[Themaintainers] feedback on proposals: mending and situated info literacy

[Devon Olson]

Hello all!

My name is Devon Olson, I am a research and Instruction Librarian at the
University of North Dakota. I am an early-career librarian with a
background in community archives and research instruction in higher-ed, and
I  am also a relatively new member of the Maintainers community. Nice to
meet you!

I am writing to seek some feedback on two separate conference proposal
ideas I have for MIII. I'll be honest and admit that I've never presented
at a conference, so I'm feeling a little hesitant about topical
appropriateness or the process in general. I'm hoping some of you may have
some feedback or additional resources I ought to consider.

Idea #1 has to do with a pedagogical frame called "situated information
literacy", and I'm imagining I would do it as a lightning talk, though it
could easily be an hour-long workshop. The idea of "situated information
literacy" seems to have grown out of the work of a small group of
instructional around the early 2000's, but it doesn't seem to have gotten
the traction I think it deserves. Recently I've become really frustrated
with the way information literacy (in higher ed, at least) is framed only
within academic spheres, or even a single assignment, ignoring the wider
information ecosystem students participate in, both as a student, and in
their eventual post-grad lives. I want to introduce situated information
literacy as a potential way to combat information bubbles and to maintain
information literacy in learners into adulthood. If you've heard of
concept-based curricula (which began in Nursing), I'm basically proposing
the same model, that instructional librarians give students a mental model
which facilitates critical analysis, evaluation, and reflection
(information literacy) across information domains. The audience would be
anyone who teaches research skills, but it may be relevant to others as
well. If you're interested, here are some works I'll be drawing from:
Jennifer Hoyer, (2011) "Information is social: information literacy in
context", Reference Services Review, Vol. 39 Issue: 1, pp.10-23,
https://doi.org/10.1108/00907321111108088
Pawley, C. (2003), “Information literacy: a contradictory coupling”,
Library Quarterly, Vol. 73. No. 4, pp. 422-52.
Marcum, J. (2002), “Rethinking information literacy”, Library Quarterly,
Vol. 72 No. 1, pp. 1-26.

Robert Monge & Erica Frisicaro-Pawlowski. 2014. "Redefining Information
Literacy to Prepare Students for the 21st Century Workforce”. Innov High
Educ (2014) 39:59–73

DOI 10.1007/s10755-013-9260-5
Reconsidering the Relationship Between Generic and Situated IL Approaches:
The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition in Formal Information Literacy
Learning Environments, Part I . Robert Farrell, Lehman College, City
University of New York. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)


Idea #2 has to do with mending, fast fashion, and privilege. This one is
sort of a fun one, because there could be hands-on craft time at the end! I
am imagining this would be an hour-long presentation on the #visiblemending
social media phenomenon as a potential response to fast fashion and all of
its environmental and ethical consequences. It could also be a lightning
talk or panel, too. This would also involve discussions of privilege, race,
class, and lots of other problematic bits that seem to be baked into the
diy-garment and fashion industry. There are other related social media
movements, #fashionrevolutionweek was a couple weeks ago, and there is also
#memademay, #memadewardobe, #slowfashion, and bleeds into other forms of
media. I might be in over my head on this one since I am not academically
trained in fashion history or economics, but I think it is a very important
conversation to be having, especially as maintainers. I also think it would
be really neat to spend the second half of the hour mending clothing
together, facilitated by myself and maybe a colleague (any takers?) In my
dreams I think it would be cool to get a grant to buy materials to mend
things together, which might make this more of a long-term thing to do next
year? I also don't have as much research baking this idea, so if you know
of any articles, books, blogs, podcasts, etc., surrounding this idea,
please do let me know.

I appreciate any thoughts you may have on any of this, and I sincerely
appreciate you taking the time to read and perhaps respond.

-Devon


devonrachel at gmail.com
devon.olson.2 at und.edu
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