Visual Literacy Meets Information Literacy:

Academic Libraries address the new challenges

of the 21st Century
Judith Schwartz
ABSTRACT
This report describes a research project that investigates the role of academic
libraries teaching visual literacy within their information literacy curriculums.
The author developed a survey to answer questions about whether academic
librarians are incorporating visual literacy principles in their information
literacy instruction, and if they are following the ACRL Visual Literacy Standards
for Higher Education. The survey was distributed to five listserves during a two
week period resulting in 114 responses from institutions nationwide. Survey
results indicate that a large percentage of academic libraries havent addressed
the need as of yet. This research report includes survey results, a compilation
of workshop ideas from various academic librarians who responded, and an
annotated bibliography.

Keywords
libraries, instruction, visual, literacy, information, images, standards
Judith Schwartz is an assistant professor, reference and resource sharing librarian,
Medgar Evers College, City University of New York: jschwartz@mec.cuny.edu

Introduction
There is evidence of a rising interest in teaching visual literacy in academic libraries. With the
inundation of images and visual media, students need to learn related skills to become literate in
the 21st century. In 2011, the ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries) Visual Literacy
Competency Standards for Higher Education was created. The ACRL defines visual literacy as a set
of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images
and visual media. (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2011)
I recently created a series of visual literacy workshops for faculty and students in the library
at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York. The workshops are optional and independent from the regular information literacy sessions. As an Adobe Education Trainer with a graphic design background, I teach with Adobe Creative Suite software. Various questions that came
up for me are: Am I teaching visual literacy or is this digital literacy or media literacy since
its of a technical nature? Some of the literature describes the terminology as being interchangeable (Chauvin, 2003). Similarly, the relationship between information literacy and visual literacy
has been described as being intertwined (Harris, 2010). According to Harris, whether its visual
information or written text, they both require information literacy skills. Additional questions I
was interested in resolving were, how important is it for students who arent artists and designers
to learn these skills? Does this even belong in a library or should another department be teaching
these workshops?
The purpose of this study was to find out if and what academic librarians in higher education institutions were teaching in their visual literacy library courses and if it was being integrated
into their information literacy sessions. I began by reading the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency
Standards for Higher Education. I also read over twenty articles and have included an annotated
bibliography at the end of the study.
This research report gives survey data and is also a compilation of workshop ideas and
resources from the academic librarians who responded to the survey. Survey results show that a
large percentage of libraries havent addressed the need as of yet: 52% of the survey respondents
werent aware of the ACRL visual literacy competency standards for higher education and 3%
were not sure if they heard about them. The information may broaden librarians views and help
us develop ideas on how to include visual literacy in library instruction.

Research Questions
The study sought to answer several basic questions. Academic librarians who teach information
literacy in higher education institutions were asked if they were incorporating visual literacy
principles in their library instruction. The goal was to gain insight into these topics, here are the
survey questions that I asked:
H
 ow important is it for new literacies to be part of the information literacy
agenda in higher education academic libraries?
 Visual literacy is a key literacy to be successful in the 21st century.
Do you think this is an accurate statement?
D
 oes your information literacy instruction include visual literacy?

MyMetro Researcher Project 2015 | Judith Schwartz

 A
 re you aware that the ACRL has published Visual Competency Standards for
Higher Education?
S tudents are being expected to produce visual media in their academic work.
Do you believe it is the role of the library to teach students technical skills (or another
department)?
Teaching digital literacy will help students to succeed in the workforce.
Do you agree with this statement?
D
 oes your academic library offer students computer classes separate from the information literacy curriculum?
Survey responses indicate that a high percentage of librarians think visual literacy is very
important but they dont have enough time in their one-shot classes to teach them and are unaware of the ACRL standards. Other opinions expressed in the literature and throughout the
survey was that visual literacy should be taught by teaching faculty in other departments, its not
the role of the librarian (Nelson, 2004) or it might be a better idea for librarians to collaborate in
the classroom setting, to be embedded in a class (Milbourn, 2013). Based on the survey results
in this study another consensus is that technology should be taught in other departments outside
the library, such as Media or IT.

METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this research study was to gain information as to if and how academic librarians in higher education institutions were including visual literacy in their library information
literacy classes. A description of participants, data collection procedures, and instruments is
presented in this methodology.
Before beginning the project, the author had to undertake an online CITI (Collaborative
Institutional Training Initiative) training course and apply for approval from the CUNY IRB (City
University of New York Institutional Review Board). The author submitted an online survey in
addition to email and phone scripts.
After permission was granted the final survey was created using Google Forms. The short
survey consisted of 10 questions.

Respondents
The goal of the study was to collect data and acquire first-hand information on how academic
librarians who teach information literacy library sessions were including visual literacy in their
instruction. The survey was posted on five listservs during the week of July 28-August 5, 2015,
including, METRO-L, CUNY-L, ILL-L, SLA Academic Division email list, and CWP-Palmer
Alumni. The survey instrument was identical for all participants.
Respondents were asked to identify their institutions and optionally provide an email
address if they agreed to be contacted for further discussion. Otherwise respondents remained
anonymous. Sixty respondents (34%) identified their institutions. The survey respondents were
all librarians who teach information literacy in higher education academic libraries nationwide.

MyMetro Researcher Project 2015 | Judith Schwartz

Question 10 was: If you are teaching new literacies (including visual, digital, or other) as part
of your information literacy curriculum, would you be willing to be the subject of an approximately
30-minute interview to talk in-depth about it. The follow-up consisted of an introductory letter
via email asking to schedule a half hour phone interview. I also had the opportunity to meet with
several librarians in person. Fourteen librarians agreed to be contacted.

SURVEY RESULTS
A total of 114 responses
were received. 43 respondents (38%) said yes, they are including visual
Judith Sin
chwartz
1st revise
10/9/2015 (62%) said they are not. 60 librarians identified their inliteracy
their classes,
71 respondents
stitutions (53%). 16 respondents (14%) identified themselves, included their email addresses, and
agreed to be contacted.

LibrariansTTeaching
Librarians
eaching Visual
Visual Literacy
Literacy

Yes 38%
No 62%

Figure
FigureA:
A: Overall
Overall survey
surveyresults.
results.

MyMetro Researcher Project 2015 | Judith Schwartz

Judith Schwartz 1st revise 10/9/2015

1
QUESTIONQUESTION
1

How important is it for new literacies to be part of the information literacy agenda in higher
education academic libraries? 62 respondents (54%) rated Question 1 either a 9 or 10.
Five respondents said they were unsure.

Importance of New Literacies

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

10

(1 = unimportant, 10 = very important)

(1 = unimportant, 10 = very important)

Judith Schwartz 1st revise 10/9/2015

QUESTION 2

QUESTION 2
When asked, Visual literacy is a key literacy to be successful in the 21st century. Do you think
this is an accurate statement? 81 respondents said yes (71%), 9 said no (8%), 24 said they were
unsure (21%). .

VisualLiteracy
Literacyis isa aKey
KeyLiteracy
Literacyto
Visual
forSuccessful
Success inin the
Be
the 21st
21st Century
Century
Unsure
21%
No 8%
Yes 71%

MyMetro Researcher Project 2015 | Judith Schwartz

Judith Schwartz 1st revise 10/9/2015

QUESTION 3

QUESTION 3

Does your information literacy instruction include visual literacy? 43 respondents said yes (38%),
49 said no (43%), 22 said they were unsure (19%).

Does Your
Your Info
Info Lit
Lit Instruction
Instruc0on
Does
Include
Include Visual
Visual Literacy?
Literacy?
Unsure
19%

Yes 38%

No 43%

QUESTION 4
43 participants (38%) answered YES in Question 3 and gave one line examples of how they are
including visual literacy in their classrooms.
These are some of the trends that are being introduced in classes:
Image retrieval
File management
Image copyright and permissions
Infographics and data
Design and production for poster sessions
Teaching technology skills with Microsoft and Adobe products
Digital story telling with images
Teaching with Graphic Novels
Pecha Kucha: 20 images x 20 seconds

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Judith Schwartz 1st revise 10/9/2015

QUESTION 5

QUESTION 5
Are you aware that the ACRL has published Visual Competency Standards for Higher Education?
51 respondents said yes (45%), 60 said no (52%), 3 said they were unsure (3%).

Are YYou
Aware
Are
ou A
ware ooff tthe
he
ACRL VVisual
ACRL
isual LLiteracy
iteracy SStandards?
tandards?
Unsure 3%

Yes 45%
No 52%

Judith Schwartz 1st revise 10/9/2015

QUESTION 6

Students are being expected to produce visual media in their academic work. Do you believe it is
the role of QUESTION
the library to6teach students technical skills (or should it be taught in another department)? 46 respondents said yes (40%), 32 said no, it should be taught in another department (28%),
36 said they were unsure (32%).

Should
ibraries TTeach
each
Should LLibraries
Technical
Skills?
Technical Skills?

Unsure 32%

Yes 40%

No 28%

MyMetro Researcher Project 2015 | Judith Schwartz

st
Judith
QUESTION
7 Schwartz 1 revise 10/9/2015

Teaching digital literacy will help students succeed in the workforce. Do you agree with this
statement?QUESTION
111 respondents
said yes (95%), 4 said no (3%), 2 said it doesnt pertain to university
7
students as they already have these skills (2%).

DigitalLLiteracy
Digital
iteracy && SStudent
tudent SSuccess
uccess
No 3%

doesn't pertain
2%

Yes 95%

QUESTIONJudith
8 Schwartz 1st revise 10/9/2015

Does your academic library offer students computer classes separate from
the information literacy curriculum?
20 respondents said yes (17%), 83 said no (73%), 11 said they were unsure (10%).
QUESTION 8

Computer cClasses
Computer
lasses iin
n tthe
he lLibrary
ibrary
Unsure
10%
Yes 17%

No 73%

MyMetro Researcher Project 2015 | Judith Schwartz

QUESTION 9
If you answered yes (to question 8) please explain Out of 114 respondents, 20 respondents said
yes (17%) they are offering computer classes in their library, but separate from the information literacy classes. The answers varied, but overall the majority said technical computer skills are being
taught to teaching faculty and students in departments outside of the library.
The following are some of the responses to question 9:
F
 our of the respondents who said no explained that computer classes are given through
technology departments outside the library such as IT.
O
 ne respondent mentioned the technology department provided online training but felt
they were not as effective as one-on-one.
A
 nother said they didnt offer classes but offered one-on-one advice in the library.
S everal libraries have digital media labs/centers in their libraries where skill-based instruction is taught, but they arent part of the information literacy curriculum.
S everal libraries replied they have technical trainers on staff and offer one-on-one training as well as classes to help students, faculty, and staff gain computer literacy skills.
Th
 e library works in tandem with the Academic Success Center. They provide tutoring
and some developmental workshops for basic technical skills, albeit mostly software
based.
Th
 e instructional technology lab, a department outside the library, provides technical
and skill-based workshops to students
W
 e are a joint use public library (as well as academic), and hold computer workshops
that anyone - student or public library patron - may attend.
W
 e teach computer skills when the projects include a research component.
C
 lasses taught are dependent upon the students assignments given by teaching faculty
other course-specific technology.
The following are some of the specific skill-based classes survey respondents listed as being taught
in their academic libraries (question 9):
E
 xcel, Powerpoint, Word, Prezi,
B
 logs, Wikis, WordPress
A
 dobe Creative Suite products such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat
C
 itation management, including: Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, Refworks, EasyBib
T
 imeline JS, StoryMap JS.

MyMetro Researcher Project 2015 | Judith Schwartz

O
 meka
O
 neNote, Evernote
C
 opyright issues
D
 ata-related workshops such as data management, finding data, analyzing data,
mapping data; data and digital tools
N
 etwork computing skills
C
 reating media projects for coursework including training on relevant audio/visual media software and hardware
F
 aculty training sessions in Adobe Captivate, Camtasia, and Blackboard

FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSIONS
When asked, How important is it for new literacies to be part of the information literacy agenda
in higher education academic libraries? 62 respondents (54%) rated Question 1 either a 9 or 10.
The follow-up discussion criteria was based on librarians who said new literacies should be part
of the information literacy curriculum; said yes when asked if they thought visual literacy is a key
literacy to be successful in the 21st century; and said yes, their information literacy library instruction included visual literacy.
The purpose of the follow-up was to find out more detailed information about teaching strategies and what learning resources their libraries used and made available to students. Several of
the librarians I followed up with were teaching visual literacy but were unaware of the ACRL visual literacy standards. I was also interested in how they are marketing the workshops to students.

Teaching Strategies for Visual Literacy

From the follow-up discussions, here are some examples of workshops being taught by academic
librarians. The workshops range from 40 to 90 minutes. They include:
V
 isual and Digital Literacy Skills, Adobe Creative Suite
V
 isual Group Brainstorming Session
P
 rinted and Digital Posters, Graphic Design Skills
I nfographics
I nfographics: Group Brainstorming Session
A
 rt Research to Learn About Historical Context
W
 eb-Based Exhibits
D
 ata Literacy
C
 ombining Visual Literacy in an Information Literacy Session

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10

W
 ebsite Navigation and Creation
M
 edia Literacy: Creating a Documentary and WordPress Site
P
 echaKucha 20x20 (visual and oral presentation)
R
 eliable Image Sources and Teaching ACRL Visual Literacy Standards

Example 1 Visual and Digital Literacy Skills, Adobe Creative Suite

A small urban campus that is part of a large public university offering associate and undergraduate degrees, New York

The visual literacy workshop series has been very popular amongst students and has
now been added to the Mass Communications department syllabi. The incentive for
students to attend library workshops is for extra credit. The library professor uses the
Adobe Trainer teaching model: introduce, show, and then hands-on.
The library is filling a gap since there is no other department providing these
workshops. Adobe Creative Suite software is installed on computers in two classrooms, a Mac lab, and a PC lab. Attendees are undergraduate or associate degree
students from across all academic disciplines including: business, education, art and
music, science, and public administration; workshops are also offered to faculty.
These include one or two-shot sessions in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign,
and Acrobat, Weebly (creating a simple drag and drop website without any coding
skills), and Infographics: Where Data Meets Design. The workshops are not just skillbased instruction. Students gain digital, information, and visual literacy skills. They
learn where to find images and how to save them, file resolution and formats, basic
computer keyboard commands, copyright issues and permissions, citations, and
basic design principles. Students who have never worked on laptops or Macintosh
computers have the opportunity to do so. Relevant resources are introduced to students for future learning opportunities, including library materials, links to finding
data, museum archives and websites.
Example 2 Visual Group Brainstorming Session
A medium sized urban campus that is part of a large public university offering undergraduate
degrees, New York

The library professor said, This generation of students is growing up with gaming,
they are more visual learners. Here is an example of an assignment from a credit-bearing class, Information and Society.
Students are asked to read a chapter in the textbook but, instead of summarizing, they work in groups of 4 or 5 students and present each chapter in an art form.
Students, mostly with no artistic abilities on large paper use crayons, writing, stick
figures, and collage anything but computers.

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11

The textbook topics are related to history, government political structures, and
social issues. Students need to draw and then present their visual interpretation of
the chapter to the class and convince their professor that they understand what the
chapter is about. Using this visual presentation, students have less anxiety presenting
to the class. In a work environment it is common to be asked to draw something to
generate ideas in a creative group brainstorming session.
Example 3 Printed and Digital Posters, Graphic Design Skills
A private four-year liberal arts college offering undergraduate degrees, Virginia

At this liberal arts college there is a big emphasis on training students to be content
creators rather then just users. Undergraduate students are required to produce
posters and present them at a poster session at the end of the school year. Occasionally they partner with faculty members and present at conferences. The subjects are
across all disciplines the science department uses a poster template that is very text
heavy, but for other disciplines the students are expected to design their own creative
posters (including business, economics, art history, Latin American and Caribbean
studies.)
The library provides large-sized 30 x 40 printing services to faculty and students. Being that the students have no design skills, the library has taken on the task
of educating students in producing presentable posters. Throughout the semester, the
librarian instructors provide poster printing clinics. They try to cover much of the
Visual Literacy Standards in the best practices sessions. The library instructors are
also invited into the classrooms to teach students on preparing for their poster sessions. There are detailed instructional resources on the library website covering poster printing policies. Individual technical and design assistance is also provided by the
library staff. At the end of each school year a poster festival is held in the library.
The visual literacy workshops include:
F
 inding images: Students tend to take low-res thumbnail files from the web and dont
realize there are resolution issues. Here they are shown how to find high quality images.
C
 opyright issues: Students are led to legitimate websites to find images such as Wikimedia commons and they learn about creative commons licensing and proper attribution of
images.
B
 asic graphic design, typography, and color theory.
Even though the library provides sophisticated large format poster printing services, they are steering towards digital poster creation in the future. They will include
library workshops to teach students to create online posters instead of printed pieces
and are currently experimenting in a physics class, using html, CSS and WordPress.

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Example 4Infographics
An urban campus of a large private catholic university offering undergraduate degrees, Chicago

Library workshops and credit bearing classroom instruction sessions are offered for
business administration & communication students. The workshops mainly focus on
using data to create charts, graphs, and infographics as well as preparing students to
acquire skills for their poster presentation sessions. The workshops may include discussing resources to find data and tools for creating infographics and how to present
data in a way that adds value visually. For example Edward Tuftes design strategies
for information displays explains when data should be presented as a bar or line
chart, graph, table, diagram, or map.
Visual examples of good and poorly designed posters are shown in class. The
principles of data visualization and design are discussed. Students are introduced
to books in the librarys collection such as The Infographic Designers Sketchbook in
addition to external non-library resources such as the information is beautiful blog
and online page. Students are also introduced to resources they can use to build infographics, such as Piktochart or Adobe Illustrator.
Library classes also focus on school assignments to undergraduate and graduate
students. A typical session will teach students how to find secondary data for market
research, how to use consumer analytics to write a marketing report, learn to read Intel reports taking a report on retailing and applying it to specific retailers. Students
in business classes are working with real world clients and need to create deliverables
for their final project. It is important that they learn to use and create meaningful
data.
Example 5 Infographics: Group Brainstorming Session
An urban campus of a large private university offering undergraduate degrees, Pennsylvania

Here is an example of taking the infographic workshop one step further. Students
learn to communicate data in visual forms: The first part of class is to introduce
students to data and infographics, how to get inspired, and ways to get ideas. Then
theres an introduction on where to find statistics (in this case the librarian uses the
database Statista).
The second part of class is 20 minutes of participation where students organize
into groups of 4 or 5 for brainstorm creativity sessions. Using sample data, students
are asked to communicate it visually. Students work on white boards and have fun
figuring out how to present their data. Final outcomes of group projects to interpret
data include pie charts, a world map, bar graph, and illustrated infographics.

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Example 6 Art Research to Learn About Historical Context

A small urban campus that is part of a large public university offering associate and undergraduate degrees, New York

Students learn the importance of visual literacy in this information literacy one-shot
session. They learn how they can apply it to their course work and professional lives.
First they must learn to read and understand the syllabus and their assignments.
Everything is driven by technology, so students from an early age are exposed to
mass amounts of images. Students use images in their school assignments but are not
thinking about how they relate to the subject matter. Teachers give assignments and
expect their students to enhance a presentation with images but they dont include
guidelines on how to access information or explain how to retrieve and cite images
correctly.
During an information literacy workshop for an English class that is focusing
on the Harlem Renaissance or a Caribbean theme, the librarian demonstrates how
to find images related to the topic. For example, if they are writing about a topic
connected to the Harlem Renaissance she might suggest they look up a biography
of a famous painter or writer and find images of paintings from that era. The student can then discuss what the painting was portraying. Students need to choose the
topic first, write about it, and then find the images. They need to research what was
happening during that time from social and political perspectives. They learn to use
databases like virtual reference library, Google Images, museum image databases,
and art databases.
Example 7 Web-Based Exhibits
An urban campus that is part of a large public university, New York

Embedded librarianship takes a librarian out of the traditional library setting. Here
is an example of a librarian working with a graduate-level class as an embedded
librarian throughout the whole semester. Students learned the basics of Omeka, the
free, open source web-publishing platform for creating online visual displays. They
learned about image searching strategies in open access and subscription-based
digital libraries, and about copyright issues. They had the option to use Omeka or
other digital tools for their independent or group projects. Working with images they
collected, they created their own online exhibits.
Example 8 Data Literacy
An urban campus that is part of a large public university offering masters and doctorate
degrees, New York

The library workshops focus on digital literacy or data literacy, rather then visual
literacy, but they all have a visual component. Other entities in their college teach
digital and data skills but the library is a democratizer to access they help students get started no matter what level they are at. The largest visual component is a
three workshop series relating to data for social research including finding data, ana-

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14

lyzing and visualizing data, mapping data, and data management. Digital fellows and
adjunct librarians from other universities have been teaching data-related workshops
in the library. Since they recently hired a data and digital projects librarian, they
will be expanding their offerings on data and digital tools library workshops.
Example 9 Combining Visual Literacy in an Information Literacy Session
A private residential liberal arts undergraduate college, Pennsylvania

Here visual literacy is included in a theatre100 one-shot information literacy class.

Students learn how to use ARTstor and Google Images. Since Google Books doesnt
have a feature that allows you to download or save magazine images, part of the class
is spent learning the technical aspects to making and saving screen shots. Copyright
issues pertaining to images are discussed. Students learn how to use Free Sound Project, an open-source database of sound effects useful for games and theater. They also
learn how to give attribution when using audio clips and images in projects.
Example 10 Website Navigation and Creation
A small public liberal arts honors college, Maryland

Visual literacy techniques and models are used in the classroom and rolled into the
lesson plan as part of the information literacy session. The librarians work closely
with faculty, so the library workshops are tied closely to the assignments. The Media
Center is part of the library. They offer one-on-one-training for students on how to
create media projects for coursework, including training on relevant audio/visual
media software and hardware.
Class example 1: Website Navigation
Students spend so much time on the Internet but they dont recognize markers
on the page. The sidebar on Facebook and other social media sites are where ads are
located. There seems to be usability issues on library search databases, students scan
the text quickly and dont look at the whole page. In this session, students learn to
navigate websites more efficiently.
Class example 2: Website Creation
The assignment was to create a website for a literature class. Students had to find
images and write essays. During the information literacy session the students learned
how to find high resolution images in ARTstor, Library of Congress, Flickr, and Getty
Images. Part two of the class was technicalstudents worked with IT to create personal Google sites.

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Example 11 Media Literacy: Creating a Documentary and WordPress site

A large public research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, Nevada

In a womens history course, Digitizing History, the co-instructors include a lead

instructor, a librarian, an archivist, and a videographer. The main assignment in this
one-semester class is to create a documentary website with still images and video.
Then each student describes and contextualizes those media and creates a WordPress
site with all the materials.
In creating a documentary film, there are intellectual challenges. In this workshop, the librarian discusses legal and permission related issues and copyright law.
The archivist presents how to use images from repositories, talks about images having copyright protection, and emphasizes that users be aware of additional rights and
restrictions pertaining to the repository. There are reading assignments on general
copyright and repository issues. The videographer covers the conceptual filmmaking
process, and by looking at CNN documentaries and interviews, students learn to
communicate through media.
Students learn to communicate effectively using text, images, and video. Students learn the necessity of getting releases for the video footage and actually go
through the permissions process in order to use the images in their projects.
Example 12 PechaKucha 20x20 (visual & oral presentation)
A large state university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, California

This is a credit-bearing 2-unit information literacy class. Photographs, cartoons, memes, infographics, and advertisements are included in the assignments and instruction.
For the research assignment and issues paper students must choose a person
to research (either a political figure, athlete, or activist) and discuss how the person
made a difference and how they were controversial. For example: if writing about
Malcolm Xwho was he, how he made a difference, how he was controversial. After
the student researches the person, they must focus on the issue, in this case it may be
African-American inequality in society.
The final presentation requires an oral and visual presentation in the form of a
PechaKucha. PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format showing 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the
images. Klein, K., Dytham, M. (n.d.)

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Example 13 Reliable Image Sources and Teaching ACRL Visual Literacy Standards
An urban campus art library that is part of a large public university offering undergraduate and
graduate degrees, New York

During Information literacy sessions the goal is to educate students as to what is a

reliable image source, where to find them, and how to cite them. They learn about
copyright issues and fair use, and are introduced to museum websites, Digital Public
Library of America, and databases such as ARTStor. The library provides faculty with
scanning services, following the best practices of high-quality digital image standards
and file formats.
The art librarian is also a co-instructor of a library science course, Art Librarianship and Visual Resources Curatorship, at an MLIS-accredited college where he
includes a lecture/session on ACRLs Visual Literacy Competency Standards.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings indicate that librarians are very interested in exploring adding visual literacy into
their information literacy workshops but arent sure how to incorporate it into a one-hour, oneshot class with a limited timeframe. More librarians need to be informed about the ACRL visual
literacy competency standards. Some librarians mentioned they tried offering visual literacy
workshops but there was low enrollment. There are ways to increase student enrollment, the key
is to offer incentives for attending workshops, such as:
O
 ffer extra credit: Library faculty can partner with other departments and give
students extra credit for attending the workshops.
O
 ffer a certificate: One librarian said if a student attended all four workshops they
would receive a certificate from the library.
M
 ake it a requirement to take a library workshop on basic graphic design and
typography skills if students intend to use the library poster printing services.
P
 ublicize workshops to mentors and tutors.
C
 reate a marketing plan, including flyers, brochures, and media screen ads, distributing
them to academic departments outside the library.
O
 ther marketing strategies: Tweeting, RSS feeds for blog on library website and
digital signs
O
 ne institutional library suggested that maybe there should be a prerequisite poster design class before allowing students to get their posters printed in the library.
L
 ibrarians could choose to work collaboratively with other departments, either by being
an embedded librarian or co-teaching a class.
Th
 e library should provide learning resources for students, such as instructional books
like Adobe Classroom in a book series.

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17

A
 subscription to Books 24/7, providing online technical instructional books.
S afari books online provide technical instructional books. Move to eBooks and online
resources. Weed out your outdated software books from the shelves.
P
 rovide online teaching subscriptions such as Atomic Learning, https://www.atomiclearning.com/ and lynda.com www.lynda.com
The survey findings showed visual literacy is important across all disciplines, not just for art history, art, and design students. Other disciplines mentioned were business, communications, science,
journalism, education, medicine, science, and engineering.
Data gathered shows that this is still a new area that has not been fully explored in university libraries. 60 librarians (52%) who responded to the survey are unfamiliar with the standards.
There are various definitions and different interpretations as to what visual literacy is. The ACRL
standards go beyond the conventional definition of visual literacy and include many newer facets
to visual literacy in the 21st century. The conventional information literacy curriculum teaches
students about various library databases, citing and retrieving articles, composing keywords for
search and retrieval, and adding citation management skills. Students often come to the reference
desk to find out how to cite their visual materials because its not mentioned during conventional
instruction sessions. Adding a few visual literacy standards in the library classes could be a way to
begin. Some ideas include copyright usage, image retrieval, file management, becoming dual-platform literate, becoming power users (with keyboard commands), demonstrating proficiency with
using a laptop without a mouse, understanding alternative ways to present data with infographics
and understanding file formats. The workshops taught in the library will be determined by the
librarians skills, so its important for librarians to keep current with new technologies.
Through the literature and individual examples from the interviews, this research project
has given me the opportunity to see how creative 21st century academic librarians are. They are
thinking out of the box to incorporate visual literacy instruction in their libraries. This project
also gave me the opportunity to explore new resources that I wasnt aware of previously, and to
be introduced to library services I wasnt familiar with. I try to integrate information and visual
literacy in my workshops to create meaningful sessions that will help students succeed with their
schoolwork and beyond. I would like to thank the librarians I spoke with. They were very enthusiastic and amenable to sharing their resources and ideas for this project.

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REFERENCES
Association of College and Research Libraries (2011) Visual Literacy Competency Standards

for Higher Education, American Library Association, Chicago, IL.

http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy)
Chauvin, B. A. (2003). Visual or media literacy? Journal of Visual Literacy, 23(2), 119-128.
Felten, P. (2008). Visual literacy.Change: The magazine of higher learning,40(6), 60-64.
Harris, B. R. (2010). Blurring borders, visualizing connections: Aligning information and visual

literacy learning outcomes.Reference Services Review, 38(4), 523-535.
Klein, K., Dytham, M. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.pechakucha.org/faq
Milbourn, A. (2013). A Big Picture Approach: Using Embedded Librarianship to

Proactively Address the Need for Visual Literacy Instruction in Higher Education.Art
Documentation,32(2), 274-28
Nelson, N. (2004). Visual Literacy and Library Instruction: A Critical Analysis. Education
Libraries,27(1), 5-10.

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Annotated Bibliography
The literature ran the gamut from explaining the concepts of digital, media, and visual literacies
and their varying definitions, to actual real world teaching examples. Or, explaining why librarians shouldnt be teaching visual literacy, and why it should be left to the subject classroom instructors, to why its urgent that librarians include this in their information literacy curriculum.
I tried to identify current and relevant information pertaining to visual literacy under the
information literacy umbrella in academic libraries. While I intended to focus only on works
written in the past four years since the ACRL standards for higher education were introduced in
2011 and how they relate to library instruction, sources pre-dating this are included because of
their historical perspective.

Bamford, A. (2003). The Visual Literacy White Paper, a report commissioned for

Adobe Systems Pty Ltd.
The white paper includes a historical overview of the definition of visual literacy and how it came about, citing scholarly articles written from the 1960s
thru the 1990s. Bamford used the term intermediality which refers to the
combined literacies needed to read in a multi-media world. She described visual literacy as interpreting images and producing images that communicate
effectively. A visually literate person should be able to read and write visual
language. Visual literacy is not confined to a particular discipline or area of
the curriculum and has emerged in many subject areas. It involves problem
solving and critical thinking skills. The white paper gives examples an educator might use in a classroom setting to help students become visually literate.
Beatty, N. A. (2013). Cognitive Visual Literacy.Art Documentation,32(1), 33-42.
The author discusses the importance of incorporating visual literacy into
information literacy classes by assisting students with accessing, finding, and
evaluating visual information. She says by understanding cognitive theories
associated with visual literacy and combining them with ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, librarians can help students
become visually literate. She refers to ACRL standard indicators and gives
examples of how librarians may teach to fulfill these learning outcomes.
Beatty, an arts and humanities librarian, gives an example of helping
students find, evaluate, and cite images for a research assignment during a
library instruction session for art history students. An assignment example:

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Ask students to select keywords to describe an image, and then have students organize those words into a coherent mental image by helping them to
construct a research question or sentence about the image. She also adds that
librarians may not feel comfortable with discussing design elements of visual
materials and she gives examples of how design may be taught in a library
classroom.
Brown, J. M. (2002). Proceedings from ARLIS/NA 30th, VRA 20th Joint Conference 7:

The Visual Learner and Information Literacy: Generating Instruction Strategies

for Design Students. St Louis, Missouri.
In Browns 2002 presentation the author shows how ACRL Information literacy standards were aimed at verbal learners. She explains that there are two
types of learners: the visual-verbal learner and the visual non-verbal learner.
She refers to ACRL Standard 4 as having specific outcomes relevant to the
visual and haptic learner. The standard focuses on using information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose. The author asks if there is a unique
brand of instruction for design students. She says the standards do recognize
that students learn differently but dont address discipline-specific competencies that would apply to architecture and design students. She gives specific
examples of teaching strategies from her book, Library instruction for students
in design disciplines. (Note: This article was written before the ACRL visual
literacy standards were created.)
Broussard, M. and J. Schwartz Visual Literacy Meets Information Literacy: How Two Academic

Librarians Combined Information Science and Design in their Careers Skills to

Make a Librarian. Ed.,Wincentsen, Dawn. Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2015.

137-153. Print.
The chapter discusses the importance of librarians being visually literate.
Aside from teaching students about images and citing them, libraries also
require attractive and effective visual materials for their website, marketing,
instruction, and archives. Librarians with backgrounds in graphic design are
well placed to serve many of the libraries design needs. The chapter authors
are two academic librarians with previous experience working in graphic
design departments. They explain how their experiences enhance their role as
library professionals.

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The authors refer to Standard 6 of the Visual Literacy Competency Standards, The visually literate student designs and creates meaningful images
and visual media. Librarians with graphic design and photo manipulation
experience are also better equipped to assist students with their media related
projects.
Chauvin, B. A. (2003). Visual or media literacy? Journal of Visual Literacy, 23(2), 119-128.
The author discusses how the terms visual and media literacy are used interchangeably, how they relate to each other, and how they differ. Literacy goes
beyond reading and writing, and there is a new debate defining terminology
pertaining to the literacies. Chauvin questions what it means to be visually
literate but also considers it a viable skill. He refers to other terminology
such as what it means to be computer literate, media literate, science literate,
and digitally literate. The author explains that being literate is being able to
communicate information in a variety of ways and not necessarily visual. He
describes media literacy as, an informed, critical understanding of the mass
media including television, newspapers, magazines, movies, radio and recordings.

Emanuel, R., Challons-Lipton, S., & Baker, K. (2014). The Cultural Image Literacy Assessment:

One Hundred Images Every American Should Know. The Journal of American

Culture, 37(4), 404-418.
The article discusses assessing students cultural literacy of images and is a
study of the visual proficiency of todays learners. Todays college students
are digital learners and the largest population of image contributors on the
web, yet little is know about their ability to recognize the most significant
images that communicate American culture. The article brings together definitions of visual literacy in its historic context from the term coined by John
Debes, co-founder of the International Visual Literacy Association in the
1960s. Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing, and at the same time having, and integrating other
sensory experiences. Visual literacy has been termed graphicacy, a literacy of
pictorial encoding and decoding that encompasses reading charts, symbol,
tables, logos, drawings, photographs, and more.

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Felten, P. (2008). Visual literacy.Change: The magazine of higher learning,40(6), 60-64.

Although we are inundated with images in everyday life, people dont automatically have sophisticated visual literacy skills; it is something that needs
to be learned. According to Felton, The capacity to manipulate and make
meaning with images is a core component of visual literacy. He mentions
Edward Tuftes book Beautiful Evidence, that focuses on visual displays of
quantitative data. Education focuses on textual literacy, but Felton describes
various studies proving that students in various disciplines learn better visually. Faculty should use visual approaches to teach historical content and
thinking skills, visual frameworks, and mini maps for scientific content. There
is a connection between visual literacy and emerging technologies. Due to
new technologies its easier for non-professionals to become visual designers.
Students should be encouraged to produce visual and multimodal academic
work in composition and cultural studies classes. Felton gives a resources list
at the end of the chapter that consists of websites for learning, finding images,
and book sources.
Harris, B. R. (2010). Blurring borders, visualizing connections: Aligning information and visual

literacy learning outcomes.Reference Services Review,38(4), 523-535.
Harris says that students are not critical readers of images and visual information. He offers a strategy for aligning visual literacy and information
literacy competency standards to revise teaching and learning practices in the
library and traditional classroom. During the research process, the relationship between information literacy and visual literacy becomes intertwined.
According to Harris, whether its visual information or written text, they both
require information literacy skills. The author cites several articles that argue
that some librarians do not think visually, remaining more comfortable in
a world of language, text, and printlibrarians must become multi-literate.
The article title and section head, Blurred Borders, refers to the different
literacies blending into one another. Harris refers to an overview of visual literacy competencies described by Maria Avgerinou (2009) of IVLA. He gives
examples of classroom scenarios including image analysis to achieve learning
outcomes, such as analyzing visual displays of informationthe relationship
between words and pictures and visual displays of data. Students learn to

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use visual design to help communicate the information in a more effective

and engaging manner. The Visual Literacy Competency related to visual
thinking: requires that learners understand and create information in visual
forms
Hattwig, D. & Bussert, K. & Medaille, A. & Burgess, J. (2013). Visual literacy standards in higher

education: New opportunities for libraries and student learning. portal: Libraries

and the Academy, 13(1), 61-89.
The authors are team members of the ACRL Visual Literacy Task Force that
created the ACRL Visual Competency Standards of Higher Education. This
article explores the role of libraries in supporting student visual literacy; and
includes a thorough literature review. The authors discuss concepts such as
librarians becoming multi-literate in order to support the development of
student media production skills, playing an important role in helping students learn to create visual materials, and collaborating with teaching faculty.
Students are being asked to use and produce images and visual media in their
academic work and the article discusses how students can develop critical
thinking skills with regards to images. The authors list the Visual Literacy
Standards, discuss the learning outcomes for each standard, and the ways
libraries can contribute to student learning in each area.
Henrich, K. J. (2014). Visual literacy for librarians: Learning skills and promoting best practices.

Idaho Librarian, 64(1),16.
The article addresses the question of whether its the responsibility of librarians to teach visual literacy. Although many people dont have the necessary
skills to fully participate in a visual environment, the author feels that librarians are uniquely equipped to teach visual literacy skills. She also stresses
the importance for librarians to learn and gain visual literacy skills in order
to teach others. She refers to the visual literacy standards that guide librarians in helping patrons find, evaluate, and appropriately use images in their
scholarly and personal work. The paper is organized into sections: Finding,
Manipulating, Attributing, and Evaluating images. She notes the 21st century is seeing an increase in assignments that require students to create poster
presentations, online image-based blogs, or finding visual examples to sup-

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port written assignments. The article refers to resources where students can
get access to free public domain images, crowd-sourced image repositories,
and free image editing software. Its important for students to learn to cite or
attribute images and check licensing.
Heinrich stresses the importance of using visual literacy standards when
it comes to best practices in creating library marketing and promotional
materials. The author closes with the importance of modeling visual literacy
skills in external library communications, such as the library website, brochures, bookmarks and blogs.
Hewlitt-Packard. (2004) The power of visual communication.

www.hp.com/go/printingandimaging
This white paper is an advertorial (for HP projectors) issued by Hewlett
Packard and the emphasis is on creating visual presentations. It quotes recent
research facts from the Department of Labor, the National Education Association, and scholarly sources and books that support the idea of visual communication being more powerful than verbal communication. They make
a case that it is evident that presenters should be using more visuals in their
presentations to persuade or instruct others. The research report quotes various studies that prove the importance of visual learning. For example, Pictures have a direct route toward long-term memory. Educational researchers
suggest that 83% of human learning occurs visually. People only remember
10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read, and 80% of what they see and
do. Presenters using visual language were considered more persuasive by
their audiences, 67% felt presenters who combined visual and verbal components were more persuasive
Huisman, R., Miller, W., & Trinoskey, J. (2011). Weve wordled, have you? Digital images in

the library classroom.College & Research Libraries News,72(9), 522-526.
Millennials can be engaged through visual stimulation and creative, active learning. Librarians at Purdue University library have incorporated
the creation and use of word clouds in their library instruction classes to
transform their methods of Instruction, Assessment and Engagement, and
as a marketing tool in their library. Using Wordle.net theyve used Wordles

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generated from student feedback and library policies for their promotions,
presentations, outreach, and publicity. This article cites Wordles author,
Jonathan Feinberg: People who use Wordle feel as though they have created
something, that the created thing succeeds in representing something meaningful. From the ACRL Visual Literacy Standards, Visual literacy empowers
individuals to participate fully in a visual culture a student uses Wordle
and becomes a creator. The authors give an example of using Wordle as a
form of assessment during a library instruction session to get immediate
feedback from students. Students take an active role in information literacy
instruction and assessment by recalling the most important aspects of the
library resources and key points introduced in the instructional session. The
simple answers in the form of keywords or tags engage students as creators
of a digital image. Other word cloud applications including Tagul and Tagxedo, have become a visual medium for expression, instruction, and creativity
for which a participatory culture has emerged.
Jones-Kavalier, B. R., & Flannigan, Suzanne I. (2008). Connecting the digital dots: Literacy of the

21st century.Teacher Librarian,35(3), 13-16
In this article the authors define and discuss the following terms: digital literacy, new media literacy, visual literacy (referred to as visual competencies),
information literacy, photo-visual literacy, reproduction literacy, and lateral
literacy. They say students without digital or visual literacy skills are at a disadvantage, although reading, writing, listening, and speaking are paramount,
todays students must be able to decipher meaning and express ideas through
a range of media. The authors also stress the importance that students must
learn to make educated judgments about what they find online.

Little, D., Felten, P., & Berry, C. (2010). Liberal Education in a Visual World Liberal
Education,96(2), 44-49.
The authors say Visual Literacy is a critical skill for twenty-first century students and ought to be a central component of a liberal education. A variety
of academic disciplines ranging from chemistry, physics, and economics, to
cultural, composition, and communication studies, all use images to represent knowledge. The authors point out that although students know how to

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read and write, they take classes to become more proficient. There is benefit
from visual literacy instruction in how to observe, use and create images and
visualizations. The article concludes that students need to learn visual literacy
skills in order to prepare them to know, to do, and to be ethical citizens in a
rapidly changing world. To do that, we all must learn to look. On the other
hand, there is a debate concerning the terminology that is being used, suggesting that since we are in the information age, the skills should be referred
to as information or media literacy and not visual literacy.
Lorenzo, G., & Dziuban, C. (2006). Ensuring the net generation is net savvy. Eli Paper, 2, 2006.
The author emphasizes that students lack critical thinking skills when it
comes to information gathering and technology, and that they are not as net
savvy as expected. Students should acquire the ability to assess the source
quality of downloaded resources, understand ethics about using intellectual
property, and learn to do effective searches for accurate information. Information Literacy demands competence in dealing with visual images. The
authors point out that a large number of digital images are manipulated to be
false, higher education needs to teach students to look critically at images and
graphic representations and ask, Does this image tell the truth? How representative is this image? What is the source of the image? Its also important for students to understand copyright issues. The white paper refers to new
media literacy and information fluency. Students need to learn to be creators
and not just consumers of information.
Mayer, J., & Goldenstein, C. (2009). Academic libraries supporting visual culture: A survey

of image access and use. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society

of North America, 28(1), 16-28.
As undergraduate assignments require students to incorporate more images,
there is indication of a need to include more visual resources in the library.
The authors explore how academic libraries are adapting their services and
collections to a more visual culture. In 2007, they conducted a survey on
visual resources available at academic libraries. The article reports their findings and they conclude that academic librarians should find ways to include
image-related skills in their library instruction. Appendix B contains a thor-

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ough list of subscription databases in addition to a list of free or open access

image resources. (Note: The article was published in 2007, the resources list
may not be up-to-date)
McCall, T. (2011, May 9). Literacy, Numeracy, Graphicacy. TedX East. [Videofile].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZvsZtUfQQs
Tommy McCall is a data journalist whose passion is playing with large data
sets. He creates infographics that tells stories in a non-linear fashion. In his
TedX East talk McCall discusses graphics that communicate data. He describes literacy and numeracy but goes on to show how our education system
has neglected graphicacy. Pictures and drawings are used in early education
but replaced by words and numbers in higher education. Graphicacy is a
proficiency in encoding and decoding images including data visualizations,
maps, diagrams, bar charts, pie charts, area charts and pictographs.
Milbourn, A. (2013). A Big Picture Approach: Using Embedded Librarianship to

Proactively Address the Need for Visual Literacy Instruction in Higher
Education.Art Documentation,32(2), 274-283.
This is a thorough literature review referring to articles written on the topic
of visual literacy before 2013, including definitions of visual literacy starting from Eugene Debes who coined the term in 1969. The author advocates
for visual literacy education and refers to the 2011 ACRL Visual Literacy
Competency Standards. She quotes Peter Feltons observation, living in an
image-rich worlddoes not mean students naturally possess sophisticated
visual literacy skills, just as continually listening to an iPod does not teach a
person to critically analyze or create music (Felton, 2008).
The author says, The term visual literacy encompasses the competencies
necessary to critically use, produce, and analyze images. She gives several
examples of how academic librarians are introducing visual literacy instruction within their institutions including embedded librarianship as a model
to teach visual literacy. An embedded librarian collaborates with teaching
faculty giving librarians more of an active role in the class. The author suggests librarians should be fully integrated into a course and concludes this is
the best way to integrate visual literacy in the undergraduate curriculum. She

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says Expanding information literacy to include visual literacy skills will enable students to think critically about images in relation to textual resources
and enhance students ability to learn in a changing academic environment
Nelson, N. (2004). Visual Literacy and Library Instruction: A Critical Analysis. Education
Libraries,27(1), 5-10.
The author questions whether or not librarians should be teaching visual
literacy, and her conclusion is no. Nelsons definition of visual literacy is to
interpret and analyze the meanings of images. It is the authors opinion
that this falls under the domain of the subject instructor, not the librarian.
She says that the role of the academic librarian is to teach information literacy one-shots including search and source evaluation skills and librarians
shouldnt be teaching discipline-specific content. Nelson says, Teaching visual literacy goes beyond the librarians rolefor the following reason: unlike
the concept of information literacy, the concept of visual literacy revolves
around the content analysis of images, their meaning, not so much about
their technical skills of finding them and their qualitative evaluation in terms
of authenticity, currency, etc.
Nelson gives examples of how a group of librarians created visual instructional materials, to meet the needs of users with visual learning styles by
creating online video tutorials with Flash and Camtasia. She concludes that
visual literacythe processes by which images are constructed, organized,
and expressed to communicate meaninggoes beyond the librarians role.
But librarians should be using visual teaching methods with technology.

Rybin, A. (2012). Beyond Habit and Convention: Visual Literacy and the VRC. Public

Services Quarterly,8(3), 271-276.
Rybin refers to the recent ACRL Visual Literacy Standards as a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and
create images and visual media. She then goes on to discuss three challenges,
Resource unawareness, discomfort with technology, and information overload. No matter how many instruction sessions are offered, students go for
the easier methods of search such as Google. Rybin is a librarian in the Visual

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Resources Center in the art history department at a university where they

provide reference services, technology help, digital image and data production to instructors and students. Their digital collections include over 400,000
assets and they try to organize resources on their website in a user-friendly
way. Between the millions of images in ARTstor, on museum websites, Flickr,
and other web resources, the VRC helps users navigate and organize this
information overload of digital images.
Their goal is to build visual literacy skills. Library staff members visit art history classes to provide orientation and training sessions. During
the session the instructor compares color-adjusted, high-resolution images
from their databases with images found in Google (which are often cropped,
altered, captioned with inaccurate information, and not credited), and shows
the images on a large screen and makes comparisons, finding ways to expand
visual literacy proficiencies. The department also conducts training sessions
on the use of image databases, software, scanning, cameras, video editing
software and using projectors.

Schoen, M. J. (2015). Teaching Visual Literacy Skills in a One-Shot Session.VRA

Bulletin,41(1), 6.
The author, an information resource specialist at a university, discusses how
one shot visual literacy sessions taught similarly to information literacy can
increase students visual literacy skills. In this age of information overload,
students frequently interact with images on their mobile devices, websites,
and social media pages, but have no awareness of the medias accuracy or
copyright status. Schoen refers to the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency
Standards for Higher Education definition, that to be visually literate an individual must effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and
visual media.
She describes a session that she teaches on how to find and analyze art
images which is modeled after the one-shot information literacy session by
covering research techniques, online search strategies, and available resources. She also covers digital image file organization and copyright issues. The
library offers additional workshops, including copyright, scanning, and copy
photography. The one-shot sessions provide students with training to become
critical viewers and users of media.
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Schoen notes that teaching how to interpret or read images may be

best taught by other faculty and the design and creation of visual materials
can be incorporated into assignments in art and design classes or in an internship (outside the role of the librarian). The Appendix includes a thorough
handout of research guides and resources of digital collections.

Shank, John D. (2015). The distracted classroom! Thriving in academe: reflections on helping

students learn. NEA Higher Education Advocate 33(3), 6-9
Students are distracted and dividing their time between their smartphones,
tablets, computers and their professor. Through this over abundance of
technology and information they are missing important course content and
interaction, and are not full participants in their own learning. The author
discusses ways to do a techno flip by shifting from a passive lecture model to a more activity-based learning model. He is a proponent of interactive
open educational resources (iOERs) that would include tutorials, games,
and simulations and some sort of testing feature A peak learning experience
occurs when a students complete attention is focused on what we want them
to learn. The best interactive open education resources embed hypermedia,
incorporating images and or video, sound, and text.
Sefton-Green, Julian. (2013). Is There Such a Thing as Digital Creativity? DML central

http://dmlcentral.net/is-there-such-a-thing-as-digital-creativity/
This article discusses how the traditional role of authors and artists has
changed and how its crucial to develop competence in digital technologies as
part of the creative process. This includes crossing disciplines such as audio,
music, and visual. It requires students to learn various software applications.
The author is a proponent of multi-literacies and writes a digital creativity
model that may be useful in developing curriculum. He says educating the
next generation of creative workers requires a much wider range of roles than
simple craft skill, for example, supporting entrepreneurial and managerial
abilities in addition to the specific roles involved in art, design, or music, etc.

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Appendix A - Survey Email

Dear Academic Librarians:
Many academic libraries are now including new literacies in their information
literacy library instruction.My research project is an exploration of best practices for
teaching visual literacy.
Please take 5 minutes to complete this short survey from the link below that focuses on teaching visual literacy in academic libraries.
http://bit.ly/1KuTbzM
Survey responses will be used to help shape a research project currently underway
as part of the Metropolitan New York Library Councils myMETRO Researchers
Project.
Thanks,
Judith

Appendix B - Survey
 isual Literacy Meets Information Literacy:
V
Academic Libraries address the new challenges of the 21st Century

Many academic libraries are now including new literacies in their information
literacy instruction. My research project is an exploration of best practices for teaching
visual literacy in academic libraries.
Please take 5 minutes to complete this short survey. Survey responses will be
used to help shape a research project currently underway as part of the Metropolitan
New York Library Councils myMETRO Researchers Project 2015. http://metro.org/
mymetroresearchers/
This project is IRB approved by CUNY/ The City University of New Yorks institutional review board.
1. How important is it for new literacies to be part of the information literacy
agenda in higher education academic libraries? ? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
select 0 if you are unsure (a new literacy could include digital or visual literacy)
0 unimportant 10 very important
2. Visual literacy is a key literacy to be successful in the 21st century. Do you think this is an
accurate statement?
A. yes
B. no
C. not sure
3. Does your information literacy instruction include visual literacy?
A. yes
B. no
C. not sure

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4. If you answered YES to question 3, please explain.

5. Are you aware that the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) has
published Visual Competency Standards for Higher Education?
A. yes
B. no
C. not sure
6. Students are being expected to produce visual media in their academic work. Do you believe
it is the role of the library to teach students technical skills?
A. yes
B. no, I think this should be taught in another department
C. not sure
7. Teaching digital literacy will help students succeed in the workforce. Do you agree with this
statement?
A. yes
B. no, I think this should be taught in another department
C. does not pertain to university students, they already have these skills
8. Does your academic library offer students computer classes separate from the information
literacy curriculum?
A. yes
B. no
C. not sure
9. If you answered YES to question 8, please explain.
10. If you are teaching new literacies (including visual, digital, or other) as part of your information literacy curriculum, would you be willing to be the subject of an approximately
30-minute interview to talk more in-depth about it.
A. yes
B. no

Please add your institution name and library affiliation.
Your Name
Optional, if you answered YES to question 10 and are willing to be contacted.
Email Address
Optional, if you answered YES to question 10 and are willing to be contacted.
Thank you very much for participating in this MyMETRO researcher survey. http://metro.org/
mymetroresearchers/
If you have any questions or comments please contact: Judith Schwartz, Assistant Professor,
Library & Information Services at Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York.
jschwartz@mec.cuny.edu

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