Schedule:

We extend our thanks to  who have generously sponsored this year's conference.

Workshops

"Let Us Walk Together": Forging Solidarities with Our Campus Communities

Megan Watson, Dave Ellenwood, Tami Garrard, Ana Villar, Emily Ferguson (University of Washington-Bothell/Cascadia College)

Presentation materials

Librarians and library staff have traditionally cultivated service-oriented relationships with their users, seeking to provide students, faculty, and staff with the support and resources needed for teaching, learning, and research. College campuses also have a legacy of activism, and as our students diversify and engage more intentionally with local and global communities, new movements are emerging. From #BlackLivesMatter, to workers' rights, to the DREAMers undocumented youth movement, these efforts are bringing new struggles and renewed energy to our campuses. Given our user communities’ involvement in these conversations and the library profession’s increasing interest in critical librarianship (as evidenced by #critlib chats and unconferences, as well as a growing body of scholarship), we see opportunities for librarians and library staff to transcend one-way transactional relationships and forge solidarities with their users around social justice. As we participate in these activities, we must critically examine our roles as socially conscious actors who often occupy positions of authority within our institutions and frequently come from a place of privilege. How do we speak with rather than for marginalized members of our campus community and amplify those voices silenced in the conventional discourse of academia? In this workshop, we will define and discuss ally-ship and solidarity and share stories from our institutional context. As a group, we will collectively brainstorm strategies for engaging in social change on campus, methods of achieving buy-in from leadership, and pressure points to be aware of in order to work alongside activists respectfully. Workshop attendees will develop a stronger understanding of how privilege, power, and solidarity function in tandem, discover sustainable approaches to this work, and build connections with other colleagues motivated by the continuing fight against oppression.

Opening Doors with Copyright

Sue Kunda (Western Oregon University)

Presentation materials | Bibliography

These days it seems like you can’t do anything on campus without involving copyright issues, and faculty frequently have questions about using others’ (as well as their own) intellectual property. Examples include:

Can I show an entire video to my class?

Can I make a copy of an article and place it in Blackboard (or any other LMS)?

Can I put my students’ work online?

Can I deposit my research into the institutional repository?

What are the consequences of signing a copyright transfer agreement?

Academic librarians who answer questions like these are hot commodities on campus and can find themselves quickly integrated into partnerships with faculty, administration and academic units. But you don’t have to go it alone. The past twenty years of legal scholarship – and a number of high profile court decisions – provide us with a much more reliable fair use standard. Various agencies, organizations and individuals have developed excellent resources for the librarian just starting to learn about copyright issues in higher education as well as those already familiar with the basics.

This session will use active learning techniques to guide you through an understanding of faculty’s common intellectual property concerns, how fair use has moved beyond the checklists used by many libraries, and where to find answers you can trust. Ideas for using copyright questions to form partnerships across campus will also be presented.

Note: While we’ll discuss things to think about when confronted with a copyright question, the session will not focus on answers to specific questions.

Finding Articles is not Enough: Developing Metacognitive Reading Skills in Information Literacy Instruction

Zoe Fisher (Pierce College)

Presentation materials | video | video

Many librarians think of information literacy as a set of skills and dispositions that include finding, evaluating, and using information. Discipline faculty frequently ask librarians to focus their teaching on the “finding” aspect of information literacy (e.g., using specific information tools and resources) rather than students’ ability to use the information they find.

In this hands-on workshop, attendees will learn classroom routines that will strengthen students’ metacognitive reading skills. These quick, adaptable routines help students make meaning of the sources they find. The routines in this workshop are adapted from the Reading Apprenticeship framework for academic literacy currently being used at Renton Technical College, Pierce College, and other higher education institutions. This workshop is a perfect fit for librarians who are working at institutions that are using the Reading Apprenticeship framework to develop academic literacy skills, or any librarian interested in helping their students become better readers.

After this workshop, attendees will be able to: define metacognition, define the four dimensions of literacy (personal, social, cognitive, knowledge-building), use the Research Reading Log (a metacognitive reading/research tool), and use Talking to the Text (a metacognitive annotation routine).

Let Your Love Open the Door to - Student Development Theories

Hannah Gascho, Kelly McElroy, Laurie Bridges (Oregon State University)

Presentation materials

Many librarians work directly with students, but few have background preparation in how students’ development impacts their learning. Students - particularly traditionally aged college students - undergo a tremendous amount of personal and academic growth by the time they graduate. Students’ cognitive understanding of how knowledge is created and how decisions are made can shift dramatically; their understanding of their own identity can radically evolve; and they are faced with a greater variety of learning environments and more choice in how they will approach their own learning. In addition, the fact that students were never a homogenous group to begin with can make the prospect of creating services for them feel more than a little daunting.

Fortunately, understanding the theories behind the various paths students take during this process of growth can help librarians improve the way they design many user services including instruction sessions, web interfaces, outreach activities, and service points within the library. Understanding the various developmental stages students are going through can also help librarians be more empathetic as well as less quick to blame themselves when an interaction with a student doesn’t go as planned.

This session will focus on three key student development theories. Participants will be introduced to the theories, and will use case studies and examples from their own work with students to brainstorm ways for implementing these theories within their own user services context.