Drabinski receives 2015 ACRL Instruction Section Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award

For Immediate Release
Thu, 03/05/2015

Contact:

Chase Ollis
Program Coordinator
ACRL
collis@ala.org
CHICAGO — Emily Drabinski, coordinator of instruction at Long Island University-Brooklyn, has been chosen as the winner of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section (IS) Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award for her article “Toward a Kairos of Library Instruction,” published in 2014 by The Journal of Academic Librarianship. The award recognizes an outstanding publication related to library instruction published in the past two years.

The award, donated by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., consists of a plaque and a cash prize of $3,000. Drabinski will receive the award during the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco.

“Given the recent discussion and examination of the ACRL IL standards within the profession, Drabinski’s article couldn’t be more timely,” said award committee chair Susanna Eng-Ziskin of California State University-Northridge. “She offers a new approach to information literacy, one that will withstand the test of time by constantly adapting to new realities. The use of Classical Greek theory is an interesting way to reconsider the way librarians interact with students and develop teaching strategies that engage students and promote critical thinking. This exceptionally written thought piece is a must read.”

Information literacy instruction in libraries has traditionally been organized by the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. These standards define a set of external, abstract learning objectives that have been productive of a teaching role for librarians. Simultaneously, the standards have generated a substantial critical literature that contests the objectives as a “Procrustean bed” that distracts from the particular teaching and learning contexts. Drabinski’s paper offers an alternative organizing heuristic for instruction in libraries.

Kairos is an ancient Greek theory of time married to measure. Used by both Plato and the Sophists to understand the emergence of truth from context, kairos has been deployed by composition studies to gain a critical perspective on teaching student writing. Used to understand the context that generated both the first set of standards and the newly approved Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, kairos can usefully direct the energy of teaching librarians toward their particular students and classrooms.

Drabinski received her B.A. from Columbia University, her M.S.L.I.S. from Syracuse University, and her M.A. in Composition and Rhetoric from Long Island University-Brooklyn.

For more information regarding the ACRL IS Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award, or a complete list of past recipients, please visit the awards section of the ACRL website.

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About ACRL

The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) is the higher education association for librarians. Representing more than 11,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals, ACRL (a division of the American Library Association) is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to help academic and research librarians learn, innovate and lead within the academic community. Founded in 1940, ACRL is committed to advancing learning and transforming scholarship. ACRL is on the Web at www.acrl.org/, Facebook at www.facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.

About Emerald

Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes. It also provides an extensive range of value-added products, resources and services to support its customers’ needs.

Emerald is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. It also works in close collaboration with a number of organizations and associations worldwide.

ALA Units:
Association of College and Research Libraries
PR Category:
Awards (Professional Recognition)
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