Some months after the initiation of this series, Innovations in Information Literacy, I put out a call for book ideas on the ILI-L listserv. As the series title indicates, I sought entries that reflect new ideas, evolving opportunities and practices, and thought-provoking themes. I was intrigued when Amanda Nichols Hess responded and proposed the concept that ultimately became the book you...

Higher education is rapidly changing for both students and instructors. Today’s learners enter postsecondary classrooms with new expectations, needs, and skills; faculty, administrators, and support services have had to find ways to meet these new demands meaningfully and effectively. This book focuses on how one particular postsecondary learning environment—the...

It is important to acknowledge that this book was developed from dissertation-level research. As such, there was essential support provided from Oakland University’s School of Education and Human Resources and specifically from the three faculty members who served as dissertation committee members: Dr. Eileen S. Johnson, Dr. Tom Giberson, and Dr. Bill Solomonson. Also, this scholarly...

In November 2016, the Oxford Dictionaries crowned “post-truth” as their international word of the year.1 This term, which is defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief,”2 spiked in usage in reference to both the US...

Transformative learning theory presents a lens we can use to better understand this book’s core questions. Developed by Jack Mezirow, this approach to adult learning considers how individuals reconcile the roles and views prescribed to them by social or cultural structures with how they see themselves and their places in their world. As academic librarians’ roles change and involve...

As discussed in the previous chapter, experiencing a “disorienting dilemma” is an important first phase to experiencing transformative learning. But what constitutes such an experience? How do individuals think of this disorientation as they shift how they see themselves and the world around them? This chapter further explores what kinds of events or influences catalyze perspective...

While academic librarians may experience disorienting dilemmas as either ongoing shifts over time, transformation does not end there. Rather, this initial stage of change is shaped by other important pieces in individuals’ experiences, relationships, and personal outlooks. In exploring what these components look like and how they actually may lead academic librarians to change their...

As academic librarians’ reflective behaviors and emotional mindsets influence how their perspective transformation around teaching happens, another important factor in this process involves their relationships with other people. These interpersonal connections may influence how librarians think about themselves as educators as well as how they engage in information literacy instruction. By...

While academic librarians’ reflective behaviors, emotional mindsets, and relationships with others shape how their identities as educators form, their professional actions as instructional librarians also play a key role in this process. These kinds of job-centric factors may include engaging in ongoing, work-related learning; participating in mentorship relationships around instruction; and...

In addition to the personal and professional factors librarians experience in relation to, and as part of, their perspective transformation around teaching, there are several external components that affect this process. These pieces of the teaching identity development process are outside of individual librarians’ control, but they shape...

While it is instructive to determine whether academic librarians experience perspective transformation around their senses of themselves as educators and what factors that may influence this process, it may be just as relevant to consider the results of such identity development process. Despite this line of inquiry was not originally part of the research conducted, some academic librarians...

Now that we have examined academic librarians’ experiences with perspective transformation around their teaching, the factors that influence this process, and the outcomes from these identity shifts, we can turn to the overarching themes that these components illustrate. From these ranges of events and experiences, three core ideas are clear. First, academic librarians consider themselves to...

Is information literacy instruction part of your current work responsibilities?

This interview is part of dissertation research, which also includes the survey you completed online. This research specifically examines the experiences of academic librarians as they develop how they think of themselves professionally, especially in terms of their roles as educators. It has been approved by Oakland University’s Institutional Research Board.

Although the academic librarians’ demographic data is presented in aggregate in chapter 1, it could be helpful to better understand individuals’ personal characteristics, professional backgrounds, and years of experience in instruction. All names used are pseudonyms, and interviewees are listed alphabetically by this pseudonym.

Amanda Nichols Hess, PhD, is associate professor and e-learning, instructional technology, and education librarian at Oakland University (OU) Libraries in Rochester, Michigan. In this role, she works with her colleagues to develop the libraries’ diverse and user-focused online learning offerings. In addition, she delivers professional learning aimed at building librarians’...

This series for librarians and information literacy instructors provides information on the newest ideas and findings emerging from the field of information literacy, from teaching methods to emerging technologies to promising collaborations.