During the fall 2014 semester, Aria (Thompson Writing Program, Duke University) and Hannah (Duke University Libraries) piloted an embedded librarian model of library instruction in a section of Writing 101 entitled Hacking Knowledge.
C:\ _ to hack: to creatively tweak an established computer system to circumvent the limitations, or extend the capabilities, of the existing system. [1]
When we began collaborating on a new Writing 101 course, Hacking Knowledge, we realized we would need to work together in new ways to hack the library component of the course’s mainframe. We had to think through questions like, what instructional strategies could we tweak to get students to transition from internet savvy to digital research savvy? We also had to think creatively about how to challenge students to extend their experience with familiar information sources, like Google, to begin asking critical questions about these sources: What is Facebook doing with my data? Is Google filtering my search results? Should access to knowledge be a basic human right?
The information landscape is changing rapidly, and students have more available to them at their fingertips than ever before; however, constant exposure to an abundance of information from myriad varieties of sources does not equate to 21st century research fluency.
Why embedded collaboration?
We decided that a course that focused on deconstructing how knowledge is created and accessed would call for a more integrated approach to teaching students the complexities of research in the 21st century. In the established library instruction “system,” students come in to the library for a one-off library session in their first-year composition course. Students sit face-front in a classroom, while librarians present them with a whirlwind tour of library databases, evaluating sources, document delivery, and advanced search techniques. Writing faculty sit in the back of the class – stepping in to help when needed, but basically let the librarian run the show.
As we worked to tweak that system, we realized that there was simply too much substantive content to cover in the standard one or two library sessions. We also wanted to model deep collaboration for students. Indeed, one of the most frequently identified skills employers seek now is the ability to collaborate, and yet students seldom learn the theory and praxis of collaborative communication and production. Through our method of embedded collaboration, we were able to model what we were asking of students, namely, to create together at the intersection of the intellectual and practical work of collaboration.
Collaborative assignments
In Project 1, we asked students to work in small collaborations to hack their preconceived assumptions and practices pertaining tohow they know. Each collaboration created a collaboration manifesto, researched a “go-to” open information source (such as Google and Wikipedia), drafted a research brainstorm map based onHannah’s Twitter example, and produced a multimedia research project using iMovie. We also crowdsourced evaluation guidelines, which formed the framework by which Aria graded the projects as well as by which students completed self-evaluation reflections.
In Project 2, which asked students to consider whether there is a right to knowledge, students gathered and organized their sources in a shared group Zotero library, which was visible to everyone in the class. Zotero, an open source citation tool, was an intentional choice, as it is consistent with the course’s emphasis on “open” information tools. Students were required to add research notes to five of their sources to demonstrate their understanding of the source’s publication type, authority, audience, and relevance of the source for their project.
Throughout the semester, we gave students point-of-need instruction on understanding creative commons-licensed images and the best practices for attribution of CC images, locating relevant research sources, and evaluating across social media #Ferguson discourse.
Opportunities and challenges
One downside of being a librarian is that they rarely see students’ final projects or papers. Librarians help students find an article in a one-off library session or assist them during their citation meltdowns at the reference desk, but what they do with research “interventions” is largely a mystery. In working with Aria’s course this semester, Hannah had the opportunity to help students at various stages of the research process and see the final products of their research. Students met with Hannah in small groups, and individually, to talk about their research strategy at various points of the semester. These interactions helped Hannah better understand what they were struggling with in their research, so that she could provide more relevant instruction. In turn, the hope is that students will have a more nuanced understanding of how libraries and librarians might serve as resources to them as they delve into more complex research projects. When students develop both an intellectual and practical understanding of information-seeking, this understanding empowers them to approach research more holistically and to navigate subsequent information systems more nimbly.
Although embedded librarianship is a promising model for library instruction, it is not always scalable. Despite their many super powers, librarians can’t be everywhere all the time. Another unique feature of this collaboration was that the course content for Hacking Knowledge lent itself very well to close collaboration with the libraries. Not every course has a research assignment or a strong tie-in to the library, so close collaboration with the libraries might vary course by course.
Given those realities, some smaller hacks might include:
In September 2014, the internet reached a milestone: 1 billion websites online … and counting. Students will continue to face the daunting task of navigating and making sense of these billion+ pages throughout their personal and academic lives. They will also need to make informed choices about when and where to consult sources outside of familiar search engines. The more we hacked the traditional library instruction system, the more we realized that our new model would not only better prepare students for research in the 21st century, but it would also demonstrate for them the creative joy of breaking and making knowledge.
NOTE: [1] Gehring, Verna V. The Internet in Public Life. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, 47.
IMAGE CREDIT: Water drops on spider web via Wikimedia Commons is in the public domain.
First published on December 8th, 2014 with Duke University’s Language, Arts + Media Program Lab.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Aria F. Chernik is an open knowledge activist and works to restructure educational models for 21st century teaching and learning. She is the Director of Open Knowledge | Innovation & Technology Policy Lab at Duke University. Find her on Twitter @ariachernik.
Hannah Rozear is a Research & Instructional Services Librarian and library liaison to the Thompson Writing Program and the Duke Global Health Institute. Find her @nilblogger on Twitter.
