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Raising Awareness of Diversity and Inclusion in One-shot Information Literacy Classes

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Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Engineering Libraries Division Technical Session 1: Diversity

Tagged Division

Engineering Libraries

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--37635

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/37635

Download Count

590

Paper Authors

biography

Anamika Megwalu San Jose State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-7482-000X

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Anamika Megwalu, Ph.D., M.L.I.S., is the Faculty Director of Library Instruction & Assessment at San Jose State University (SJSU). She is also an instructor for the Computer & Software Engineering Department at SJSU's Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering. She is a library liaison to a number of engineering departments. Besides liaison and collection development responsibilities, she collaboratively develops, and implements assessment activities for continuous review and improvement of services. Her research interests include agile library services for diverse user groups, online scholarly communication, and effective instructional strategies. She has published articles in Reference Services Review, Advances in Librarianship, The Reference Librarian, The Charleston Advisor, and Science & Children, and authored a book titled, Profiles of Academic Library Efforts to Develop Online Information Literacy Tutorials. She is also the Subject Editor for Computer and Information Technologies for ACRL's Resources for College Libraries.

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Abstract

In a typical IL session, students come from diverse educational and cultural backgrounds. Students have varied perceptions of library services and the roles of librarians. They have different learning styles and expectations. They also have varied communication preferences. The presenter/author implemented a method that strategically integrates assessment activities with student engagement tools to develop an inclusive learning environment. For instance, the practice of starting a session with a short survey of students’ needs is helpful to the librarian. Extending that practice by immediately sharing the results of the survey with students informs them of the needs of their peers. When students realize the diversity of their cohort, they understand the importance of the IL session. Additionally, the librarian is able to adjust the lesson plan to meet the needs of the diverse group. In this paper/presentation, the author will present practical examples of planning, designing, and implementing assessment activities using various student engagement tools to create an inclusive learning environment. Librarians can apply this method of using assessment tools to raise awareness of diversity and inclusion within the constraints of a one-shot IL session. The dual purpose of this method is also appreciated and adopted by instructors of other courses.

Megwalu, A. (2021, July), Raising Awareness of Diversity and Inclusion in One-shot Information Literacy Classes Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37635

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