ALISE Conference 2009 SIG Abstracts
International Education
Title: Getting Connected Internationally
Panel/program structure, content, purpose, and outcome: This panel discussion provides four pathways for international education participation. Rebecca Miller Banner will offer international partnering guidelines: do’s and don’t’s based on her dissertation research and experience. Joyce Ray will explain how IMLS can support collaboration among educators internationally. Lesley Farmer will discuss ways to participate in international professional organizations. Louise Robbins will talk about her successful international education graduate course. As a result of this session, attendees will be able to identify and use resources to get involved in international education efforts and help their own students become internationally engaged.
Gender Issues
Title: Gender Issues in the Digital Age
This program explores the gender issue in the digital age. How does the gender issue play out in the digital world? Is there more equality or do our biases carry over to the digital world? Sharon Stoerger will explore whether Second Life is an egalitarian space supporting a good learning environment for both sexes.. Bharat Mehra will propose a strategic plan for implementing digital actions that LIS educators can incorporate in their teaching to retify the lack of culturally appropriate digital information concerning sexual minorities especially LGBT-related content. As fewer women are entering IT programs, Claire R.McInerney will report on statistics related to undergraduate women in IT and the implications behind the numbers. Melissa Adler will discuss the importance of vocabulary for access to transgender materials as she compares transgender subject terms used in LCSH and in LibraryThing.
Historical Perspectives
Title: Education and Creation: The Formation and Legacy of Progressive Era Children’s Librarians
Children’s librarianship, famously the crown of public library services by the mid-twentieth century, was not initially a feature of public libraries. However, by the 1890s early pioneers of library service to children such as Caroline Hewins, Mary Wright Plummer, and others argued for the importance of providing books and services to young people. By the early 1900s library service to children was an established part of public libraries, at least those in larger cities, and the profession of children’s librarianship, a specialization within an already established professional body, came into its own. Pioneering children’s librarians were widely read and actively engaged in the issues of their times, but many lacked formal academic credentials, whereas librarians from 1900 forward had the opportunity to be trained especially for library work with children. How did the founders’ own educations affect their careers and their contributions to the educational development of children? And how did the training received by “next generation” children’s librarians contribute to the growth of the profession?
Teaching Methods
Title: Using e-recruitment to improve the diversity of LIS student bodies: Perspectives from human resources, marketing and library education
Application of e-recruiting practices in the human resources field has helped employers increase the number of applications for positions, improve the quality of applicant pools, increase diversity, reliably predict the success of new hires, and improve the fairness and consistency of the recruitment process. E-recruiting can be used as a powerful marketing tool to attract SLIS program applicants, especially potential students of color. The design of online, interactive recruiting tools based on research and successful practice from the fields of marketing, human resources and library education has immediate implications for recruiting, and when successful, implications for teaching methods. I. Introductions
Youth Services
Title: Transforming Visions of Youth for LIS Education in the 21st Century
Popular and historical constructions of youth commonly represent it as a period of development and conflict with adults. Libraries have variously envisioned youth as “tall children,” as “students,” as “teenagers,” as “at-risk,” and more recently as “partners.”
Philip Graham in the U.K. (2004), Robert Epstein in the U.S. (2007), and Raili Nugin in Estonia (2008) suggest that these previous constructions of youth-as-unqualified-adults, upon which society makes policy and law, dis-empower and “infantilize” young people unnecessarily. This new vision of youth advances a competency-based construct, a vision that perceives youth not as inadequate and troubled adults-in-training but contemporary, active, and entitled agents we should better blend into society based on skills not chronological or biologically-determined qualifications.
How do libraries construct or imagine “youth?” What are the service implications? Should faculty and research have a “philosophy” of/on youth? Should library youth services be age-based? How to address chronological/age/grade based constructions found, for instance, in schools? Or should services be competency-based? To what degree are biologically-determined constructs (“the teen brain” or even developmentalism per se) adequate to prepare modern library professionals?
This topic opens a conversation for faculty to consider the integration of such views of youth with information science.
ALISE Research SIG Panel 1 Proposal
PROGRAM PRESENTERS
ALISE Research SIG Panel 2 – Doctoral Student Panel Proposal
PROGRAM PRESENTERS
Multicultural, Ethnic and Humanistic Concerns
Title: Intersectionality and Interdisciplinarity: LIS Research/Education and Studies of the “Other”
Although long under-emphasized in our research and education, library and information studies (LIS) has an increasing interest in the “Other.” By Others we refer to those groups and their members who are subordinated or excluded from dominant society or culture(s), and have been organized into particular categories of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class and development, among others. This panel discussion aims to examine the ways in which LIS and other fields that study the Other, such as ethnic studies, queer studies, women’s studies, cultural studies, area studies, among others, engage in intellectual discourse, scholarship and learning to enhance LIS research and education. The two main questions, which frame the discussion, are: (1) have points of intersectionality been explored and identified to address issues of equity of information access? and (2) has LIS developed an interdisciplinary relationship with any of these fields?
For the purpose of the discussion ““intersectionality” refers to the fact that human identity is indivisible and that the struggle against one form of oppression (such as homophobia/ biphobia/ transphobia) cannot in practice be separated from the many other struggles (e.g., sexism, ableism, racism, or economic disadvantage) in which members of our communities are engaged. To address oppression effectively, it must be addressed holistically. (Egale Intersections Committee, 2002 http://www.egale.ca/index.asp?lang=E&menu=40&item=302)
Doctoral
Title: Tenure – What it Takes
The proposed panel is on the subject of tenure and what is necessary to obtain it. Doctoral students and new faculty are sometimes unaware of exactly what is required to obtain tenure during their academic careers. While there is some variation in the tenure process, there can be some generalities made in the experience at research one facilities and other universities.
The purpose of the proposed panel is to bring together four LIS faculty members to discuss the tenure process with doctoral students and new faculty. The panel will consist of an initial overview of the panel participants’ experience along with time for questions from the audience. Two panel participants will have recently obtained tenure and will be able to relate their direct experience with the service, research, and writing necessary to succeed. The second two participants will be more experienced faculty who have evaluated tenure packages and will be able to speak to what criteria they look for in recommending tenure. Additionally, two participants will be from research one universities while the other two will be from non-university one institutions.
The outcome of the panel will be to allow doctoral students and new faculty to have a clearer understanding of the requirements needed for a successful tenure process.
Archives
Title: Indigenous memory, identity, and sustainability: decolonizing archival education and methods
Traditional archival systems and practices place value in recorded text or “official” information – i.e., the official voice. Consequently, the “place” of archives and archival education and methods in indigenous and marginalized communities, where oral information is just as valuable and wherein the voice of the “other” reigns, has not been completely meaningful in these communities. Scholarly discourse has started to focus on diverse communities and the information that they create, organize, utilize, and preserve. It pays particular attention to new digital and media capabilities and the global information infrastructure as they yield new challenges to systems and practices. Entire issues of American Archivist and Australian Academic & Research Libraries that focus on indigenous knowledge and archives in diverse communities, as well as session topics at archival professional conferences, such as Native American archives protocols and archival ethics and social justice in the global arena highlight this shift. Still, much more is needed to ensure that archivists and similar information professionals are prepared to be responsive to indigenous and marginalized communities. A panel of scholars from or who work with indigenous and marginalized communities describes the discontinuities between archival systems and practices and indigenous knowledge systems and community-based rules and norms for archival practices. The panel suggests ways to decolonize archival education and methods so that indigenous memory, identity, and sustainability are encouraged and preserved.
Part Time & Adjunct Faculty
Title: Transforming the Roles of Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty in 21st Century LIS Education
The new century brings new challenges to the world of LIS educators who are not full time faculty members. The group has a variety of titles but most are identified as part-time or adjunct faculty. A panel of full time and part time educators will discuss the part time and adjunct faculty research and the practice of teaching as part time or adjunct faculty. After an overview of part time and adjunct faculty in the context of their institutions, the presenters will discuss their motivations, contributions, and expectations. The panel will explore the transformations of part time and adjunct faculty by technology and the pedagogical impact of teaching part time. In addition, the group will discuss what part time and adjunct faculty can learn from each other.
School Library Media
Title: Meeting the Student Learning Outcomes Requirements for NCATE and ALA Accreditation
Demonstrating student learning outcomes in LIS education programs is required by both the National Council on Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE) and the American Library Association (ALA). NCATE has had a focus on student outcomes as a program evaluation tool since 2001. On the other hand, ALA has not required institutions to provide evidence of student learning outcomes until 2008. Due to the cross-curricular structure of education programs for school library media, these programs must sometimes meet the accreditation standards for both ALA and NCATE. This panel has been assembled to help elucidate the meaning of student learning outcomes and to illustrate how outcomes can be addressed for both NCATE and ALA accreditation standards. Panelists will describe student learning outcomes as defined in the accreditation standards for NCATE and ALA. There will be time in the program for audience members to share and discuss student learning outcomes within their individual institutions. The focus is on school library media education because of the experience those educators have with both accreditation standards; however, the dialog about student learning outcomes is applicable to all LIS education programs. The outcomes for this program are three-fold: 1) To understand the nature of student outcomes as defined by NCATE and ALA for LIS education programs; 2) To open lines of communication between NCATE and ALA accredited LIS education programs; and, 3) To open a discussion on the topic of student outcomes as they pertain to school library media education.
Technical Services
Title: LIS Cataloging Education for the 21st Century: Expectations and Challenges
The tripartite education of library school students who seek careers as catalogers begins in a formal graduate program. Employers and students articulate expectations for library education to include the mastery of technical competencies supported through the incorporation of computer-dependent technologies into the teaching and learning environment. Cataloging instructors face a daunting challenge. The breadth and scope of material that must be included in order to prepare a student for a career in bibliographic control, cataloging, or technical services is far-reaching and complex. Course instruction and hands-on exercises need to include the construction and enhancement of descriptive cataloging data in different metadata schema; selection and completion of classification numbers; identification and construction of authority records; and, the use of bibliographic utilities. The purpose of this discussion is to understand how the impact of the escalating rate of societal and technological developments fuels change and raises the already-high expectations of an information-driven society and how shifting demographic patterns among both information professionals and their clientele drive new organizational models for delivering resources and providing services. Discussion will begin with a description of employers’ expectations for cataloging and metadata librarians; subsequent discussion will focus on the responsibilities for supervisors and managers who extend the LIS graduate education so that a cataloger builds a matrix of professional development and training during a professional career. The desired outcome is an increased awareness of the roles and responsibilities that LIS educators, employers, and supervisors share in the recruitment, education, and training of professional catalog librarians and metadata specialists.
Information Ethics
Title: Conversation with the ALISE Code of Ethics for LIS Educators Task Force
ALISE has formed a Task Force to develop a Code of Ethics for Library and Information Science Educators which they will bring to the ALISE membership at the January 2009 Business Meeting. This program will allow the Task Force an opportunity to report in depth on the proposed Code of Ethics and the process that they used to develop the Code, and to get additional feedback from ALISE members about the Code. In addition, the program will provide an opportunity for discussion of how the Code can be put into most widespread and effective use, and how it can help ALISE member schools to improve their educational programs.
In addition to providing an explanation of the origin of the Task Force and a representation of the Task Force members’ own perspectives on the need for and the development of the Code, the program will also include an analysis of the future implications of the Code on LIS education. The program will offer the ALISE membership a more detailed understanding of the proposed Code, while at the same time the Task Force can gather feedback from the ALISE membership in a relatively informal setting. |