Library Instruction West 2020

This session will discuss two information literacy lessons used at the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) to teach both undergraduate and graduate students about information privilege in STEM.  Presenters will walk through the lessons, including development, implementation, successes and lessons learned.  There will be opportunities for attendees to discuss the lessons in small groups and reflect on how they could be applied to their own institutional context.  

The first lesson, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, is a one-shot in our First-Year Success Seminar. Students explore the scholarly conversation by tracking research related to a historically significant scientist or engineer’s work. Lesson examples include a diverse set of researches; including Alan Touring, Grace Hopper, and Mae Jemison. The lesson’s activity encourages students to explore the invisible barriers in our most commonly used research sources. In addition to the lesson’s learning outcomes, our students are able to see researchers like themselves, many from underrepresented backgrounds, in the scholarly conversation.
The second lesson, The Power Dynamics of Information is a graduate-level workshop, exploring barriers to information access and emerging publishing trends; for example the serials crisis and the Open Science movement. In the activity, students conduct research in their discipline without using any of the library’s resources. They explore and evaluate the types of information freely available and reflect on how barriers impact their ability to participate in the research of their discipline. Students learn about difficulties faced by independent researchers, the public and less well-funded institutions.