Data Literacy in the Real World: Conversations & Case Studies

Contributors

Debbie Abilock co-founded and leads the education vision at NoodleTools, Inc., a teaching platform of integrated research tools for note-taking, outlining, citation, document archiving and annotation, collaborative research and writing. A Library Journal Mover and Shaker, she has worked on numerous local, state, and national boards and currently is on Granite State’s (NH) National Advisory Board to create a new M.S. in School Leadership for future school principals, library media specialists, and experienced teachers that will blend online learning with extended supervised clinical experiences. Known for her innovative curriculum design and instructional strategies, she lectures and consults internationally. She co-authored a book on the varied professional development roles of school librarians (Growing Schools, Libraries Unlimited 2012) and served as founding editor of the AASL journal, Knowledge Quest. She writes “Adding Friction,” a column about thoughtful teaching and learning, for School Library Connection. She contributed the chapter on professional development to The Many Faces of School Library Leadership, edited by Sharon Coatney and Violet H. Harada.

Susan D. Ballard is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director for the Master of Science in School Leadership Program (with School Library certification) at Granite State College of the University System of NH. She is a Past-President of AASL (2012-13) and the retired Director of Library, Media, and Technology Services for the Londonderry (NH) School District, a recipient of the National School Library Media Program of the Year (2000). She currently serves as a member of AASL’s Standards and Guidelines Editorial Board and is a member of Julie Todaro’s ALA Presidential Initiative Steering Committee. She is also a member of the Advisory Board for Teacher Librarian, the Board of Directors for the Q.E.D. Foundation, and the Leadership Council of the National Collaborative for Digital Equity. Susan has published numerous articles in a variety of professional and scholarly journals including one selected by the Library Instruction Round Table of ALA as one of the Top Twenty Library Instruction Articles of 2009. Among various awards, she was the first-ever recipient of the NH Excellence in Education Award (EDie) for Library Media Services.

Tasha Bergson-Michelson is the Instructional and Programming Librarian for Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, where she builds curricula based on the notion that strong research skills lower the bar to curiosity. Since 1995, Tasha has been exploring what makes for successful information literacy instruction in corporate, non-profit, subscription, and school libraries, and through after school programs and summer camps. Most recently, Tasha was the Search Educator at Google, where she wrote an extensive series of Search Education lesson plans, the Power Searching MOOCs, and – most importantly – collaborated with other librarians around the world to explore the most effective ways of teaching research skills. In 2014 Tasha was designated a Mover and Shaker – Tech Leader by Library Journal.

Jennifer Colby is a High School Teacher Librarian at Huron High School in Ann Arbor, MI. She coordinates SAT training for students at her school and provides resources to help teachers integrate SAT skills into all content areas. She also works with students and teachers in her district to practice the skills necessary to take the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP). In her spare time, she writes informational texts for elementary students.

Catherine D’Ignazio is an Assistant Professor of Data Visualization and Civic Media at Emerson College who investigates how data visualization, technology and new forms of storytelling can be used for civic engagement. Among other projects, Professor D’Ignazio co-created the Databasic platform and has conducted research on geographic bias in the news media, developed custom software to geolocate news articles and designed an application, “Terra Incognita,” to promote global news discovery. She is working on sensor journalism around water quality with PublicLab, data literacy projects and various community-educational partnerships with her journalism students. Her art and design projects have won awards from the Tanne Foundation, Turbulence.org, the LEF Foundation, and Dream It, Code It, Win It. In 2009, she was a finalist for the Foster Prize at the ICA Boston. Her work has been exhibited at the Eyebeam Center for Art & Technology, Museo d’Antiochia of Medellin, and the Venice Biennial. Professor D’Ignazio is a faculty director at the Emerson Engagement Lab and a Research Affiliate at (and alumna of) the MIT Center for Civic Media.

Kristin Fontichiaro is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and principal investigator on the Supporting Librarians in Adding Data Literacy Skills to Information Literacy Instruction project (IMLS RE-00-15-0113-15). A Library Journal Mover and Shaker and member of the American Library Association’s inaugural class of Emerging Leaders, she has written several books for educators, librarians, and K-12 readers.

Lynette Hoelter is an assistant research scientist and Director of Instructional Resources at ICPSR and a research affiliate of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. At ICPSR, she is involved in projects focusing on assisting social science faculty with using data in the classroom, including the Online Learning Center and TeachingWithData.org, and generally oversees efforts focused on undergraduate education. Lynette is also a Co-Principal Investigator of the Integrated Fertility Survey Series, an effort to create a dataset of harmonized variables drawn from national surveys of fertility spanning 1955-2002. Her research interests include the relationship between social change and marital quality, gender in families, and the study of family and relationship processes and dynamics more broadly. She has also taught for the department of sociology and the survey methodology program at the University of Michigan.

Tyler Hoff is enrolled at the University of Michigan School of Information, and expects to graduate in the Spring of 2018. He primarily studies databases and information organization with a side of library studies, and is excited to be part of educating a new generation of more data literate and aware students.

Kelly Hovinga is enrolled in the Michigan School of Information, where she will be receiving a Master of Science in Information in 2018. She received a Masters in Art from the The Ohio State University for Russian History in 2014. We try not to hold it against her. Kelly currently works at the Stephen S. Clark Library in the rare maps collection.

Justin Joque is the Visualization Librarian at the University of Michigan. There he assists users in finding, manipulating, analyzing, and visualizing diverse types of data. Before becoming the Visualization Librarian, Justin was a Spatial and Numeric Data Librarian, also at the University of Michigan. He completed a Master’s of Science of Information at the University of Michigan School of Information with a focus on Information Analysis and Retrieval and his Ph.D. in Communications at the European Graduate School.

Amy Lennex has worked in the publishing industry for nearly 20 years editing series nonfiction, middle-grade fiction, and picture books. She’s also the author of Personal Data Management, part of the eight-book Data Geek series published by Cherry Lake Publishing. She provided project management and editing support for the Supporting Librarians in Adding Data Literacy Skills to Information Literacy Instruction project.

Jo Angela Oehrli is a former high school and middle school teacher who helps students find information on a wide range of topics as a Learning Librarian at the University of Michigan Libraries — Ann Arbor. In addition, she supports the students in the Women in Science and Engineering Residential Program and the students in the Michigan Research Community Residential Program as well as undergraduates across campus. She has published articles on library instruction, served as Chair of ALA LIRT’s Top Twenty Committee, serves on the ACRL Instruction Section Executive Board & the LOEX Advisory Board, and has worked as an adjunct lecturer for UM’s School of Information & the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. She also supports the research and instructional needs for those throughout the university community who are studying children’s literature at any level.

Justin Schell is the Director of the Shapiro Design Lab, a peer learning and project design community at the University of Michigan Library. As a core member of the Data Rescue project, he has helped organize more than 40 events around the country since January 2017. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota’s Comparative Studies in Discourse Society, where he worked as part of the Digital Content Library and at the Immigration History Research Center. After completing his degree, he was a Council of Library and Information Resources Postdoctoral Fellow from 2013-2015 at the University of Minnesota Library. During his Fellowship, he developed and directed the DASH (Digital Arts Science + Humanities) program. In conjunction with the Givens Collection of African American Literature, he founded the Minnesota Hip-Hop Archive, a nearly 500-item collection of materials from the history of hip-hop in Minnesota. Schell is also a filmmaker and media artist. In addition to a number of short films, he directed We Rock Long Distance, a feature-length documentary film that weaves together the stories of three Minnesota hip-hop musicians with roots far beyond the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” He also did visual projections for the dance opera Test Pilot, about the Wright Brothers and their sister Katharine, in collaboration with composer Jocelyn Hagen and choreographer Penelope Freeh.

Jole Seroff is Director of Library and Information Services at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California. She began her career in urban public schools in Memphis, Tennessee. She collaborates with faculty to infuse curriculum with research skills and a focus on intellectual freedom. She also implements humanities-based, hands-on learning through letterpress printing. She is lover of poetry, and works closely with student writers. In her free time, she enjoys birding, museums, and factory tours.

Susan Smith is Library Director at The Harker School in San Jose, California, where she has worked for 12 years. She holds an MLIS from San Jose State University, and a BA from Duke University. Smith oversees a team of seven professional librarians on four campuses, preschool through high school, where information literacy is embedded across the disciplines as librarians collaborate with teachers on hundreds of lessons each year. Teaching research skills in a rigorous college prep environment, Smith is committed to teaching data literacy to K-12 students and providing teachers with the professional development necessary to support such instruction. She frequently speaks at San Francisco Bay Area and national conferences on professional development, information literacy, and news literacy. Publications include co-authoring “An Argument for Disciplinary Information Literacy” in Knowledge Quest May/June 2016, and “Growing Information Literacy School–Wide,” published in Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers, edited by Debbie Abilock, Kristin Fontichiaro, and Violet Harada (Libraries Unlimited 2012).

Tierney Steelberg received her Master of Science in Information in 2016 from the University of Michigan School of Information, where she specialized in library and information science. She is currently the Instructional Technology Librarian at Guilford College.

Wendy Steadman Stephens is an Assistant Professor and School Library Program Chair at Jacksonville State University. A high school librarian for fifteen years, she earned National Board Certification in Library Media in 2008. A past president of the Alabama Library Association, she has served as ALA Councilor-at-Large, on the EMIERT Executive Board, and on the United States Board on Books for Young People Board of Directors, and was chosen as an ALSC Bechtel fellow in 2016. She has a Ph.D. from University of North Texas, and dissertation research focused on the interaction of reading practice and student attitudes surrounding literacy and libraries.

Martha Stuit is Reference Librarian at Delta College. She was the 2015-2016 project assistant on the Supporting Librarians in Adding Data Literacy Skills to Information Literacy Instruction project. She is a former reporter.

Samantha “Sam” Viotty is a multimedia artist and curriculum designer for social equity. A New York City native, she has always used urban landscapes and environments to ignite her creativity. Samantha is a staunch advocate for increased diverse representation in all sectors and this is the theme of her artistic and educational work. More recently, her work focuses on incorporating data in a creative way to further understand and combat social injustices. Sam’s artistic career has revolved around youth and community work as a teaching artist, empowering youth to create and amplify their voice. She has worked on several projects over the past year that incorporate education, technology and creativity for social change, including DIY Data Literacy. Sam holds a Master of Arts in Civic Media, Art and Practice from the Engagement Lab at Emerson College, where she designed a creative data literacy curriculum for local public libraries.

Connie Williams is a National Board Certified Teacher Librarian and taught in junior high and high school libraries in Petaluma, California. She is a past president of the California School Library Association, a governor appointee to the California State Library Services Board, and a member of the ALA Government Documents Round Table Government Information for Children Committee. She has authored articles and chapters on school library advocacy, infographics, primary sources, and the Question Formulation Technique. Connie is an Adjunct Librarian and Instructor at the Santa Rosa Junior College and works at the Sonoma County Public Library. She blogs for Knowledge Quest at: http://knowledgequest.aasl.org/author/cwilliams/ .