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May 8th, 2025
On May 2, Rachel Fundator, clinical associate professor at Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies, and Margaret Collins, undergraduate research and pedagogy assistant for the Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue, delivered the keynote presentation at the 23rd annual Illinois Information Literacy Summit in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The Summit, co-hosted by the College of DuPage Library and DePaul University Library, gathers librarians focused on information literacy education to share insights, successful practices, and future directions for improving and expanding the impact of their educational work. This year’s theme encouraged attendees to consider ideas for adapting their information literacy educational practices to be more resilient, sustainable, and relevant to learners in light of significant changes and uncertainties in the current information environment.
Professor Fundator and Collins presented “Experiential Information Literacy: Infusing Student Partnerships into Higher Education” and discussed how the Institute team is adapting its information literacy work in response to the challenges and needs of today’s information environment. They proposed experiential information literacy, an approach that empowers learners to navigate today’s dynamic and complex information environment by having them partner with librarians on information literacy research and instruction.
Fundator and Collins spotlighted two signature programs within the Institute that exemplify the experiential information literacy approach: Student Partners for Information Research and Literacy (SPIRaL), an undergraduate research program, and Partners for Algorithmic Literacy (PAL), a student-faculty learning community that enables the creation of algorithmic literacy activities. Both programs demonstrate how librarians can simultaneously innovate their educational practices to support meaningful student learning about today’s information environment, broaden the community invested in information literacy, and welcome students as partners, explorers, and decision-makers in information literacy research and education. Collins shared her experiences as a former SPIRaL researcher and this year’s undergraduate research and pedagogy assistant, and described the unique affordances of these experiential information literacy opportunities to enable college students to learn about how information shapes individuals and society. Summit attendees were invited to consider how they might tailor experiential information literacy to address the information literacy goals of their libraries and adapt their practices to support long-term student learning around information literacy.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsApril 30th, 2025
From April 8 to 11, undergraduate students showcased their undergraduate research projects at the annual Spring Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR). The event featured over 900 student research projects from various disciplines, and Purdue Libraries was proud to support several projects.
Libraries faculty served as mentors to guide students through the research process. Three student projects stood out in the Information and Library Science (ILS) category and earned awards, listed below:
1st place: Riley Ann Knudsen
A Scoping Review of Patient-Centered Communication in Healthcare: An International Comparison of Curriculum and Recommendations
Mentored by: Bethany McGowan
Poster presentation
2nd place: Makenzie Albert, Taylor Graham, and Yaajushi Valluri
How Audience Relations, University Practices, and Logistics of Student Journalism Impact the Journalistic Practices Used by Student Journalists
Mentored by: Rachel Fundator and Clarence Maybee
Oral presentation
3rd place: Zonghan Lei
Leveraging ChatGPT for Qualitative Data Analysis: A Case Study on Data Management Practices Among Computer Vision Scholars
Mentored by: Wei Zakharov
Poster presentation
Congratulations to all the winners and participants for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate research this year! View a full list of student researchers and their mentors, and learn more about the annual conference, on the OUR website.
April 22nd, 2025
Libraries hosted an awards banquet on April 21 in Stewart Center to celebrate the success and accomplishments of this year’s student scholarship recipients.
Recipients were invited to attend with an accompanying guest, their supervisor, or advisor, resulting in over 30 people in attendance. Guests enjoyed a buffet dinner while engaging with other guests, donors, and members of Libraries administration. Student award recipients were invited to speak about their experience in Libraries with formal remarks made by Associate Dean for Learning and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy Clarence Maybee, Associate Dean for Collections and Access Rebecca Richardson, and Information Studies Department Head Jane Yatcilla.
Michael Humnicky and Joy Matson, scholarship donors of The PULSE Award and Joy M. Matson Scholarship respectively, were present at the banquet and enjoyed getting to know the students who received their scholarships.
The recipients of each scholarship are as follows:
McCaw Scholarship awardee Annie Gihooly said, “It was great to be around and meet other student workers from Libraries and see what everyone is doing. It was also nice to talk to faculty about Libraries and what I’m planning to do after Purdue.”
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to each awardee for their outstanding contributions to Purdue Libraries. Their dedication and hard work have made a lasting impact, and we look forward to seeing what they continue to achieve in the future.
To learn more about the student scholarships we award, visit our website.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsApril 22nd, 2025
Libraries faculty member Chao Cai has won the 2025 ETS Best Emerging Technology Application (BETA) Award from the American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) for his app, dedupr. The app is an open-source R package and Shiny app designed to streamline citation deduplication for systematic reviews.
dedupr automates a widely-adopted, trusted deduplication method (Bramer’s), helping researchers save time, reduce errors, and produce cleaner, more reproducible results. It’s available both as an R package and a simple web app, so it’s accessible to users at all levels—no coding required. The award committee praised dedupr as a user-friendly, freely available tool with a significant impact. It noted how helpful it is for anyone doing systematic reviews, since it does not require programming knowledge.
By offering a free alternative to costly reference tools, dedupr helps level the playing field for researchers at all institutions. Plus, it’s designed be accessible, making it an excellent option for students, librarians, and teams in low-resource settings.
Learn more about the award on the RUSA website.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsApril 21st, 2025
On April 17, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies held its annual awards celebration, honoring the outstanding achievements and dedication of its faculty and staff. The event recognized individuals who have demonstrated exceptional service, innovation, and commitment over the past year.
The recipients of this year’s awards are as follows:
Dagnese Award for Excellence in Service
John H. Moriarty Award for Excellence in Library Service
Dean’s Individual Award
Dean’s Team Award
James L. Mullins Award for Outstanding Contributions
Award for Excellence in Teaching
Award for Excellence in Research
Annual Award for Contributions in Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
Congratulations to all the award recipients, and thank you to everyone who continues to contribute to the success and mission of Purdue Libraries and the School of Information Studies. Your hard work and dedication are truly appreciated.
To learn more about each award, visit our website.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsApril 16th, 2025
By Rachel Fundator, clinical assistant professor and information literacy instructional designer, and Dr. Clarence Maybee, associate dean for learning and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy
The Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue recently awarded a seed grant to a research team to explore Ph.D. students’ perceptions of ChatGPT-generated content for their coursework.
The rise of generative AI technologies poses many opportunities and challenges for instructors, learners, and educational institutions. While studies have investigated how learners utilize generative AI, little attention is devoted to learners working on advanced degrees and how they perceive generative AI content for their academic work. A team of researchers, led by Dr. Ehsan Mohammadi from the School of Information Science at the University of South Carolina, is researching to determine how Ph.D. students understand the quality and usefulness of AI-generated content and the factors influencing their acceptance and adoption of generative AI technologies.
The Institute is eager to learn more about the research team’s findings, which have implications for stakeholders seeking to enhance student learning experiences in higher education in the age of AI.
Institute Awardees for “Understanding Ph.D. Students’ Perceptions and Information Literacy Skills in Interacting with ChatGPT-Generated Content”
Jiaxuan Zhang, Ph.D. Student in the School of Information Science, University of South Carolina
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsApril 9th, 2025
By Rachel Fundator, clinical assistant professor and information literacy instructional designer, and Dr. Clarence Maybee, associate dean for learning and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy
The Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue is thrilled to have recently awarded a seed grant for work being done at Emory University investigating ways to alleviate health information poverty and foster health literacy among rural pregnant women in Iran.
Previous studies have found that women living in remote areas in Iran receive low levels of adequate healthcare. This qualitative study will help identify avenues for strengthening and increasing health information awareness for rural pregnant women susceptible to health information poverty due to a lack of access to health centers or public libraries. The researchers, Dr. Neda Zeraatkar, Middle East and Islamic studies librarian at Emory University, and Dr. Leili Seifi, associate professor of information science at the University of Birjand, will develop training materials for stakeholders who work in maternal and child health in rural areas across the country.
The Institute looks forward to learning about the team’s toolkit for fostering the health literacy of pregnant rural women in Iran.
Institute Awardees for “Access and Strengthen Health Information Literacy: A Toolkit to Alleviate Information Poverty in Pregnant Rural Women in Iran”
Neda Zeraatkar, middle east and islamic studies librarian, Emory University
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsApril 8th, 2025
On April 7, Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies hosted its second annual “A Celebration of Books” to honor Purdue faculty who published books throughout the past academic year. This year’s event featured over 70 authors across various academic disciplines.
Five authors spoke about their books and writing processes at the event, including:
Clarence Maybee, associate dean for learning and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy for Libraries and School of Information Studies, made formal remarks.
During her speech, McBride noted, “I want to highlight the fact that creating a book is a very big undertaking. If you write a book, the planning is enormous, even after you get comfortable with your ideas and the publisher has weighed in. There are typically external reviews of the proposal and some further suggestions as to how to address various topics within it…I commend all the authors here, and I’m also grateful to Purdue again, as other people have said, for initiating the creation of books as a top priority.”
Attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and drinks, and authors received a pin-on corsage upon check-in. Images of the published book covers were displayed for authors to autograph.
Provost Patrick Wolfe said, “I’m really glad to see our libraries hosting this event because books are such an important part of scholarly output.” The event successfully highlighted the value of books and celebrated Purdue authors for their dedication and efforts.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsApril 2nd, 2025
By Rachel Fundator, clinical assistant professor and information literacy instructional designer, and Dr. Clarence Maybee, associate dean for learning and W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy
The South Asian region faces significant challenges in ensuring access to accurate, high-quality health information, particularly for women from underrepresented or marginalized communities. Cultural barriers and limited literacy levels exacerbated by the spread of misinformation contribute to significant challenges to women’s health information literacy, contributing to disparities in health outcomes.
The Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue recently awarded a seed grant to a research team examining how innovative AI technologies may be deployed to foster health information literacy for South Asian women. The team of researchers from five South Asian countries aims to understand better how AI technologies may be adopted to improve South Asian women’s access to health information and improve their health decision making. The research team will conduct focus groups with women in India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
This study aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Group’s regional strategic goals to promote good health and well-being and gender equality. The study findings may assist policymakers in developing health information literacy policies tailored specifically for women in this region.
The Institute looks forward to hearing the team’s recommendations on using AI technologies to support health information literacy in South Asian countries.
Institute Awardees for “AI and Health Information Literacy: A study exploring the perceived usefulness, and readiness among women in South Asia”:
Tabassum Aslam, academic librarian, Lahore School of Economics, Punjab, Pakistan
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsMarch 31st, 2025
Celebration of Teaching seeks to recognize the achievements of Libraries, University, and external teaching award winners from the 2024–25 academic year. This year, 17 Libraries faculty members presented lightning talks on their innovative teaching methods, and 10 award winners were recognized at the event for their contributions to teaching.
Those who presented and the topic of their presentations include:
This year’s teaching award winners were also recognized, including:
Teaching Academy membership
The Teaching Academy strives to bring together the best teaching faculty and graduate students across campus to create a collective voice for teaching excellence. Members are nominated and selected by their peers, and membership recognizes outstanding and scholarly teaching in graduate, undergraduate, or engagement programs of Purdue University.
New members: Pete Pascuzzi and Dave Zwicky
Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship Awards Program
The Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship Awards Program fosters continued excellence of teaching and learning, and facilitates the development of faculty members’ teaching potential. Junior fellows’ goals are to improve their teaching and develop mentorship skills in the program, and senior fellows are tasked with mentoring junior fellows and working with them to craft a plan that will help them to grow as educators.
Junior fellows: Annette Bochenek, Melissa Chomintra, Kristin Leaman
Senior fellow: Heather Howard
Teaching Leadership Award
The Teaching Leadership Award aims to foster a culture of teaching excellence and leadership by supporting instructors in designing and implementing developmental activities within their respective departments.
Recipients: Jing Lu and Zoe Mayhook
2024 Libraries Teaching Award Winners
Recipients: Annette Bochenek, Kristin Leaman
Celebration of Teaching provided a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with faculty, gain insights into their innovative teaching efforts, and honor the well-deserved award recipients. It was a memorable event highlighting the dedication and passion driving education forward.
Filed under: general, News and Announcements