Lightning Talks

Completing the Trifecta: Collaboration with Faculty and the Public Library to Promote Information Literacy
Heather Crozier (Electronic Resources Librarian) @ Ohio Northern University

Bolstering relationships with faculty and the community are continual challenges for academic libraries. Promoting information literacy is yet another challenge. Adding in collaboration with the local public library completes the trifecta of challenges. Inspired by John Oliver and TED Talks, a small academic library teamed up with the local public library and academic faculty to create a semi-monthly program consisting of 2-3 faculty speakers from different disciplines, providing an opportunity to meet three challenges with one program.

Incentive-Based Learning: Pedagogical Approaches to Connecting Employment Skills through Information Literacy for Students
Jonathan M. Torres (Business Research and Instruction Librarian) @ Cornell University

This lightning talk will demonstrate specific pedagogical methods that integrate comprehensive learning strategies, and encourage the use of scholarly databases as a tool for career-related practices in the business field.

The presentation will provide visual diagrams on leading companies’ specific databases utilized, as well as analyze the increasing trend of companies hiring students with “researching” skills. Lastly, attendees will learn how to create activities and exercises that correlate information literacy lessons with workplace scenarios.

Library Instruction in the Special Collections Room: Pre-service Teachers and Early 20th Century Children’s Literature
Suzanne Hinnefeld (Coordinator of Collection Development) @ Saint Mary's College

Special Collections are a rich yet often underutilized source of content which facilitate engaging library instruction sessions on the framework of strategic exploration. This lightning talk will provide a case study of education students investigating the construction of gender in early 20th century children’s literature.

Participants will acquire a concrete example of utilizing Special Collections in library instruction, including tips on creating mini-collections, a strategy for engaging student learners, questions to guide student learning, and lessons learned by the collaborators.

Selfies & Tweets & Posts, oh My! Social Media as a Visual Alternative to the Minute Paper
Kellie Meehlhause (Instruction Coordinator) @ University of Minnesota, Morris

The Minute Paper has long been a quick and easy means of learning assessment in library instruction. More recently, the use of social media, particularly selfies, has gained popularity by connecting with students through the technology they are most familiar with. This talk makes the case for combining the Minute Paper and various social media in order to gain an insight into students’ skill development and retention after a library session. Adaptable to a variety of classes and learning outcomes, the activity enables students to actively use what they learned rather than passively reflecting on it.

STEAMing up STEM : Visual Arts and Maker Culture as a Vehicle for Student Engagement and Collaboration on a STEM Campus
Alison Valk (Library Instructional Coordinator & Liaison to the College of Computing) @ Georgia Tech

As programming within academic libraries evolves, librarians have moved beyond traditional information literacy instruction to an environment in which they create strong partnerships with the campus faculty, community and beyond. This lightning talk will explore one such specialized partnership and unique library programming. In order to foster engaging classroom experiences on a campus focused primarily on STEM education, the partners forged innovative methods to incorporate the visual arts into course projects. Attendees will gain insight into how the partners developed this program. Additionally, the speaker will share lessons learned as the program expanded after being awarded an IMLS sparks grant.