Atla Annual 2024

“What do we do about AI?” Although we all wrestle with this question at some level, the need to address the issue of AI in the classroom is particularly acute. AI use for class assignments presents challenges far beyond the typical concerns about plagiarism detection, including issues with pedological, and moral and ethical implications. The faculty at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology reached out to library staff with a multitude of questions: What do I need to know? Is there an AI detector? Do we need a policy addressing AI separate from our plagiarism policy? Should seminarians be permitted to use it? Do I need to change my assignments? These urgent questions and more demanded action. This session will outline the steps taken by the library and seminary faculty to begin to address these questions, starting with a faculty development session and creating a LibGuide of “teaching with AI” resources.

Every librarian is a philosopher, and librarians have a worldview: a philosophy through which life is viewed. Philosophy propels lifestyles.

If philosophy drives all components of life, including professional endeavors, what does it look like if we desire to love our neighbor? Is it possible to develop a philosophy of professional activities such as cataloging or acquisitions so that librarians display love through them? Developing philosophies is critical for the profession and specifically for individuals aiming to love one another through librarianship.

If librarians are philosophers, should librarians develop their philosophy? A personal philosophy is an individual's thoughts, beliefs, concepts, and attitudes about everything. As God created each one uniquely, one's philosophy will be unique. A personal philosophy does not presume that no one will agree with your premises; it assumes that their application will be distinct based on context, experience, preferences, and other components. Taking this assumption, the presenter explores what a personal philosophy of reference may look like. To do this, one must ask: has any work been done in this area?

Examples of personal reference philosophies are nonexistent in LIS and works discussing a general philosophy of reference are limited. This gap needs to be addressed. This presentation provides a brief overview of the literature displaying that gap. It then develops three fundamental premises for creating a personal philosophy of reference: how one views knowledge, relationships, and people. While the literature touches upon these, their lack of development leaves more questions than answers. A philosophy of reference may further empower a librarian to use reference interviews to display love for their neighbor. The presentation will close with the presenter's philosophy of reference, arguing that this is critical for loving one’s neighbor through a reference interview.

The basis of this presentaion is a recently published article:

Radcliffe, B., & Trott, G. (2024) Reflecting Deeply: Why a Philosophy of Reference Services Should Direct Every RI. Library Philosophy & Practice, 8078. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/8078.

Authority is constructed and contextual. Thus spake the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy (2016), an assertion that rightly guides information and media literacy instructors as we form and inform students, empowering them to navigate an ecosystem rife with mis- and disinformation. Yet as danah boyd famously argues in her 2018 SXSW EDU keynote, how we teach media literacy can become an “assertion of authority over epistemology” that undermines skills we intend to sharpen by not recognizing and valuing fundamental differences among how individuals within communities make sense of the world(s) we inhabit. Just as authority is constructed and contextual, so also are evaluation and interpretation, sense-making constructs that determine how, why, and where we consume and create information. boyd asks, “How do we teach across epistemologies?” At ATLA 2024, Heath Rosser and Chris Rosser engage boyd and her critics to describe the mess of epistemology and ethics in media literacy instruction; we then suggest how instructors might leave the mess, offering seven pedagogical pivots that promote community and trust as exemplified by two gamified courses, a media literacy course called Eat, Play, Love and a course entitled Worldbuilding. Participants will: 1) identify current challenges for media literacy instruction; 2) encounter gameful design as a pedagogical strategy for navigating challenges; and 3) be challenged to attend to how we think about and encounter other minds, whether mediated digitally or face to face. We believe our use of media and of devices that mediate a tethering of self to a world of others can initiate among us generative orientations necessary for human (well) being, even across epistemologies.

As a hub for learning, the theological library facilitates the resourcing and delivery of academic material on campus. Within this setting, library staff serve at the forefront of curating content to support student objectives. The advent of Artificial Intelligence has led libraries to analyze anew the meaning of information literacy as students increasingly turn to this recent technology to research, analyze and disseminate their knowledge. Fundamental to this discussion are 1) the challenges and opportunities for information literacy in light of student AI usage and 2) library and institutional policies that will guide students to be information literate in an ethical and responsible fashion.