Count Your Blessings

My ten myths do seem rather negative don’t you think? After a hiatus from information literacy (I’m Acting University Librarian until July 2007), here’s where I think we should be concentrating our efforts.

1. Build a library toolbar and promote it like crazy. Every student and faculty member should have a library toolbar in their browser.
2. Create RSS feeds for new books and get them into pages where faculty and students live, e.g. course management systems, departmental web pages.
3. Build a library catalogue that works like the best tools we have today (best from the point of view of our users). Think Amazon, MySpace, Flickr
4. Build course reserve RSS feeds for course management systems et cetera. Help faculty create “reading lists”.
5. Find a way to integrate librarians into the curriculum process. This is hard and takes time. Start now. I can’t tell you how to do this, because I think each institution has a culture around curriculum. Don’t fight the culture.
6. Try to take information literacy from the hands of a few, to making information literacy part of the whole university culture. (If you figure out how to do this let me know)
7. Really look at the service being provided at the Reference Desk. Does it support information literacy? Do the staff at the reference desk connect with what’s happening in the classroom?
8. Build a true Learning Commons if not physically than in spirit. To me this means integrating services: library / writing / technology / faculty support for teaching and learning.
9. Support open access publishing. From the IL point of view that means helping students and faculty discover open access content.
10. Stop and assess. Keep going forward. Stop and assess. Keep going forward . . .