Panic at the One-Shot! Exploring Current and Historic News Media through Liaison partnership/collaboration

Type of Presentation

Poster Session

Conference Strand

Media Literacy

Target Audience

Higher Education

Second Target Audience

Higher Education

Location

Poster Session and Meet & Greet

Relevance

This poster presentation relates to information literacy in that it addresses how two academic librarians at a rural research university developed a unique one-shot information literacy session that taught undergraduate students how to think critically about media literacy. Drawing upon information-seeking methods pursuant to the ways in which students interact with digital information and interdisciplinary topics, this presentation demonstrates how students were taught to use secondary sources to make corroborated opinions, observations, and evaluations of historical newspapers and other primary sources. Furthermore, the presentation is situated within the current paradigm of LIS teaching and scholarship, for the field of information literacy is at a precarious crossroads. The way in which people interact with information has changed dramatically since the adoption of the ACRL Framework, so the way in which information literacy is taught needs to change in tandem with information-seeking behaviors, not retroactively. Social media and sociopolitical forces have driven everyone to a multi-faceted information environment, which means librarians must leverage multidisciplinary pedagogy, informed by inclusive excellence, to assuage the imminent information temerity. Ultimately, this presentation shows one path information and media literacy can traverse as the greater field of LIS attempts inform an information-deluged society.

Abstract

Librarians are often requested to teach one-shot information literacy sessions in lower-level undergraduate courses, where the focus is typically information discovery, source evaluation, and introductions to library terminology. Media literacy, however, is a topic that is not as common in lower-level undergraduate courses, and often rightfully so given that one-shot sessions are just that: brief one-shot sessions. Not every topic in information literacy can be taught in 50 minutes, of course. Embracing and valuing disciplinary diversity, however, can help the lack of attention given to media literacy in library instruction sessions. This poster details how disciplinary inclusivity can situate students in an environment to critically analyze news media and develop key information literacy competencies. A group of academic librarians were approached with a request to instruct first-year composition students on how to research a twentieth-century moral panic from a critical perspective. As part of the course assignment, students had to study a twentieth-century moral panic by interpreting and incorporating both primary and secondary sources into their assignment, which necessitated the expertise of both a history and literature librarian. The experience revealed how interdisciplinary partnerships among librarians is imperative to the advancement of information and media literacy of students, especially those who are not majoring in the humanities.

Presentation Description

Have you ever been approached to teach a one-shot session that has made you panic? If so, you are not alone. This poster presentation details how two subject librarians taught a tricky one-shot session and discusses the advantages the collaboration provided to the librarians and the students.

Keywords

Information Literacy, Media Literacy, Library and Information Science, Information Science, Library Instruction

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

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Mar 30th, 4:15 PM Mar 30th, 5:15 PM

Panic at the One-Shot! Exploring Current and Historic News Media through Liaison partnership/collaboration

Poster Session and Meet & Greet

Librarians are often requested to teach one-shot information literacy sessions in lower-level undergraduate courses, where the focus is typically information discovery, source evaluation, and introductions to library terminology. Media literacy, however, is a topic that is not as common in lower-level undergraduate courses, and often rightfully so given that one-shot sessions are just that: brief one-shot sessions. Not every topic in information literacy can be taught in 50 minutes, of course. Embracing and valuing disciplinary diversity, however, can help the lack of attention given to media literacy in library instruction sessions. This poster details how disciplinary inclusivity can situate students in an environment to critically analyze news media and develop key information literacy competencies. A group of academic librarians were approached with a request to instruct first-year composition students on how to research a twentieth-century moral panic from a critical perspective. As part of the course assignment, students had to study a twentieth-century moral panic by interpreting and incorporating both primary and secondary sources into their assignment, which necessitated the expertise of both a history and literature librarian. The experience revealed how interdisciplinary partnerships among librarians is imperative to the advancement of information and media literacy of students, especially those who are not majoring in the humanities.