Hidden Architectures of Information Literacy Programs: Structures, Practices, and Contexts

Creating, running, and coordinating an information literacy program requires not only the visible labor of scheduling and teaching classes, but a host of invisible mechanics that makes a program function in its entirety. Hidden Architectures of Information Literacy Programs captures some of the tacit knowledge information literacy coordinators accumulate through trial and error and informal conversations with professional networks, and details practices of information literacy programs that are both innovative and the core functions of our jobs.

In 39 chapters, authors from a variety of diverse institutions highlight the day-to-day work of running and coordinating information literacy programs and the soft skills necessary for success in the coordinator role. They discuss the institutional context into which their work fits, their collaborators, students, marketing, and assessment, as well as the many varied duties they balance. Chapters examine the delicate balancing act of labor distribution, minimal or absent positional authority coupled with making decisions and assignments, generating buy-in for programmatic goals and approaches, and maintaining positive relationships throughout the organization.

Hidden Architectures of Information Literacy Programs attempts to make all information literacy program labor visible, raise its importance, and encourage more scholarship on what might seem like the “boring” parts of program development. This book is for graduate students learning about information literacy programs, administrators who may never have taught an information literacy session, instruction librarians looking to step out of the everyday and understand the depth and breadth of their program, and all educators interested in the accomplishments and inner workings of information literacy programming.