All times listed are Central Time

9:00 – 9:30 am – Registration

9:30 – 9:35 am – Opening remarks

9:35 – 10:30 am – Keynote address, “Standing Up for the Truth: The Place of Libraries in the Public Sphere,” presented by Barbara Fister

Barbara Fister is an academic librarian who taught college students how information works for over three decades before becoming a scholar-in-residence with Project Information Literacy (PIL). Along the way, she wrote weekly columns for Library Journal and Inside Higher Ed as well as fiction. She developed and taught courses on research methods, book culture, international crime fiction, and (most recently) Clickbait, Bias, and Propaganda in Information Networks, and she co-authored the 2020 research report, Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms. Her PIL Provocation Series essay, Lizard People in the Library, was adapted into an article for The Atlantic. She lives in Mankato and is eagerly looking forward to seeing the pollinator flowerbeds she planted last fall come to life.

10:30 – 10:45 am — Break

10:45 – 11:45 am — Session One

“Exploring Copyright & Ethics in the Generative AI World”

Nancy Sims, University of Minnesota

Generative AI (or more accurately, content generation models) are both a hot topic in information literacy, and very useful lens through which to explore issues in copyright law and the ethics of copying. Permission, fair use, licensing, and book scanning are just a few of the issues involved in how source materials get -in- to content models. On the output side there are issues of copyrightability, originality, authorship, credit, citation, and much more. The training and tuning of content models also presents issues around equity, safety, and cross-border worker exploitation. In an interactive session, we’ll review some broadly applicable basics of copyright law, and begin to engage with thorny ethical issues old and new!

“Mission Statement Rewrite”

Joe Bouchard, Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, Baraga, MI

The first impression people have of an organization is often the mission statement.  Yet, many Mission Statements are overwritten, uneven and cumbersome. Readers may stray form a long statement and possibly seek another place to do business. Learn to create this important introduction to your organization that is brief, memorable, and accurate.

“Join the Sip ‘n Swipe Revolution: Mobile Device Instruction for Older Adults”

Lexi Brunkow, Jessica Korpi, Leslie Mehle, & Jen Tanko, Superior Public Library, Superior, WI

In early 2023, Superior Public Library launched a program called Sip ‘n Swipe. Developed by Generations Online, this free program helps library staff teach older adults how to perform basic functions on smartphones and tablets in a small group setting. We provide coffee and tea and one-on-one assistance to participants as they learn how to swipe, tap, text, search the web, and take photos with their devices. Participants are empowered to use their devices more confidently to find information and to stay connected with loved ones. This class expands their access to technology and helps them find information in a new way. By including information about internet safety and security (as well as the prevalence of misinformation on the web), we are helping them become more savvy about the websites they trust, and (hopefully!) encourage them to be skeptical consumers while browsing the internet. This breakout session will explain how the Sip ‘n Swipe program works, what a library needs in order to start their own Sip ‘n Swipe program, and helpful tips and tricks from our experienced coaches.

11:45 am – 1:00 pm — Lunch

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm — Session 2

“It is all new(s) to me: Engaging young adults with lateral reading”

Kate Hinnant, Helena Sumbulla, Liliana Lavalle, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire

In this presentation, we will describe what we use as a two-part process of teaching young adults about misinformation. First, we raise their awareness of misinformation, and second, we equip them to identify it. In our experience teaching undergraduate students information literacy in both 1 and 3-credit semester long courses, we have found that students, perhaps because of their low news consumption, are not conscious of misinformation in their everyday life or in the larger sociopolitical landscape. They also tend to have a misplaced faith in external forces to regulate and prevent malicious or otherwise harmful messages.

The most powerful tool we think we can give them is the process of lateral reading. Lateral reading, as promoted by both the Stanford History Education Group and Mike Caulfield, creator of the SIFT model of source evaluation, gives students a context-driven method for determining credibility. Because they can create their own roadmap for lateral analysis, students have agency over their understanding of the text. Lateral reading is a flexible model that is appropriate for any source. Lateral reading empowers readers to weigh varied factors in a complex information environment and can replace the binary thinking and simple rules that short-circuit critical thinking.

We will share examples of how we introduce different types of misinformation, as well as the ways we have engaged students with lateral reading in both one-shots and credit courses. Finally, we will involve the audience in an active-learning activity, where we show how lateral thinking can quickly be deployed in a one-shot lesson.

“A Rhetorical Approach to Source Evaluation: Constructing Authority in First-Year Writing Courses”

Jenny Turner & Kelly Moreland, Minnesota State University – Mankato

Source evaluation checklists simplify the complex ideas behind the ACRL framework “Authority is Constructed and Contextual” and fail to prepare students to engage with source evaluation in a changing information landscape. To help add complexity to source evaluation for beginning researchers, we have partnered to infuse critical thinking about information (information literacy) throughout the first-year writing curriculum at our university. We talk about how and why we use, create, and share information alongside conversations about rhetorical elements: rhetor, audience, argument, purpose, genre and mode, context, exigence, and argument. Rather than asking students to assess sources based on a credibility checklist, we ask them to reflect on each of these rhetorical elements as they interact with information and then consider when and how sources of information do or do not suit the task at hand. We ask them to consider “when is this source authoritative?” instead of “is this source authoritative?”

In this session, we will review the elements of rhetoric and lead participants through activities asking them to consider how to use rhetorical analysis as an evaluative tool in their own contexts.

“Safety in Libraries”

As library staff, we provide information, entertainment and a sense of community. Often, we forget that another essential element that we provide the patron is safety. Learn from a former prison librarian (and current college librarian) how to optimize safety. Discover how security awareness can actually enhance patron satisfaction and improves programming. Learn ways to mitigate dangers that may come from the street.

Joe Bouchard, Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, Baraga, MI

2:00 – 2:15 pm — Break

2:15 – 3:15 pm — Session 3

“You Found WHAT in a Book?: Safety Tales from a Prison Librarian”

Joe Bouchard, Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, Baraga, MI

Many public and college library staff have fielded information requests from incarcerated people. Yet, the possible dangers are not evident. Among them are data breaches, inadvertent participation in illegal activities, threats to loved ones and workplace, incarceration, and injury. There is a unique balance in fulfilling the information needs of the incarcerated while adhering to necessary policies and procedures of corrections agencies. “You Found WHAT in a Book?: Safety Tales from a Prison Librarian” is presented by a 25 year librarian from a maximum-security prison in Michigan. Participants will learn of the quiet hazards of this vocation, contraband perils, communications tricks, and how to work well with corrections agencies while providing library services to the incarcerated.

“Holding Space with Patrons on Fake News”

Russ Turner, Training Institute at People Incorporated

Most conversations about fake news are tough to navigate because they feel emotional and draw you in deeper than your job usually requires. In addition, it often feels like the patron wants you to “fix” problems that are outside of your role. The natural tendency in many cases like this is to try to change the subject or push one’s way out of the difficult content by drawing boundaries and limits. Another strategy is to use a reflective style to stay with the person in the conversation, but not to get too drawn in yourself. Called Holding Space, this class presents specific conversational strategies to stay with the person, maintain rapport and lend a listening ear. This session closes with some tips and strategies for assessing the impact of the conversations on the listener with simple tips for self-care. This style of engagement is useful for most difficult conversations if your goal is not to “win” an argument, but learn more about the other person’s position and foster productive disagreement.