Visual Literacy and the Academic Library

My friend and colleague Kathryn (a fellow UF ed tech student) recently went to the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) Conference and brought me a handout from a presentation about visual literacy and academic libraries. Although I'm sorry I wasn't able to see the presentation face-to-face, there are some related visual literacy presentations at the ALA Annual meeting in June and I'll definitely attend those sessions.

Here's an overview of the ACRL session:

Definition
The presenters use a definition of visual literacy presented by John Debes in 1969 which refers to a group of visual competencies the ability to communicate using the competencies.

Importance
As media and technology are transforming society, visual images are becoming a predominant form of communication

How UNO (Univ of Nebraska Omaha) and the library are incorporating visual literacy

• The library has a "partnership for visual literacy" with the university with representatives from the Criss libary and the school of communication
• Criss library is promoting visual literacy by using visual messages in communications and in library marketing, by having virtual library tours, and vodcasting

I'm glad to see that libraries are seeing the need for increased use of visual images in a variety of settings. I'd like to see more libraries incorporating visual literacy topics in information literacy instruction and making instruction more visual.

The Media Equation

As Reeves et al. discuss in the "The Media Equation" two of the benefits of understanding the media equation -- first, the ability to use the knowledge that people respond to media to design better media/interfaces and second, the use of "the media equation" as a means for developing a foundation for evaluating and critiquing media. Both of these concepts influence librarianship and education. From this point forward, I'll break the discussion into sections according to these two points.

Improving the Design of Media
Reeves et al. comments on the idea the using the media equation design rules can be created to capitalize on human expectations and response to media. This started me thinking about many of the interfaces commonly used in libraries today. How would applying the media equation design principles to library catalog and database interfaces improve ease of use and functionality? Some users may love their library catalog, but most would probably like to see it improved so that they can more easily find what they need. The chapter touches on some of the design principles, but for more detail and concrete ideas on re-designing library interfaces I'll need to read the later chapters.

Evaluating Media
Depending on the institutional goals and definition of information literacy, there is overlap between information literacy and media literacy. A key component of media and information literacy is evaluation. Teaching students to find information and media is useless without teaching them to thoughtfully critique and evaluate what they find. Assessing the source of the media, the accuracy and or quality, and any biases are essential skills. Given the ideas inherent in the media equation, that media=real life, teaching evaluative skills takes on an entirely new meaning. Does the fact that many of us seem media as real life effect our evaluation abilities? Does it change the way we teach students to evaluate media? These are all issues that librarians teaching information and media literacy should consider.

On the Horizon...

For the past few years the New Media Consortium has collaborated with the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) to research emerging technologies that are likely to have an impact on higher education. The report is divided into sections by time to adoption and includes technologies that will be adopted for educational use in a year or less up to five years. The 2007 Horizon Report discusses a number of technology and trends, but rather than summarizing them all, I'll point out a few I think are most significant or have an impact on academic libraries.

Key Trends

1. Changing higher education environment --

• less students overall because of declining enrollment
• Increased need for distance education
• More non-traditional and non-residential students

2. Academic review (including peer review) , merit, and tenure processes are not adapting to new forms of scholarship. As faculty are using digital mediums for expression and increasing interdisciplinary collaboration, their work is moving towards a new type of peer review, but "traditional" ideas of academic status are presenting barriers to change.

3. Information Literacy should not be considered a given. The IL skills of students are not increasing proportional to technology usage. Today's students are using various types of technologies, but that does not make them more information literate. This is why many academic libraries are boosting their efforts at IL instruction.

The three trends discussed above impact higher education as a whole, and are issues that effect academic libraries provision of services and instruction. The changing nature of the academic environment and student body contribute to the services offered by academic libraries and the amount and types of instruction we provide, while the new forms of academic review have a potential impact on the scholarly publishing crisis. I was pleasantly surprised to see that information literacy was one of the key trends. Many times the misperception is that netgen students are information literate because they are technologically literate. Libraries have been teaching information literacy skills for years, but I would like to see more an institutional emphasis and initiative for information literacy. Many universities are emphasizing IL, but many are not. Institutional support and interdisciplinary collaboration with libraries to include IL instruction is increasingly important.

Stayed tuned to my next post where I'll continue the discussion of the Horizon Report by discussing the critical challenges and technologies to watch...

Library Instruction and Gaming

One of the many listserves I'm on is DIGREF, for librarians who provide digital reference services in a variety of formats. This morning I read a message about the value of gaming. The message author professed his/her mixed opinions on the utility and educational value of gaming. Here's a link to an article cited by the author that challenges the intellectual and educational merits of gaming and role playing environments:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n03/disk01_.html

This is an issue that I feel strongly about. Even games that aren't "educational" have been proven to increase creative thinking and problem solving. I think librarians and educators should be utilizing games and gaming rather than writing them off as an idle waste of time.

The American Library Association and many libraries and library organization are supporting the utility of virtual environments and realizing that they're gaining popularity. ALA has a "library" in SL, as do many public libraries and some academic libraries.

The DIGREF message pertains mostly to libraries promoting games and making them available for users. Many public libraries are reaching teens by hosting "game nights" where users can play games and talk about games. There are a variety of articles about this, but that's not where I want to focus.

While that is an interesting marketing/outreach tool, especially for public libraries, my interest lies in educational games and simulations. There are some libraries who are making tutorials increasingly interactive, but very few if any are producing high quality games for library instruction. I would like to see libraries create interesting, interactive, game-like tutorials. I'm practicing with a free version of RPG maker myself and after some practice, I'll try my hand a making a fun game incorporating IL concepts.

Any thoughts on gaming and virtual realities?

Information Literacy 101

Information Literacy

In previous posts I've mentioned various types of literacies. As a librarian I'm the most familiar with Information Literacy. Well...what is it and why should we as educators care about it? Why are Librarians so passionate about it?

Various Definitions:

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) defines IL as: the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.

Shapiro and Hughes (1996) define Information Literacy as: "A new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself its technical infrastructure and its social cultural and philosophical context and impact."

IL and Library Instruction

I have mixed feelings about information literacy. I believe that library instruction is useful and librarian have skills and knowledge valuable to sorting through the mass of information available. But, are librarians going about information literacy instruction in the most effective way?

What are your experiences with library instruction and information literacy? How do you feel about the concept of information literacy? Libraries are providing lots of instruction. What is the quality of that instruction? How sound are the pedagogical principles upon which the instruction is based?

Check out the ACRL Information Literacy website:
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/informationliteracy.htm

Multiple Literacies

Blog Topics
For the remainder of this class I'll be blogging about various literacies -- media, visual, and information literacy. I'm currently working on a paper about incorporating visual literacy and visual learning in library instruction. As I find good resources, articles, etc. I'll discuss them on my blog.

Today's Article -- Expanding the Concept of Literacy
Daley, E. (2003). Expanding the concept of literacy. EDUCAUSE Review, 38(2), 32-40.

Daley comments on how technology is changing the traditional (if erroneous) definition of literacy from print based reading and writing to include a variety of concepts and competencies.
She lists 4 main arguments for this expanded definition of literacy:

1. ubiquitous nature of multimedia screen language
2. multimedia screen language can construct complex meanings without text
3. The types of communication and collaboration possible with multimedia screen language are very different from those possible in a text only environment
4. Truly literate people will be able to communicate in the multimedia language of the screen

Key Points:

• Most general education curricula do not include basic knowledge of media communications
• Educators need to look beyond a print only basis for communication and understand that media communication is here to stay

What are your thoughts and or experiences with incorporating various literacies into instruction? Can higher education learn from K-12 education regarding a more holistic, incorporated view of literacy?