ORGANIZER/MODERATOR:- Patricia Guardiola, Assistant Director, Fisher Fine Arts Library, University of Pennsylvania
PRESENTERS:- Amy Lazet, Visual Resources Specialist, College for Creative Studies
- Meghan Rubenstein, Curator of Visual Resources, Colorado College
- Jessica Sack, Jan and Frederick Mayer Senior Associate Curator of Public Education, Yale University Art Gallery
In 2011, the ACRL published its Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, which provide guidance in finding, using, evaluating, and making images. The years since those standards were established have been revolutionary for online images and other visual media, from increased digitization to new methods of sharing, editing, and manipulating. In a landscape where anyone can create media and metadata, we face the challenges of evaluating quality, accuracy, and authenticity while navigating information overload. This session will explore academic initiatives in visual literacy, whether integrated in the classroom, provided as tutorials, or implemented in a novel fashion. We’ll also examine popular and even controversial means of finding, sharing, and making digital media. We will pose these questions: In our current climate, what does it mean to be visually literate, and how do we assess this skill? How have visual literacy and our methods for teaching it changed in the era of fake news and doctored media? What can we do as information professionals to be both guides and innovators in the field of visual literacy instruction?
