What's Social Justice Got To Do With Information Literacy?

• SSJX: Student Social Justice Exhibits: Inviting students to do library displays around social justice issues. Students teach students about resources on a variety of social justice topics, like gentrification and how art can disrupt "the prison pipeline." The librarians and faculty work with students on the displays and the sources used for the displays.
• A Theology class on "Catholic Social Thought" doing service learning at various locations in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood has an Information Literacy session on researching the social issues they encountered during their service learning and also researching Catholic social thought documents; the librarian created a libguide for that class.
• Creating Research Guides on "Social Justice" as a subject listed among academic subjects, with topics like Housing Rights and Restorative and Transformative Justice.

After the July 2016 workshop several librarians worked to incorporate social justice into library orientations, workshops, one-shots, and credit-courses. Social Justice was the theme of the 2015-2016 campus-wide faculty learning community which provided a supportive environment to integrate social justice into library instruction. The librarians are integrating social justice information literacy in the following :

• Library Workshops
  • A Trip to the Topics
  • Citation Workshops
• Library Orientations
  • Summer Bridge
  • Dorm visits
  • English Language Learner's Academy
• Library Instruction Sessions
  • English 121 Sociology on Disaster/Trauma
  • Liberal Studies 400 Senior Seminar in Liberal Studies
  • Counseling 508 Research Methods in Counseling
  • Education 557 Action Research
  • Leadership 549 Research Methods
• Credit - Course Library 103 Information Literacy (3 credit course)
  • Net Neutrality Role- Playing Game Based Learning Activity
    • http://libguides.sandiego.edu/ALLconf

Social Justice in Information: Librarian peer to peer workshop to brainstorm ideas about how to move the July workshop forward on our campus.

Social Justice in Information: Unit added to existing embedded sessions for MA and EdD students enrolled in the Research Seminar courses (EDAD 617; EDUC 572; MATS 530)

• Based on Safiya Noble's lecture, Just Google It Algorithms of Oppression
• Students are introduced to the session goals the week before and asked to watch first 46 minutes for pre-session homework
• In class  students are shown 3 minute excerpt from the lecture (Google is dominate in search engines; majority of internet searchers believe the information they obtain is true, accurate, trustworthy and unbiased; and criteria used by google to create a results list is based on criteria that increases its marketing/advertising base.
• Students do an in class google image search exercise for a population and are asked to critique who is represented in the images and who is missing.
• Discussion about impact of the unit on students personally and professionally
• Post session assessment
• Areas identified of concern: privilege of access to information for student, staff and faculty at a college; work in an evidence based practices requires use of information/research conducted by people of privilege; how do we understand our research questions from other perspectives; search strings that represent a person's bias will retrieve information that supports that bias;
• Note for future presentations: End wth lecture clip on the manifesto of Dylann Storm Roof - Discuss how search from his point of bias skewed his results to support that bias.
• Unit well received by faculty; faculty want to permanently add the unit to embedded sessions; faculty want to consider how to extend the assignments in the class to extend the unit to research conducted;

Social Justice in Information for First Year Business Students  (SV)

SSTE 215 Unit for Credential Students (JR)

Social Justice in Information for High Potential First Year Student (GKL)

New course in ethnic studies aligned with social justice in information (coincidental) (developing collaboration with PW)

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Library collaboration with other departments to bring Sofiya Noble on for a Jan Term workshop/lecture for students, staff and faculty

Library banned books display reworked to highlight the social justice issues of banned and challenged books

Black Staff and Faculty Newsletter article.

Presentations to department/program faculty to encourage dialogue and intentional integration of social justice in information into their curriculum

Related:

Collaborating with Faculty Development on developing a workshop for faculty - identifying fake news (MBS, GKL, SV)

Assignment developed for UG Justice, Community & Leadership: Evaluating credibility of news from your social media accounts (MBS)

Assignment (developing) for EDUC 572: Evaluating credibility of news from your social media accounts (as an extension to the social justice unit) (MBS)

AskALib session: Credibity of news from social media (for faculty and staff) (SV)

• RHET 1000: Rhetorical Arts: Speaking & Writing for Social Justice
  • Research Exploration Exercise (revised for Social Justice topics).
  • Last year, during library instruction, we asked our student teams to explain how their source “supports a social justice argument.” (They had to find one source on a topic of their choice and fill out a Google form) Some students had trouble answering that question, even when their topic was a social justice issue. Desirae revised the last question. http://libguides.lmu.edu/RHET1000/task
• “Keepin’ It Real:  Tips & strategies for evaluating fake news.” 
  • Inauguration Day Teach-In break out session (campus-wide event)
    • Marketing - liaison emails, library blog (twitter, Facebook), 80 mouse pad inserts in library.
    • Lesson Plan & Materials (in CORA)
    • Post event - 6 more blog posts on various tools (Jan. 30 - Feb. 17).

  • The library published a statement for the LMU community reiterating the library’s mission, its dedication to information literacy, and its role as a collaborative space for community engagement and open dialog. Librarians’ Statement on the 2016 Presidential Election

• Gender Bias & Gap in Wikipedia. 
  • An introductory Women's & Gender Studies class where students critically evaluate Wikipedia and edit an article. Fall 2016 and Spring 2017.
    • Lesson Plan & Materials (in CORA)
    • Building on Millions of Tiny Shoulders: Tips for Hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/LA/LMU_2017  - 85 students from at least 5 different classes dropped by
• Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet is presenting at he ACRL IS Preconference at ALA Annual 2017
  • “Research as Inquiry, Social Justice, and the Particularist Challenges of Religious Traditions in an Age of Terror and Hate” Session type:  20-minute presentation
• Staff Development Day (all library staff)
  • May 9, 2017
  • Social Justice theme, University mission, library mission
• Critical Reflection prompt questions.  Companion piece to literature reviews/empirical research papers:  Engaged Learning Flags, Ed.D. Educational Leadership for Social Justice, and International Affairs and Social Justice classes. (In progress)

Paul J. Cushing Library display for Climate Action month

Holy Names University Paul J. Cushing Library's Mission:

• We will promote collaborative teaching and research, experiential learning, and intellectual and spiritual growth.
• We will challenge ourselves to create an educational experience that reflects and honors our multicultural reality.
• We will be responsive to the opportunities and challenges of our times through our ongoing commitment to the SNJM charism that advocates service to people who are impoverished, abandoned or living at the fringes of society.

The Cushing Library advances this mission through collection development, event programming and policies related to Access Services. Working within our mandate from the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, the HNU library's Information Literacy Program, which includes instruction in core general education classes, as well as upper-level disciplinary courses, also seeks to advance knowledge of, as well as understanding and compassion for, the most vulnerable of our society.  

• Examples demonstrating this policy include:
  • ENG 1 Information Literacy Series: This series of instructional sessions scaffolds the evidence-based writing assignments for freshmen students using themes including, affordable housing, raising the federal minimum wage, funding social services, etc. 
  • ISAC 1/2 Information Literacy Series: This series of instructional sessions scaffolds the interdisciplinary research writing assignments for freshmen students using themes pertaining to feminism and queer theory, post-colonial studies and liberation theological perspectives.
  • ISAC 195 Information Literacy Series: This series of instructional sessions scaffolds the symposium research paper writing assignment for graduating seniors using themes including, ending mass incarceration, ensuring food security for all, education reform, environmental justice, etc.