LOEX 2026

The Content Creation team at our library was tasked with creating fun and interactive learning objects that can reach a large online student population. Asynchronous teaching objects are a great way for librarians to reach students in an engaging way, freeing up time for librarians while empowering students to learn key skills at their own pace. Scalable learning objects can also be leveraged as graded, in-course activities by faculty. At our institution this has led to over 60,000 students gaining access to vital information literacy concepts. Key takeaways from the experience in developing and implementing this program will be shared.

Participants will:
1. Explain how to design and implement scalable, asynchronous library learning objects that support large student populations. This was possible by collaborating within the content team to create and innovate around integration of multiple media types
2. Apply strategies for using narrative, gamification, and accessibility features in LibWizard to increase learner engagement. Explain process of utilizing AI as a tool in creation of tutorials
3. Evaluate methods for gathering and interpreting student feedback and usage data to refine and improve asynchronous badging tutorials

The Georgia Tech Library launched a new subject librarian model, with teams sharing responsibility for outreach, consultations, and instruction across seven Colleges. Some librarians were seasoned teachers, others just finding their sea legs, but all needed to know the ropes to ensure consistent, high-quality teaching. To anchor our efforts, we turned to the Critical Teaching Behaviors (CTB) framework, creating a shared compass for effective practices. Through workshops, surveys, and collaborative retreats, we mapped CTB categories to library examples and integrated UDL and ACRL strategies. This session charts our process and offers practical tools for reflection, peer training, and sustainable instructional leadership.

Participants will:
1. Identify examples of Critical Teaching Behaviors (CTB) that align with best practices in course-integrated instruction
2. Discuss strategies for applying the CTB framework in their own instructional leadership
3. Reflect on how the CTB framework can foster a culture of teaching excellence in their institutions

Curricular consultation between librarians and faculty is one possible solution to address complex curricular problems surrounding information literacy. During curricular consultation, librarians consult with faculty members and make recommendations to improve course, assignment, and scaffolded learning intervention design and alignment to support students in meeting information literacy learning objectives, and in retaining and applying critical information literacy knowledge.

In this presentation, three librarians each share how they implemented curricular consultations as a strategy for impacting curricular change at their institutions. Individual approaches will be contextualized by intersecting and differing aspects of presenters' positionalities.

Participants will:
1. Be able to form a baseline understanding of the practice of curricular consultation and its relevancy, promoting transfer and application of knowledge.
2. Understand the practice of curricular consultation further and how positionality can impact approaches and thus will be able to apply this method to practice and scope it to their own positions.
3. Be able to design and implement their own approaches to curricular consultation for information literacy and thus advance necessary curricular change and positively impact student success.

A challenge in library instruction is the disconnect between students' pre-college information literacy experiences and the expectations of college-level research. This session dives into mystifying issues: why students arrive at college with uneven or inaccurate understandings of research and libraries, and why these misconceptions persist. The presenters will share insights from recent student focus groups at a large R1 institution that reveal what students know about libraries and research before arriving to college, how they conceptualize the library, their experience with AI in research, and how they apply their K-12 information literacy skills as R1 university students. Like the Bermuda Triangle, these gaps are mysterious but exploring them can reveal new strategies for libraries.

Participants will:
1. Identify patterns and misconceptions in students' pre-college information literacy experiences.
2. Understand how K-12 information literacy experiences impact college-level instruction and engagement.
3. Explore innovative strategies for reimagining instruction beyond the one-shot model to deliver meaningful information literacy experiences for first-year students.

To strengthen campus-wide information literacy and faculty scholarship, Fayetteville State University Library partnered with the Office of Faculty Development to integrate information literacy into both teaching and research. This session showcases adaptable mini-lessons, an asynchronous Canvas course with certificate modules, and publication support initiatives designed to build faculty capacity and confidence. Presenters will share outcomes, materials, and strategies for creating sustainable partnerships that enhance instruction, research productivity, and institutional engagement.

Laura Mehaffey, Fayetteville State University, co-created this presentation.

Participants will:
1. Identify strategies for developing partnerships that advance information literacy integration across campus
2. Design or adapt modular, discipline-specific lessons to support faculty instruction
3. Apply approaches for sustaining faculty engagement through collaborative professional development and online learning tools.

Based on experiences during one-shot instruction sessions, librarians at a public R1 institution collected questions from first year and transfer students during instruction sessions and coded the results in order to identify themes in content and types of questions. This presentation will describe the research project, the themes that emerged in the collected data, and how this informs future instruction and outreach. The ways in which this research was completed will be reviewed in order to assist attendees with doing similar work. The methodology of this research will also be presented to inspire other instruction librarians.

Participants will:
1. Identify trends in the data in order to inform instruction and outreach at their libraries.
2. Adapt the practice of asking students what they want to learn in an instruction session in order to encourage student engagement in learning

This session introduces "fearstorming," a reflective technique adapted from UX research that turns uncertainty into insight. Like brainstorming, fearstorming invites open, nonevaluative expression - but instead of generating ideas, participants are given space to articulate fears and anxieties before diving into new tasks or experiences. For students, this encourages reflection and metacognition. For instructors, fearstorming fosters authentic connection, reveals hidden barriers, informs instruction in real-time, and provides measurable insight into learners' affective growth. Participants will take part in a mini fearstorm, explore a case study from an introductory writing course, and leave with ideas to adapt fearstorming to their own contexts.

Participants will:
1. Examine the potential of fearstorming to support students' affective learning and consider its applicability in their own instructional contexts.
2. Be able to describe the role of affective dimensions of learning and their impact on instructional design.

Improvement of library instruction often relies on anecdotal evidence-faculty feedback, student comments, or informal observations-to gauge success. While these insights are valuable, they rarely provide the depth needed to improve instruction systematically or evaluate impact. Using a real-world example of a successful action research project with 436 English I and II students at Seminole State College as its backbone, this session will demonstrate how to move from anecdotal impressions to iterative, data-driven assessment. We'll share a practical step-by-step process for diving deep into impactful assessment strategies, including tips for backward design, faculty collaboration, and scaling from a single class to a college-wide assessment program.

Participants will:
1. Describe the benefits of iterative assessment
2. Identify an instructional challenge that could benefit from quantitative assessment
3. Apply the step-by-step process to a current instructional challenge in your library 

The ship has sailed on traditional library workshops in lieu of new gamified approaches that allow students to dip their toes in or dive right in. This interactive presentation showcases innovative, playful approaches to instruction that transform fundamental skills and concepts into engaging learning experiences. Drawing from successful programming ideas, attendees will discover how to implement hands-on literacy activities that appeal to diverse learning styles and skill levels. Participants will leave with practical, ready-to-implement ideas that make literacy learning both effective, enjoyable, and bite-sized.

Participants will:
1. Discuss the value of activity-based learning in informal environments and how these approaches can reach learners who might not respond to traditional methods
2. Reflect on their own teaching strategies and create or adapt potential hands-on activities to incorporate into their instruction based on their learning goals, institutional contexts, audience needs, and available resources

AI literacy is a critical skill, yet teaching students to identify hallucinations, limitations, and ethical concerns without demonizing AI use entirely is a delicate balance. This session introduces a hands-on lesson plan in which students use Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate autobiographies, designed to help them confront privacy concerns, understand information creation, and critically evaluate AI tools. Using themselves as subjects, students become instant experts in fact-checking, easily spotting manufactured details and misinformation. Attendees will receive a lesson scaffold mapped to the ACRL Framework, modifications for any teaching context, and classroom-tested tips and tricks.

Participants will:
1. Outline the challenges of engaging with students about AI use as a research tool and its inherent limitations, environmental impact, and ethical concerns
2. Describe specific plans and tools that can be applied to their own teaching and libraries to help students build AI literacy
3. Analyze strategies to connect with students in the participant's unique context in a way that is both effective and engaging, while building strong connections rather than fear-based or adversarial relationships