Larissa Garcia & Jessica Labatte, Northern Illinois University
AGENDA
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Information Literacy & Art Education
Information Literacy @ NIU’s School of Art & Design
One Artist’s Experience
Our Collaboration
Assessment & Impact
What We’d Do Differently
TAKE-AWAYS
• Seeing examples of how librarians are using the framework is
valuable for our own work
• Help generate Ideas of how to use threshold concepts For
more effective outreach and student engagement
INFORMATION LITERACY
& ART EDUCATION
• Difficult for art students to see the value in the library/IL
instruction
• Library/IL instruction not very present in studio art classes
• IL standards were difficult to adapt to the Art Program
Environment
Heather Gendron states, “The individualized and
multidisciplinary nature of art and design research
offers librarians opportunities to better equip student
artists and designers with information literacy skills
that are embedded in the creative process” (2009).1
Left: Pae White, In her studio, Photography by TransGlobe Publishing from Arts Studio America:
Contemporary Artist Spaces
Above: Pae White installation view grengrassi, 2014, In love with Tomorrow, Installation view Langen
Foundation, Neuss, Germany, both images courtesy 1301PE Gallery
1. Gendron, Heather. "Don't Fence Me in! Reconsidering the Role of the Librarian in a Global Age of Art and Design Research." Art Libraries Journal 34, no. 2 (2009): 26-30.
ARTIST’S STUDIO
Johannes Vermeer, The Art of Painting, 1666-1668, oil on canvas,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/the-art-ofpainting/lAHeqBoLaePtEA
Petra Cortright, webcam(still), 2007, high-definition digitial video, 1
miinute 41 seconds, ed. Of 3 + AP, courtesy the artist,
Required Reading: The Function of the Studio (when the studio is a
laptop) by Caitlin Jones, CECI MOSS | Tue Dec 14th, 2010 2 p.m.,
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2010/dec/14/required-reading/
INFORMATION LITERACY &
NIU SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN
For the Library
• New Art Subject Specialist: Untapped potential for outreach
& instruction
For the SACD
• New Photography Professor: Disappointed with students’
research skills
INSPIRATION FOR NATURAL
LIGHTING ASSIGNMENT
ARTD 468
Five students presented this image
found though a Google image search
for the terms “natural light
photography.”
The image is credited with Photo Credit
: Kruno / 1x.com
A further search results in “user not
found”
THE NEW FRAMEWORK
FOR INFORMATION LITERACY
FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
• Metaliteracy approach
• Threshold concepts
• Common ground with faculty = opportunities to collaborate
ONE ARTIST’S EXPERIENCE
As an artist:
• Research as a source of inspiration
• Research as a way to prepare for critiques
As a teacher:
• Embedded information literacy into learning objectives
“A GRADUATE PHOTOGRAPHY CRITIQUE”
YALE UNIVERSITY
Yale University, July 21, 2006
https://www.flickr.com/photos/yaleuniversity/6812021649/
ARTD 468
ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHIC MEDIA
Course Objectives – students will learn:
• “good research practices through a thorough investigation into
their individualistic artistic interests.”
• “to produce photographs within a ‘feed-back loop’ of curiosity,
investigation, production, feedback, repeat...”
Context & Content Research Assignments
• Artist’s Statement
• Weekly Reading Responses
OUR COLLABORATION
• Research Assignment
• Variety of sources required
• Library session
• Metaphors in art education
• “scholarship as a conversation”
• “searching as strategic exploration”
ASSESSMENT AND IMPACT
• Weekly writing assignments
“I spent most of this first part shouting ‘Yes! This book totally gets
me!’ I connected with everything stated.”
• Bibliographies
• Library resources
• Book heavy
• Variety of subject areas/disciplines
STUDENT SURVEYS
• What was the purpose of the research component for this course?
“To create better, informed work.”
“To utilize all options and paths that your work can take because
everything/anything can help your work grow”
• How did your research improve your photographic work
“It helped expand my ideas past my main project, while still being applicable. I
learned that some stuff that I was interested in separately were connected without
my knowledge.”
STUDENT SURVEYS
Which of the following improved as a result of the assignment?
Check all that apply
Knowledge of the conversations outside of art that your work engages in
Knowledge of the historical context within which your work is situated
Expansion of vocabulary
Ability to articulate your thoughts in critique
Ability to write artists statements
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Studio Critiques1
1.
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Scholarship is a Conversation2
Element: A student who is working on or has
completed a piece must be present, ready, and
willing to enter into a conversation.
Knowledge Practice: “Recognize they are often
entering into an ongoing scholarly conversation
and not a finished conversation.”
Element: Individual or group of peers or experts
“whose task is to act in response to the work at
hand.”
Disposition: “Understand the responsibility that
comes with entering the conversation through
participatory channels.”
Suggestions may be offered for alternate
approaches, both intellectual and material
Knowledge Practice: “Critically evaluate
contributions made by others in participatory
information environments.”
Element: The student’s practice and results are
situated in relation to historical and
contemporary art world contexts
Knowledge Practice: “Identify the contribution
particular articles, books, and other scholarly
pieces make to disciplinary knowledge.”
Objective: Discern & contextualize the
motivation for making these works, mobilizing the
student’s broader interests & contexts
Disposition: “See themselves as contributors to
scholarship rather than only consumers of it.”
Mers, Adelheid. “Adapting Techniques of Studio Critique for Arts Management Pedagogy.” The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 43 (2013): 90
“Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.” Association of College and Research Libraries, February 2, 2015, http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
WHAT WE’D DO DIFFERENTLY
• More than one library session
• Research sessions with faculty & librarian
• Revise required sources to be more specific & include
multimedia
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACRL. "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." Association of College and Research Libraries. Last modified February 2, 2015.
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework.
---.“Information Literacy Competency Standards of Higher Education.” Association of College and Research Libraries, Accessed February 24, 2015.
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency#stan
Bennett, Hannah. "Bringing the Studio into the Library: Addressing the Research Needs of Studio Art and Architecture Students." Art Documentation 25, no. 1 (2006): 28-42.
Brinkman, Stacy, and Sara Young. "Information Literacy Through Site-Specific Installation: The Library Project." Art Documentation 29, no. 1 (2010): 61-66.
Gendron, Heather. "Don't Fence Me in! Reconsidering the Role of the Librarian in a Global Age of Art and Design Research." Art Libraries Journal 34, no. 2 (2009): 26-30.
Gendron, Heather and Eva Sclippa. 2014. "Where Visual and Information Literacies Meet: Redesigning Research Skills Teaching and Assessment for Large Art History Survey Courses." Art
Documentation 33, no. 2 (2014): 327-344.
Gregory, Tori R. "Under-Served or Under-Surveyed: The Information Needs of Studio Art Faculty in the Southwestern United States." Art Documentation 26, no. 2 (2009): 57-66.
Halverson, Aniko. "Confronting Information Literacy in an Academic Arts Library." Art Documentation 27, no. 2 (2008): 34-38.
Hemmig, William S. "The Information-Seeking Behavior of Visual Artists: A Literature Review." Journal of Documentation 64, no. 3 (2008): 343-362.
Labatte, Jessica. "ARTD 468: Advanced Photographic Media." Syllabus, Northern Illinois University, Fall 2014
---. “ARTF 468: Artist’s Statement.” Assignment, Northern Illinois University, Fall 2014
---. “ARTD 468: Research Survey.” Student Surveys. Northern Illinois University, Spring 15
Lasserre, Barbara. 2011. "Speaking the Critique in Graphic Design: The Role of Metaphor." Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education 10, no. 1 (2011): 51-66.
Mackey, Thomas P. and Jacobson E. Trudi. Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2014
Mers, Adelheid. "Adapting Techniques of Studio Critique for Arts Management Pedagogy." The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 43 (2013): 88-97.
Oakleaf, Megan. "A Roadmap for Assessing Student Learning Using the New Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." Journal of Academic Librarianship 40, no. 5 (2014): 510514.
Payne, Daniel. "Exhibiting Information Literacy: Site-Specific Art and Design Interventions at the Ontario College of Art & Design." Art Libraries Journal 33, no. 1 (2008): 35-41.
Vecchiola, Rina. "Using ARLIS/NA Information Competencies for Students in Design Disciplines in Course Integrated Information Literacy Instruction at Washington University in St. Louis." Art
Documentation 30, no. 1 (2011): 74-78.
Wayne, Kathryn. "The Impact of Bibliographic Instruction on the Architecture Curriculum at the University of California Berkely." Art Documentation 16, no. 1 (1997): 7-8.
Zanin-Yost, Alessia, and Erin Tapley. "Learning the Art Classroom: Making the Connection Between Research and Art." Art Documentation 27, no. 2 (2008): 40-45.
QUESTIONS?
Larissa K. Garcia, Information Literacy Librarian
University Libraries
Northern Illinois University
larissagarcia@niu.edu
Jessica Labatte, Assistant Professor
School or Art & Design
Northern Illinois University
jlabatte@niu.edu