Anne Jumonville-Graf,
M.L.I.S

Throughout your time at Trinity, you have led a number of faculty workshops and created many resources for both incoming and continuing students. In your opinion, what are the best methods to teach new and relevant information to people with existing and well-established habits?

I think reflection on past practice is a very useful starting point. When given time and space to think, many people have their own questions about finding and using information that can lead to learning something new. Especially if they have an immediate and practical motivation to do so, like an upcoming assignment or new course to plan.

In a workshop setting, I like to give everyone a scenario or problem related to using information sources and then encourage a diversity of approaches for addressing it. This gives everyone a chance to learn from their own experience in a very low-stakes environment and hear how others may do something differently. For habits or ideas that do seem to be working well, I can build on what people are already doing and highlight the value of those approaches.

Finally, I like to supplement those types of activities by also providing my own recommendations for resources or strategies, and packaging those in a way that can be reviewed later. The one time I see a student in a workshop may not be their best day for learning. So I have created a lot of handouts, slides, resource guides, etc. to provide starting points and suggestions for getting started.

Having been part of the Digital Literacy Task Force, what is your opinion of the changing nature in which information is stored and disseminated, and what implications does that change have on learning?

That’s a very interesting question! The expectation that information can be found and understood quickly, online and for free, does not mesh well with many academic values, which prioritize expert-level reading material and deep and synthetic knowledge of a topic. And although I know many students who actually like using print sources and formats, the effort to locate and use them sometimes runs up against the perceived convenience factor as well.

Digital formats can also obscure or flatten important differences between content types, especially as it relates to publication process and authority. Everything becomes “a pdf” or “a website.” On the flip side, though, digital formats can afford the opportunity for enhanced accessibility, whether that’s using a screen reader or even just changing the font size. So it’s not all bad.

From a broader library perspective, the evolution from ownership to other forms of access is another important change. On the one hand libraries can make a greater diversity of materials available and patrons themselves can play a more active role in that process. But negotiating and paying for resources via subscriptions and licenses, not to mention pushing publishing companies toward equitable access models, is a huge and often invisible effort. That’s one reason the open access and open educational resource (OER) movements are so critical.

On top of being a librarian, you also teach and act as the librarian for FYE, which is still relatively new at Trinity. What recommendations do you have for faculty who are considering joining an FYE?

My practical advice would be, try to talk with a range of people, inside and outside your department, to get a feel for the specific class options and experiences. Also talk to the FYE Coordinator, Michael Hughes, about where the needs are and where upcoming opportunities might be. I would also suggest choosing an FYE based not only on whatever topic interests you but also your own planning and teaching style. Some of the FYE groups are highly collaborative and others are more autonomous between sections. Think about what would work best for you.

More philosophically I would say, embrace what FYE can be: a supportive learning community for students to figure out what college-level work requires of them. Focus your efforts there, and think about how you can give students opportunities to practice doing that work and get feedback on their efforts in a way that’s sustainable for them and you.

“The Role of Faculty Autonomy in a Course-Integrated Information Literacy Program,” which you authored, was named a Top 20 article by the Association of College and Research Libraries Instruction Section. On top of this impressive accomplishment, you maintain many more informative and helpful publications. What’s some advice you might give on maintaining a productive writing and research schedule?

Thank you! Obviously different disciplines require different approaches to research. I’m fortunate that in librarianship there is such synergy between what I do day-to-day and what I research and write about. I’ve also taken advantage of opportunities to write and present with others. It’s not always the most efficient process but it’s one that has motivated me to continue to research and write even when I’m busy with other things, since I feel responsible to someone else. Plus, I get to learn new strategies and approaches from my co-authors. I’m a much stronger researcher and writer because of that.

All those things worked for me because of who I am. I’m someone who likes collaboration, who enjoys using the day-to-day as a springboard into research, and who regards research as a required component of my job but not a dominant force in my life. Your research story might be totally different and suggest a different set of strategies.

I’ll end by saying I did a lot of things even if I felt scared to do them or didn’t feel smart enough to do them. With a lot of support from my department I did them anyway, and then a few years in I was able to look back at my CV and say, “Ok. I can do this stuff.” That gave me the confidence to keep moving forward and find the approach that worked for me.