be it resolved: info lit is a fad and a waste of librarians’ time and talent

Originally uploaded by lmpressl.

VERY ROUGH NOTES! (at this point I’m just trying to get the information out there. Warning: spelling and grammar errors might be rampant!)

Got in at 2:18… missed at least one speaker. Anyone blog this?

1st negative

academy is important place for us to be in .
true scholarship in higher ed. is never definitive.
things change. we need to ask if it’s important constantly.
IL is not a phase. lib. have done a variety of things. 120ish years
look at best of what we can offer
3 things for the academy: 1. disciplinary expertise, 2. bibliogrpahic exeprtise 3. information literacy
ask student/faculty what we can do: we read all day
we need to integerate informaiton literacy seamlessly into student life and library experience
we need to be under the radar
we need to take steps doctors take:
awareness
prevention:
treatment
cure (many think this is all IL is)
lifestyle changes for the future)

Interlude #2
Jeff Rutenbeck
literacy as a concept
info lit as prepared for lifelong learning
info lit teachers have thrown this out. say it’s autonomous.
info lit about what? at what point in time? at what end?
literacy literature: obtained by who at what point in time and at what purpose

can there be a universal form of literacy?
literacy as a tool, something that you use to achieve a particular end.

print focus aspect of literacy a problem
formal, rational, anthropocentric, linear, etc
digitally based, hypercomplex informal, experiential, etc. different world. doesn’t necessarily get lib fired up. most students come in with this.

___ literacy. look how many different terms
borders on meaninglessness: golf literacy, etc.

critical info lit
new literacy studies
premise: literacy always situationally and socially determined. embedded in context. can’t have it.

literacy as a practice, something you do, not something you have
literacy as ideological practice: ideas of identity, power, favor particular ways of thinking and organizing. who does it favor, who empower, whose life does it change.

is this as far as we can go?

literacies as a plural. always a package deal
literacies of the new: imply the river continues to run.

students, individuals, faculty, are producers of knowledge.
embrace they are information and knowledge producers, and they bring a tremendous amount

Garry Radford
came back in as he was referencing info lit as liberal arts… i wish i had heard what he said!!!

the name of the rose; about skill, more about mindset
questions and need information to solve question

audience interlude

comments included IL debate as semantic
there could be a neutral position on the issue
we can’t reach everyone unless we have something like writing across the curriculum (where fac. all over curriculum incorp. writing into classes)
institutions won’t hire as many lib. as faculty.
we have to get faculty on board, institution has to make it a priority, we have to make it happen
lib. work with faculty to design assignments and research projects.
fac. have to ask students to see lib.
lib. help fac. decide if students did good research
info lit shouldn’t be awkward appendage, but integrated
il as a symptom of what’s wrong with higher ed.
pessimistic view that studnets can’t think for selves
we’re insulting people who eat, drink, breath info. we can help and guide, but cant tell them
our literature needs to be informed by what’s out there
we need to stand on our own as indep. value (opposed to dependent value on microsoft, etc)
higher standard: kids don’t need us to swim in cultural values
Is IL an entirely new branch that needs another term?
maybe integrate into one subject (like english), blackboard, and online to reach 20000 students
college students are literate… so let’s respect that and not say they’re info illiterate

punched with cheerleader & multimedia event)

1: gary radford
more in common than don’t
not state or goal, but a practice
takes place in system of conversations
contextualizing conversations
problem is academic environment: education factory
students aren’t encouraged to do anything remotely info literate
students can think for themselves and are intelligent
system designed to hold them back
get beyond il as skill mentality, cuts off discussion of root problems
il as ideal we strive for, not a goal or state

2. Jeff rutenbeck
from outside looking in, problem that IL doesn’t interact with literacy lit
important to look at what you do in a critical way
if literacy is something you have or don’t have or need to get it, missing processor state of mind: literacy is a way of practice
reframe around information practices
formal exposure isn’t the only way this happens
literacy lit. looks at out of school learning

continue to open up own information practices
stay current and develop personal rel. with own info practice
allow conversation to let radically reshape what happens

postmodern, digital world vastly distributed
no center, librarians can be center.

3. Julie Todaro
no one else will identify il as center or good, librarians have to do it
needs to be seamlessly integrated
contribute to academic outcomes of institution
students and faculty won’t admit they need it
can’t do it all? assess your own time and talent to choose what you can do.
actively and proactively come out of library and into institutions

ed. admin that you do more than organize and access
unique, accessing, above, connection of what you do to students
students don’t come fully formed (fac. don’t either)

4. Stanley Wilder
isn’t nec. opposing education & libraries roll in education
il isn’t identical to teaching mission of libraries
hold it accountable for what it says it is and what it wants todo
insulting that “you don’t know when you need information”
move teaching function to help deepen engagement in studies
can skip mechanics and get to content
Google scholar works. students use it.

makes me think of AP’s make everything easy. what do we do if we don’t teach il

Library Grrrl did a much better job of blogging and capturing the spirit of the event.