Goals, learning outcomes

The goal of this project was to create an openly licensed curriculum to be used as the basis for an institute that attracts area librarians and librarians from historically marginalized communities to participate in communities of practice (“CoP”) that will further develop their own pedagogical practice.

There is a disconnect between theory and practice in many areas of librarianship, including library instruction. Multiple scholars have found that librarians, as practitioners, do not adequately use and apply the theory of information science in their work (Hider et al., 2019; Julien et al., 2013; Nguyen & Hider, 2018). One reason for this is that librarians do not always find theory/research as applicable to their practice (Brown & Spencer, 2004; Hider et al., 2019; Nguyen & Hider, 2018; Pymm & Hider, 2008). Unfortunately, this challenge prevents the field of information literacy instruction from moving forward in a sustainable manner (Todd, 2017).

MLS programs do not adequately prepare pre-service librarians to provide instruction (Brecher & Klipfel, 2014; Davies-Hoffman et al., 2013; Goodsett & Koziura, 2016; Julien et al., 2018; Valenti & Lund, 2021). Institutes like ACRL’s Information Literacy Immersion may price librarians out of opportunities while constraining the time to apply learning theory into real world practice within the classroom (i.e., Immersion is an intensive week of in-person learning).

There has also been an awakening and explicit focus on inclusion, diversity, equity and action in librarianship. Like faculty in academia, the majority of academic library professionals are white (Davis & Fry, 2019; Le, 2021).  Individuals from historically underrepresented groups make up 16.7% of the professional staff in US ARL university libraries; the percentage of individuals in managerial or administrative positions who are also from historically underrepresented groups is lower (Library Learning Space, 2020). Historically, the burden of addressing anti-racist efforts has been disproportionally placed on our colleagues of color.  Yet, white librarians benefit the most from the structures that perpetuate marginalization, racism, and white supremacy within our profession and thus have a moral obligation to seek and employ strategies that dismantle white supremacy and transform our teaching, our institutions, and our profession (Shearer & Chiewphasa, 2022; Lakhani, 2020).

As attention and the importance placed on making our organizations more inclusive increases, diversity fellowships and student success positions have become increasingly more common jobs. This type of position explicitly focuses on the goals of this grant, however it is unclear whether or not current graduate programs adequately prepare librarians for that role, either. Even then, these positions are only one person in a library with a potentially uneven burden placed on them. Creating an open curriculum provides the opportunity for many more librarians to increase their understanding of and skill in teaching with DEIA to make information literacy more inclusive across the board.

The same tenets seen within inclusive teaching methodologies for promoting equity and access can also be seen within the “Open” movement. Open pedagogy also helps move the needle on DEIA by providing the mechanism to make teaching and learning more accessible. The movement of open pedagogy continues to grow (Werth & Williams, 2022). As this topic has now hit the national radar in our profession, more librarians may have an interest, but may not be sure where to start (Jacobson, 2019; Thomas et al., 2021). Librarians are not being adequately trained to do this type of work in MLS programs.  ARL and ACRL immersive experiences are expensive; an openly-licensed curriculum could go a long way towards infusing these practices into information literacy programs.  The creation of OER aligns with a central value of librarianship: Information must be free.

The curriculum and subsequent institute will bring together librarians in order to apply current theoretical concepts to their day-to-day practice as instruction librarians in a CoP model. Communities of practice are small groups of individuals who share information in order to improve their personal practices (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The CoP model has been successfully implemented in library instruction (Osborn, 2017; Smith & Lee, 2017). CoPs are important for supporting motivation to learn about and implement transformative teaching practices, developing shared languages and policies, and providing a structure of support for collective action (Marineo, Heinbach & Mitola, 2022). Communities of practice are a common approach to professional development among affinity groups (Lantz-Andersson et al., 2018).

Evidence-based library instruction focuses on grounding one’s instruction in theoretical concepts. An example of this would be infusing active learning or understanding the role of shame in information literacy. While these concepts have been heavily theorized, MLS curricula and current (free) professional development offerings are not sustained resulting in a brief introduction to the topic and a complete lack of support for applying various theories in one’s instruction.

Open Pedagogy can be defined in different ways, but mainly, it involves course/assignment design that incorporates OER and/or strives to empower students in modifying or creating OER. A focus can (but does not have to) activate ways to solve real world problems while sharing students’ work on a scale that reaches beyond the classroom walls.

Diverse voices in information literacy can use current teaching methodologies (anti-racist, feminist, indigenous, LGBTQ+, and other inclusive epistemologies and pedagogies) as framework to better incorporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into library instruction with intentionality.

COPALI leaders hoped to create multiple communities of practice that would be beneficial for librarians in the Rochester/RRLC area and librarians from historically marginalized communities (who may be outside of the RRLC area). This purpose was directly aligned with the first goal as listed on page 1 of the COPALI application, to further education and professional development of librarians. By creating communities of practice, the leaders aimed to create a sustainable model for librarians to connect with colleagues on key issues related to their practice. In addition to meeting the first goal, the COPALI project also endeavors to emphasize issues of DEIA. The institute was designed to kickoff with an overview on universal design for learning (inclusion) and culturally relevant pedagogy (diversity, equity). As a final deliverable, participants were asked to create an implementation plan to transfer what was learned in their track to the classroom (action). Participants were encouraged to educate their peers at their own institutions (action).

Application Process

In order to ensure participation, the planning team decided to require an application, including a support letter from the participant’s supervisor. The application (see appendix A) allowed the team to learn about potential participants and sort them into the appropriate track. The application had two parts: short answer questions (contact info and track preferences) and an essay. The essay prompt asked participants to write one page that addressed how their participation would relate to their current employment and professional goals, how they would actively engage in the institute, and how they would share what was learned with other librarians and educators. Along with the essay, participants were required to include their CV and a support letter. The support letter needed to clearly state the applicant’s name as well as explicit permission to spend the required time on COPALI activities including support for travel to the Rochester, NY area at two specific times.

Technology

For the distance portion of the institute we used a variety of technologies

• Zoom for synchronous meetings (provided by our institutions)
• Canvas: Free for Teachers as our LMS. This allowed us a place to send announcements, post links to files, and create discussion boards for participation. We chose to allow everyone access to all discussion boards, but label them in a way that made it clear which group was using the forum for discussion.
• Google Drive for storing files that needed to be shared with each other. The planning team also used Google Drive to plan each session as well as store COPALI related documents.

References

Brown, C., & Spencer, B. (2004). The realities of relevance: A survey of librarians’ use of library and information science research. The Southeastern Librarian, 52(3), 19–33. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=seln

Davis, L., & Fry, R. (31 July 2019). College faculty have become more racially and ethnically diverse, but remain far less so than students. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/31/us-college-faculty-student-diversity/

Hider, P., White, H., & Jamali, H. R. (2019). Minding the gap: Investigating the alignment of information organization research and practice. Information Research, 24(3), paper rails1802. https://informationr.net/ir/24-3/rails/rails1802.html

Jacobson, T. E. (2019). Creating shareable knowledge: Exploring the synergy between Metaliteracy and Open Pedagogy. University Libraries Faculty Scholarship. 126. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.34354.35522

Julien, H., Tan, M., & Merillat, S. (2013). Instruction for information literacy in canadian academic libraries: A longitudinal analysis of aims, methods, and success. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 37(2), 81–102. https://doi.org/10.1353/ils.2013.0007

Lantz-Andersson, A., Lundin, M., & Selwyn, N. (2018). Twenty years of online teacher communities: A systematic review of formally-organized and informally-developed professional learning groups. Teaching and Teacher Education, 75, 302–315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.07.008

Lakhani, M. (2020, August 26). Addressing white supremacy in librarianship through communities of practice [Conference Presentation on YouTube] 2020 Critical Librarianship & Pedagogy Symposium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfa2MiJkT_c

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press. https://search.worldcat.org/title/Situated-learning-:-legitimate-peripheral-participation/oclc/817948988

Le, B. P. (2021). Academic library leadership: Race and gender. International Journal of Librarianship, 6(1), 13–26. https://doi.org/10.23974/ijol.2021.vol6.1.18

Library Learning Space. (4 Nov. 2020). ARL Annual Salary Survey 2019–2020 reports data on professional positions in member libraries. https://librarylearningspace.com/arl-annual-salary-survey-2019-2020-reports-data-on-professional-positions-in-member-libraries

Marineo, F., Heinbach, C., & Mitola, R. (2022). Building a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility for educational equity work through an inclusive teaching community of practice. Collaborative Librarianship, 13(1). https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/vol13/iss1/8

Nguyen, L. C., & Hider, P. (2018). Narrowing the gap between LIS research and practice in Australia. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 67(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2018.1430412

Osborn, J. (2017). Librarians as teachers: Forming a learning and teaching community of practice. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 66(2), 162–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2017.1328633

Pymm, B., & Hider, P. (2008). Research literature and its perceived relevance to university librarians. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 39(2), 92–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048623.2008.10721335

Shearer, J. J., & Chiewphasa, B. B. (2022). Radical re-imagination: Centering a BIPOC library workforce in an asset-based autoethnography. Reference Services Review, 50(1), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-07-2021-0029

Smith, B., & Lee, L. (2017). Librarians and OER: Cultivating a community of practice to be more effective advocates. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 11(1–2), 106–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290X.2016.1226592

Thomas, P., Jones, M. F., & Mattingly, S. (2021). Using Wikipedia to teach scholarly peer review: A creative approach to open pedagogy. Journal of Information Literacy, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.11645/15.2.2913

Todd, R. J. (2017). Information literacy: Agendas for a sustainable future. Journal of Information Literacy, 11(1), 120–136. https://doi.org/10.11645/11.1.2233

Werth, E., & Williams, K. (2022). The why of open pedagogy: A value-first conceptualization for enhancing instructor praxis. Smart Learning Environments, 9(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-022-00191-0