Let's Build Something

First, I would like to thank Rebecca for taking the initiative to organize a time and place for us to meet back in October and share what is happening in our respective academic libraries. Now, it would behoove all of us not to wait another four years to meet. I fear that lapse of time would render us in another presidential campaign.

Perhaps we need a mission statement and a few common goals.

Because there are so many organized groups out there focused on information literacy, it would be helpful to give our group a clear scope with some common issues that would make us unique, and thus, more practical and beneficial.

With that said, here are my thoughts to start the ball rolling:

1.     What clearly makes this group unique is our geographical proximity to one another, and, more specifically, our local economy. At the end of our meeting, we briefly discussed Allison Head’s most recently published research called "Learning Curve: How College Graduates Solve Information Problems Once they Join the Workplace." This should prompt the question: “Are Worcester area businesses and government agencies running into the same problems as the employers in Head’s research?” If we can determine the answer is yes, then I would suggest starting to build relationships with those businesses/ organizations that match-up with any major areas of study our colleges offer. The core of any information literacy program should have practical application at its core. I say, give the students a real problem to work on.

2.     The universal issue we all face, and was expressed by the majority of us, is the “buy-in” we need from students, faculty, and administration. Can we systemize the approach? We are all at different stages of building IL programs. Let's put that data together.

3.     If we could create an embedded information literacy program in our colleges that would extent through the student’s academic career, what would the outline look like, and, can we build a bibliography to support it?

That is plenty out of me - thank you all again for this opportunity to collaborate.