Universities | Page 5

Assessment Information literacy

Top 20 Library Instruction articles of the year

Interesting, this list of top 20 articles compiled by the Library Instruction Round Table, see page 6 of their latest newsletter. This one seems of particular interest:

Stowe, B. (2013). Designing and implementing an information literacy instruction outcomes assessment program. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 20(3-4),
242–276.
This case study describes and analyzes the efforts of the library faculty at the Brooklyn Campus Library of Long Island University who are involved in developing, testing, and implementing a ground-up information literacy outcomes assessment program for the undergraduate core curriculum. Based on the increasingly prominent role given to information literacy by re-accreditation agencies, the library was prompted to significantly upgrade its assessment practice of collecting anecdotal evidence and administering clickers-based exit surveys. To detail the process of the upgrade, the article discusses such issues as key external and internal institutional forces that influence the development of an outcomes assessment programs. The library faculty members discuss choosing the appropriate assessment instrument (standardized or locally developed), establishing a hierarchy of priorities of assessment areas/goals, determining the actual assessment questions, and building the iterative assessment cycle (pre-assessment and post-assessment). The author includes examples from early versions of the evaluation instruments as well as the revisions of such instruments. The honesty of the library faculty members is disarming—they freely refer to the persistent personnel and managerial issues their library had been facing for some time and are generally very open about the challenges this represented in terms of developing a sustainable assessment program. As a result, this article provides an invaluable resource for other institutions trying to build their outcomes assessment program from scratch.

Blended Learning Information literacy Open education

Technologies for a flipped classroom

This just came out : the latest “Tips and Trends” report from the Instructional Technologies Committee members of the American College and Research Libraries and the American Library Association.

Tips and Trends, written by Instructional Technologies Committee members, introduces and discusses new, emerging, or even familiar technology which can be applied in the library instruction setting. Issues are published 4 times a year.

Technology for Flipping the Classroom
Spring 2014

By Angela Colmenares

Librarianship Research

What is LIS?

Practionners have a love-hate relationship with Library and information science. Here is a recent article on the topic of whether it is a science or not:
Citation: Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya, (2014) “What counts as a science and discipline in library and information science?”, Library Review, Vol. 63 Iss: 1/2
(Lugya says yes).

Also of interest, this recent book on theories of information:

Theories of Information, Communication and Knowledge: A Multidisciplinary Approach edited by Fidelia Ibekwe-SanJuan and Thomas M. Dousa (Eds.). London, UK: Springer, 2014. 380 pp. $179.00 (hardcover) (ISBN 978-94-007-6973-1)
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6973-1
(Also reviewed in JASIST)

Academic Integrity

Thinking uncreatively

A great way to think outside the box is to give yourself difficult constraints. A colleague of mine pointed out this great lecture featuring Kenneth Goldsmith Poets at the White House, discussing uncreative writing. Arguably, a great example of creatively thinking about the importance of academic integrity or plagiarism:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqHaKniXkF8&w=420&h=315]
We were thinking of ways of making academic integrity more meaningful to students. In this other video, my institution takes a radically different approach, scaring students into acting appropriately:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BeyUy_QyO8&w=560&h=315]