RCL Blog

Information Literacy is hard to define. While there is certainly agreement about the importance of teaching students how to access, evaluate and ethically incorporate the work of others, an overabundance of frameworks can leave instruction programs wondering what to focus on. Should we teach about a website/tool that can help students evaluate a potential source, or should we teach them how to produce their own sources? Or is it in fact more important for students to understand how their own experiences and socialization might affect their evaluation of said sources? The emergence of interactive media platforms only complicates these questions: Is discourse on social media an academic resource, emerging technologies, examples of digital media or insidious examples of capitalism's negative effects on the information landscape? What exactly is the intersection between information, data, media, technologies, psychology and learning theory....

Way back in 2011, Mackey and Jacobson highlighted this tension when they noted that "several competing concepts of literacy have emerged including digital literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, and information technology fluency, but there is a need for a comprehensive framework based on essential information proficiencies and knowledge" (Mackey, 62). Part of Mackey and Jacobson's response to this disciplinary disorganization was to propose metaliteracy (search our catalog) as a solution. While the name might cause cynics to roll their eyes, metaliteracy is defined as an "overarching and self-referential framework that integrates emerging technologies and unifies multiple literacy types" (Mackey, 62). This unified definition is exactly why the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education "draws significantly upon the concept of metaliteracy, which offers a renewed vision of information literacy as an overarching set of abilities in which students are consumers and creators of information who can participate successfully in collaborative spaces" (ACRL).  While this concept has been around for over a decade at this point, I think that this definition suffers from "too-much-ism" and can be difficult to apply with fidelity - especially for new instruction librarians. In the coming months, I want to offer concrete suggestions of how instruction librarians can incorporate metaliteracy into their instruction practices, and their assessment of information literacy learning outcomes.

Super Practical Metaliteracy Tip you can start using tomorrow:

You can very easily incorporate metacognition and self-reflection into your exit ticket or post-session survey. Many instruction programs have a standardized tool that is administered after one-shot instruction sessions. One way to incorporate metalitearcy into your assessment is to require students to reflect on their own learning process or how they relate to information. A sample prompt might read: What strategy worked well? What have I learned that I can use for future tasks? How can I memorize this strategy?

Works Cited:

Association of College and Research Libraries, Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Chicago: ALA, 2015. American Library Association. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Mackey, Thomas P, and Trudi E Jacobson. “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy.” College & research libraries 72.1 (2011): 62–78. Web.

Further Reading:

Metaliteracy in a Connected World by Trudi E. Jacobson; Thomas P. Mackey ISBN: 9780838949443	Metaliterate Learning for the Post-Truth World by Thomas P. Mackey (Editor); Trudi E. Jacobson (Editor) ISBN: 9780838917763
Envisioning the Framework by Jannette Finch (Editor) ISBN: 9780838938935	Research 2. 0 and the Future of Information Literacy by Tibor Koltay; Sonja Spiranec; László Z. Karvalics ISBN: 9780081000892

Books and Articles to Expand Your Understanding of Libraries/Librarianship: 

Ana Hernandez, Instruction Intern

As a graduate student in Dominican's Masters' in Library and Information Science program, I am happy to present this list of books that can broaden your perspective on the role of libraries! Whether you work in the library profession or not, understanding the expansive potential of libraries and the issues within the profession will improve your ability to critique, support, and engage with your academic and public libraries. Many of these titles are open access, meaning they are accessible to all online and do not require an institutional log-in. 

My favorite excerpt I read while creating this list was from the last article, which is an interview with systems architect and open-source developer Diego Pino Navarro. When asked about the future of digital librarianship, he stated that he wants us to "stop thinking about globalization as a solution." He elaborates, "I think globalization, normalization, huge discovery portals where everything is normalized and rolled together is an excellent way of obscuring smaller realities, important realities and identity." His remarks on localized and specialized cataloging led to his hope that we can acknowledge that "the cataloger is shaping data, the same as a journalist is telling a story. [...] Everything is a narrative and it's a personal narrative. Schemas sometimes hide that, they make everything feel very consistent and precise." The following resources primarily center on issues that arise when narratives around librarianship are unexamined. The work of selecting, organizing, and distributing knowledge requires ongoing reflection on which realities are obscured and which narratives have shaped our decisions. Happy reading!

Books: 

Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies through Critical Race Theory / Edited by Sofia Y. Leung and Jorge R. López-McKnight (2021): "In Knowledge Justice, Black, Indigenous, and Peoples of Color scholars use critical race theory (CRT) to challenge the foundational principles, values, and assumptions of Library and Information Science and Studies (LIS) in the United States. They propel CRT to center stage in LIS, to push the profession to understand and reckon with how white supremacy affects practices, services, curriculum, spaces, and policies." - Provided by publisher. 

Knowledge as a Feeling: How Neuroscience and Psychology Impact Human Information Behavior / Troy Swanson (2023):  "Knowledge as a Feeling offers new reflective and metacognitive tools that help meet this moment in the evolution of our information ecosystem. The book has significant implications for information science, challenging theoreticians and practitioners to reconsider how individuals process information" - Provided by publisher. Written by one of Dominican's own Library Science professors! 

The Greatest Films Never Seen: The Film Archive and the Copyright Smokescreen / Claudy Op den Kamp (2017):

"Orphan works, or artworks for which no copyright holder is traceable, pose a growing problem for museums, archives, and other heritage institutions. As they come under more and more pressure to digitize and share their archives, they are often hampered by the uncertain rights status of items in their collections. The Greatest Films Never Seen: The Film Archives and the Copyright Smokescreen uses the prism of copyright to reconsider human agency and the politics of the archives, and asks what the practical implications are for educational institutions, the creative industries, and the general public." - Provided by publisher. 

Urgent Archives / Michelle Caswell (2021): 

"Urgent Archives argues that archivists can and should do more to disrupt white supremacy and hetero-patriarchy beyond the standard liberal archival solutions of more diverse collecting and more inclusive description. Grounded in the emerging field of critical archival studies, this book uncovers how dominant Western archival theories and practices are oppressive by design, while looking toward the radical politics of community archives to envision new liberatory theories and practices. Based on more than a decade of ethnography at community archives sites including the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), the book explores how members of minoritized communities activate records to build solidarities across and within communities, trouble linear progress narratives, and disrupt cycles of oppression. Caswell explores the temporal, representational, and material aspects of liberatory memory work, arguing that archival disruptions in time and space should be neither about the past nor the future, but about the liberatory affects and effects of memory work in the present." - Provided by publisher. 

Articles: 

Vocational Awe and Libraribrarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves / Fobazi Ettarh (2018):

"Vocational awe describes the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in notions that libraries as institutions are inherently good, sacred notions, and therefore beyond critique. I argue that the concept of vocational awe directly correlates to problems within librarianship like burnout and low salary. This article aims to describe the phenomenon and its effects on library philosophies and practices so that they may be recognized and deconstructed." - Ettarh. 

Archiving Black Movements: Shifting Power and Exploring a Community-Centered Approach / Tracy S. Drake, Aisha Conner-Gaten, and Steven D. Booth (2022): 

"This article outlines and reimagines archival work as community-based, highly collaborative, and iterative for professionals outside of Black social and political movements. With a focus on intentionality around the communities impacted, individuals involved, and the movements at large, we framed what archival materials are important to Black organizers of our time. With their insight, cultural heritage and archival professionals can create deliberate processes to get direct feedback from the creators themselves for the archives. Overall, this article aims to introduce ways of thinking to decentralize power in archival collections and provide agency to organizers through their own historical record." - Abstract, Drake et. al.

Toward Empathetic Digital Repositories: An Interview with Diego Pino Navarro / Sophia Ziegler (2021): 

"Sophia Ziegler talks to Diego Pino Navarro about his work with Archipelago, and specifically how he invokes the role of empathy in ongoing digital library software development. Diego talks about his efforts to build a digital library system that empowers local control of digital items and metadata, thereby maintaining unique characteristics represented in their digital collections, while simultaneously generalizing for various schemas. This empathetic approach requires resisting capitalistic impulses for continuous growth and prioritizing generosity and care." - Abstract, Ziegler. 

There are 5 popular tropes I refer to when considering myself and the role I play in the workplace. 

1. The Magical Negro

The magical negro refers to a mystical character, usually a man, whose appearance on screen occurs only when “magically” assisting White characters through their personal crisis. They do not have have a purpose outside of being the white characters support system.

2. The Black Best Friend

The Black best friend, typically a woman, supports the White main character with sass, attitude, and good relationship advice. Their role is to be a nurturing character at the beck and call of the main character, with little to no life of their own.

3. The Thug

The most common acting role for a Black person, usually a man, is a thug or criminal. This high number of representation as a criminal reinforces the idea that Black people are dangerous and inherently drawn to illicit activity. Little context is given to explain how they ended up in this position or added to their character to imply they have other traits other than violence (racial stereotyping and socioeconomic issues).

4. The Angry Black Woman

Black women are most often displayed as being aggressive and loud with severe attitude problems. The consistency of this depiction has real world consequences, Black women are constantly seen as being angry, illogical, and/or disrespectful regardless of what emotions or behaviors they are displaying.

5. The Domestic

After being forced into servitude for over 400 years, it is no surprise that one of the leading roles for a Black person is one of domestic help. Similar to the “magical negro” and the “Black best friend” this role functions to nurture and guide white characters. Reinforcing the notion that Black people exist purely to care for white people. It is important to note that the Latinx community is constantly shoved into this role as well.

        While anyone regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or ability can play these characters, it becomes a trope when it is a common occurrence for a specific group of people to be placed in this role, or for them to not be afforded other more nuanced roles at the same frequency. It is also a problem when these roles are used to reinforce stereotypes that are already damaging to the people they’re impressed on. Stereotypes shape our judgment of others, and negative ones can consciously or subconsciously affect the way we treat others. Typically this results in avoiding entire groups of people and equating them to a negative experience. Stereotypes, whether we view them as positive, negative, or funny, dehumanizes those they are about. Making them a caricature of the person they are because there is a substantial lack of representation to combat these stereotypes. As minorities, this is a battle we constantly face when entering a predominately white space because stereotypes tend to determine others' perception of why we are here. 

“When an anonymous Black person enters the white space, often the people there immediately try to make sense of him or her – to determine “who that is”, or to figure out the nature of the person’s business and whether they need to be concerned.” (Anderson, 2022)

        I think of these tropes whenever I am entering predominately white spaces, starting a new job or am interacting with a new group of people because the life I live requires me to constantly enter spaces in which I’m the minority. And if nobody has been around different cultures of people, then they are more likely to believe the tropes or stereotypes that exist of them. While minorities are expected to exist in white spaces with no complaint, white people are rarely, if ever, asked to step outside of their comfort zone. Because of this, I tend to find myself in situations and places where I am one of the only Black people in the room. This usually means that the people around me are actively viewing me as the exception to the rule or a default character. I’m here because of an error in the system, I’m the outlier. This is only reinforced by those who only experience Black people through stereotypes. So now, I am representative of a whole race of people and it’s my job to either reinforce or completely deconstruct the idea they have Black people, while also proving I deserve to be in this space. This is a common problem I face in academic, professional, personal, and work settings.

All You Need is Love Books

I’ve always found it ironic that the national celebration of love is held in the dead heart of winter, yet it’s also in the darkest parts of the year that acts of love and kindness really mean the most. Most of these acts are met with surprise: showing up for a friend’s show you said you’d might miss, saying “I love those boots!” to a random stranger, shoveling a neighbor’s driveway, even dedicating time to listen to a friend's rant may seem small, but so are the most significant acts of love. For further inspiration, check out one of these love stories below... 

The Big Sick – Based on a real life romance, comedian Kumail Nanjiani meets Emily, an American graduate student at one of his shows, and becomes entranced with her. As their relationship progresses however, Kumail worries about what his Muslim parents will think of her, and how her family may perceive him. With multiple awards and nominations for best original screenplay, this film will not disappoint.

The Princess Bride – Available through I-Share. “Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…” What else is needed for a perfect adventure love story? This is one of the rare movies that will keep a smile on your face from beginning to end, from it’s laugh-out-loud moments to the most perfect kiss of all time.

Pride and Prejudice – The O.G. enemies to lovers story, this eighteenth century tale, created by the Queen of Romance Jane Austen still holds up to this day. Whether you’ve read the book, love the BBC show or the movie, or have never heard of this story before, Elizabeth and Darcy will steal your hearts this Valentine’s Day.

Sleepless in Seattle – Widower Sam (played by Tom Hanks) moves to Seattle with his son to try to start a new life, while still grieving his wife’s death. When his son, Jonah, calls into a local radio station to find a new partner for his father, Annie, (a reporter played by Meg Ryan) falls in love with him…even though she is engaged. True love once again prevails in this touching film about finding love once again.

Warm Bodies – Available through I-Share. Not all zombie movies are scary! Take R, a zombie who can’t remember his name but believes it began with an "R" and spends his days wandering around his fellow undead, feeling nothing. That is until he sees Julie and her friends being attacked by some of his kind and feels something strange in his chest…almost like a heartbeat. This paranormal zombie rom-com will be sure to bite you right in the feels.

10 things I Hate About You – Based on the Shakespearean comedy The Taming of the Shrew, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger bring yet another heralded enemies to lovers story to the big screen. Kat is beautiful, smart, and utterly unimpressed by her male counterparts, making her the perfect target for a bet to be made: if bad boy Patrick can trick her into falling in love with him, he wins. But what if what began as a silly game suddenly becomes emotionally real?

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – Lara Jean keeps letters written to her past crushes in a box under her bed, never to truly confront them…until all her letters accidentally get mailed. Equally funny and sweet, this story will keep you guessing as to who is truly Lara’s lasting crush.

1. The Charm Offensive – Dev has always believed in fairy tales, and works to make them come true working on the reality tv show Ever After. But when the show casts socially awkward and problematic tech genius Charlie Winshaw as its star, Dev finally starts to focus on his own love life.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – Dante is bold. Ari is introspective. Dante gets lost in words. Ari worries about his imprisoned brother. Dante is fair-skinned, Ari is darker. Despite their differences and the obstacles placed in their way, they develop a close friendship.

The Sun is Also a Star – Natasha is an illegal immigrant from Jamaica living in Brooklyn in danger of deportation. Daniel is the perfect student, the good son of Korean immigrants living in Harlem. When the two meet on a crowded street in New York City, suddenly everything becomes slightly more possible.