While academic librarians frequently discuss critical thinking and its relationship to information literacy, the literature does not contain an abundance of sources on the topic. Therefore, this works provides a current and timely perspective on the possible roles of critical thinking within the library program. The work contains a variety of approaches likely to benefit the practicing librarian. It begins with a review of the literature, followed by theoretical approaches involving constructivism and the Socratic method. Readers will find pieces on the integration of critical thinking into the first-year experience and course-specific case studies, as well as a selection on a campus-wide critical thinking project. In each of the pieces, librarians are exploring new ways to meet their instructional goals, including the goal of teaching critical thinking skills to students across the curriculum. This book was originally published as a special issue of College & Undergraduate Libraries.

As the use of libraries changes, leaders need to improve their emotional intelligence and critical thinking in order to attract and retain users. Focused on practical management advice, this is an engaging discussion of how library leaders can grow in their role.

We live in a data-driven world, much of it processed and served up by increasingly complex algorithms, and evaluating its quality requires its own skillset. As a component of information literacy, it's crucial that students learn how to think critically about statistics, data, and related visualizations. Here, Bauder and her fellow contributors show how librarians are helping students to access, interpret, critically assess, manage, handle, and ethically use data. Offering readers a roadmap for effectively teaching data literacy at the undergraduate level, this volume explores such topics as the potential for large-scale library/faculty partnerships to incorporate data literacy instruction across the undergraduate curriculum; how the principles of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education can help to situate data literacy within a broader information literacy context; a report on the expectations of classroom faculty concerning their students’ data literacy skills; various ways that librarians can partner with faculty; case studies of two initiatives spearheaded by Purdue University Libraries and University of Houston Libraries that support faculty as they integrate more work with data into their courses; Barnard College’s Empirical Reasoning Center, which provides workshops and walk-in consultations to more than a thousand students annually; how a one-shot session using the PolicyMap data mapping tool can be used to teach students from many different disciplines; diving into quantitative data to determine the truth or falsity of potential “fake news” claims; and a for-credit, librarian-taught course on information dissemination and the ethical use of information.

"Explores the history of deficit thinking in higher education. Discusses pedagogical models that recognize students' prior knowledge and experiences. Provides a series of principles for anti-deficit teaching. Explores practical application of these principles in various academic library environments"--

While academic librarians frequently discuss critical thinking and its relationship to information literacy, the literature does not contain an abundance of sources on the topic. Therefore, this works provides a current and timely perspective on the possible roles of critical thinking within the library program. The work contains a variety of approaches likely to benefit the practicing librarian. It begins with a review of the literature, followed by theoretical approaches involving constructivism and the Socratic method. Readers will find pieces on the integration of critical thinking into the first-year experience and course-specific case studies, as well as a selection on a campus-wide critical thinking project. In each of the pieces, librarians are exploring new ways to meet their instructional goals, including the goal of teaching critical thinking skills to students across the curriculum. This book was originally published as a special issue of College & Undergraduate Libraries.

"Provides a snapshot of the current state of critical information literacy as it is enacted and understood by academic librarians"--

This book examines the various types of literacy that are important in the Digital Age of rapid technological change and proliferating information resources in a variety of formats. According to the American Library Association (www.ala.org), "information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning and is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. Information literacy is an umbrella term that includes a variety of specific competencies: cultural literacy, library literacy, computer literacy, network literacy, and media literacy. Each topic addressed in the book includes contextual background information, basic concepts, a resource list, exercises and activities to reinforce the important learning concepts addressed in each chapter. - Based on content, resources, assignments, and exercises developed for an academic information literacy course - In addition to scholarly content on particular topics, each chapter will include practical applications and activities related to information literacy concepts