To whom it may concern at the Office of Library Services,
As a part of the OLS Strategic Plan 2022-2027, CUNY’s Library Information Literacy Advisory Council was able to hire an Information Literacy Fellow to work on the development of an open repository of teaching materials. At the end of this Fellowship, it can be comfortably asserted that multiple goals of the Strategic Plan’s information literacy mission were reached, most specifically the facilitation of “an embedded, scaled approach to information literacy by integrating teaching materials in the learning management systems and other points of need” and the development of “an OER information literacy initiative to ensure that library teaching material is clearly branded and openly shared, resulting in a repository of open teaching material.” (City University of New York Office of Library Services Strategic Plan 2022-2027, 12)
The result of the work accomplished during the course of this Fellowship is that LILAC is now positioned to create and share information literacy teaching materials throughout CUNY with ease. This Executive Summary represents the culmination of the first stage of LILAC’s total integration into CUNY’s digital ecosystem, in accordance with the intentions and principles of CUNY’s Open Press Initiative (see Appendix A). With the establishment of a new website, a clear system for the depositing teaching materials into a centralized repository, and a central Information Literacy Toolkit, LILAC is now equipped to begin a new era of knowledge production, Open Educational Resources (including syllabi, lesson plans, and tutorials) being easily created, shared, and utilized via CUNY’s digital commons.
This executive summary will cover the intricacies of each individual branch of LILAC’s new online ecosystem, departing from the new LILAC website and reaching into CUNY’s various open platforms. After exploring the many facets and possibilities of this networked system, the summary will culminate in suggestions for best practices and next steps the Council might take. It is the hope of the Fellow that in providing a clear and concise summary, the council will be able to use this summary as a reference for clarification and future developments. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with LILAC, with special thanks to Ian McDermott and Letitia Hazell for overseeing the project and providing thoughtful critiques, advice, and support.
Thank you for your trust in accomplishing this project,
Patrick McGee
Networking disparate pedagogies
Building a digital ecosystem using CUNY’s Open Platforms
In researching a potential centralized repository for LILAC materials, it was determined that according to principles of access, durability, flexibility, and clarity, the Fellow needed to wholly reconsider the ways in which LILAC’s digital ecosystem was functioning. The Fellow began in an intuitive manner, familiarizing themselves with what was presently existing, both in regard to LILAC’s current online presence and CUNY’s more broadly, and taking notes on ways the aforementioned principles might be applied.
A major development in the research process occurred when the Fellow happened upon a table (see Appendix A) from a presentation entitled Open Platforms at CUNY given by Kristin Hart, Ann Fiddler, Megan Wacha, Andrew McKinney, and Matthew K. Gold at a Faculty Affairs Advisory Board Meeting on April 25, 2022. In this presentation, the intended uses of CUNY’s five different open platforms are outlined, the implication being the development of a CUNY Open Press as “an open-access digital publisher of work by members of the CUNY community.” (Open Platforms at CUNY, slide 9)
When seen as a dynamic and interconnected network of platforms, this table provided a sort of design principle for CUNY’s digital commons; it would henceforth function as a map for the development of this project. It also served as a theoretical inspiration. One need not find a single catch-all platform that would be capable of performing what was increasingly being conceptualized as a variety of operations. It was decided that using CUNY’s own tools in a networked and embedded fashion could accomplish the goal of a centralized repository and open up new avenues for the publication of digital materials.
It was agreed between the Fellow and the LILAC co-chairs that one of the focal tasks of the Fellowship would be the reinvention of the LILAC website. The now defunct LILAC website was a minefield of dead-end links, past events, and old blog posts. And specifically the “Tools” tab, most relevant to the intended project, appeared a disorganized collage that had not given much consideration to accessibility or public perception. The premise of the new website is that someone visiting the site is able to click anywhere and be directed to further information in a manner that is fluid, dynamic, and light. Every page contains hyperlinks to the other parts of LILAC’s ecosystem, and all of those pages contain hyperlinks back to the website. This was inspired by a layman’s understanding of Ted Nelson’s early conception of the Internet called Xanadu. For more information see https://xanadu.com.au/ted/
The site is divided into two main categories: “Teaching Materials” and “Scholarship.” This decision was made on the premise that the previous site had become overly concerned with blogging and events, two aspects of LILAC that have turned out to be less central to its function as a council than had been the case prior to COVID. The site also contains space for updates on new developments in the field of information literacy and the announcement of new LILAC projects. The site retains space for a blog, though it has been relegated to the margins in the name of keeping the webpage clear and accessible.
The “Teaching Materials” tab contains a short description of LILAC’s collection. It briefly distinguishes between the collection process of the OpenEd Group and the Manifold Toolkit, and links out to both via hyperlink or icon. The “Scholarship” tab, developed in collaboration with Andrew McKinney, contains a custom RSS feed that deposits new writings on “information-literacy” as they appear on CUNY Academic Works. With hyperlinked titles and brief descriptions of the writings, it is hoped that this tabulating feed can serve as a testament to the work being done by information literacy researchers at CUNY, and a reference point for the state of the field. For more on the uses of Academic Works in the Information Literacy Literature Review, see Information Literacy Literature Review.
Finally, the “About” page contains a link to the old site in case council members or CUNY administration are searching for older information. It was decided not to migrate past events and blog posts to the new website for this reason.
As a part of the decision to network LILAC resources among the various platforms provided by CUNY, it was decided to store the total collection of teaching materials in a “Group” hosted by OpenEd CUNY. Through conversations with the director of OER services at CUNY’s central library office and research compiled by the Fellow, this platform was chosen for its group interface and the ability to batch import resources and collect metadata from a diverse set of materials. The OpenEd Group is intended as the main repository for teaching materials submitted to LILAC to be shared.
As the project stands, the materials have been assorted into categories determined by the LILAC Information Literacy Fellowship Working Group to resemble the potential resource needs of an information literacy instructor. There are still a number of resources to be appraised, as some of the resources submitted had vague titles, or were a collection of various materials that in their current arrangement do not serve the nature of the project.
As the concept of networking multiple platforms developed, the Fellow determined that a more narrative and linear iteration of the collected materials could be created on CUNY Manifold. Defined as “a professional-level, multimodal, highly interactive publication space for faculty, staff, and student work that encourages thoughtful community discussion,” Manifold provides the possibility of creating a visually appealing, easily accessible one-stop shop for the information literacy classroom. Consisting of a written introduction to the subject, as well as a curated collection of materials organized under categories mirrored from the OpenEd Group, the toolkit holds great potential for future development.
It was the development of the Toolkit that led to the theme of the LILAC Spring Training Workshop held on June 6, 2024. It is the hope of the Fellow that the Workshop and Toolkit can serve as launchpads for greater collaboration among LILAC members.
Information Literacy Literature Review
While carrying out research on the five open platforms that make up CUNY’s digital ecosystem, it was discovered by the Fellow that there was no representation of the scholarship that has been done by information literacy researchers and librarians at CUNY. As a supplementary project to the development of a centralized repository, the Fellow decided to compile writings on information literacy produced by CUNY scholars from 2018-2024. Beginning with Academic Works before moving to Manifold and EBSCOHost, the Fellow compiled the citations and abstracts of all scholarship related to the topics of information literacy, digital literacy, and media literacy, into a literature review housed on another of CUNY’s open platforms, Pressbooks.
This review is designed to be edited by future Fellows or interested LILAC members, who may either choose to integrate new pieces or work backward from 2018. The review culminates in a tentative analysis of the state of information literacy scholarship at CUNY, highlighting the main topics of interest among researchers and the general trends detected by the Fellow.
Conclusion
It has been a joy to work with the LILAC community. The information literacy librarians at CUNY are doing necessary and difficult work to ensure that students are equipped to conduct effective and meaningful research. It is the hope of the Fellow that the small inroads made as a result of this project toward a more organized and accessible system of scholarly communication can serve the members of LILAC, and the CUNY community more broadly.
Attached are the presentations given at two LILAC meetings, as well as a talk the Fellow gave at LaGuardia College’s Open Educational Resources Symposium:
Building an Information Literacy Repository
Networking disparate pedagogies: Building a digital ecosystem using CUNY’s Open Platforms
Appendix A: Table of CUNY Open Platforms
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