Mary Claire Vandenburg B.A. (Psychology), B.A. (Hons English), MLIS (Dalhousie)

Since receiving her MLIS, Mary Claire has been serving the information curious in various stages of their education. From children and adults in public libraries in Philadelphia, to teens in rural Canadian school libraries, how people acquire and consolidate information continues to intrigue her. Since 2005, Mary Claire has been working as a liaison librarian in Psychology, English Literature and Classics at Queen's University. Her interest in life long literacy issues is now focused on serving adult learners in the academic enterprise.

Nathalie Soini

Nathalie is the Learning Commons librarian at Queen's University. She is also the liaison librarian for French, German, Spanish/Italian/Latin American Studies and Linguistics at Queen's. She has a B.A. Hons in German and Spanish (1998) from Brock University, an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Toronto (1999) and an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario (2002). Nathalie is also the current president of ABFO (Association des bibliothécaires francophones de l'Ontario) - a subdivision of OLA. Her interests are Modern Languages, Information Literacy, Learning Commons and their role in Academia and Francophone issues in librarianship.

Don't Blink, or you'll miss it: Opportunities in Information Literacy

Mary Claire Vandenburg and Nathalie Soini, Queen's University

session 4a / Friday, May 12 / 9:00 - 10:30 am

Vandenburg and Soini will discuss the implications of thin-slicing on the field of Information Literacy and how librarians can make the most of our classroom opportunities. Thin-slicing is defined by Malcolm Gladwell, in his best-seller Blink, as the "ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and people based on very narrow 'slices' of experience."

A study, (Ambady, 1993) in which students watched instructors deliver less than one minute of a lesson via video clips and then evaluated them resulted in assessments of the teacher's effectiveness that matched those given by the teachers own students after a full semester of classes. The notion that the judgments made in a couple of seconds can be as accurate as those we reach after careful consideration and breadth of experience seems counterintuitive.

Yet, in command of this knowledge and knowing we have students briefly, often just once at the beginning of term, it is imperative that the thin slice of Information Literacy and Librarian services be positive, encouraging and accurate. Otherwise our opportunities to advance Information Literacy are lost in the blink of an eye.

Mary Claire Vandenburg, Research and Instruction Librarian, while not new to instruction is new to issues affecting adult learners in the Academic environment and so draws upon the expertise of mid-career librarians and the academic literature. Nathalie Soini, Learning Commons Librarian, partners with Special Reader Services, The Writing Centre and Learning Strategies to help students develop information literacy skills. Each will comment on how understanding the psychology of thin-slicing has impacted on their instruction programs and the steps they have taken to maximize their teacher effectiveness.

This issue deserves attention as another pedagogical tool but also for practical significance as it effects promotion and tenure decisions. In keeping with their approach to Information Literacy they promise this meta-teach session be positive, encouraging, accurate and fun.