Tag Archives: information literacy

PA Forward Information Literacy Summit at University Park July 19

square image with yellow light bulb and multicolored gears graphic, with text about theme of 2017 information literacy summit for Pennsylvania librariansLibrarians from across Pennsylvania will meet at Penn State’s University Park campus on Wednesday, July 19, to discuss “Libraries and Maker Culture: Co-constructing Learning Experiences and Learning Environments,” the theme of the 2017 PA Forward Information Literacy Summit. Hosted annually by the Penn State University Libraries in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, the one-day event’s registration is open now through July 12 on a space-limited basis to 110 attendees.

The Information Literacy Summit’s morning keynote speaker is Heather Moorefield-Lang, assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina’s College of Information and Communications. Moorefield-Lang teaches information technologies in the School Library Media Program and School Library Media Program Development. Her research is focused on technology in education and libraries, specifically honing in on the narratives and uses of technology-based tools in those settings. She also is the current chair of the American Association of School Librarians’ Best Websites for Teaching and Learning Committee.

Morning breakout sessions will cover topics such as “Maker Culture in Online Spaces,” “A Making Curriculum,” “Developing a Digital Media Lab and Makerspace” and “Triple Threat Making in One-Shot Sessions.” The afternoon includes lightning talks and workshops on a variety of maker-related topics for students ranging from young children and DIY experiences to undergraduate students using 3-D objects in a humanities research context.

For more information about the 2017 Information Literacy Summit, or if you anticipate needing accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact Rebecca Miller, head of Penn State University Libraries’ Library Learning Services, at rkm17@psu.edu or 814-865-3064.

New Kensington common reading program will focus on information literacy

graphic for book cover of "Weaponized Lies"The Penn State New Kensington First Year Summer Reading Program book for 2017 will be “Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era,” by Daniel J. Levitin. Originally published in hardback as “The Field Guide to Lies,” this book provides an easy-to-read, entertaining look at basic critical thinking skills. I may be biased, as a librarian who is interested in this sort of thing, but I found the book downright hilarious, especially Levitin’s examples of the ways statistics can be manipulated. The chapter titles are things like “How Science Works,” “Logical Fallacies,” and my personal favorite, “Knowing What You Don’t Know.”

The book selection committee was unanimous in its choice, and so far it has been a wildly popular pick among faculty and staff. The way our program works is that the library uses endowment funding to purchase free copies of the book for each incoming student and also any faculty and staff who are interested. We gave away 2 boxes of books in the first 48 hours after I announced they were available!

Students will be discussing the book at orientation, plus there are plans underway for additional events and contests. I am hopeful that some faculty members will assign the parts of the book that are most relevant to their discipline in various classes, and it may be assigned in some sections of English 15.

– submitted by Jennifer Gilley, New Kensington

Nine students receive Information Literacy Awards at 2017 Undergraduate Research Exhibition

The Libraries presented nine awards at the Undergraduate Research Exhibition April 5, 2017 to recognize scholarly work based on a foundation of careful background research and literature review. More than 270 students presented research with approximately 230 posters on display at the HUB-Robeson Center.

The John Sr. and Kimlyn Patishnock Information Literacy Award Grand Prize of $500 was awarded to Olivia Runk, a senior nursing major at the Hershey Medical Center, for her poster, “Exploring the relationship between personality and subjective cognitive impairment in older adults.”

The Information Literacy Awards
were given as follows:
First Place, $200: Courtney Heidle, a junior majoring in Biobehavioral Health
“Can an Existing Theory be Adapted to Better Predict Infant Feeding Information Seeking Behaviors of Parents?”

Second Place, $150: Jordan Gibby, a senior majoring in Human Development
“Couple and Family Leisure Time and Adolescent Well-being in India”

Third Place, $100: Sumit Pareek, a junior Chemical Engineering major
“Pathways to Impact at Scale for Malaria Prevention: Using the Built Environment as a Global Health Strategy”

Honorable Mentions, listed in alphabetical order, $50
Emily Hentz Leister, a senior majoring in Kinesiology
“Breaking Down the Barriers of Bike Shares: An examination of Bike Share Operations”

Elizabeth Hopta, a junior English major
“The Imperfect Minority: Asian Americans at the San Francisco State Strike”

Madeline Nyblade, a junior majoring in Geoscience
“Numerican Modeling of the Agricultural-Hydrologic System in Punjab, India”

Joshua Riley, a senior Biomedical Engineering major
“Impact of Shear Rate on Von Willebrand Factor Unfolding”

Alison Roby, a senior majoring in Biomedical Engineering
“The acute functional connectivity changes in the rat brain following nicotine administration”

A special thank you to all the Libraries’ volunteer judges:
Amanda Clossen
Vanessa Eyer
Hailley Fargo
Elise Gowen
Jose Guerrero
Janet Hughes
John Meier
Rebecca Miller
Rebecca Peterson
Emily Rimland
Nonny Schlotzhauer
Karla Schmit
Alessia Zanin-Yost

– submitted by Rebecca Peterson, Library Learning Services

Behler and Meier to present on information literacy

Information Literacy Librarian Anne Behler and Science Librarian John Meier have had a proposal accepted for presentation at LOEX 2014 Conference, “Creative Visualization: The Art of Information Literacy,” to be held in Michigan, May 2014. Along with Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Ellysa Cahoy and Instructional Design Librarian John Shank, they completed a comprehensive review of the Penn State University Libraries’ information literacy program and made recommendations for a more unified and consistent approach to teaching. Based on new professional theory and current internal practice, they outlined a vision for the next steps in a report, “Moving Forward: Envisioning Instructional Services for the Future.”  Their presentation will include how best practices were used to create an efficient timeline, organize quickly, and work collaboratively with online tools.

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Cahoy’s articles on information literacy published

Librarian Ellysa Cahoy has had a number of articles published recently that add to the growing body of knowledge on information literacy.

Cahoy,  an education and behavioral sciences librarian and assistant director  in the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, has two articles published in the latest issue of Communications in Information Literacy. This is a special issue focused on “Rethinking the Standards.”

Her first article is titled  “Affective Learning and  Personal Information Management: Essential Components of Information Literacy,” and is available online here.

The other article is a transcript of a session Cahoy participated in with Trudi Jacobson and Craig Gibson at the Pennsylvania Information Literacy Summit that was held in summer 2013. The article is titled “Moving Forward: A Discussion on the Revision of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education,” and can be read online here.

In addition, LOEX Quarterly published an interview with Cahoy discussing affective information literacy, personal archiving and the forthcoming revision of the ACRL information literacy standards. Click on the following link to view and download the PDF of this article:  The Quarterly Interview- Ellysa Stern Cahoy.

Digital Navigator Project receives PaLA Best Practices Award

The Digital Navigator Project, a collaboration among the Penn State University Libraries; the Office of Commonwealth Libraries; and the Altoona, Central Pennsylvania and Johnstown Public Library Districts, has been awarded the 2013 Pennsylvania Libraries Association (PaLA) Best Practices Award for “a unique program for children between the ages of 6 and 12, incorporating the PA Forward Literacy of Information Literacy.” The project reaches across academic and public library boundaries and acknowledges the fact that both entities serve the same individuals but at different life stages.

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Libraries to host Pennsylvania information literacy summit

The University Libraries are hosting the first Pennsylvania Forward Information Literacy Summit, on Wednesday, July 24, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, first floor, Paterno Library. The summit is organized by the Pennsylvania Information Literacy Learning Community, an online group of librarians from K-12 schools, higher education and public libraries, who share their strategies, experiences and best practices in the field of information literacy instruction.

ellysa cahoyEllysa Stern Cahoy (left), Penn State education and behavioral sciences librarian and assistant director of The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, is on the planning team and will be one of the keynote speakers at the event. Cahoy notes, “This event is the first of its kind. Public, school, and academic librarians from across Pennsylvania will come together to strategize on how to maximize students’ ability to find, evaluate and use information. I am honored to be a speaker at this event, and look forward to learning new educational strategies from my state-wide library colleagues.”

“I am so pleased that the Penn State University Libraries can host this exciting summit on Information Literacy in Pennsylvania, and that Library Learning Services can support it,” says Loanne Snavely, head of Library Learning Services. “This summit will provide the groundwork for collaboration and progress between and among libraries of all types in promoting information literacy for Pennsylvanians of all ages,” she adds.

For more information on the Pennsylvania Information Literacy Learning Community, go to https://sites.google.com/site/painfolit/.