Information Literacy @ CUNY

Workplace Readiness? Gaps in critical thinking skills of early career professionals
Speakers
Marisol Hernandez, Memorial Sloan Cancer Center
Dawn Hoffman, Global Strategy Group
Jeffrey Holmes, Woods Bagot
Brendan Molloy, KPMG
Kate Wittenberg, Portico

The “Workplace Readiness?” session, sponsored by the City University of New York’s Library Information Literacy Advisory Committee (LILAC) and Gale, a Cengage Learning Company, will be a chance for librarians and other faculty as well as career development professionals to hear from employers how well we are doing in preparing early career professionals with the critical thinking skills they need to succeed in the workforce. Representatives from various fields will be invited to speak with an audience of librarians, subject faculty, and CUNY career development specialists.

Speakers will address gaps they see in employee preparation and the skills needed to thrive in the workplace. The program will provide ample opportunity for discussion about how to close the gaps. Participants will take away a broader understanding of the requirements for success in the 21st Century workforce, as well as suggested strategies and tactics for how better to prepare students for their lives beyond academia.

Friday, April 27, 2012, 9am, Room L2.84
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Registration information is available here: http://metro.org/events/174/

Carl R. Andrews from Medgar Evers College has just published an article Libraries and General Education: New Strategies to Enhance Freshman Orientation, Faculty Collaboration,and Curriculum Development

http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.3214

Abstract: My research will attempt to re-evaluate the academic library’s role in supporting a general education program. The emphasis will focus on student centeredness, faculty collaboration, outreach and curriculum support. In the short time that I have worked in academic libraries I have learned that quality customer service and reference desk work is far from the list of priorities in some settings. Coming from the public library I found this to be unacceptable. We are service providers and the way in which we communicate with students and faculty is important. As professionals we should do more in the way of making the transition to college as seamless as possible for freshmen and continuing education students. It is imperative of us to adapt to the changing ways in which students interpret, process, and evaluate information. This involves embracing Web 2.0 and the social networking tools that students are using. Libraries will increasingly need to work at staying ahead of the information curve if we are to be an essential resource for today’s college freshmen.

Session on  “Information Literacy and Workplace Readiness” April 27

Today more than ever, success in the classroom and in the workforce depends on the ability to evaluate a rapidly expanding pool of specialized information. Information competence involves a complex set of critical thinking skills to find, evaluate, contextualize and communicate information using technology. Employees who are information competent can think critically in the context of an increasingly extensive amount of information. They can solve real-world problems using a wide range of technologies to find, evaluate, contextualize and communicate information.

The “Workplace Readiness” session, sponsored by CUNY’s Library Information Literacy Advisory Committee, will be a chance for librarians and other faculty as well as career placement professionals to hear how well we are doing in preparing early career professionals with the critical thinking skills they need to succeed in the workforce. Representatives from various fields, e.g. telecommunications, allied health, non-profits, and law will be invited to speak with an audience of librarians, subject faculty, and the staff from CUNY placement offices.

Speakers will address particular gaps they see in employee preparation and the skills needed to thrive in the workplace. The program will provide ample opportunity for discussion and idea generation about how to close the gaps. Participants will take away a broader understanding of the requirements for success in the 21st Century workforce, as well as suggested strategies and tactics for how better to prepare students for their lives beyond academia.

UPDATE: registration is now open!  Register at http://metro.org/events/174/

Dear LILAC Colleagues,

I am including some notes, reactions and discussion questions on a thought provoking article by Dane Ward: Revisioning Information Literacy for Lifelong Meaning; Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 32, 4. June 2006, which was shared by Robert Farrell.

My goal is to initiate a discussion where we attempt to conceptualize Information Literacy from our own experience, as either a set of academic skills essential to academic success and lifelong learning or as a concept that is narrowly defined, and should be expanded to include a broader spectrum of goals and ideals.

This is in line with Dane Ward’s article Revisioning Information Literacy for Lifelong Meaning. In here the author proposes Continue reading →