Call for Papers: The Future Scholar: Researching & Teaching the Frameworks for Writing & Information Literacy

CALL FOR PAPERS:

The Future Scholar: Researching & Teaching the Frameworks for Writing & Information Literacy

 

Framework documents are playing an increasingly important role in the higher education landscape. Two are of particular importance to those of us invested in rhetorical and information literacy in a digital world.

 

In the closing lines of its introduction, the forthcoming Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (hereafter ACRL Framework, http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Framework-for-IL-for-HE-draft-3.pdf) from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) asserts it “opens the way” for librarians, faculty, and other stakeholders to redesign assignments, courses, and curricula for today’s students as well as “to create wider conversations about student learning, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the assessment of learning on local campuses and beyond.” TheACRL Framework includes the ACRL’s new definition of information literacy, six literacy “frames”—covering a wide “spectrum of abilities, practices, and habits of mind”—and a discussion of digital tools.

 

The Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (hereafter WPA Framework, http://wpacouncil.org/files/framework-for-success-postsecondary-writing.pdf), a document developed collaboratively by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project and published in 2011, also considers, often in strikingly similar ways to the ACRL Framework, “the rhetorical and twenty-first-century skills as well as habits of mind and experiences that are critical for college success.” Whereas the WPA Framework focuses on writing and considers students at the point of entering college, the ACRL Framework focuses on information literacy in the overall undergraduate experience. However, the frames, habits, and skills they articulate are largely the same—ones where students identify, research, read, write, create, and recreate texts within a diverse, digital, and rapidly changing information-based global society.

 

These two framework documents—the ACRL Framework and the WPA Framework—taken together show that the thoughts of both postsecondary educators and librarians are coalescing around the habits and skills students need to be successful in a robust digital information economy. What continue to be missing, however, are robust practical and pedagogical discussions that help teachers, librarians, and others both individually and collaboratively put these ideas into practice—to build the houses, if you will, on these frames in ways that are specific to students of today and tomorrow.

 

Like the authors of the ACRL and WPA Frameworks, we, too, believe that “wider conversations” are needed, and this book, The Future Scholar: Researching & Teaching the Frameworks for Writing & Information Literacy, strives to open just such dialogue. Therefore, we seek essays to complete an edited collection that helps writing teachers and librarians, along with those in academic “support” services (e.g., writing centers), assessment offices, and accreditation agencies, better understand, meet, and evaluate the literacies articulated in the ACRL and WPA Frameworks. As part of this conversation, this book will work to legitimate writing center, instructional librarian, and other support services and link information literacy research and efforts to published standards.

 

To this end, we seek essays that provide answers to the following, as well as other, questions:

-          What do the particular abilities, habits, and practices of mind identified for reading, researching, and writing reveal about notions of literacy in a digital age? What priorities do they establish for us as writing teachers, faculty in English, English Education, and LIS, university administrators and college librarians, and citizens?

-          How do the ACRL Framework and the WPA Framework help us understand one another? What do we learn by viewing each through the lens of the other? How might they be put into conversation?

-          In what ways does your teaching—in the classroom, in the library, in the writing center, in the community—work to cultivate the desired abilities, habits, and practices of mind advanced by these framework documents?

-          What specific digital technologies allow for helping students achieve these abilities, habits, and practices of mind? In what ways have you used them? How might we use them? How could these tools be better?

We also encourage potential contributors to consider the Frameworks documents explicitly and directly, practical strategies for enacting and evaluating them, and ways in which new digital technologies (might) shape the Frameworks and these processes.  

 

Based on the success and positive reviews of our prior edited collections, The New Digital Scholar and The Next Digital Scholar, Information Today, Inc. has extended us a contract to publish this collection as part of the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST) Monograph Series. The tentative timetable for publication is as follows:

June 1, 2015:                           Deadline for proposals

June 15, 2015:                         Responses to invitations

August 31, 2015:                    Chapter drafts due to book editors

October 15, 2015:                  Editor feedback to contributors

November 15, 2015:              Revised chapters due to book editors

December 30, 2015:               Completed manuscript to Information Today, Inc.

We realize this is a fairly tight timeline, but Information Today, Inc. is committed to publishing the text in a timely manner.

 

If you are interested in contributing to this collection, please send a 500-word abstract of your proposed essay by June 1, 2015 to Randall McClure atrandallmcclure@gmail.com and James P. Purdy at purdyj@duq.edu. Queries are welcome and thanks for your interest.

2015 Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

It's time to submit proposals for the 2015 Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. This year's keynote speaker will be Sharon Mader, Visiting Program Officer on Information Literacy for the Association of College and Research Libraries. She will discuss ACRL's new information literacy framework and her own efforts to build resources that will facilitate the use of the framework.


The deadline for submission of proposals is April 15, 2015. Act NOW. :)


http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ce/conferences/infolit/

Join the LILAC Group at CCCC 2015 in Tampa, FL

This year, members of the LILAC Group will be hosting a half-day, pre-conference workshop on Wednesday, March 18,  1:30-5pm, and a panel presentation on Thursday, March 19, 12:15-1:30pm.

We hope you will join us at one of these events if you are interested in learning more about the LILAC Project or in partnering with us, or, if you can't make it, email jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu for more information.

For more information, or to register for CCCC,  visit http://www.ncte.org/cccc/conv/.

LILAC Workshop at the Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Once again this year, the LILAC Project is hosting a post-conference workshop, free for all registered conference participants at the Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy at the Coastal Georgia Center in Savannah, GA. The workshop will run from 1-4 pm on Saturday, October 11, 2014.

In this workshop, participants will gain hands-on experience with the research-aloud protocol (RAP) video captures used as part of this study, followed by whole group discussion of how these videos and the LILAC findings can be used by teachers, librarians, and others. Workshop participants will also be invited to participate in the LILAC Project as partners.

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS: Kathy Albertson, Georgia Southern University; Susan Brown, Kennesaw State University; Susan Smith, Georgia Southern University; Janice R. Walker, Georgia Southern University; Leigh Ann Williams, Georgia Southern University

LILAC Presentation at Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA) Conference in Normal, IL

Janice Walker will be presenting "Report from the LILAC Project: Information Literacy as Critical Thinking" at the CWPA Conference hosted by The Illinois State University Writing Program, Normal, IL, Panel C8, 1:30-2:45pm, Friday, July 18, 2014.


We are also still seeking partner institutions/researchers to join us!

Invitation to Participate

The LILAC Project (Learning Information Literacy Across the Curriculum) invites institutions to join us as partners in an exciting multi-institutional study of students’ information-seeking behaviors.

LILAC subjects complete an online questionnaire gathering demographic data and information about their research training and skills, along with a 15-minute research session using a research-aloud protocol (RAP) that captures their voice narration and screen activities as they research a topic.

Join us! To learn more about the LILAC project or to discuss becoming a researcher, visit the LILAC blog at http://lilac-group.blogspot.com or contact Dr. Janice R. Walker at jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu.

2014 Graduate Research Network

Planning to attend the 2014 Computers and Writing Conference in Pullman, WA?  Don't forget to sign up to participate in the Graduate Research Network.  It's free for all registered conference attendees, and it's a wonderful opportunity to network, to get feedback on work or ideas at any stage of progress, and it's NOT just for graduate students.

Please join us.  Deadline for submissions is May 9.  Visit our Web site at http://www.gradresearchnetwork.org/ for more information.

Join the LILAC Project!

The LILAC Project is still seeking partner institutions to join us in this important research. Copies of our IRB application and letter of Approval, Call for Partner Institutions, Instructions for Partner Institutions, and other relevant materials are available at http://tinyurl.com/mkzzrbo, or contact jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu for more information.

What Is the LILAC Project?

The LILAC Project is a multi-institutional study of the information-seeking behaviors of students from a variety of levels and institution types. Our central research questions include:

• Where and how have students been taught information-seeking skills?
• What are students carrying away with them from this instruction?
• How do students actually locate, identify, and evaluate information?
• Where (and how) can instructors intervene to help students improve their information-seeking skiills, if necessary?
• What differences and/or similarities can we identify in student information-literacy instruction at different institutions?
• What strengths and weaknesses exist in student information-seeking skills at these different institutions?
• What conclusions, if any, can we draw from these results?

Hypothesis

While students are receiving instruction in information literacy skills, including instruction in locating, evaluating, using, and citing information sources, much of this learning does not carry over with them beyond the confines of the specific assignment or classroom. This research will, we hope, help us to see where the disconnects might lie between what students have been taught and what they are actually doing, allowing us to determine how to best provide instruction at the point of need rather than divorced from the research and writing process itself.

Who Can Join Us?

Graduate students, faculty, librarians--anyone interested in helping us to collect survey and video data at your local institution. We will provide assistance as much as possible to navigate IRB approval, and provide simple instructions for collecting data.  See materials at at http://tinyurl.com/mkzzrbo, or contact jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu for more information.

LILAC Project Seeking Partner Institutions

The LILAC Project is now seeking partner institutions to join us.  If you are interested and will be in CCCC in Indianapolis, Thursday, March 20, 2014, jcome to our panel, D.01, 3:15-4:30pm, in the JW Marriott, 1st Floor, Room 205.

Copies of our IRB application and letter of approval, Call for Partner Institutions, Instructions for Partner Institutions, and other relevant materials are available at at http://tinyurl.com/mkzzrbo.

Contact jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu for more information about the LILAC Project.

ACRL Seeks Feedback on Draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

I hope some of us can respond to this important work.  In the request for feedback, ACRL Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives Kara Malenfant notes that

Since the publication of the first standards [in 2000], the information environment has evolved into a fragmented, complex information ecosystem that demands greater sense-making and metacognition from the student. To better equip students to navigate, understand and contribute in this dynamic information ecosystem, the task force determined that move from the traditional standards model to a Framework was needed to allow for more creative and integrated information literacy learning outcomes. The new Framework seeks to address the interconnected nature of the abilities, practices and dispositions of the student, moving away from the hierarchical and formulaic approach of the current standards.

Comments are requested by 5pm central time, Tuesday, April 15, 2014. To access the Framework and the link to the Survey Monkey form for comments, please visit the Web site at http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/archives/8329.

LILAC Strikes Again

We will be presenting on LILAC at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Indianapolis, IN, this March.  Follow the link below for details.


http://center.uoregon.edu/NCTE/2014CCCC/fliers/participation.php?ac=R1743742

Project Information Literacy (PIL) has released their most recent findings.

See the full report at http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_2013_FreshmenStudy_FullReport.pdf

Another LILAC Project Presentation

Dr. Janice Walker (Georgia Southern University) and Dr. Susan Brown (Kennesaw State University) will be presenting, "Learning Information Literacy Across the Curriculum: The LILAC Project," at the Teacher Education Division (TED) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, this Friday, November 8, at 1:30 pm.

For more information on the Conference, visit the Web site at http://www.tedcec.org/conferences/ted-2013-conference-in-fort-lauderdale.

Hope to see you there!


 

LILAC Project Workshop

This year's post-conference workshop at the annual Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy August 23-24, 2013, in Savannah, Georgia, will be a LILAC Project workshop, facilitated by Katt Blackwell-Starnes (Lamar University); Janice R. Walker, Leigh Ann Williams, and Liz Kelly (Georgia Southern University); and Susan Brown (Kennesaw State University).

We will be working on identifying student information-seeking behaviors in the videos for use as we move forward with the study.  We hope to have approval to begin a larger, multi-institutional study this coming year.  Stay tuned for more information!

If you will be attending this year's conference, please plan to join us at the workshop.  If not, why aren't you coming?! :)

 

Join us for the Graduate Research Network at Computers and Writing Conference!

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION MAY 9, 2013!

The 2013 Graduate Research Network (GRN) is an annual forum at the Computers and Writing Conference to connect researchers with other researchers and discussion leaders in the field.

We invite proposals for work-in-progress discussion at the 14^th annual GRN, June 6, 2013, at the Computers and Writing Conference hosted this year by Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD.  Work at any stage of completion is welcome, from those just beginning to think through ideas to those ready to consider venues for publication. The GRN is FREE to all registered conference participants.  Remember, too: you do NOT have to be a graduate student to participate! Anyone who would like to benefit from the conversations and feedback about projects they are working on is welcome!

Morning sessions will consist of roundtable discussions of works-in-progress.  During the afternoon GRN, we will offer an exciting job workshop.  We need both presenters and Discussion Leaders.  Sign up NOW.
 

·        For more information about the GRN and to sign up to participate, please visit our Web site at http://www.gradresearchnetwork.org/.   And don’t forget to apply for GRN/C&W Travel Grant Funding if you meet eligibility requirements. Even if you have already registered for the C&W Conference and checked the GRN Workshop box, you will still need to complete our form. And if you did NOT register for GRN, don't worry--there's still time!

·        We also hope that those who can will consider donating to the GRN/C&W Travel Grant Fund.  For more information on how you can contribute—or to apply for funding—see http://www.gradresearchnetwork.org/donate-to-the-grn/.

·        AND don’t forget, you can also help us raise money for the GRN/C&W Travel Grant Fund , stay fit, and have fun by participating in Ride2CW.  For more information, see http://www.ride2cw.org/.

See you in Frostburg!  Remember:  GRN!

Deadline Extended: Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Deadline Extended to April 1, 2013

The Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy, August 23-24, 2013, in Savannah, GA, invites proposals across disciplines for workshops and presentations that will consider, extend, or otherwise address information literacy in K-12 and postsecondary settings:

• DEFINING INFORMATION LITERACY in a digital age.
• EFFECTIVE MEANS of developing information literacy skills in learners.
• PARTNERSHIPS between librarians and classroom teachers to teach students research skills.
• INFORMATION LITERACY across the disciplines.
• ASSESSMENT of information literacy initiatives.
• INTELLECTUAL property, copyright, and plagiarism in the digital age.

Conference organizers welcome international participants and proposal submissions, in order to broaden and share knowledge regarding information literacy practice, theory and research in a variety of cultural settings worldwide. Please note, however, that presentations must be in English and that the Conference cannot provide funding for attendees or for presenters. 

For more information, visit our Web site at http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/infolitproposals.html

LILAC Wins Grant

We are pleased to announce that one of the 2013 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Research Inititaive Grants was awarded to the LILAC Project this year. With the help of this grant, and now that we have completed our small, local pilot study, we hope to expand the LILAC study to a multi-institutional study.

I have added the PowerPoint presentation I delivered at CCCC to the LILAC Wiki.  It includes an invitation to join us in this expanded project.  Katt Blackwell-Starnes and I plan to revise the IRB protocol and create training materials and handouts to aid partners in collaborating with us.  We also are looking at other grant opportunities to help us expand the project.

Please email jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu if you are interested in joining us!

LILAC Presentation at CCCC

Join us at CCCC in Las Vegas. Session K.34, Friday, March 15, 2013, 3:30-4:45pm.  "Designing a Multi-Institutional Cross-Disciplinary Study in Information Literacy." 

Chair: Rachael Geary, Texas Woman's University

Speakers:
Janice Walker, Georgia Southern University: Report from the LILAC Project: Designing a Study of Student Information-Seeking Behaviors

Katt Blackwell-Starnes, Georgia Southern University: First I'll Go to Google: Insight into Student Search Habits from the LILAC Project

Eleanor Haynes, Compliance Officer, Georgia Southern University: Navigating Institutional Review Board Approval for a Multi-Institutional Cross Disciplinary Study.

CFP - 10th Annual Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Please mark your calendar and plan on being with us for the 10^th Annual Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy.

In honor of our 10 year Anniversary, the conference will be held at the HYATT Regency Hotel in Savannah, Georgia,AUGUST 23-24, 2013.

We are excited to introduce Dr. Alison Head - Executive Director and Lead Researcher, Project Information Literacy, Sonoma, CA - as our Keynote Speaker.

For complete conference details please access the website at -

http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/infolitproposals.html

Please follow this link to access and submit the *Call for Proposal* –

http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/infolitproposals.html

The deadline for proposal submission is March 15, 2013.

We appreciate your efforts to share this message with your colleagues and other interested professions.

Join us in Savannah for this annual conference jointly hosted by Georgia Southern University’s:

Zach S. Henderson Library

Department of Writing and Linguistics, College of Liberals Arts & Social Sciences

College of Education and the Division of Continuing Education

We are looking forward to seeing you in August!

Call for Proposals for Edited Collection

Information Literacy—Not Just for Librarians: Issues in Assessment, Teaching, and Application

Editors: Barbara D’Angelo, Sandra Jamieson, Barry Maid, and Janice R. Walker

Information Literacy—Not Just for Librarians: Issues in Assessment, Teaching and Application is an edited collection that will address research in and issues surrounding theoretical, pedagogical, and practical approaches to information literacy (IL).  According to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) an "information literate individual" is able to “determine the extent of information needed, access the needed information effectively and efficiently, evaluate information and its sources critically, incorporate selected information into one's knowledge base, use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, and understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.” As this definition reveals, IL goes far beyond the traditional image of locating and assessing sources to include understanding and using them. In other words, today IL exists beyond the realm of academic librarians.  One example is the fact the WPA Outcomes Statement and the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education mirror one another and were created in the same timeframe.  Both WPA and ACRL were replying to the same exigence.

Information literacy as a core competency has been endorsed by the Council of Independent Colleges and forms the basis of the Quality Enrichment Plans of many SACS-accredited institutions   Yet in spite of the broad currency of the term, there is still no agreed-upon definition or understanding of what IL instruction entails. Calls for more broadly-shared ownership of and responsibility for IL (see for example Fister 1992, Gavin 1995, Norgaard 2003, & Lupton 2004), have been largely unheeded in practice. Research by Project Information Literacy, The Citation Project, and the LILAC Project reveal that the majority of American college students remain far from “information literate individuals” and suggest that focused attention to information literacy is essential across disciplines and specializations, and for this it remains imperative to establish a significant literature that draws on the expertise and vision of scholars in multiple disciplines.

This collection seeks to bring together the work of faculty across the curriculum, including those from academic and professional disciplines, general education programs, writing studies, technical communication, and library sciences.  Proposals should address one or more of the following issues or related issues:

·         Status of IL initiatives
·         Partnerships across disciplines and/or between faculty and librarians
·         Impact of new media/technologies on IL instruction
·         Impact of assessment and accreditation standards on IL initiatives
·         Theoretical considerations
·         Pedagogical approaches
·         IL as part of a vertical curriculum
·         Research in the transfer of IL skills across the curriculum
·         IL in theory and in practice
·         IL beyond the classroom
·         Research on students’ and/or faculty IL practices

·      

Submit abstracts (approximately 200 words) via email by January 31, 2013 to jwalker@georgiasouthern.edu.

2012 Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

 Just a few pics from the conference. If you missed this year's Conference, you missed a great one!  Over 300 people in attendance (a new record)!

The first three pictures are from the Saturday morning keynote by Joyce Valenza.  She managed to pack into an hour several YEAR's worth of information!  But she has promised to provide us with a link to her presentation online so we can peruse it at our leisure. Keep an eye out on the Conference Web site at http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/infolit.html 

 The last three pictures here are from the wonderful post-conference workshop on the Citation Project, presented by Sandra Jamieson and Tricia Serviss.
Let's hope we can entice them to return next year for another update!

Speaking of next year, save the date! September 20-21, 2013 at the Coastal Georgia Center in Savannah.  This will be our 10th anniversary, so expect to party!  See you there.