Robert Schroeder

Valuing Information Literacy: Affective Learning and the ACRL Standards

Higher education information literacy standards have readily addressed cognitive skills, although affective competencies—the emotional abilities that students must acquire in order to successfully navigate the research process—have not yet been incorporated into standards. This paper presents examples of current information literacy standards, integrating affective competencies or dispositions, including the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) 21st Century Learning Standards, and proposes a model for affective-focused higher education information literacy standards. The role of affect in library learning, the importance of affective competencies, and the centrality of affective learning to student mastery of research skills are discussed. Viewing information literacy as an integrated literacy, encompassing affective learning, technological literacy, and critical thinking, can provide avenues for greater collaboration with faculty in support of effective student research assignments.

Librarians’ Views on Critical Theories and Critical Practices

This study was conducted to investigate levels of familiarity that librarians have with critical theory, to determine the extent to which it informs professional practices, and to examine how the social justice issues related to critical theory inform the practices of librarians who are unfamiliar with it. A survey found that librarians were versed not only in the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, but also in poststructuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, and postcolonialism. Many librarians, lacking familiarity with critical theory, were also shown to be concerned with social justice and these issues significantly affect these librarians’ professional practices. Based on these results, the authors propose the plausibility of incorporating more critical theory into library and information science programs.

The Impact of Library Support on Education Faculty Research Productivity: An Exploratory Study

The authors surveyed college and university faculty members in the field of professional education to gauge their perceptions pertaining to the impact of library services on their research. The purpose was to illuminate faculty perceptions in a postsecondary education environment that emphasizes research productivity and requires libraries to provide ever more compelling evidence of their institutional value. Survey results showed that faculty members continue to rely on traditional discovery and collections-based library services, but that additional support for grant activity, data management, intellectual property management, and bibliometric analysis is needed. Implications for transforming library research support are discussed, and areas for further study are proposed.