Slides from my talk at ACRL/NY 2011. December 2, 2011. Baruch College, New York, NY. Read a summary explanation at: http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/skills-that-transfer/

1. Skills that Travel
Transliteracy and the
Global Librarian
Lane Wilkinson
ACRL/NY Annual Symposium
December 2, 2011 http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbeychristine/2882946249

2. What does
it take to be
a global
librarian? Diverse
populations
Variety of
platforms
Progressive
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beth19/4923647610/
technologies

3. For a global librarian
“physical distance is no
longer a barrier to
teaching and learning.”

4. “I have long contended that a room
full of books is simply a closet but that
an empty room with a librarian in it is
a library.”
-R. David Lankes
The Atlas of New Librarianship, p. 16
http://www.flickr.com/photos/practicalowl/3996349414

5. Global
librarianship
is not tied
to the library.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgis/6710769/

6. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevindean/5836900722/
As global librarians,
we can stop treating
the library as a destination

7. and start treating it as a hub.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/northcountryboy/395662381/

8. The global librarian is not a guardian.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/su-lin/2899445065/

9. The global
librarian is a
guide.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbiskoping/3388639698/

10. Transliteracy

11. Is transliteracy a silly buzzword?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/subsetsum/3805289753/

12. http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachklein/54389823/
Absolutely.

13. Information Literacy 2.0:
Facilitating Participatory Learning Culture
through Transliteracy:
The Synergy of Collaborative Student-Centered
Learning Communities and Open-Access
Knowledge Construction
Lane Wilkinson
ACRL/NY Annual Symposium
December 2, 2011

14. Transliteracy is not a panacea
So, what is it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selva/7737130/

15. 2005
Transliteracies Project
2007
What is Sue Thomas,
transliteracy? DeMontfort University
2010
Libraries & Transliteracy

16. The ability to read,
write and interact
What is across a range of
transliteracy? platforms, tools
and media.
[PART 2007]

17. [It is] understanding the
ways various means of
communication interact
and understanding…the
What is skills necessary to move
transliteracy? effortlessly from one
medium to another.
-Ipri, T. (2010) Introducing Transliteracy. College &
Research Libraries News, 71(10), 532-567.

18. “The most
fundamental notion of
transliteracy is the
ability to adapt. It’s
creating a literacy and
What is fluidity between
transliteracy? mediums that’s not
tied to space or
modality.”
- Karp, J. (2010, Oct 25). What is this buzz word
“transliteracy”? (Blog) Retrieved from
http://spotlight.macfound.org

19. It isn’t a concept we
What is
teach, it’s an innate
transliteracy? skill we develop.

20. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylersilva/4779673639/
This is not transliteracy

21. http://www.flickr.com/photos/foreverdigital/2240673803/
but this might be.

22. What about
information literacy?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barneymoss/6372144917/

23. Why do we need another literacy?
Print Scientific
Orality Health
Signing Economic
Visual Cultural
Computer Critical
Digital Media
Communication Evaluation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loungerie/1471835306/

24. Why do we need another literacy?
Print Scientific
Orality Health
Signing Economic
Visual Cultural
Computer Critical
Digital Media
Transliteracy Information Literacy

25. The birth of the web made it necessary for
librarians to shift more towards teaching search
strategies and evaluation of sources. The tool-
focused “bibliographic instruction” approach was
later replaced by the skill-focused “information
literacy” approach.
Meredith Farkas
American Libraries Magazine
11/01/2011
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricin/522589066

27. Information literacy is about
evaluating content, not containers.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/captkodak/272746539/

28. Transliteracy
is about
containers,
not content.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansvandevorst/104094978/

29. http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/6238509140/
So, what does transliteracy have to do
with the global librarian?

30. If we’re going to go global,
we’ll need to pack.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/another_point_in_time/5570034108/

31. Transliteracy can
help us figure out
what to bring along.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephrobertson/2265297242/

32. Three principles

33. 1
Effective
information use
requires several
information
http://www.flickr.com/photos/masochismtango/2186726069/ sources

34. We tend to
focus first and
foremost on
library
resources.

35. To distinguish
ourselves from
the web
We’ve put up
defensive walls

36. But, students will use
non-library resources.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/87913776@N00/5129607997/

37. And they’re
running right into
the walls we’ve
been building.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ortizmj12/2366706532/

38. If we want to
be global
we
have to go
where
they are.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/misspixels/5785978957/

39. 2
Information
sources don’t
stand alone,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/holster/486753307 they interact.

40. Information
can’t fit into tidy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/franklinheijnen/5089819498/
compartments.

41. The “versus” mentality
doesn’t cut it
anymore.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atlnav/369536486/

42. Information resources
are linked.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/intherough/3244476512/

43. 3
Identify skills
that transfer
across tools,
platforms,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kozumel/2308100933/ and media

44. The question posed
by transliteracy is:
“Are we
encouraging
skills that
transfer?”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/en321/322710700/

45. Transfer of learning
The ability to transfer
cognitive skills
learned in one domain
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaparral/2737992503/
to a new domain.

46. http://www.flickr.com/photos/poetatum/3457696479/
Put simply,
it’s more bang
for your buck.

47. We don’t know
where we’ll end
up, but we can
still prepare.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anyway/5652405755/

48. http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/5827849044/
Start from
existing
mental
models of
research
(Holman 2011)

49. And teach
the analogy
1) Candidate inferences
2) Schema abstraction
3) Re-representation (Gentner & Colhoun 2010)

50. Here’s an example

51. Inference > Abstraction > Re-representation

52. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilsonbentos/2998279462/
Encourage
inference by
teaching
similarities,
not differences.

53. Encourage
abstraction by
talking about
how a resource
works, not just
how to use it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/distinctlyaskew/396655424/

54. Encourage
re-representation by
providing ample
time for free play.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andresthor/3968071923/

55. www.flickr.com/photos/j0n9292/3396096818
By emphasizing transfer we create
mobility and adaptability.

56. The ability to read,
write and interact
Once again: across a range of
what is platforms, tools
transliteracy? and media.
[PART 2007]

57. Transliteracy is transfer of
learning applied to
traditional, communicative
literacies.

58. Transliteracy is a heuristic for
evaluating what we’re
teaching our students and
what we’re teaching
ourselves.

59. Putting it all together…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/autumn_bliss/467766536/

60. We can’t bring
everything.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brutalworks/67250891/

61. But we can bring
what matters.
Transliteracy is
Multiple resources
Interaction
Transfer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlsimages/3221993157/

62. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbiskoping/3388639698/
Transliteracy is one way of thinking about
which skills a guide should pack.

63. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/4329630502/
We know
where we’re
going.

64. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisbokt/4700923321/
Transliteracy may
help us get there.

65. Thank you
senseandreference.wordpress.com
librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com

66. Selected Reading
Gentner, D. & Colhoun, J. (2010). Analogical processes in human thinking and
learning. In Glatzeder, B., Goel, V., and von Muller, A. (2010). Towards a Theory
of Thinking. New York: Springer. 35-48.
Holman, L. (2011). Millennial students’ mental models of search: implications for
academic librarians and database developers. Journal of Academic
Librarianship, 37(1): 19-27.
Ipri, T. (2010) Introducing Transliteracy. College & Research Libraries News, 71(10),
532-567.
Karp, J. (2010, Oct 25). What is this buzz word “transliteracy”? (Blog) Retrieved from
http://spotlight.macfound.org
Lankes, R. D. (2011). The Atlas of New Librarianship. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Thomas, S., et al. (2007). Transliteracy: crossing divides. First Monday, 12(12). Online.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smichael/4563914649/