Friday, January 30, 2015

#ALISE2015 : President's Program: International Library Education SIG

Nitida Carranza (Honduras) - Panoramic view of librarianship in Central America: an economic, political and social perspective

The economy in Central America is based on agriculture.
Prejudice, discrimination and social exclusion are deeply rooted in society.
In the 1980s, there were several civil wars.  In the late 1980s and 1990s, libraries became more important.

Faced with political and economic problems, libraries are not a priority for governments.
International policies about access to information are not begging supported and implemented by governments.

Lessons learned include - 
  • Identify and know the international and national policies that support libraries.
  • Places libraries in a larger context.
There are a limited number of library schools in Central America. (8-9). Not all are master's programs.  Some have had difficulty staying open.

Esin Sultan Oguz (Turkey) - Value added LIS education: Intercultural skills for Turkey and beyond

Very good libraries beginning with the Ottoman Empire. Began using the Latin alphabet in 1923.  John Dewey traveled to Turkey in 1924, which kick-started LIS education there.  Some came to the U.S. to be educated and then started courses in Turkey.

First trainings on librarianship - 1943-1952
BSc - 1954
MSc and PhD - 1972
1998-2002 - LIS divided in the three branches
Since 2002 - unity under Information Management

There are 15 LIS departments in 10 different cities.  However, not every school is active. Newer schools/programs are hiring faculty, but may not have students.  Of the 9 new programs, only 2 are currently active.

Pros of traditional library departments in Turkey:
Strong professional background and experience
Number of national and international projects and partnerships
Power of networking
Feeling of acceptance and recognition 

Cons:
  • Lack of faculty members
    • Too many students (enrollment pressure)
    • Lack of faculty members
  • Traditions or approaches
    • Four dominating LIS programs
    • Inter-generational loyalty or comfort zone
    • Mostly undergraduate degrees
  • Political climate
    • Avoiding social issues in LIS curricula
    • Social and political taboos 
    • Realizing and accepting  differences
Trishanjit Kaur (India) - Challenges and problems of LIS education in India

LIS education in India is 100 years old.  
They have more than 118 institutions that offer LIS education, and the situation is not uniform.  They do not always get strong students.
There is no national LIS policies to guide LIS education.
Guidelines were developed in 2002 and some are using them.  Most are developing curriculum based on the needs of the employers.
How much of "L" do they want to keep? How much of "I" do they want to keep?

Problems:
  • There LIS programs are not accredited.
  • They do have some LIS programs that do distance education.  It is not like the U.S. More like working with intense satellite programs.  Some are incorporating online components.
  • The PhD programs have become more qualitative. (That's a positive!)
  • The computers/ICT facilities and infrastructure are not good.
  • India has 22 languages.  How can you expect to have LIS in 22 languages?  Some terms don't translate across languages.  They need to publish more in the regional languages.
  • Still struggling with nomenclature - LS, LIS, etc.
  • High quality faculty, but the promotion system is tough.
  • Need some uniformity across programs, e.g., length of program.
  • They need to incorporate new areas, without letting go of their core.
Questions:
  • Where do your graduates go?
    • India - depends, based on location.  A graduate in a larger city would have broader opportunities.
    • Turkey - mostly university libraries.  Very few are working in private companies, e.g.,  database companies.
    • Honduras - graduates often become teachers where they went to school.
  • Are people considering joint programs?
    • India - yes
    • Turkey - no
  • Is there a problem of a brain drain?  People leaving to work elsewhere and make more money.
    • India - not for LIS
  • Is there a problem of monoculture?  Of people wanting to be more like U.S. library education?
    • India - one size does not fit all, but we need to find a central point.  We need to understand what is best for India.
  • In Jamaica, there is a different graduate degree for those that do not already have an undergraduate degree in LIS.

#ALISE2015 : Juried Works in Progress Papers

Mirah Dow and Sarah Sutton (Emporia State University) - "A framework for teaching research literacy: Reimaging LIS instruction, assignments, and program and student-level assessment"

Having been engaging in a curriculum review.  Looked at course titles and descriptions, and then learning outcomes.  Garnered input from the community.

Libraries are central tithe pursuit of social justice. We want our students to be active participants in the process.  Our goal for all Emporia State Univ. SLIM LIS students at the end of their four core classes is that the have:
  • Advanced beginner level research interact skills
  • A working knowledge of model teaching research literacy to others
Advanced beginner is defined in the literature and is a step above novice.  (There are five stages, with the fifth being mastery.)

"The research literate LIS student has knowledge and skills LIS professionals need to actively practice and to instruct others to search, select, analyze, and use published research to make evidence-based claims and recommendations for problem-solving."

The skills used for locating and buying new sneakers online are not the skills needed for academic work.  

Two phases:
  • Literature context - access,retrieve, evaluate,and use existing research publications
  • Data context - design study, conduct experiment, analyze data, draw conclusions, communicate findings
Threshold performance skills - Core concepts once understand transform perception of a given subject.
Threshold performance skills 1-7: bodies of knowledge - This can be case-based instruction. (Mirah Dow and a team reported on case-based instruction yesterday.)
Threshold performance skills 8-12: Evidence-based practice
Threshold performance skills 13-18: Customization of resources
Threshold performance skills 19-23: Organizing information 

Partnering with their academic librarians (faculty librarians). 

Evaluation is done by LIS faculty.  Required the development of no new assignments.

Looking to publish the information about this literacy skills on their web site and give info to new students. It is clear on syllabi those assignments that relate to it.

Martin Wolske (UIUC) and Colin Rhinesmith (Oklahoma) - Championing social justice to LIS technology education: A critical sociotechnical systems approach 

Presentation at http://bit.ly/ALISE-CIS

Why a technology approach?
  • Technology centralism
  • Technology determinism 
  • Cyberlibertarianism 
Class - "Introduction to networked systems" - experiential learning and service learning,but not creating critical thinking or a holistic praxis.

Students need to understand how to connect the dots between the social layers and the technology layers.

CIS Goals in the three overlapping areas:
  • Technology and society
  • Teaching and learning
  • Research and knowledge 
They developed 10 points, which are delineated in their paper.

They have developed a demystifying technology framework.  So people aren't just passive consumers.

Icebreaker: (the answer to the second demonstrates that they are innovators, but they did not think of themselves in the first.)
  • Draw a picture of an innovator innovating.
  • Describe one way you've used stuff you have in a way it wasn't meant to be used to solve a problem you had.
LIS 5970: Leadership in Information Organizations - taught at the public library.  Project based with the teens in the library and library staff. Studio-based learning.  


Rebecca Croxton (UNC-Greensboro) - "Professional identities in online learning"

Part of an IMLS Grant.

There is a mismatch.
  • Increase in online learning.
  • Skepticism about quality if online degree programs by academic administrators, public citizens and employers.
  • Student learning outcomes in online courses can meet or exceed face to face,
  • Little attention has been given to how graduate online learners develop professional identities.
Purpose of the study - to fill a gap in the literature 

Theoretical framework
  • Social identity theory 
  • Community of practice approach
Fall 2014 - 252 students
  • 181 fully online 
  • 71 main campus students 
  • Includes 11 ACE scholars
Four research questions:
  • To what degree do students  enrolled in fully online graduate degree program feel a sense of connectedness to peers and faculty?
    • More connected to faculty than to other students.
    • Those is a cohort felt more connected to each other.
  • To what degree do online graduate students feel they have developed a professional identity in their chosen field?
    • Yes the already self identify as professionals. 
    • Those with unpaid or paid library experience had significantly higher professional identities that then no experience group.
  • Are peer connectedness and faculty connectedness significant predictors of professional identity?
    • Yes.
  • What are the satisfaction levels of online learners?
    • Yes!
    • Online learners value synchronous interactions.
    • Incorporating synchronous, non-mandatory interactions.
    • Have some synchronous classes.
62 respondents and interviewed 13 people.  Only 11 cohort students.

Key takeaways
  • Synchronous is highly valued
  • Work experience pays a key role in professional identity development
  • Online learners feel connected to peers and faculty.
  • Peer and faculty connectedness are significant predictors of both professional inventory development and online learner satisfaction.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

#ALISE2015 : Dr. Saskia Sassen - Keynote address

This was a tough talk to take notes on, because it was hard for me to capture her concepts.  She is fascinating and her thoughts are indeed important.

Title - "The Larger Ecologies of Meaning with Which We Use Technology and Experience Globalization"


She began by saying that there is no conclusion to her talk.  

What happens when stabilized categories - like the middle class - become unstable?

Analytic tactics
  • Destabilizing stable meanings
  • Into the shadows of powerful explanations - what don't I see when I evoke a powerful explanation?
  • When territory exits conventional framing: it becomes institutionally mobile, nomadic and can alter the meaning
    • Territory is a complex and partially material 
    • Territory is a window onto for forms of power, etc.
  • The Making of it all - "making" is a tool
We make inequality.  We make injustice.

What is the "steam engine" of our epoch?  It is the financializing of everything.  A traditional bank deals with money.  Finance does not.

2006-2013 - 14 million households lost their homes through foreclosures. 

A city is a complex and incomplete structure.  There is a profound de-urbanizing. 

Sassen talks about money, funding and GDP - the impact of finance on cities and countries is complex, yet her explanations demonstrate the the problems that are occurring.

Many of our global governments are getting poorer.  

In the U.S., over 30 years, the bottom and middle fifth of the population had no increase in after-tax income by percentage change.

Industrial crops (biofuels) vs. Food crops - I had not thought of the difference and what that means for those that live near it.
"A hidden world, growing beyond control" (surveillance) http://ow.ly/3w7cJL
Countries do not their citizens and have also ignored their citizens.  Because they have ignored their citizens, people are angry which also means that the countries need to be cautious of them.
The notion of membership - country membership - needs to be taken seriously.
A powerful system will abuse its own power.
Zero interest rates destroyed small, local banks and many credit unions.
The corporatizing of the economy.
Her interest is in decoding what is happening.

#ALISE2015 : Juried Panel: Diversifying the reflection of LIS education programs: Spectrum doctoral fellows in the front of the classroom

Nicole A. Cooke -
  • The Spectrum Doctoral Scholarship program was begun in 2007, with a cohort of 12.
  • The ultimate goal is to increase racial death in diversity among the disciplines  and the profession, so next generation of LIS faculty and leaders.
  • Four Fellows have now become LIS faculty members and two more have graduated and are working in libraries.
From fellow to faculty:
  • Transition:
    • Challenging - need help with expectation management
    • Need for continuous mentoring
    • Flexibility and growth
  • Fusing teaching, research and services - time management is important 
  • Continuous advocacy and promotion
We need a continuous pipeline of doctoral students from diverse backgrounds.  

Monica Colon-Aguirre -

Her first language is Spanish, not English.  What does the mean for her teaching in the U.S.?

"Non-native English speaker teacher"
  • Research has shown that they are seen as not being as competent, but students, colleagues, and institutions.
  • Some people latch onto the accent as an excuse. "I didn't do well on the exam because I can't understand the teacher."
  • Slang and colloquialism are always an issue. They may not translate well.
  • Language can be used to exclude someone from a culture.
  • What are the cultural differences that you need to be aware of?
Janet Ceja Alcala
  • She is Mexican American (Chicana), from Los Angeles.
  • Interested in how people with a background similar to hers have been represented in archives.
  • As a doctoral student, she felt that her cultural background was not represented in the literature.
  • Teaching in Tucson (MSLIS program) where Mexican American studies was banned in K-12.
  • As an educator, she has a lot of power in terms of course content, etc.   She can make issues visible.
J. Brenton Stewart
  • Librarianship is his first career.
  • His first professional position was a two-year residency in a rural Midwest academic library, which was part of a diversity initiative.  Staff saw the residency as being unjust.  He realized that location could be very important.
  • After his PhD, he went somewhere in the South for an academic position that had a heavy teaching load.  He was an outlier in a monotone institution.
  • He is now at an institution that is more supportive in terms of teaching and research.  (He learned that there is more than one kind of "South.")
Questions:
  • Monica had to educate people that Puerto Rico is part of the U.S.
  • Can this become a session that more can attend?  The people, who need to hear it, are not in this session.
  • What about the other Spectrum scholars?  They don't know what happened to all of them.  Some are still working on their PhDs. Some found that the program (and working on an LIS PhD) was not for them.
  • How have you been able to use your influence?
    • Sometimes you don't recognize the influence that you have.
    • Influence in the classroom
    • Having students who come to the program because of you
    • Decisions in libraries historically reflect people's biases.
  • The difference between those whose ethic identities are obvious and those whose ethic identity is not obvious.
    • What is the purpose of disclosing?
  • Advice for prospective doctoral students
    • Investigate you or research area
    • Look at the faculty you'll e working with
    • Be comfortable with the environment
    • You have to want this (as an entity)
    • Not a path for the timid
    • Do your research on the institution that you want to study at
    • Take it one day at a time
    • You have to have support
    • You have to be comfortable with who you are

#ALISE2015 : SIG Program: Innovative Pedagogies

The first speakers - led by Paul Solomon - talked about thinking outside the box with their doctoral program.  They hold a short boot camp with the doctoral students, in order to help them focus. The students found it very helpful in grounding them.

American Pragmatism - Chuck Curran, et al
Need better theory and practice integration.  More integration would allow for the development of new theories.  While American Pragmatism is not new, it could be a new way of thinking into our courses.  

Case based learning as a way of teaching information ethics - Mirah Dow, et al
Using Dervin & Clark (2003) to help with case based learning and sense-making

What are authentic cases?
  • Storytelling quality
  • Interesting characters
  • Controversial topics
  • Dilemmas to engage the students
Conclusions:
  • Case-based instruction provides the authenticity necessary for students to frame social issues as information problems.  
  • Case-based instruction provides the basis for learning basic principles of information ethics including information freedom, intellectual property, privacy, professional ethics, and intercultural ethics.
  • CAS-based instruction enables students to express substantive perceptions of being critical.
  • Case-based insurrection enables students....(I think the rest of it was about leadership).
This group's research is being published in the ALISE journal (JELIS).

Public Library Fellowship Course - Denice Adkins
  • Focused on leadership in public libraries
  • 12-credit capstone experience
  • Small cohort each year
  • Problem-based learning
  • Using professionals to inform professional practice
  • Advisory board of Missouri Directors of Large Libraries 
Creative Writing in LIS Courses - Karen Dali, et al
  • Cross disciplinary course on reading and writing
  • Dali used a nine minute video to deliver her presentation.
  • Are working to publish this.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

#ALISE2015 : SIG Program: Part-time and Adjunct Faculty

Jennifer Sweeney - Survey of Contingent Faculty in LIS: Preliminary Findings
  • Are they different than other adjuncts?
  • Using ALISE statistics, beginning in 2005, the number of adjuncts outnumbers the number of full-time faculty.  In 2010, nearly as many full time faculty as adjuncts.
  • Research Question: What are the characteristics of contingent faculty in LIS?
    • Modeled on 2010 Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) survey
  • What do we mean by "contingent"?
    • Employed for a specified time period
    •  Not tenured or tenure-track
    • Part time or full time
    • A variety of titles
  • Methods
    • Online survey opened in November 2014
    • Emailed invitation via many discussion lists,etc.
    • Target population: approx. 704 adjuncts teaching fall 2014
  • Respondents
    • 229 usable responses
    • Held from 32 ALA accredited programs out of 58
    • 62% are part time at one or more institutions
    • 22% are full time adjuncts
    • Most are mid-career
    • What is your primary occupation?
      • 33% teaching
      • 26% other non-academic
      • 16% other non-teaching academic
      • 9% librarian
      • 16% other, student, research, retired
  • Other findings:
    • Students per course - generally 11-30
    • Compensation per course
      • Most receive $3000-6000 per course
    • 65% do not receive benefits
    • They receive a variety of resources from their employer
      • Teaching online and at a distance may be impacting this
    • Working conditions - positive and negative
  • Next steps:
    • Continue survey analysis
    • Continue to solicit survey contributions
    • Mine CAW data set for comparisons
    • Interviews: deans, directors, chairs,faculty
    • Continue the dialogue
Sandra Hirsch - Non-Tenure Track Faculty Management Practices
  • SJSU, Students from 48 states and 17 countries - faculty also come from U.S. and international locations
  • At SJSU, all faculty receive the same level of teaching support
  • Role of nontenure track faculty
  • Enrich curriculum offerings
  • Contribute valuable perspectives
  • Enrich the schools teaching, service,  and research environment
  • Serve as a face of the school
  • Type Of contingent faculty
    • Approx 10 full time lectures
    • Approx 100 part time faculty
      • Teach on an as-needed basis
  • Recruitment is ongoing
    • Look for PhD or Masters with significant professional experience 
    • Online teaching experience preferred 
    • All receive training in how to teach online
  • Hiring
    • Salary is dependent on highest degree received
    • Most paid once at end of semester,due to union contract
    • No benefits currently
  • Expectations
    • Provide recorded content - must meet accessibility standards
    • Be visible and engaged as instructor in classes
    • Respond within 24-48 hours.  Set expectations
    • Marian strong student ratings
    • Participate in at least one T3 session (teaching workshop) each semester when teaching in the school (Teaching Tips and Techniques)
    • Take teaching online course (new instructors) 
  • Support includes staff support and access to student peer mentors
  • Performances appraisal
    • Peer reviews
    • Student Opinion of Teaching Effectiveness
    • Self-Evaluation 
    • Annual Director/Dean Review
  • Communication
    • Director's Forum for Instructors (new)
    • Information delivered via a variety of tools ne methods
    • Faculty email list
    • Blackboard IM (they are also using Canvas)
  • Part time faculty are represented on all school governance committees
    • May participate in university level initiatives
    • Encouraged to participate in research
Linda Lillard -
  • Clarion hires as many as 25-30 per semester at their peak. Right now about 10 per semester.  Is now a all distance program.
  • Governed by the union contract.
  • Part time faculty are selected by the full time faculty.
  • They recruit all the time. The department search committee works on this all the time. Go through the applications 1-2 per semester. They do phone interviews.
  • They do background checks.
  • They do peer evaluations.
  • If a person is hired for a single semester (at a time), then they cannot see the student evaluations.
  • Part time faculty do receive benefits.
  • Salary is governed by the union contract.
  • Part time faculty do not teach core classes.

#ALISE2015 : Re-constructing Utopia: How LIS educators and practitioners can dismantle structural racism on the Internet and in the profession

They did this presentation at the Joint Conference for Librarians of Color in 2012.

Stacie Williams -

#FactsOnlyLIS : 
  • More people using social media than ever before.
  • People are documenting events of historical significance.
  • 75% of people on social media at anytime are African American.
  • Social media is being by people who are underrepresented by the traditional media.
Sourcing:
  • Social media is also how people share the news.
  • What happens when sources use corrupted sources?
  • People use social media for agenda-setting.
  • Are people unknowingly using sources that are extremely biased - without knowing it?
  • Looking legitimate and being legitimate are two different things.
Legitimacy:
  • There could highly legitimate sources that are non-traditional.
  • Whose ideas are you using?  Has a legitimate source "taken" content from a source that is not well-known or regarded and saying it is their work?
  • Why do we legitimize certain groups over others?
Best Practice/POV (point of view):
  • Ta-Nehisi Coates blog - well curated
  • The Atlantic South Asian American Digital Archive
  • People writing out of their own lived experiences
Myrna Morales -
  • What does whiteness look like at on the Internet?
  • "Process is so much more important that the [end] product."
  • Gentrification and white flight online
  • Interesting that we (women) may work against our own dismantling of bias.
  • "Big data is our generations civil rights issue, and we don't know it" - article title
  • "American Slavery As It Is: Testimony" - two sisters went through newspapers looking at ads for runaway slaves.  
  • What is the information seeking behavior of those that will create tools for the rest of us?  Is their information seeking behavior biases?
Rebecca Martin - she spoke for herself and Heather McCann, who was unable to attend.

Racial inclusion:
  • Information ethics vs. Library ethics - our responsibility as community members versus our responsibility as librarians.
  • Freedom of expression vs.  Freedom from harm - What happens when we witness hate speech online? Should the First Amendment exclude hate speech?  This needs to be discussed more in the LIS classroom. We also need to discuss the manifestations of racism.
  • Equitable vs. Equal action
Anti-racism
  • White privilege - we tend to talk about multiculturalism and diversity, rather than racism.
  • Cultural competence - quoted 2011 research done by Renee Franklin Hill - now wide spread focus on cultural competence in LIS education.  LIS programs should include this into the curriculum and create a relevant certificate of advanced studies program.
  • LIS diversity course offerings - classes specifically addressing race and oppression are lacking.  
    • Study done at Univ. of Maryland focused on iSchools and found the topic of diversity lacking. Faculty think that have courses related to this,but students think otherwise.
  • Article "Tripping Over the Color Line"
Heather McCann -
  • Are hate groups on the rise because of the Internet?
  • "Cloaked sites"
  • Racism is built into the Internet.
  • "Racial Internet literacy"
  • Librarians need to develop their own cultural competence, as well as understand their own privilege.
  • Librarians need to understand how people search differently and  what that means in terms of diversity.  
  • We need to rethink our collections.  We need to include more voices in our collections.
    • Community Change, Inc. web site is positive example. 
  • This also means we need a greater ability to search in languages other than English.
  • Students must be able to critically evaluate web sites and do more than just use a checklist.  The hierarchy of web site can be misleading.
  • Search engine rankings can be misleading.  Students need to understand that a higher ranking does not mean it is more reliable or more legitimate.
  • Teaching this needs to be ongoing and woven in across courses.
Sites to look at:
How can we use our current language to have a meaningful discussion?  Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), for example, may not help.