2021 Program

2021 KLA LIRT Retreat Program

July 15 & 16, 2021 | Virtual

View the retreat schedule.

Opening Plenary

Teaching Information Literacy: Keeping It Small and Expanding Your Reach

Jane Hammons | The Ohio State University

When it comes to teaching information literacy, there are multiple paths we can take. For some of us, our emphasis is working with students directly, through one-shot sessions and/or credit courses. In other cases, our efforts may center around working with course instructors to support their efforts to teach information literacy. In this presentation, I will share some ideas for how you can support increased information literacy learning, whichever role you have. The presentation will be centered around two questions that are common to instruction librarians: How can I make the most of the limited time I usually have with students? And, how can we expand the scope of our library instruction program to reach more students?

The first part of the presentation will provide an overview of the “small teaching” approach to instruction outlined in Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (James M. Lang) and Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes (Flower Darby and James M. Lang). While neither of these works is aimed specifically at librarians, they each provide strategies that librarians could incorporate into their student-focused instruction, either in the classroom or the online context. The second part of the presentation will consider how librarians can support the increased integration of information literacy into the curriculum through faculty development work. I will highlight a few examples of instructor development programing I have been involved with, including the development of an online, self-paced Canvas course, and will provide recommendation for how you might use instructor development to expand the reach of your information literacy program.

Presentations

Literacy & Representation: Teaching Media & Visual Literacies Across Communities

Monique Threatt, Jacqueline Fleming, & Nicholae Cline | Indiana University, Bloomington

We are living in a turbulent, visual landscape that has proven the importance of media and visual literacy to our students now more than ever. Everyday students are bombarded with images and visual media from numerous sources without having the skills needed to understand the messages being sent and the level of reliability of their creators. Media and visual literacy skills are also not inherently a part of our natural skillset as humans; these are skills that need to be taught, learned, and practiced. This presentation is the result of a collaboration between three librarians at Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, and is based on the three librarians' areas of expertise, media and visual literacy, as well as their individual identities. The presentation will use these literacies as a lens through which to explore civil rights and social justice issues and emphasize the importance of supporting neurodiverse communities. Attendees of this presentation will learn how to incorporate media and visual literacy into their classrooms, to be more aware of a variety of perspectives and communities, and how to encourage and create a safe and inviting space where all learners can be vulnerable and grow.

Video Creation for Library Instruction slides & handout, chat transcript

Karyn Hinkle & Taylor Leigh | University of Kentucky

This is a hands-on workshop session on making videos for library instruction and outreach. The workshop, for beginner-level video creators, will address the tension between the fears, tech impediments, and trouble we all experience with making library videos on one hand; and library users’ need and desire for video, and its benefits in online library instruction, on the other.

Participants will hear about the successes and failures of peer librarians’ experience video creation; practice recording real video files in a hands-on workshop to gain experience and familiarity; reflect on their library video-making thoughts/feelings; and make plans to incorporate video further into their library practices.

The presenters, Karyn Hinkle and Taylor Leigh, are two instruction and outreach subject-specialist librarians at the University of Kentucky Libraries. The presenters will discuss possible workflows for video shooting, editing, and hosting/presenting. We will lead hands-on practice making and uploading two short videos during the workshop; and offer take-home bibliography and exercises to help participants build further on their library-video making over the summer for the fall semester to come.

Our goal is to empower participants with the skills and knowledge needed to begin creating videos at their home institution.

Please bring a well-charged mobile phone or tablet to the workshop, and, if possible, please download the free teaching app FlipGrid to your device if you don't have it already!

Post-apocalyptic library instruction: Where do we go from here?

Amber Willenborg | University of Louisville

Academic libraries across the United States shifted instruction services online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many continued providing synchronous and asynchronous online instruction throughout Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. With vaccinations underway, the Fall 2021 semester may look somewhat normal—but will library instruction? And even if that is possible, does it make sense to return to business as usual?

In this session, the presenter will discuss how the Research Assistance and Instruction department at the University of Louisville Libraries provided information literacy instruction throughout the pandemic and how the changes made might permanently affect the way we offer instruction. Will our instruction request form continue to include synchronous and asynchronous online options in Fall 2021? Are our liaison librarians now more comfortable creating content with online learning technologies? Do our teaching faculty now expect online options? And can we use online learning to our advantage to make UofL’s library instruction program more scalable and sustainable?

In addition to sharing one librarian’s ideas for post-pandemic library instruction, this session will also include opportunities for attendees to discuss their own plans for the future of library instruction at their library.

KYVL InfoLit Gallery: A Growing Resource for the Commonwealth

Ilona Burdette, Dr. Karoline Manny, & James Allen | Kentucky Virtual Library

Beginning with a partnership of KYVL and LIRT in 2018-19, KYVL’s K12 and postsecondary librarians have been laying the groundwork for a repository of shareable, KYVL-related information literacy resources for the Commonwealth.

Join task force members as we unveil the opening day repository, share the submission process for adding new content, and review an infolit skills progression crosswalked with the ACRL Framework and Kentucky’s first ever Academic Standards for Library Media.

Bring your favorite infolit lesson or activity to submit during the session. Submissions must be original and designed for use with a KYVL resource.

Finally, consider joining the work ahead as we tweak the technology, solidify the submission process, and curate the content.

Not throwing away my one-shot: Converting a one-shot to online asynchronous

Carrie Byrd | University of the Cumberlands

This session will discuss using a variety of tools including Libguides, Libwizard and Camtastia to turn our traditional freshmen English one-shot instruction session into an online asynchronous format in response to changes forced by Covid- 19. I will discuss the process and the response from students and professors, as well as what updates I plan to make for the future.