Grappling with Unknowns: Building Empathy through Interrogating Preprints in Information Literacy is a poster in the 2020 PNLA Virtual Poster Session. We encourage you to engage in discussion by leaving a comment on the page. The author of the poster will respond to comments the week of August 4-7, 2020.
Presenters: Je Salvador & Penelope Wood
Track: Academic Library
Abstract: We facilitated a structured workshop with colleagues about the rise of preprint publishing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In preparation, we instructed colleagues to read several articles regarding preprints and asked that they imagine themselves as undergrads while reading. We met using conference software, practiced role play, introduced an online “sticky notes” collaboration tool, and solicited verbal input. While librarians engaged ambiguity by imagining the experiences of undergrads in online learning environments, librarians identified potential discomfort in the learning environment and stated empathy for students.
Workshop questions included: Imagine yourself an undergrad, what are your thoughts on these articles and their ideas? Thinking about these articles, identify barriers to pre-major undergrad student engagement in this space.
Librarians expressed care and empathy through imagining how our library’s primary users could be grappling and reckoning with contradicting, rapidly changing scientific information, as well as interrogating misinformation.
After imagining student experiences with these issues, a second set of questions focused on our work as academic librarians. How can we be continually called back to empathy with learners and users during times of upheaval and unknowns? How can imagining and empathizing with students grappling with rapidly changing scientific information and preprints help librarians who are teaching information literacy (IL)? How can librarians include preprints and open access, not yet peer-reviewed information, in IL instruction? We aim for these questions to inform our work as we continue to grapple with unknowns, contradictory information, and IL instruction.
Poster:
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Open in new tab About the Presenters: Je (said like “Jay”) Salvador embraces he/him, she/her, they/them pronouns. Je was born and raised in Seattle, WA; they lived, learned, and worked in Walla Walla, WA for many years before returning to Seattle. You can ask Je about being a first-generation college graduate. Contact Je at jsalv@uw.edu
Penelope Wood (they/them pronouns) is a research and instruction librarian for Engineering and Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies programs at UW Bothell and Cascadia College Campus Library; Penelope strives to decenter power and hierarchy in the classroom through feminist pedagogy. Penelope is a first generation college graduate. Contact Penelope at woodpd@uw.edu