How I decided on my topic:
I am an Assistant Academic Support Librarian working at the UAL Wimbledon Library.
When deciding on my research query for this ARP project, I knew I would like to focus on teaching information literacy.
One of the reasons was the fact that when I joined my team in 2021 our library had been in a process of preparation for renovations. For the next two years our main focus as a team was to get ready for the building works, working in limited space when the renovation was ongoing and then organising our new space. In practice it meant that we were not able to have any information literacy sessions in person during that time. Now, having new teaching room and more space to accommodate face to face sessions, I thought it is a perfect time to investigate what we used to do and use this project to improve our teaching.
Additionally, during the last two years I got to know our library collections (both main and special collections) better, and I felt ready to look at how we could better use them in teaching. During my second unit on the PgCert course I engaged with diversifying our collections and it felt like a natural progression to look at how I can use them in my teaching to improve my practice.
To define what part of librarianship I want to focus on, I made a simple mind map of what are my interests in my profession:
By working on the mind-map I realised that I am looking at the very broad subject area and that I will need to really focus my research further. I could already see that I am looking at least at three different areas of my profession (collections promotion, teaching methods and Info Skills tailoring to our students’ needs), and I try to see all of them through the lenses of inclusivity. My mind-map did not help me to focus my research question straightaway, but it showed me that I need to choose a much smaller area of my profession to be able to do my project in given time.
Then, inspired by one of our first workshops on ARP unit, I thought of critical friendship and decided to talk about my project with one of my colleagues who also studied on the PgCert course. Looking at the mind-map together helped me to decide on and narrow down my topic. Furthermore, my colleague shared with me her MA Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communication dissertation. The chapter about the resources that the students trust and use made it clear to me that looking into teaching resources evaluation would be very useful.
“One of the themes that came through from the interviews was that the students tend to equate library resources with books. It became apparent that library resources tended to be seen as the books and by the internet they meant the wider internet beyond library resources.” (Bloom, 2023, p.22)
The need for teaching IL and evaluation of resources is also evident in the writings on the subject. In many studies it becomes apparent that the students can struggle in finding and judging the resources they need. (Currie et al., 2010; Faix, 2014; Silva et al., 2018)
“[S]tudents often use only superficial criteria like whether or not the web page includes advertisements or flashy graphics to evaluate Internet sources and do not delve into a deeper analysis of sources. (…) not only did students tend to use superficial criteria when evaluating websites, they also often could not explain exactly what criteria they were using. ” (Faix, 2014, p.627)
Reading more about Information Literacy (IL) inspired my research question further.
The following two quotes stand out for me in my reading. They both talk about how important IL is for the society, how empowering it can be. I have never thought before of the sustainability aspect of the IL and I definitely want to study it further. They brought the elements of sustainability and critical pedagogy into my research question.
“Information literacy and self learning have a strategic and mutual relationship with each other [.] (…) Both are self empowering: Both the concepts are aimed to help all categories of individuals, regardless of their social, economical, cultural and educational status, as well as their place, gender, race, religion or ethnic background in the society.” (Shigwan, 2014, pp.341-342)
“Information literacy is, in fact, closely linked to environmental literacy and has a positive impact on the environment. (…) Information literacy simply facilitates accessing and selecting the most relevant, current and reliable information sources to make well informed decisions on environmental issues. Critical thinking, another important component of the information literacy skills set, helps not only to critically evaluate information available on environmental issues but also helps to perceive and understand the relative health of environmental systems. Secondly, although environmental sustainability is not the ultimate target, there is no doubt that advanced search skills – a part of information literacy skills- help to develop better search strategies, which, in turn, bring better results in a shorter time span, and leave fewer carbon footprints.” (Kurbanoğlu and Boustany, 2014, p.54)