Scottish Government Library Information Literacy newsfeeds

Book: Information Literacy and Social Media

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 09:30:00 +0000

A book I missed posting
Santamaría, M. & Pfannenstiel, A.N. (2024). Information Literacy and Social Media: Empowered Student Engagement with the ACRL Framework. ALA. Price: ALA Member US $45.00; others US $50.00. 979-8-89255-545-6.
The sections are: Social Media and Information Literacy; The [ACRL] Framework, Social Media, and Empowered Educators; Lesson Plans Within Social Media to Develop Information Literate Citizens; Creativity and Ethics as Key Components of Metaliteracy. Go to https://alastore.ala.org/information-literacy-and-social-media-empowered-student-engagement-acrl-framework
There is a review of the book just published in College & Research Libraries at https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/27051/34930

Fragments: The Multi Dimensional Organisation

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:34:50 +0000

Today just sharing a few #FragmentsOfThought as I have been looking into future models of Performance Management and Recognition. These fragments cluster around a central theme of the Socially Dynamic Organisation framework – that we are moving from a one dimensional, to a multi dimensional view.

We come from a legacy where Organisations were one dimensional: physical, structural, codified, owned, directed, all within formal models of power and authority, recognition and control.

The context of the Social Age has subverted this: today our Organisations are meta-tribal, inhabited by many concurrent communities, partially socially co-created, permeable, more dialogic, accountable, and generally seeking capability beyond pure systems, and engagement beyond mere utility.

Or to put it another way: they inhabit new spaces, and seek new mechanisms of effect, much of which is held in different systems, and paid for in different currencies.

The systems are fluid social ones: tribal, tacit, networked, and the currencies are social too – trust, pride, belief, belonging etc.

There is still a role for the formal: the Socially Dynamic Organisation is both structural and social, and leadership is at the intersection of these systems.

#FragmentsOfThought on Social Leadership

The LIRT Librarian Recognition Award

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 11:12:26 +0000

The ALA Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) is calling for nominations for the LIRT Librarian Recognition Award (which recognises a practicing librarian's contributions to information literacy education) and the LIRT Innovation in Instruction Award (presented to a library for its innovative approach to information literacy education). Submissions can be from any type of library.
Winners will receive a US $1,500 award for Librarian recognition or US $2,000 for Innovation in Instruction and US $1,000 stipend to be used to attend the 2026 ALA Annual Conference. Deadline is 15 January 2026.
You can self-nominate for either award, and it does not say that the awards are restricted to people/libraries in the USA (though all the ones listed from 2014 were in the USA - but perhaps there weren't enough applicants from elsewhere!)
Full information at http://www.ala.org/rt/lirt/awards
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn leaves, October 2025

Illustrating the Unreconciled Self

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 20:01:28 +0000

I’m down to the last couple of images for ‘The Unreconciled Self’, and as ever they are the last thing to be completed. This one is for the ‘Delamination of Citizenship’, in which we consider how our ‘spaces’ are proliferating, and our legacy structures are eroding.

I’ve been really pleased with how the images have a unity about them – recognisably from the same book, but I hope diverse in their expression and exploration. I know it’s daft: they are just pictures, and the ‘real’ work lies in the words, but to me it is important. The book is designed as an artefact, and if the pictures do not ‘tell’ the story, they do at least add context around it.

Webinar: Information Literacy: Still powered by humans

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 09:40:05 +0000

The Central Library, Indian Institute Of Science Education And Research (IISER) (Berhampur, India) has organised a free webinar Information Literacy: Still powered by humans on 4 November 2025 at 10.30 GMT. The opening address will be by Professor Ashok K. Ganguli (IISER) and the speaker is Dr Alison Hicks (University College, London), Editor in Chief of the Journal of Information Literacy. Register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/57BJ1zV7QSq8Hs6hGssKcQ
Photo by Sheila Webber: autumn day, October 2025

The AI and Digital Transformation in Government Course

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 09:30:00 +0000

In UNESCO's Global Media and Information Literacy week, the AI and Digital Transformation in Government Course is launched, created by the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and UNESCO.
It is free online, in English and Spanish (starting on 10 November 2025) with courses in French, Portuguese and Arabic to follow. Successful completion will give a Joint certificate from the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and UNESCO.
The modules are: AI & Human Rights, Ethics, Data Governance, Inclusive Service Design, Leadership and hands-on experience with Generative AI tools.
The course is aimed at civil servants and public administration professionals at all levels.
Go to https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/equipping-civil-servants-ai-era

AI can make mistakes #GlobalMILWeek

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 17:00:27 +0000

UNESCO launched a campaign AI Can Make Mistakes on 24 October as part of Global Media and Information Literacy Week. This is a short compilation video

WorkingOutLoud on High Performance Culture

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 16:38:56 +0000

Unsurprisingly, I find myself in a new landscape, sketching another map. If you know my work at all, you will know that this is a familiar approach, using landscapes as a way of exploring ideas, and the research on ‘High Performance Culture’ is no exception.

Throughout this year I’ve been shaping up the work on ‘Culture Weaving’, as well as prototyping frameworks around High Performance. I’ve been developing my own language and understanding, primarily by figuring out where the cracks are, and seeing how we can leverage them open.

The Culture Weaving work looks through two lenses: culture as individual Leadership feature (as a socially co-created feature) and as Organisational Imperative (structural, strategic, and systems). These lenses are really about scale, from the individual, to broadest vista, and how culture ‘works’ and ‘differs’ between these. It takes the idea of Culture as a one dimensional feature and spilts it into a multi-dimensional one, where the mechanisms at each level vary, but we remain within a broad frame.

In terms of High Performance, I’ve been particularly focussed on leadership capabilities, ability to hold difference and dissent, and to be interconnected (the new Social Leadership work about boundaries and motion also relates to this space).

In the next two weeks I’m working on an initial report based on the early research, and a few workshop sessions, and part of this is an early sketch of the landscape, which I will share as it takes shape. My intention is to focus on leadership capabilities, as well as structural aspects of capability development – how we rehearse and prototype within our leadership – and how we find the right language to escape the paradigm of culture as ‘owned’ by the Org, and ‘done’ to people.

I think where this work will end up is a messier view of culture and performance, but more deeply grounded in how these things really work.

In this, I shared recently that I’ve been working with the three contexts of the Social Age, Post Pandemic Power, and Age of AI: these have proved helpful so far, so I think they, or some flavour of this approach, will remain at the end. Speaking of which, I do not have a clear view of where this goes: in our planning it’s a 2-3 year research project, but I anticipate publishing something like a Guidebook late next year.

#WorkingOutLoud on High Performance Culture

LILAC 2026 bursaries – apply now for full conference and day delegate places

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 11:35:26 +0000

Attending the LILAC conference for the first time earlier this year showed me that it is crucial for librarians across all sectors to develop our information literacy practice right now. It also demonstrated how much the connections and learning that come out of the conference can help us to do this. As an NHS librarian, […]

Meet the Committee: Yasmine Mulholland

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 11:27:41 +0000

What is your role in the committee? I am a member of the ILG New Professionals sub-committee. When did you join and why? I joined in August 2025. I was first introduced to the concept of ‘information literacy’ during my master’s degree and was fortunate enough to attend LILAC on a student bursary which was […]

Global analysis of the current state of play of media and information literacy

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:05:04 +0000

UNESCO, as part of Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week, has published an 18-page report comparing e.g. policy about MIL in different regions. It is not clear how the research was gathered (from my personal experience I think they circulated a questionnaire, and assume they did desk research). There is a press release which states among other things that "According to the research, 171 countries reference MIL within national policy frameworks, signalling growing political recognition of its importance. However, only 17 countries have taken the next step to develop dedicated, standalone MIL policies, a key factor linked to more systematic integration of MIL into education. Overall, 43% of countries have incorporated elements of MIL into formal education, while 29% offers MIL education limited to technical digital skills, neglecting critical thinking, analysis, and ethical engagement."
The publication can be downloaded here:
UNESCO. (2025). Media and information literacy for all: closing the gaps: global analysis of the current state of play of media and information literacy https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000396030

What’s in a Name

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 15:16:47 +0000

Right here, at the end of the writing process, I find myself thinking about changing the name of the book, again! And not for the first time has this happened to me.

Sometimes a title is what inspires you, and guides you, through the writing process. But when you get to the end, and turn around and look at what you have created, you realise it has grown beyond the name. It has become something new.

I’ve shared before how this happened with ‘The Social Leadership Handbook’, which, for the first seventeen versions of the manuscript, was called ‘The Storytelling Leader’, until right at the very end, when the new name just arrived. Similarly, ‘Quiet Leadership’, a journey that I have guided thousands of people through over the last five years, was originally called ‘gentle leadership’, as well as a few other things, before it suddenly became ‘Quiet’.

‘Engines of Engagement: a curious book about Generative AI‘ was a little different, in that I had already used that language, of the engines, elsewhere, and it formed the inspiration – then it felt like it stuck at the end as the book was positioned as ‘curious’.

The new book, currently called ‘A planetary philosophy of the unreconciled self’ is probably – or clearly – due a rework, although I was probably the last person to accept this. Only when my sister in law told me in no uncertain terms at the weekend that she would not read the book did I really start to consider a change.

So what will it become? That is a subject of some debate. ‘The Unreconciled Self’ is the current contender, but watch this space…

Webinar: Minds Over AI – MIL in Digital Spaces

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:15:06 +0000

IFLA's Information Literacy & School Library Sections have a free webinar Minds Over AI – MIL in Digital Spaces on 29 October 2025 14.00-15.00 UTC (which is the same as GMT, UK time). This is in celebration of Global Media and Information Literacy Week and International School Library Month. There will be 2 presentations:
- AI integration initiatives at LEAD International School, Malaysia by Mayasari Abdul Majid (Library, LEAD International School, Malaysia)
- Building AI Literacy to Tackle Misinformation: Lessons from the PRODIGI Project by Tania Azadi (Media Culture & Policy Lab, KU Leuven, Belgium)
More information at https://www.ifla.org/news/2025-ifla-ils-sls-joint-global-mil-week-webinar-online-via-zoom-october-29th/
Registration is required - go to https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/EmxN4-8kRVSz9llxSnWrWA#/registration

Collaborative learning with tablets: Analysing students' meaning making of 3D body models in upper secondary education

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:11:20 +0000

This paper explores the use of a shared tablet within the context of collaborative learning among a teacher and upper-secondary students (aged 16–17). We analyse how various resources are mobilised for joint meaning making. Drawing on video-recorded episodes, this qualitative case study shows how human and digital resources emerge when students collaboratively make meaning of body-related concepts using a shared tablet and how these resources support learning. The findings identify seven types of resources that were used when making meaning of body concepts while interacting with an application related to muscles and kinesiology. These resources include: 3D visualisations, students' prior knowledge, personal narratives, instructional video, the app's side menu, tactile functionalities and bodily representations. This paper offers insights for designing collaborative learning instructions involving tablets to support the co-creation of meaning in small groups.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic Extensive research has indicated that the use of shared tablets can support collaborative learning when students take active roles, benefit from access to resources and develop problem-solving skills by interacting with learning materials. Although there is a growing recognition that tablets can engage students in deep cognitive processes—such as analysing, evaluating and creating—current research has not yet explored how students mobilise and simultaneously use human and digital resources for joint meaning making.

What this paper adds 3D visualisations displayed on a shared tablet play a crucial role in interpreting abstract concepts such as body injuries, thereby facilitating meaning making among students. Yet, students still need to mobilise additional resources for interpretation and learning. By analysing three video interactional episodes, this case study shows how resources emerge when students collaboratively make meaning of body-related concepts using a shared tablet and how these resources support learning. The findings identify seven types of resources that served to support student learning: 3D visualisations, students' prior knowledge, personal narratives, instructional video, the app's side menu, tactile functionalities and bodily representations.

Implications for practice and pedagogy The study offers educational implications regarding collaborative learning and co-creation of meaning in students' small group involving a shared tablet. It sheds light on the design of tablet-mediated learning instructions and the need to consider tasks that engage problem-solving and dialogical pedagogies, allowing for interactive discussions and the co-creation of meaning. Teachers should give attention to the multiple resources at play in such learning settings and be sensitive to how they are combined when students engage in making meaning together. This sensitivity would enable teachers to use such resources to guide students' reasoning and engagement.

Media and Information Literate Cities webinar for World Cities Day and Global MIL Week 2025

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 10:04:53 +0000

The is an online event today 27 October 2025 to celebrate Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Cities Around the World at 14.30 CET (which will be 13.30 UK time - and those in the Americas note that Europe has changed the clock already, so there is one less hour time difference than usual) - MIL Cities: Connecting Communities through Information and Culture.
There will be a panel and short presentations on the MIL cites: Dubrovnik (Croatia), Athens (Greece), Al Rayyan (Qatar), Ramallah (Palestine), Jambi City (Indonesia), Quezon City or Malabon (Philippines), Comodoro (Argentina), Santos (Brazil), Santa Rosa de Copán (Honduras), Antonio Cardoso, Municipality of São Gonçalo do Amarante (Brazil), Abuja (Nigeria).
The programme is here and you can register at https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aQdfrmU4TcWw0TREFh-UfA#/registration

Russian bots and the expansion of human rights law to keep pace with tech

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:05:49 +0100

When will the Courts extend human rights law principles in order to keep up with emerging technology? The Strasbourg Court gave us some answers in Bradshaw & Others v United Kingdom (app no. 15653/22) . However, they may not have been the last word, because this week, the Applicants have sought a referral to the Grand Chamber.

The claim

A group of MPs argued that the Government was not doing enough to combat Russian interference in UK elections, including in the 2019 general election. They were concerned with credible allegations that Russia had engaged in deliberate cyber-attacks against election infrastructure, “hack and leak” operations, and the use of “cyber troops” and “troll farms” to manipulate public discourse and to sow discord between social groups.

The Applicants complained that the government had not investigated those allegations. Nor had it put in place an effective legal and institutional framework to protect against the risk of an interference.

They brought a judicial review under Article 3 Protocol 1 (“A3P1”) of the European Convention on Human Rights, under which States “undertake to hold free elections… under conditions which will ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of the legislature.”

The High Court found that there was no arguable obligation under A3P1 to undertake an investigation or to put in place specific protections and structures to protect elections. Further, the challenge to the legal framework amounted to a complaint that the Government had failed to legislate, which must fail because it is outside the scope of s.6 of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Court of Appeal refused permission to appeal, and the case went to Strasbourg.

Strasbourg’s judgment

Strasbourg upheld the domestic finding that there was no obligation to undertake investigations under A3P1, even though obligations to investigate arise under other Articles of the Convention (§138).

However, the Strasbourg Court took a more activist approach to whether there are positive obligations to put in place structures to protect the electoral system.

The Court accepted the Government’s analysis that, so far, the case law under A3P1 had broadly fallen into three categories: direct restrictions by the State on who might stand or vote in an election; failure by the State to act in accordance with its own electoral law; and failure by the State to provide a reasonably fair and effective system of remedies for alleged breaches of electoral law (§130).

The Applicants had sought to extend the law beyond these categories, and the Court was open to this. The Court found that A3P1 lays down more general rights and obligations than this, including positive obligations (§130). Rather than stay within the confines of the jurisprudence to date, the Court’s position seemed to be that technology had changed, and the law needed to keep up. It concluded:

“133. Nonetheless, although the Court has, to date, only dealt with cases concerning conditions created by (or within) the respondent State which, it was argued, thwarted the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of legislature, the object and purpose of the Convention require its provisions to be interpreted and applied in such a way as to make their stipulations not theoretical or illusory but practical and effective…

In this regard, it is not in dispute that State actors and non-State actors have weaponised disinformation in order to interfere in democratic elections. While new technologies, such as social media platforms, have enabled political parties to disseminate information directly to the electorate, they have also made it possible for hostile actors to spread disinformation and manipulate information at a scale and with a speed never seen before…

…

Accordingly, the Court would accept that if there was a real risk that as a consequence of interference by a hostile State the rights of electors within a member State would be curtailed to such an extent as to impair their very essence, namely the free expression of the opinion of the people in the choice of their legislature, and deprive them of their effectiveness…, Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 may require that State to adopt positive measures to protect the integrity of its electoral processes, and to keep those measures under review.”

On the facts, the Court found that the UK Government had done enough to put in place systems and structures to respond to the allegations of Russian interference elections, judged within a wide margin of appreciation (§163). A win for the defending 11KBW team.

Potential for future human rights claims

Despite this outcome, it’s significant that the Court has put into words its willingness to extend human rights law to create new positive obligations in order to keep pace with technology. This approach should not surprise us. It’s consistent with the Court’s principle that “the Convention is a living instrument … which must be interpreted in the light of present-day conditions” (Tyrer v. the United Kingdom, 25 April 1978, § 31, Series A no. 26). Still, claimant lawyers in all kinds of human rights claims (not just A3P1) will be keen to test the power of clear words to the effect that human rights obligations must sometimes expand to protect us from threats from new tech.

We will now have to wait to see if the Grand Chamber has more to say on the subject.

Christopher Knight and Hannah Slarks of 11KBW acted for the Government, led by Sir James Eadie KC.

Hannah Slarks

Integrating digital initiatives in schools: Mediating role of technostress and the moderating impact of teachers' professional identity on digital competence in primary and secondary education

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 13:30:32 +0100

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between school digital initiatives and teachers' digital competence, a link that has yielded mixed results in existing research. Data from anonymous questionnaires completed by 3052 primary and secondary teachers in China revealed that technostress mediates the relationship between school digital initiatives and the development of teachers' digital competence. Further, teachers' professional identity moderates this effect, with stronger identity correlating with lower technostress and greater digital competence. These findings suggest that initiatives aimed at enhancing teachers' digital competence should prioritize the mitigation of technostress, while also supporting professional identity development in areas such as assessment and professional engagement.

UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy week - conference day 2

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:01:19 +0100

Today is the official start of Global Media and Information Literacy week (24 - 31 October). However, the feature conference in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia started yesterday.
You can find the recording of the first day in English here and in Spanish here. The Programme for both days is here https://www.unesco.org/en/weeks/media-information-literacy-2025/programme?hub=66833

You can attend the livestream of day 2 today (24th, which starts at 14:25-17.45 Colombia time (which the same as US Central time, so with the start at 20.25 UK time) here https://www.youtube.com/live/lyoseHHVuHc?si=GOwIw1F90aIBwoX0 On 22nd I attended virtually the UNESCO MIL Alliance reluanch event, and I will blog about that separately.

Planetary Philosophy – Religion

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 21:02:20 +0100

There’s a chapter in the new book that explores belief systems, and structured religions, which are under the same types of disruption and pressure as our structures of culture, government, defence, organisation, and so on. Today I’m just #WorkingOutLoud to share the incomplete illustration from that chapter.

All of the images play with the idea of the landscape, and our connection to it, with ‘small’ landscapes within larger structures. Some of the illustrations are really coming together beautifully now, others still works in progress!

Are we implementing neuroinclusive hiring practices?: An investigation for academic library positions

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:12:21 +0100

In Brief

This study investigates neuroinclusive hiring practices in academic libraries, focusing on best practices for designing hiring experiences that are inclusive to autistic and ADHD job seekers. Our research team conducted a survey of 51 academic libraries in the United States, examining job advertisements, interview formats and practices, and general human resources (HR) practices as they relate to inclusion for neurodivergent job seekers. While the relatively small sample size precludes us from making generalizable statements about the field’s adoption of neuroinclusive practices (or lack thereof), our results brought to light a significant consideration: while some inclusive practices were adopted among survey-taking institutions, many libraries still lack inclusive practices that can specifically benefit neurodivergent candidates. The study demonstrates the need for more comprehensive and proactive measures to support neurodivergent individuals in the hiring process.

Background Information

Language Note:

In this paper, we will be using identity-first language to refer to autistic people. Identity-first language is the preference of many autistic self-advocates, including those at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (Brown, 2012). Furthermore, we refer to autism as either autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) rather than Asperger’s syndrome, an outdated term for a “mild” or “high-functioning” form of autism. Asperger’s syndrome was eliminated in 2013 from version 5 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and is considered to be a fraught term given the problematic legacy of Hans Asperger, the namesake of Asperger’s syndrome, in Nazi Vienna, specifically with his research into and treatment of disabled children (Czech, 2018). We also refer to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder as ADHD throughout the paper.

Definitions

Neurodiverse: A group of people where one or more members have differing neurocognitive functioning. Some members might be neurotypical, others neurodivergent (Walker, 2021).

Neurodiversity: The diversity of all human minds; the variation of neurocognitive functioning across the human population (Walker, 2021).

Neurodivergent: A person whose mind functions in a way that diverges from dominant societal norms (coined by Kassiane Asasumasu in 2000) (Walker, 2021).

Neurodivergence: The state of being neurodivergent. Forms of neurodivergence can be innate or acquired, and include but are not limited to dyslexia, autism, depression, and epilepsy. Autism is an innate form that has a pervasive impact on “an individual’s psyche, personality, and fundamental way of relating to the world” (Walker, 2021).

Neurotypical: A person whose mind functions in ways that fall within dominant societal norms. It means the opposite of neurodivergent (Walker, 2021).

Neuroinclusive: Practices, processes, and policies that create welcoming and safe spaces for people of all neurocognitive functions (Neurodivergent Rebel, 2024).

Ableism: A system that assigns value to people based on constructed ideas of normalcy, productivity, and fitness – rooted in eugenics, racism, sexism, colonialism, and capitalism – and manifests as discrimination and prejudice against people with disabilities. This can range from lack of ADA compliance, refusing to provide accommodations, failing to incorporate accessibility to overt discrimination and seclusion (Lewis, 2022; Eisenmenger, 2019).

Positionality Statement: “Nothing about us without us”

Our team of authors consists of a mix of neurotypical and neurodivergent library workers; those who are neurodivergent represent various conditions including ADHD and autism spectrum disorder. Among our neurodivergent research team, one is Latine and another is transmasculine. To mitigate potential biases from relying solely on our own experiences in the academic library hiring process, we grounded our work in literature on neuroinclusive hiring best practices. However, our experiences of being job candidates ourselves also supplemented the research in our literature review. We address in our paper how the best practices we outline can be especially beneficial for those who are uncomfortable disclosing a disability or even the undiagnosed. Given the intersectionality between underdiagnosis in various marginalized communities such as racialized minorities, gender minorities, and those with lower socioeconomic status we feel this study appropriately addresses concerns for many marginalized groups.

Introduction

The application and interview process for academic library positions, especially those at the non-staff, librarian level, are often quite demanding and frequently require candidates to engage in processes that are particularly distressing to those with certain neurodivergent conditions, such as ASD or ADHD. As such, the barriers to entry into the profession are often larger for this population, and this can lead to underrepresentation within the academic library workforce. With fewer neurodivergent voices at the table, academic libraries will find it harder to identify the particular challenges that neurodivergent individuals face and the accommodations that could increase their recruitment, thus perpetuating a cycle of exclusion.

Neurodivergence in libraries remains an area of study that needs further development. In particular, there are few papers that examine neuroinclusion in the context of academic library hiring practices. Librarians with disabilities are generally an overlooked group, so the exact percentage of neurodivergent library workers is unknown. However it is estimated that 15-20% of the world population, or 1 in 5 adults are neurodivergent, and 3.7% of library staff in the United States and 5.9% in Canada has some form of neurodivergence (Doyle, 2025; Khan et al., 2022).

In response to this dilemma, we wanted to further explore the topic of neuroinclusion in academic library hiring practices, focusing on the barriers and difficulties that are often present for individuals with ASD or ADHD. We chose to focus on surveying hiring managers, library administrators, and others who have decision-making power when it comes to hiring, in order to get a sense of where the profession currently is in terms of its inclusiveness to neurodivergent job seekers. As part of the study, we conducted a literature review of best practices for neuroinclusive hiring, drawing mostly from fields studying disability and human resources. Further information was gathered by means of a survey sent to academic libraries across the United States, designed to examine how well academic libraries are currently engaging in those best practices in order to accommodate neurodivergent candidates during the hiring process. This study can serve as an exploratory baseline measure of how neuroinclusive the field is in its hiring practices.

What is Neurodivergence?

Neurodivergence can encompass a range of neurological conditions that impact how individuals experience and interact with the world around them. There are a number of conditions that are commonly included under the neurodivergence label such as autism and Attention-Deficit Disorder/Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD). Many neurodivergent self-advocates favor an expansive definition that is inclusive of most neurological conditions. This can make conducting research on the neurodivergent community challenging, as researchers may need to review literature utilizing a wide range of terminology. For this study, we primarily focus on the experiences of autistic job seekers, and those with ADHD. While we did not specifically address the intersection of AuDHD (autism with ADHD), we believe many of the best practices reviewed in our study are applicable to that convergence.

Higher Education, Libraries, and Neurodivergence

Libraries are often proclaimed to be “safe spaces” for all, including autistic individuals, those with ADHD, or other neurodivergent conditions (Lawrence, 2013, p. 99), and it is colloquially presumed that libraries should be a natural fit for neurodivergent job-seekers (Enna, 2023; Grandin, 1999; Zauderer, 2023). Indeed, for many reasons, it makes sense that the work of libraries would appeal to those who think differently from the norm. Libraries can be a place where being process- or detail-oriented, analytical, committed to follow-through, and wary of the spotlight (common ASD traits) is welcomed (Attar, 2021; Eng, 2017; Maddock, 2022). Those who can make sense from disparate ideas, share deeply in others’ enthusiasms, and quickly read the emotional tenor of a room (common ADHD traits) may also find themselves able to thrive in the field (Swick-Jemison, 2023). However, research featuring the lived experiences of neurodivergent academic library workers paints a more nuanced picture of how prepared the field is to make space for anyone who is not neurotypical.

Experiences of Neurodivergent Academic Librarians

Looking to scholarship written by and/or studying neurodivergent librarians, as well as our own experiences, the academic library can be a challenging place for neurodivergent individuals who staff it. While positive experiences in academic librarianship have certainly been had by neurodivergent employees (see selected passages in Anderson 2021, Eng 2017, Giles-Smith & Popowich 2023), on the whole the literature suggests that the profession tends to be inclusive in words alone to neurodivergent workers. E.E. Lawrence’s “Loud Hands in the Library,” the first article to acknowledge and address the experience of neurodivergent library workers as opposed to patrons, noted in 2013 that there are likely many autistic librarians who feel unsafe being forthcoming about their diagnosis at work. Since then, studies have shown that neurodivergent library workers face many challenges related to the physical and social environments of their workplaces (see Anderson 2021; Camp & Finlay 2025; Eng 2017; Giles-Smith & Popowich 2023; Haire 2025; Swick-Jemison 2023). In some cases, the library can be seen as an unsafe space, as noted in Giles-Smith and Popowich (2023), one where neurodivergent employees can feel “marginalized,” “dismissed,” or even “targeted” (Giles-Smith & Popowich 2023, p.7). There is a fear among neurodivergent individuals on the tenure track or in contract positions that they will be ultimately rejected from being able to stay in their roles because their condition “mak[es] it impossible to conform to the norms necessary to be accepted into the group” (Swick-Jemison 2023 p. 8; see also Giles-Smith & Popowich 2023).

Masking Neurodivergence

Special consideration must be paid to the added labor that neurodivergent library workers must put in to be seen as “normal” in a workplace that is not welcoming of neurodivergence. A 2025 study by Amelia Haire surveyed autistic academic librarians on the efforts they took in their workplaces to learn about its norms in order to survive and be successful. The survey found that autistic librarians often take significant measures to fit into their neurotypical-coded environments, such as going to great lengths to choose just the right method and style of communication when speaking to coworkers, uncovering and studying unwritten rules of the workplace, and even modifying their facial expressions. In an effort to depict a collected (read: neurotypical) exterior, autistic library workers frequently undertake this additional labor in secret, on top of performing their regular job duties (Haire 2025). The masking required to appear calm and on top of things, while below the surface struggling, can be extremely distressing to autistic and other neurodivergent individuals and lead quickly to burnout (Giles-Smith & Popowich 2023; Haire, 2025).

The common urge to mask or to put forth great effort to study the norms of the workplace almost certainly stems from the aforementioned neurotypical coding of the typical library workplace. The unifying call among most literature speaking to the experience of neurodivergent individuals at work is that much greater awareness of neurodivergence is necessary, so that neurodivergent individuals can simply exist as themselves in their workplaces (see Camp & Finlay 2023; Giles-Smith & Popowich 2025; Lawrence 2013).

Hiring Practices as Exclusionary

The hiring procedures for academic libraries are typically similar to the professoriate: a two-part process including phone or video interviews, followed by an on-campus interview that generally begins with a dinner the day before and a day-long interview that includes a presentation, various meetings with teams, a formal interview with the search committee, tours, a lunch, and sometimes more interviews sprinkled throughout the day. For anyone, it can be an anxiety-inducing and exhausting process. For neurodivergent individuals, it can be an even worse experience. Studies with neurodivergent individuals have documented how traditional hiring practices can be barriers to their success. Job advertisements filled with jargon and unnecessary qualifications, hectic interview schedules, broad and ambiguous interview questions phrased in a way that are difficult for neurodivergent candidates to answer, accommodations available only upon disclosure of disability, ableist assumptions regarding fit and ability, and unconscious bias of hiring committees hinder their successful employment (Anderson, 2021; Betz, 2022; Dali, 2019; Haire, 2025; Hyde et al., 2024; Khan et al., 2022; Lau, 2022; Maras et al., 2021; Oud, 2019; Russo et al., 2022; Tomczak et al., 2021; Whelpley & May, 2023). The typical interview process is a natural outcome of the neoliberal ideas underpinning academia, which promote ableist values supporting hyperproductivity and “the fittest” candidates (Cunningham et al., 2019; Dali, 2019; Lau, 2022; Oud, 2019). It is not surprising to learn roughly 85% of autistic people are unemployed and about 46% of those employed in any industry are underemployed (Maras et al., 2021; Russo et al., 2022; Tomczak et al., 2021; See also: Khan et al., 2022). Traditional hiring practices were developed for neurotypical, abled individuals and thus are exclusionary of all others (Khan et al., 2022).

Methodology

Our survey questions were designed to capture the ways and the extent to which libraries take neurodiversity into account when developing and enacting their hiring practices. The bulk of the survey questions were informed by the literature on neuroinclusion in the workplace, and in higher education, drawing from Betz, 2022; Bruyère et al., 2020; Maras et al., 2021; and Saleh et al., 2022. The survey questions can be found in Appendix A.

Based on the best practices covered in the literature, we divided the survey questions into five conceptual categories: the job advertisement, the format of the interview day, the procedural aspects of the interview day, the candidate presentation during the interview day, and general human resources practices. For each of the concepts, we asked two questions. For the first question, we identified relevant “best practices” from the literature (outlined more fully in Appendix B) and asked which of the practices respondents had engaged in. We then followed up with a second question asking, for those practices selected by the respondent in the first question, when would those practices be employed? For the latter question the choices were: “Used by default,” “Used upon request,” and “Used sporadically.” Lastly, we closed the survey with three additional questions that either did not fit neatly into the conceptual framework described above or that allowed respondents to address a more expansive view of neurodiversity in their hiring practices than we chose to focus on in the other survey questions.

We compiled a list of the academic libraries that had posted openings for full-time positions on higheredjobs.com for the period July 1, 2021–October 1, 2022. We ultimately sent out our survey by email to hiring officials or administrators for 369 libraries via Qualtrics in October and November 2022.

Limitations

Based on the low (13.8 %) response rate and incomplete nature of many of the responses received, our sample size was too small to make claims of statistical significance or generalizability. Additionally, the data was collected in Fall 2022 and may not reflect the status quo in 2025 or beyond.

Results

With 51 institutional responses to the survey, the study provides an overview of engagement with best practices across five key areas and offers valuable insights into the current landscape of inclusive hiring in academic libraries.

Most Frequently Used Hiring Practices

Across all categories, five practices emerged as the most frequently used by institutions, both in terms of overall engagement and default implementation:

Writing job descriptions to be short and skills-focused

This practice was adopted by 87% of respondents, with 24 institutions reporting they use it by default.

Creating a deliberately quiet, unrushed interview environment

Used by 81% of respondents, this practice was implemented by default in 27 cases.

Providing information about the interview format in advance

This practice was used by 71.4% of respondents, with 30 institutions implementing it by default.

Introducing the presentation room prior to the interview presentation

88.2% of responding institutions engage in this practice and 26 use it by default.

Regularly updating interview processes to reflect best practices

This general HR procedure was the most widely adopted across all categories, with 93% of respondents reporting its use and 20 institutions implementing it by default.

Least Frequently Used Hiring Practices

Conversely, several practices were rarely used, indicating areas where academic libraries may need further development or support:

Providing alternatives to the standard job talk

20.6% of institutions used this practice and just two use it by default.

Providing training on neurodiversity to HR professionals and hiring managers

Only 10.7% of institutions engage in this practice, and just one reported using it by default.

Using direct and inclusive language about neurodiversity in job ads

This practice was used by just 10% of respondents, with minimal default implementation.

Allowing interviewees to bring support workers or companions

11.9% of institutions engage in this practice and just two use it by default

Keeping the number of interviewers to one or two per session

This practice was used by only 4.1% of respondents, with two institutions implementing it by default.

Additional Observations and Qualitative Insights

The qualitative portion of the survey, though limited in response rate, provided valuable context. Respondents noted that accommodations designed for autistic individuals often benefit candidates with other neurodivergent conditions, such as dyslexia or bipolar disorder. Moreover, several respondents expressed a willingness to expand their practices and explore new accommodations. This openness suggests that while some practices are not yet widespread, there is institutional interest in improving hiring equity for neurodiverse individuals.

Discussion

Based on our survey results, it appears libraries engage in some best practices for hiring neurodivergent candidates; however, given the small sample size and our own experiences interviewing, the results don’t necessarily paint a complete picture of how well the practices are implemented. Additionally, the lived experiences of having gone through the academic library hiring process within our neurodiverse group diverge in some significant ways to the stated common practices of survey takers, calling into question the truthfulness of what hiring institutions are actually doing.

The most widely adopted initiatives tend to be those more “low-hanging fruit” that can be done with minimal effort or consensus building. Over 80% of survey re

Library instruction and information literacy 2024

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:15:08 +0100

The annual annotated bibliography on information literacy has been published by Reference Services Review. It is the usual substantial item, listing 404 items (mainly journal articles: they exclude books). This is a priced publication. It starts by outlining their inclusion/exclusion decisions and some statistics on journal, author and country coverage, and some trends they observe.
Caffrey, C., Perry, K., Lee, H., Dowell, L., Warriner, S., Britto, M., Shareef, C., Haas, A., Philo, T., Ospina, D., Wood, N., Clawson, H., Kohn, K.P., Mackenbach, D. & Clarke, M. (2025). Library instruction and information literacy 2024. Reference Services Review [early online publication]. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-07-2025-0045
Photo by Sheila Webber: bookshop, Brännö, August 2025

The Cost we can Bear

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:46:54 +0100

The cliffs where I live are inherently unstable: unlike other, more reliable cliffs that are formed of granite, or even chalk, ours are primarily made of sand, and bonded by little more than mud and optimism. As such, they have a distressing tendency to slump and collapse in the winter storms.

This would not be an issue except inasmuch as we have laminated the familiar structures of a seaside town on top of them, and under them: a promenade, hotels, car parks, children’s playgrounds, and a couple of cliff lifts. Last winter the only ill effects of a landslide was the eradication of a row of beach huts, but that type of thing tends to alarm civic authorities, and as we cycled along the beach this morning I noticed that the scrub that covers them (usually the home of, and breakfast for, our Cliff Goats) has been cleared in places, and some rather fancy looking sensors installed, to map tiny movements across large areas of the cliff.

It’s a valiant effort but of course futile in the long run: when they repaired a section of the cliffs a few years ago, maybe a couple of hundred metres, it involved fancy robot crawlers that drove pins into the ground and wove a steel net across the surface, but I suspect that the cost, which must have been high, will not be replicated for the seven miles of land that forms our bay, itself only one of many along the south coast.

Further north, where my family comes from in Norfolk, they talk of ‘managed retreat’, which means low cost neglect: to trade land for time, and in any event, much of it is farmland, or villages, who struggle to be heard, politically.

Still, it speaks to me of balance, and connection. If we fight nature, as we do with global warming and sea level rise, we consign ourselves to a battle we cannot win, at least in absence of true terraforming technologies and bio-engineering that scale at low cost.

Sometimes we simply need to tread more lightly, and be more mobile.

As we put the finishing touches to the new book, the Planetary Philosophy, I am conscious of the tensions within it, and have tried to navigate a clear path. The work cannot be regressive, a return to some historic, rural, and idyllic balance. But nor can our path be untrammelled progress, driven by our ability to shape, distort, and control our physical environment, because to attempt to do so is to miss the points that dynamic biophysical ecosystems are incredibly complex and interconnected, and you cannot weave and pin a food chain in the same way as you can a cliff face. Worse, once balance is lost, it may not be something we can reclaim: the whole system can recalibrate at a lower, and less beneficial level. In a very real way, if we are unable to act with the Earth, rather than simply squatting upon it, we may find ourselves bankrupting the ecological system, and impoverished within the finite confines of our planet.

But it’s not simply at Planetary scale: ecosystems are nested, and within the Planetary are the national, organisational, an tribal/social. Each of which, themselves, requires light touch and balance.

In my broader work on the Social Age I describe how our Organisations have exploited, disrupted, the fundamental Social Contract and now, at the time of their greatest need, find themselves unable to draw down further on the trust, goodwill, belief and belonging that they once held, but squandered for short term profit.

As I say, in the Planetary Philosophy work I have been very deliberate to be forward facing, in the belief that our two aims are not mutually exclusive: we can have powerful and productive organisations, vibrant cultures, and opportunity at scale, whilst also maintaining balance, fairness, equity, environmental utility, and long term sustainability, but to do so will mean managing excess.

We can continue to drive forward, but we cannot afford to pay an endless cost.

Co-Creational News Media Toolkit

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 11:04:21 +0100

A publication from the Public Interest News Foundation (which monitors/ promotes independent news sources) is the Co-Creational News Media Toolkit
"The toolkit is built around four modules of news media – governance, content creation, fact checking and impact – combined with four principles – participation, truth-seeking, accountability and care."
For each of 16 elements there is a short explanation, some tips on application and an example.
Go to https://toolkit.publicinterestnews.org.uk/resources/
Photo: Centre for Ageing Better Age-Friendly image library: Couple outdoors: Credit: Peter Kindersley https://www.agewithoutlimits.org/image-library

Quiet Leadership

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 20:02:52 +0100

The next Quiet Leadership journey kicks off in a couple of weeks time, and in preparation for it, I’m creating a couple of new images. Set against the backdrop of the Organisation as Ecosystem, this work explores aspects of humility, kindness, fairness, and the gracefulness of our action. It’s very gentle, very small, but very important too.

I would imagine that I’ve delivered this work more than any other thing that I’ve created, despite it being almost entirely accidental in the way that it came into being. It is rigorous, research based, but with the strongest focus on the smallest of actions. It’s a journey into the local: the steps that we take, and the shadows that we cast. And it’s always been free, accessible to all, through a series of open journeys that I run every year.

In some ways, it’s deceptively simple: instead of worrying about grand narratives, and corporate strategy, it focusses on how you and I make our journey every day. The intention that we have, the actions we take, and the impact that we cause. It’s not a study in perfection, but rather an engagement with the simple and practical business of reconciling things that sit in tension with each other.

Whilst we are fortunate that there are sometimes clear pathways through our decision making, often instead there is a cost to be paid, or imposed, and Quiet Leadership encourages us to explore how these things are traded. It comes from a premise that most people are trying to do the right thing, but that there is no universal good. And somehow, in all the chaos, sometimes something important gets neglected.

Under a view of the Organisation as Ecosystem, we understand that however hard we try, none of us alone can tend to the whole system: instead, only through connected action can it thrive. You and me, working independently, but connected around an idea, and in this case, the idea is that of Quiet Leadership. Of being in a dialogue with our practice: both our successes and our failures. A recognition that we all, at times, make things worse, even if only by omission. But that a mindful and open engagement in the journey can help us to calibrate our actions over time.

Quiet Leadership is a journey that is open to everyone. A journey through a landscape, through eight conversations, over four weeks. You can find out more, and sign up to take part, here.

Editorial

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:29:30 +0100

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Webinars: From Search to AI Mode; Navigating Information in the AI Age Navigating the Risks of AI Adoption

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:30:00 +0100

Singapore Management University Libraries celebrates Global Media and Information Literacy Week with free online events
24 Oct 2025 10.00 - 11:30 AM (Singapore Time: 3am-4.30am BST) From Search to AI Mode: Teaching Students and Citizens to Verify and Contextualise Information with LLMs with Mike Caulfield (creator of the SIFT method and co-author of Verified
24 Oct 2025 14.00-16.00 (Singapore Time: 7am-9am BST) Trust, Truth, and Technology: Navigating Information in the AI Age. There is a talk from Dr. Leo Lo (Dean of Libraries and University Librarian at the University of Virginia, USA) followed by a panel discussion including Lim How Khang (Singapore Management University, Assistant Professor of Law and Computer Science), William Tjhi (AI Singapore, Head, Applied Research for Foundation Models (ARF), Rachel Teo (Google, Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy)
28 Oct 2025 15:30 PM - 16:30 PM (Singapore Time, 7.30 GMT) Navigating the Risks of AI Adoption featuring Nicholas Quaass from Statista
30 October 2025 12:00 noon - 13:00 pm (Singapore Time) Shifting Power and Community Revolts: A Balancing Act in This Uncertain Technological Age a workshop with Samantha Seah, a librarian with the User Services and Experiences at SMU Librarie.
Register here: https://eventregistration.smu.edu.sg/event/TTT2025/summary
Photo by Sheila Webber: Christmas baubles, Bamberg, September 2025

Book: Instructional Design for Teaching Information Literacy Online

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 13:21:39 +0100

I missed the publication of this book earlier in the year:
Mattson, J., Lemmons, D., Linsinbigler, V. & Lowder, C. (2025). Instructional Design for Teaching Information Literacy Online: A Student-Centered Approach. ALA. ALA Member US $63.00; others $70.00. https://alastore.ala.org/instructional-design-teaching-information-literacy-online-student-centered-approach?_zs=&_zl=0oEAA
Photo buy Sheila Webber: autumn boughs, October 2025

Registration open for LOEX Fall Focus

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:04:15 +0100

Registration is open for the online LOEX Fall Focus conference, taking place 17-19 November 2025. This information literacy conference has the themes: Artificial Intelligence; Archives & Special Collections; Sense of Belonging.
The programme has been posted (bear in mind that times are in USA Eastern which is, for example, 5 hours behind UK time (GMT). The fee varies depending whether your insitution is a LOEX member, and there is a cheaper rate for students.
For registration go to https://loexfallfocus.org/registration/

Foundations of Action

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:56:04 +0100

At times we need to lay the groundwork before we take action: when it comes to thinking about things, this can be to develop the vocabulary and conceptual frameworks within which to do that new thinking. If we think with our old language, and our old schemas, we may end up thinking the same old things.

In the Strategic AI work I use an activity that explores the ‘timeframes of our certainty’, which is really exploring this idea. We may not need to take action today, but we certainly need to be building the capability to think about the action that may be needed tomorrow.

The initial adoption of AI is relatively easy in that it fits into existing structures: efficiency and optimisation within the known space. But the next step is harder: an evolution of context, and abstraction of what came before.

To do the thinking, we need to lay the groundwork. We may not get everything right, but we are at least in motion.

New publication: Global challenges for Information accessibility

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:58:17 +0100

A UNESCO 16-page pamphlet:
Hargrave, A.M. et al. (2025). Global challenges for Information accessibility: key principles and good practices in the digital age. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000395614
Photo by Sheila Webber: slogan on a shop in Bamberg selling quirky overpriced home items "Ich suche nicht, ich finde" [I don't search, I find] - a saying attributed to Picasso