Alexander Schulz, CLRC Professional Development Award Recipient, Talks About LOEX 2025: Crafting a Future for Information Literacy

Thanks to the professional development grant from CLRC, I was able to travel across the country and present at my first academic conference as a library student. My poster presentation was on using Library Chat transcripts review to influence how we teach future instruction sessions. A lot of people stopped by my poster and asked some great questions! Of the eleven posters accepted, I was the only one from New York state to be there.

In addition to presenting, I was able to attend great sessions on game-ifying information and library instruction, how to connect with the modern-day college student as an educator, and about the current information landscape many students come to university from. As I begin to teach more information literacy courses in the fall 2025 semester, I hope to incorporate a lot of what I learn into my teaching in a way that engages students and (hopefully!) makes information literacy fun for them.
I also got the chance to network with people in the field, from fellow graduate students to people who had been in librarianship for decades. I made some great connections and exchanged contact info with several people, and I hope to learn from them as much as I can!

This networking also allowed me to help promote the Information Literacy Collab, a new open access journal for MLIS students and early career professionals that I am helping run through Syracuse University Libraries. Some of the other graduate students seemed very open to the idea, so I believe they may submit some pieces to our journal!