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This week we had the opportunity to chat with Vanessa Otero, creator of the original Media Bias Chart, and discuss some of our most pressing questions about media bias, her news source assessment process, and how we can begin to have these complex conversations with our patrons.

By Ariana Santiago and Raymond Pun

FYE Correspondent Ray Pun talks with Ariana Santiago, Instruction Librarian at the University of Houston, about her work supporting FYE programs and first year students through collaborative efforts and student engagement programs. In this interview Ariana also talks about how she and her colleagues make instruction relevant, engaging, and practical, and how they’re working to create a welcoming environment in the library.

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News has emerged in the past week that Cambridge Analytica (CA), a data mining and analysis company that claims to “[use] data to change audience behavior,” received personal data on 50 million Facebook users without those users’ knowledge. Cambridge Analytica and other data businesses use the information they gather to build sophisticated profiles of members of the public, and the average consumer might be surprised by the number of data points available about them.

Their methods are based on the work of Michal Kosinski, a psychometrist who developed a way of using Facebook “likes” to predict user characteristics. Kosinski’s model showed, for example, that using 68 Facebook likes, it was possible to predict a user’s sexual orientation with 88 percent accuracy. Using 300 likes is enough to know the kind of information that the user’s partner knows about them, and with more than 300, Kosinski’s work enables accurate predictions about things the subject doesn’t know about themselves.

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Over the past year, media bias has been a trending topic, and educators - particularly librarians - have taken on the task of increasing media and information literacy among students in our institutions. What have we learned this past year as we delved into this complex and, at times, controversial issue? How have we grown as educators and how have we changed our programming to accommodate the public’s need for better education around media bias?

Addressing information literacy with first year students is a multifaceted challenge. Librarians may be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Framework for Information Literacy’s threshold concepts. Faculty buy-in (or lack thereof) can help or hinder. Students potentially hold misconceptions, as illustrated by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe’s research. Finally, some institutions, such as my community college, do not provide 1) a formal first year experience and/or 2) a credit-bearing IL course. You know where this leads: a Framework-skittish instructional librarian standing for about an hour in front of students who think they can Google the answer to anything and faculty who just want you to “show some databases.”

By Anne Marie Gruber and Raymond Pun

In this blog series, FYE Correspondent Raymond Pun will interview academic librarians who integrate high-impact practices (HIPs) into their work. The Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) has defined HIPs as active learning approaches that can increase student engagement and retention. Service-learning is considered a HIP, and in this interview, Ray speaks with Anne Marie Gruber, Instruction and Liaison Librarian at the Rod Library in the University of Northern Iowa, to learn more about this HIP in action.

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Fake news looks like it may join death and taxes in the ranks of things that will always be with us. Talk of it has become about as ubiquitous as the problem itself, and librarians are daily tasked with finding ways to help students detect duplicitous material as they complete their research. Experienced readers can spot the most egregious of fake news sites. Some sites, however, are far more sophisticated and can be quite successful at appearing as valid as trusted news sources.

It’s a conundrum for researchers, and trying to get students to solely use library subscribed databases and other sources can feel like an uphill battle. Students are going to use the open web, and they need to learn how to evaluate what they find there—not only for truthfulness, but in order to figure out if the source fits their research needs and the guidelines for their assignment.

By Heather Snapp and Raymond Pun 

FYE Correspondent Raymond Pun recently interviewed Heather Snapp from Florida Gulf Coast University Library. Heather shared her role as the first year experience and outreach librarian, where she works with library student ambassadors to support FYE learning in the library. Heather also discussed her next project, creating research guides on integrating information literacy concepts and objectives for instructors’ curricula.

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Part of any robust information literacy program is an emphasis on critical thinking. It’s not enough to know how to do a search—students need to evaluate the various results they find, figuring out not only which is reliable but also which is most relevant to the topic at hand. Even before the research begins, critical thinking is involved in choosing a topic and approaching the creation of a thesis statement that isn’t biased or impossible to answer. Students develop these fundamental skills over time with scaffolded help and guidance from their teachers and professors.

Working against the teaching of critical thinking as an IL skill, however, are the demands facing students and faculty in today’s colleges. In this economic climate, students are understandably more concerned with learning tangible skills that have an obvious career benefit. Professors, meanwhile, are being asked to find ways to include more and more content into each class, which can sideline abstract concepts and critical thinking skills in favor of material that will be “on the test.”

By Regina Gong and Raymond Pun

This week from March 5-9, it is Open Education Week! FYE Correspondent Ray Pun interviewed Regina Gong, OER Project Manager and Manager of Technical Services and Systems in Lansing Community College (LCC) on the role of OER in enhancing student learning on campus. Regina also shares her OER initiatives and upcoming projects, and how they support student success.