
This past March, Michael Kahn, Assistant Professor, Information Literacy and Chair, LIB100 Curriculum Committee, with the encouragement of the Library Director, Brook Stowe, represented ASA College as a presenter at the American Library Association’s biannual Association for College and Research Libraries 2015 Conference (ACRL 2015).
Professor Kahn presented as part of a panel with John T. Oliver of The College of New Jersey, Nancy Wooten Colborn of Indiana University, South Bend, and Julie Harding of the University of Maryland. The presentation was titled, Reaching Every Student: Laying Foundations with Mandatory Information Literacy Courses. While information literacy has achieved international recognition as a vital skill college students must have, very few colleges offer full stand-alone credit-bearing courses in information literacy the way ASA does.
Professor Kahn’s presentation was well received with librarians from other two-year colleges. Following the panel, a number of attendees from two-year institutions approached Michael to ask how they could adopt information literacy instruction programs similar to what is at ASA.
Over 150 library personnel attended the panel, tweeting highly positive comments in response to what they heard.
By presenting at ACRL 2015, a conference with 4,000 librarians from 25 countries in attendance, Professor Kahn was able to showcase on a national stage the special role ASA plays in providing cutting-edge information literacy instruction, a stage where ASA indeed belongs!