“This descriptive study is preliminary study to investigate the measurement of VL ability across the United States in order to establish a baseline VL ability measure from which to make vital decisions in the purposeful training of visual literacy within teacher preparatory programs and professional development within school districts. This study describes the mean performance levels of 125 participants collected from a randomly stratified national population within five of the six regional accrediting agencies for public higher education. The measures of central tendency and variance for the individual skills within the Avgerinou (2001) VL Index indicate a need for growth, in particular, in the intellectual skills of concrete concepts, defined concepts, and higher order rules. The implications of these findings emphasize the need for more development in critical engagement with visuals especially as it applies to Common Core State Standards assessments, consumer-driven marketing and power roles, and new modes of digital authorship in a media-saturated society.”
“The article discusses the need to modify the curricula of ICT in higher education. Contemporary university students seem to function well in the world of new technology, however, they have problems when working with information, including the identification of information needs, the selection of search tools adequate to the task and evaluating information found on the Internet. The curriculum of ICT at universities very often focuses only on narrow technical aspects. There is a necessity to introduce a broad perspective covering the organization, planning and implementation of individual learning in a digital information environment. It is a very important part of the development of the information culture of the young generation and lifelong learning process.”
“This paper provides a brief history of women and independent comics, tracing the medium’s development from the 1970s underground comix movement to the present day. Individual creators and their works are discussed. Guides to collecting graphic novels exist; however, the vast majority of the artists included in these guides are men. This paper fills a gap by introducing librarians to several women graphic novelists who have been overlooked thus far.”
“Because of the iterative nature of art history between observation and investigation, the library becomes part of the research process as a matter of course. The value of the library collections may not be as obvious to the studio art student, especially given that the web provides an abundance of opportunities to find visual materials for inspiration and social networks to gather information. Through effective library instruction that responds to their unique needs, we can help both populations become successful researchers and benefit from all the library can offer.”
“This study was designed to examine the information seeking strategies of community college students as they worked to compose their first-semester freshman composition research paper. Through comparing pre- and post-course surveys and content analysis looking for key terms and phrases found in the students’ Information Literacy Narrative writing assignment, the researcher sought to determine the effectiveness of course integrated information literacy modules strategically provided throughout various times of the semester.”
“This article discusses visual literacy in the context of lifelong learning. The knowledge and ability to interpret images is one of the key elements of information literacy. A person is able to effectively communicate with others, to acquire knowledge about the world and create a new reality, thanks to information and visual competence. Therefore, there is a need to define more precisely and standardise the information and visual knowledge and skills to be used in education.”
“This study assessed the relevance of a national association’s standards for developing information literacy competency in undergraduate students at a mid-sized, regional university in Maryland. The study revealed four conclusions. First, the national standards for information literacy are relevant at the local level. Second, there is a need for academic libraries to reevaluate their existing information literacy outcomes to reflect changes in information dissemination from a textual bias to include multi-media. Third, it is important for academic institutions to include representation of all stakeholders when developing student learning outcomes. Fourth, ambiguity still exists among stakeholders in regard to the effectiveness of teaching information literacy.”
“My thesis is comprised of two articles, titled “Interpreting Britomart’s Encounters with Art: The Cyclic Nature of Ekphrasis in Spenser’s Faerie Queene III,” and “Picture This, Imagine That: Teaching Visual Literacy in the Disciplines.” To communicate the urgency of the need for students to enrich proficiency at visual literacy, I provide a literature review that narrates the growing need expressed by visual literacy scholars, composition theorists, visualization theorists and specialists, and the library community for an overarching visual literacy framework that provides scaffolding and common language for students.”
“This dissertation presents work towards the development of a multiple finger, worn, dynamic display device, which utilizes a method of texture encoded information to haptically render graphical images for individuals who are blind or visually impaired.”
“It is critical for college students to know about intellectual property and copyright and the proper use of images, text, audio and graphics in the digital world, but most undergraduate students have little understanding of what copyright involves and why we want them to learn about it. We will share our experience working with teaching faculty to plan and implement a program focused on teaching IT undergraduates about digital responsibilities and rights using library 2.0 instruction tools, including Clicker, Prezi, LibGuide, SlideShare, and BlackBoard.”
“Critic John Berger’s ideas about seeing are still relevant. Many are certainly enveloped in the contemporary academic librarian’s definition of visual literacy. As one might expect, visual literacy has particular necessity for the librarian, like me, who works in a Visual Resources Center (VRC). I am very concerned with the habits of seeing among students and instructors… There are several challenges to visual literacy on campus. When these challenges are not met, there is reliance on convention and old habits. These challenges include resource unawareness, discomfort with technology, and information overload. As our VRC evolved from a slide library to a fully equipped digital media center, our ability to answer such challenges transformed.”
“Today’s undergraduates are clearly comfortable as consumers of technology and new media—purchasing ring tones for their cell phones and tunes for their iPods, text-messaging from handheld devices, scanning and tinkering with photos, keeping up with their Facebook friends and watching viral YouTube videos, sometimes all simultaneously. We share examples of classroom assignments integrated with library support services that engage today’s undergraduates with academic materials in a variety of course context. We discuss how specific arrangements of library learning spaces and alignment of space and staffing can help undergraduate students succeed with new media projects for class assignments.”