Annemaree Lloyd, Department of Information Studies, University College London.
When information is everywhere : How should we think about information literacy practice?
The fracturing of information landscapes, rapidly changing technological environments, exponential growth in information sources and sites, the blurring of information boundaries, the impact of algorithmic culture and bias present in digital information provision and people’s capacity to understand and mitigate the risks of the current pandemic present significant challenges to the lived experience of people in everyday life. In an age of information ubiquity, information that is relevant to everyday life can be drawn from everywhere. The ability to go on requires the development and maintenance of sustainable information literacy practices to engage with information, access it in all its forms and then operationalise use. When information is everywhere, information literacy practice should be viewed as a critical indicator of the capacity to develop information resilience.
This keynote will draw from research which has interrogated and described information literacy practices amongst a wide array of groups, arriving at a theory of information literacy and information practice (Lloyd 2017). The keynote will explore the theory and the role that social, corporeal, and epistemic modalities of information play in the construction/reconstruction of information landscapes. It will question whether thinking and research needs to shift to accommodate the challenges of information everywhere. I will explore the question- how does a research focus on ‘information everywhere’ help us address these challenges and opportunities to produce research that benefits society?
Annemaree Lloyd is a social science researcher who conducts research into information literacies and contemporary information practices in formal and informal learning connected to workplaces, community settings and in education. Her current research program focuses on the intersection between information, learning, and the performance of practice. She is also interested in the connection between information literacies, social inclusion, and collaborative learning and the nature of embodiment in information literacy practice. Professor Lloyd pursues this research agenda working with a range of groups including refugees, emergency services personal, nurses and with patients suffering chronic illness, librarians, and students. Her most recent research focuses on information practice, risk, and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic
Dimitris Soudias, Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics (University of Groningen).
The Commoning Library: Alter-Neoliberal Pedagogy in Informational Capitalism
The ascent of neoliberalism and informational capitalism has been largely successful in privatizing and re-regulating state-subject-market relations in ways that treat them "as if" they are a market situation. On the one hand, this has led to the commodification of digital forms of knowledge, and the increasing commodification of the access to this knowledge. On the other hand, we observe the commodification of human experience itself. As non-commercial spaces, public and academic libraries serve the vital function of deflecting these developments. In this talk, I argue for going one step further and imagining libraries as radical spatialities that transgress their institutional limits vis-à-vis public and private resources, discourses, policies, and technologies for the purpose of furthering the Commons. In so doing, libraries serve as alter-neoliberal pedagogies, which democratize the construction and deconstruction of knowledge, as well as the access to them. Here, alternative literacies, ways of learning, and ways of being can be prefigured in practice. This talk concludes with an outline for an agenda towards the commoning library.
Dimitris Soudias Soudias is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics (University of Groningen). His current research builds on political sociology and cultural economy approaches to study such issues as creativity, happiness, social innovation and entrepreneurship in neoliberalism. Dimitris' book, 'Paradoxes of Emancipation: Radical Imagination and Space in Neoliberal Greece,' is forthcoming with Syracuse University Press.
Carol Gordon, School of Communication and Information Rutgers University
Researching Ross: A Reflection on Dr. Todd’s Rationale for the Study of School Libraries, the Results of his Work, and his Reasoning for the Relevance and Resiliency of School Libraries
Dr. Ross Todd’s impact on school library research and practice will continue to influence the profession for years to come. This presentation explores the vision and beliefs that informed his research agenda. It identifies the themes of his research, the methods he used in this body of research, and the findings that shaped his advocacy for school libraries. It includes Dr. Todd’s research-to-practice initiatives through the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries and explores the connection between his research and his teaching and mentoring of school library candidates and doctoral students at Rutgers.
Dr. Carol Gordon taught high school teacher and earned a masters degree in Secondary Education in New York City. She worked as a school librarian in the United States and abroad in international schools after earning a masters degree in Library and Information Science. After earning her doctorate in Education she was Head of the Education Library and Associate Professor in the School of Education at Boston University. She joined Ross Todd at Rutgers’ University School of Information and Communication as Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Center for International Studies in School Libraries (CISSL). She has authored over one-hundred articles and four books and is presently Principal of Gordon Consulting and Strategic Consultant to the New England School Library Association.