Visual Literacy for Libraries: A Practical, Standards-Based Guide

The importance of images and visual media in today's culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. The ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education were developed to address these distinct characteristics of images and visual media. Based on those standards, this book provides librarians and instructors with the tools, strategies, and confidence to apply visual literacy in a library context. Readers will not only learn about ways to develop students' visual literacy, but also how to use visual materials to make their instruction more engaging. Ideal for the busy librarian who needs ideas, activities, and teaching strategies that are ready to implement, this book shows how to challenge students to delve into finding images, using images in the research process, interpreting and analyzing images, creating visual communications, and using visual content ethically; provides ready-to-go learning activities for engaging critically with visual materials; offers tools and techniques for increasing one's own visual literacy confidence; and gives strategies for integrating, engaging with and advocating for visual literacy in libraries. With this book's guidance, academic professionals can help students master visual literacy, a key competency in today's media-saturated world, while also enlivening instruction with visual materials.

Nicole E. Brown is the Multidisciplinary Instruction Librarian at New York University, where she teaches research workshops to a variety of user groups and works to expand and strengthen the teaching role of librarians. She has given presentations, workshops, and led professional development training on four continents and has written for Library Journal and Internet Reference Services Quarterly. Her research interests include innovative teaching practices and incorporating new literacies into teaching and learning environments. She holds an MLIS from Pratt Institute.

Kaila Bussert is the Foundational Experiences Librarian at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where she leads a foundational information literacy program. Her research interests center on the role of visual literacy across the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. She holds an MA in Near Eastern Studies and an MLIS from the University of Arizona.

Denise Hattwig is Curator of Digital Collections at the University of Washington Bothell Library, where she collaborates with faculty and students on digital scholarship projects, facilitates digital collection and repository development, and teaches archiving and interdisciplinary image use. Her research interests include student participation in digital collections, intersections of digital scholarship and repositories, visual literacy, scholarly communication, and data curation. She is lead author of ACRL's Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. She holds an MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and an MLIS from the University of Washington.

Ann Medaille is the Assessment Librarian at the University of Nevada in Reno where she coordinates library assessment efforts, teaches information literacy and research skills, and serves as the library liaison for education, art, anthropology, theatre, and dance. She holds an MA in Theatre from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MLS from the University of North Texas. She has published articles relating to library instruction, visual and media literacies, information behavior, and reference services.