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What can librarians do to help students understand how algorithmic systems incorporate and often exacerbate social inequity? Join the BLC for a virtual conversation with Barbara Fister, Scholar in Residence at Project Information Literacy (PIL) and an outspoken critic of algorithms, and Moderator Jennifer Ferguson, Head of User Experience and Student Success at Tisch Library at Tufts University, to discuss why - and how - librarians can inform their academic communities about bias inherent in algorithms and other novel and untested technologies.
A leading expert on students’ research habits in the digital age, Barbara will discuss key takeaways from PIL’s award-winning 2020 study of student (and faculty) understanding of how algorithmic systems affect what they find and influence their process of discovery. This session includes time for a Q&A with librarians, faculty, and staff to share ideas about the role and responsibility of librarians for promoting algorithmic literacy in their communities.
Background readings: Alison J. Head, Barbara Fister, and Margy MacMillan, Information literacy in the age of algorithms, Project Information Literacy Research Institute, January 15, 2020. Matthew Reidsma, “Algorithmic bias in library discovery systems,” Reidsma Working Notes, March 11, 2016.
Since 2021, PIL has offered hour-long virtual chats to different institutions in the U.S. and Canada with PIL researchers as a way to foster discussion and share ideas around improving teaching and learning while suggesting new avenues for inquiry and experimentation. Conversations are tailored to each institution’s interests and the issues relevant to their challenges. No slides are used in PIL’s chats, in order to encourage in-depth conversation and sharing of strategies. A recording of the session will be made available for the purpose of being livecast, stored, and viewed asynchronously by the BLC community.