SLIS faculty and students at ASIST 2010

SLIS Professors Heidi Julien and Lisa Given, along with MLIS students Dana Ouellette and Jorden Smith, recently presented a poster titled "Evidence-based information literacy instruction: Curriculum planning from the ground up" at the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 2010 Conference, in Pittsburgh, PA. The poster reports results to date of a longitudinal study examining information literacy skills and development of students transitioning from high school to undergraduate studies on campus. In addition to Drs. Julien and Given, the study team includes Kathleen De Long and Anne Carr-Wiggin of the University of Alberta Libraries, Susan Barker from the Department of Secondary Education. Financial support for this study was provided by The Teaching And Learning Enhancement Fund at the University of Alberta.

In addition, Lisa Given and MLIS student Quinn Fletcher gave a demonstration (co-authored by Dr. Stan Ruecker, Humanities Computing, and MLIS/MA student Ali Grotkowski) of a prototype health information interface, titled "Customizable avatars for a health information system: An exploratory design". The prototype is the result of a project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, examining consumers' health information needs. Heidi Julien also presented a poster with co-author, Dr. Brian Detlor (University of McMaster), entitled "Factors Affecting Student Learning Outcomes of Information Literacy Instruction." SLIS doctoral candidate Shelagh K. Genuis presented a poster titled "Navigating uncertain health information: Implications for decision making" based on her dissertation research about women's information behaviour during the menopause transition. Her poster won the SIG USE Best Information Behaviour Poster Award for 2011. Shelagh also presented on the panel "Listening to patients: How understanding health information use can contribute to health literacy constructs."