Annual Meetings

The AACRL annual meeting is held annually in conjunction with the Alabama Library Association’s annual convention. Attendees enjoy a chance to share ideas with their academic colleagues throughout the state.

AACRL also partners with the College, University, and Special Libraries Division to put on Best Practices Programs at ALLA annual convention. Learn more about the 2024 AACRL/CUS Best Practices Lightning Talks!

This year’s preliminary program for the ALLA annual convention may be found here: https://alla.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/convention/ALLA%202024%20Schedule%20at%20a%20glance.pdf

2024 Annual Business Program & Business Meeting

Registration is now open for the virtual AACRL Annual Program & Business Meeting on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. This year’s program “Developing Metaliteracy to Teach and Learn with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)” featuring guest speaker Dr. Thomas P. Mackey is open to everyone.

Registration Link (please register to receive link for joining the free virtual event): 

https://uab.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vceqprjwuHtMnBZ5cSuqaHg9N-oJQN6sX

@ 12 pm              AACRL Business Meeting – Non-members welcome to attend but are ineligible to vote
@ 1 pm                AACRL Program – Learn more about metaliteracy from our guest speaker
@ 2:15 pm          AACRL Social Activity – Join us for a short game of trivia

Developing Metaliteracy to Teach and Learn with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

Thomas P. Mackey, Ph.D.

Program Description:

As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforms higher education, how do we prepare learners for this rapidly evolving technology? How do librarians, faculty, and learners analyze the ethical dimension of GenAI? What does it mean to be an active producer and participant in these dynamic information environments? How does metaliteracy prepare reflective metaliterate learners to address such revolutionary changes to our learning communities?

This presentation will explore metaliteracy as a comprehensive pedagogical framework to develop metaliterate learners as ethical producers of original and remixed content (Mackey & Jacobson, 2022). Metaliteracy originally emerged from information literacy and influenced the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011, ACRL, 2015). It evolved into a holistic model that prepares metaliterate learners to be ethical producers of new knowledge in wide-ranging information environments. Metaliteracy shifts the focus from information to the learner by emphasizing four learning domains including the affective, behavioral, cognitive, and metacognitive. Through this approach, reflective learners challenge assumptions about what they know and how they feel about learning while developing self-directed and collaborative strategies for success. Central to this approach is the pivotal role of the producer who strives toward several learner characteristics such as being open, adaptable, and civic-minded.

After exploring the theory of metaliteracy in relation to GenAI, this interactive presentation will discuss how this model has been applied in practice through digital storytelling, international virtual exchange, and an online ethics course in digital media arts. Participants will be encouraged to apply this model and the specific Metaliteracy Goals and Learning Objectives (Jacobson, et. al., 2018) to their unique and diversified educational settings.

References:

ACRL Association of College and Research Libraries. (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Jacobson, T. E., Mackey, T., O’Brien, K., Forte, M., & O’Keeffe, E. (2018). 2018 metaliteracy goals and learning objectives. Metaliteracy.org. https://metaliteracy.org/learning-objectives/2018-metaliteracy-goals-and-learning-objectives

Mackey, T. P., and Jacobson, T. E., “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy” College and Research Libraries. January 2011, vol. 72 no. 1, 62-78. https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16132/17578

Mackey, T. P., and Jacobson, T. E., Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers. New York: American Library Association (ALA)/Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2022.

Guest Speaker Biography:

Dr. Thomas P. Mackey is Professor in the Department of Arts and Media in the School of Arts and Humanities at Empire State University. He is Program Coordinator for the BA and BS in Digital Media Arts and Academic Coordinator for Arts and Media. Dr. Mackey is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, the Dr. Susan H. Turben Chair in Mentoring, and has an honorary appointment as Extraordinary Professor, Research Unit Self-Directed Learning, Faculty of Education, North-West University, South Africa. Dr. Mackey originated metaliteracy with Prof Trudi Jacobson as a pedagogical model to prepare individuals as self-directed learners in social information environments. Their most recent book for ALA Neal-Schuman Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers (2022) is the recipient of the 2024 Divergent Publication Award for Excellence in Literacy in a Digital Age Research. Dr. Mackey’s forthcoming book for Rowman & Littlefield titled, Teaching Digital Storytelling: Inspiring Voices through Online Narratives (2024), is co-edited with colleague Dr. Sheila Marie Aird, Associate Professor and European Director of International Programs for Empire State University. They wrote the framing chapter for this volume about their virtual exchange to teach Digital Storytelling online for SUNY Empire students studying in Prague and the United States. The book features a Foreword written by digital storytelling pioneer and futurist Bryan Alexander and includes chapters co-authored by educators who offer global perspectives on teaching digital narratives with information literacy and metaliteracy.

To learn more about Dr. Mackey’s teaching and research interests feel free to explore:

Past AACRL Annual Meetings

  • April 3, 2019, Point Clear, AL.
    Speaker: Ron Leonard, Director of Special Initiatives, Alabama Commission on Higher Education. 
  • April 11, 2017, Florence, AL. Networking dinner.
  • April 19, 2017, Montgomery, AL.
    Digital Humanities: How Students Become Curators
    Speaker: Dr. Lauren Cardon, University of Alabama Digital Humanities Center
    Presentation (PowerPoint file)
  • April 25, 2012, Hoover, AL
    Disrupted Higher Learning: Leading from the Library
    Speaker: Steven J. Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services, Temple University
  • April 20, 2011, Orange Beach, AL
    K-16 Information Literacy Efforts in Georgia
    Speaker: Nadine Cohen, University of Georgia Libraries
  • April 23, 2008, Homewood, AL
    Speaker: Dr. Julie Todaro, ACRL President
  • April 18, 2007, Mobile, AL
    Emerging Ideas: The Academic Library of the Future
    Speaker: Kate Nevins, Executive Director of SOLINET
  • April 26, 2006, Florence, AL
    Current ACRL Events and Initiatives
    Speaker: Frances Maloy, Emory University Library, ACRL Past-President
  • April 20, 2005, Birmingham, AL
    How Should Academic Libraries Address the Requirements of the SACS Principles of Accreditation?
    Speaker: Dr. Bill Nelson, Library Director, Augusta State University
  • April 21, 2004, Montgomery, AL
    The Academic Library in a Digital World: Problems and Possibilities
    Speaker: Dr. Fred M. Heath, Vice-provost and Director of General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin

Past AACRL/CUS Best Practices Programs