This guide, developed by a team of librarians under the direction of the American Library Association, is designed to support library workers in their day-to-day interactions with patrons. It provides resources, ideas, and practical strategies for teaching media literacy skills to adults, both through reference interactions and by integrating these skills into existing library programs. The guide is intended for library workers and library science students and helps learners understand how to incorporate key media literacy topics into programming. It also includes suggestions for program assessment and links to additional readings for further exploration.
Type of Material:
Open (Access) Textbook; Workshop and Training Material
Recommended Uses:
Resource may be used as a basis for in class discussion or provided as individual reading in a library science course in addition to general professional development.
Technical Requirements:
PDF available online. Tested on FireFox, Chrome, and Microsoft Edge.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
After completing this resource, the learner will be able to:
Define media literacy and apply effective strategies for teaching media literacy and addressing misinformation during reference interactions with library users.
Identify key media literacy topics and integrate media literacy instruction into existing library programs and outreach efforts.
Design and evaluate media literacy programming, using assessment strategies and additional readings to strengthen and sustain public library initiatives.
Target Student Population:
Library professionals and students
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
None.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
It discusses several important facets of media and information literacy and contains strong ideas and concepts to help promote media literacy in public libraries.
The information comes from reliable sources. The content was developed by a team of library professionals. The information includes many complementary resources linked for additional learning from reliable external sources.
The information is presented clearly and in a logical structure and is extremely relevant for the intended audience.
Concerns:
None.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The resource offers a thorough overview of media literacy and related key issues, explanation of media literacy's importance, as well as information on program development for libraries to educate others on media literacy. The resource provides several relatable scenarios to demonstrate this information.
Concerns:
None.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The PDF is easy to access and read. The document is visually appealing and well-structured. It appears that much thought was given to how the sections were divided and its design. Easy to read and understand where links are. The PDF passed the Accessibility Check in Adobe.
Concerns:
Links do not automatically open in new windows so it may be frustrating to users to go back and forth.
Creative Commons:
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