experience, and strategies and tips for improving data reference services and practice.

Session Description:
We present Deeper Learning (DL) as a valuable theoretical framework to recast the affordable learning conversation from one based on cost-savings to a narrative of pedagogical opportunities that encourage 21st century skills and transferable knowledge. Recent research has indicated that students may not be cultivating modes of critical thinking related to the DL framework. The development of these skills require instructors to engage students in the classroom, encouraging an active role in their learning that can increase student success. Faculty who adopt affordable materials often do so with a goal of improving student learning and critical thinking skills.