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March 26th, 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
Information literacy professionals grapple with how to teach and prepare learners to navigate the significant challenges our current information environment poses. Renowned information literacy scholar, Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, developed the critical cultural literacy model (2023) as a direct response to mis-, dis-, and malinformation. The more holistic and layered literacy model enables learners to examine the intersections of information, race, politics, history, culture, and emotions as they learn.
A team of researchers from the University of Louisville and University of South Carolina received an Institute for Information Literacy at Purdue seed grant to apply Dr. Cooke’s model to community-based learning courses, where the students often work with communities that are particularly harmed by the spread of misinformation. The researchers will investigate how critical cultural literacy is utilized in community-based learning courses and develop an online toolkit that facilitates classroom conversations.
The Institute is eager to see the outcomes of this work to support learning in community-based courses within and beyond libraries.
Institute Awardees for “Context & Connections: Applying the Critical Cultural Literacy Model to Community-Based Learning”:
Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and professor, School of Information Science, University of South Carolina
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsMarch 20th, 2025
Purdue Road School, hosted by Purdue University’s Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP), took place on March 18–19, 2025, bringing together professionals from government, industry, and academia to discuss the latest advancements in transportation. While traditionally focused on areas such as pavement design and traffic operations, the event also explored topics like aviation, urban planning, and finance, showcasing the event’s wide-reaching scope.
Key highlights
Among the most downloaded presentations from Purdue Road School 2024, several stood out for their blend of innovation and historical context. The INDOT MOT Standards & Practices document, which has been downloaded 203 times, offers critical insights for transportation professionals. The second and third most downloaded documents were equally intriguing: INDOT Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) In-Pavement EV Charging Pilot Project and Design and Maintenance Considerations for Buggies. The first addresses the future of electric vehicles, while the second addresses maintenance and safety concerns for roads in areas that have high horse and buggy use. The event attracts a wide-ranging audience, as evidenced by the top three most downloaded presentations, which resonate with professionals across various fields.
Global reach and broad audience
Thanks to Purdue e-Pubs, the materials from Purdue Road School are available for free online, allowing global access—downloads have come from around the world, including Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and China. Sessions like those on automated driving systems and I-10 highway operations have garnered attention far beyond U.S. borders, demonstrating the global relevance of the topics discussed.
The event also attracts a variety of institutions. While 21% of downloads were from government entities, 56% came from commercial institutions, and 18% from educational spaces. Additionally, presentations on topics such as team building and project management using Microsoft Teams reflect the broader applicability of the event’s content, reaching professionals outside the transportation sector.
In 2023, Purdue Road School achieved a remarkable milestone, with its presentations surpassing 1 million downloads, highlighting the program’s growing global impact and the widespread value of its content.
Looking ahead: continued relevance
With Purdue Road School 2025 now concluded, the event continues to address both sector-specific and general professional development needs. Sessions on navigating difficult work relationships and overcoming public speaking fear highlight the event’s ongoing relevance for a diverse audience, extending its impact beyond transportation professionals.
By offering the opportunity to archive presentations as open-access resources, Purdue Road School ensures that knowledge is shared globally, fostering collaboration, and driving progress in transportation infrastructure. The event remains a vital platform for addressing both current challenges and future opportunities in the field.
To learn more and access the archived materials from Purdue Road School 2025, visit the Road School website.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsMarch 19th, 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 support a team of researchers from the University of Illinois who are examining the efficacy of a gamified finance simulator in improving the financial literacy of older adults.
Today’s older adults—those 65 years old and beyond—face challenges in conducting financial transactions in digital environments. Higher degrees of distrust, lower use of digital technologies, and the shift towards e-commerce make the older adult population vulnerable when conducting financial tasks online.
The team of researchers led by Dr. Rachel Adler, associate professor in the School of Information Science at the University of Illinois, aims to improve the financial literacy, reduce financial vulnerability, and enhance self-efficacy of older adults conducting financial tasks online. With the help of the Institute’s latest seed grant awards, Adler’s team is developing and testing a financial simulator and online resource center that teaches older adults to accomplish digital banking and ecommerce tasks, while also developing strategies for guarding against common online security threats.
The Institute is eager to learn about the team’s recommendations for libraries and information professionals to improve financial literacy among older adults.
Institute Awardees for “Gamified Finance Simulator for Older Adults: A Financial Literacy and Vulnerability Intervention”:
Rachel Adler, associate professor in the School of Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsMarch 12th, 2025
By Samantha LeGrand, clinical assistant professor and instruction and design librarian
The disruptive wake of ChatGPT and other AI tools left many instructors wondering how to address AI in their teaching, namely how to prevent students’ unethical use. However, the surge of conversations about AI in education rarely includes student voices. Partners for Algorithmic Literacy (PAL) is a groundbreaking student-faculty learning community model where undergraduates and instructors partner to co-design collaborative teaching strategies to integrate or interrogate AI.
A key program offered by Purdue’s Institute for Information Literacy, PAL builds on Libraries faculty expertise in knowledge creation and learning design. Facilitated by Libraries faculty members Samantha LeGrand, Zoe Mayhook, and Jing Lu, PAL recognizes that students are core education stakeholders and should have a hand in decision-making. Two cohorts of competitively selected undergraduate and faculty partners (12 in fall 2023 and 19 in fall 2024) from majors and departments across campus have participated in this exciting new endeavor, producing unique curricular plans to be implemented in the participating faculty’s courses.
Faculty partner Kathryn Dilworth shared that her PAL “breakthrough” was “that we were all on the same page about the need for faculty to develop skills and a level of sophistication with AI…including academic integrity and ethics.” Abby Sabella, a student partner, described the value of seeing things from a faculty perspective: “It was thought-provoking to hear instructors explain their goals for encouraging students’ critical thinking and how that intersects with AI regulation. This led me to think about my own learning and how I can use AI to enhance my critical thinking skills rather than having AI think critically for me.”
Deliverables from partners participating in the program ranged from co-designed AI course policies to AI-integrated group projects to specialized chatbots developed to support disciplinary critical thinking.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsMarch 11th, 2025
Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies and The Eleventh House coffee shop are proud to partner with Corey Ewing, Indiana visual artist, to bring an exciting poetry slam to the Lafayette area. We invite all members of the community to attend this event and support your local poets!
Event details:
About the artist
Corey Ewing is a native of Indianapolis, IN and supports various poetic projects, including Indianapolis Poetry Slam, Word As Bond, Fighting Words Poetry, Cafe Creative and curates Vocab. Currently an artist at work with the Kheprw Institute, Ewing continues to teach, coach, and create as an interdisciplinary artist focusing on poetry and photography in Indy. Learn more about his work here.
March 6th, 2025
The Midwest Entrepreneurship Case Competition (MECC), now in its second year, has quickly gained recognition as a unique and valuable learning opportunity for undergraduate students across the Midwest. Setting itself apart from traditional business case competitions, MECC challenges participants to think critically, conduct independent research, and develop their strategies—skills essential for the next generation of entrepreneurs.
This competition isn’t just about solving hypothetical problems—it’s about fostering real-world entrepreneurial thinking and innovation. MECC provides an excellent platform for students to push the boundaries of creativity while honing the skills needed to succeed in the fast-paced business world.
This year’s challenge
The 2025 competition featured the “When Solutions are in Search of Problems: New Venture Creation in the Booming Market of Digital Speech Recognition” case from Sage Business Cases. The prompt, written by the event organizer, asked participants to utilize speech recognition technology developed by Witlingo to create a new or improved voice-operated service or application, with the Founder and CEO of Witlingo, Ahmed Bouzid participating as a distinguished judge in the final round.
Given the increasing demand for digital voice assistants and voice-controlled applications, this year’s challenge focused on the vast opportunities within the speech recognition market. Participants were asked to think beyond conventional uses and creatively apply Witlingo’s technology to develop innovative business solutions.
A total of 27 teams registered for the case competition. Competing teams represented five top universities: Purdue University, Michigan State University, Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Illinois Chicago. With so many talented teams involved, the event showcased the ingenuity and business acumen of students eager to make their mark in entrepreneurship.
Judges and feedback
The competition featured a panel of judges from leading academic institutions, each bringing their unique expertise to the table. In the first round, judges included:
The final round of judging featured:
These experienced judges provided valuable feedback to the teams, elevating the competition by ensuring that solutions were evidence-based and carefully scrutinized by subject-matter experts. Their insights were crucial in guiding participants as they refined their ideas and business strategies.
2025 winners
After a competitive and rigorous competition, the top teams were recognized for their outstanding innovation and business strategies. Congratulations to the following winners:
Partnership with Sage Business
The competition was proudly sponsored by Sage Business, whose support went beyond providing funding for the top teams. Sage’s contribution was significant as they offered invaluable resources to all participating teams, including access to Sage Business Cases, Sage Business Foundations, and Sage Data—essential tools for exploring multimedia case content, developing new business skills and knowledge, and conducting market analysis using real-world data.
Sage’s contribution extended to organizing training sessions for both teams and librarians, ensuring participants had the necessary resources to succeed. A special thank you to the Sage team: Rebecca Frankel, Rachel Taliaferro, Laura Berg, Maureen Adams, Emily Smith, Diana Aleman, Nicole Wu, and Jennifer Bourque, whose dedication helped ensure the competition’s smooth execution and success.
Looking ahead
The MECC’s success would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts of its planning committee. Congratulations to Zoeanna Mayhook (committee chair), Annette Bochenek, Liz Grauel, Terence O’Neill, and Ilana Stonebraker on planning a successful event. Their hard work, strategic planning, and attention to detail ensured the competition was an engaging and enriching experience for everyone involved.
As the MECC grows in participation, it remains a vital platform for students to hone their entrepreneurial skills. The 2025 competition was a testament to the participating teams’ talent, creativity, and collaboration.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsFebruary 26th, 2025
Rachel Fundator, clinical assistant professor at Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies, was named a 2025 Project Information Literacy Research Scholar. The Research Scholars program is organized by Project Information Literacy (PIL), a renowned non-profit research institute that conducts large-scale studies about how individuals conceive of and use information to solve problems in their lives. Since 2009, PIL has published studies about information use, including tracking news coverage during the first 100 days of the COVID-19 pandemic, student experiences with news and information in the age of algorithms, and how recent college graduates use information in the workplace.
Founder Alison J. Head developed the Research Scholars Program for mid-career librarians to advance their research practices while developing research projects that build upon PIL research studies within a collaborative, cross-institutional research community. The 2025 Research Scholars cohort will design new research studies that build upon PIL’s latest study, titled “How information worlds shape our response to climate change.” The study found that despite a growing consensus that climate change is real and that the United States population is experiencing extreme climate events more frequently, differences in people’s engagement with information about climate change are associated with differences in their beliefs and attitudes about how to respond to climate change.
Fundator shared her early plans for her research proposal, in which she will work with Purdue undergraduate researchers to conduct a study that addresses remaining questions that emerged from the PIL climate study findings:
“Through the PIL Research Scholars program, I aim to develop a qualitative interview study that investigates the experiences of college students who are knowledgeable and concerned about climate change as they engage in dialog about climate change with others who have different views than their own. As an information literacy researcher and educator, I of course want to know more about the various ways college students use information to have these conversations, as well as how those information practices shape their perceptions that the conversations are productive or unproductive. Knowing more about how information can shape conversations about sensitive topics, like the climate crisis, can inform recommendations for incorporating information literacy into relevant courses, climate change related organizations and programs, and more.”
Fundator will work closely with information literacy experts Alison Head, Kirsten Hotstetler, and Stephan Geofry, who developed and facilitate the Research Scholars program, as well as fellow PIL Research Scholars, Heather Ganshorn at the University of Calgary and Stephanie Founds at The Ohio State University.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsFebruary 21st, 2025
On Thursday, February 20, Douglas Rushkoff, an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy, gave a talk titled “Program or Be Programmed: The Biases of Digital Media.” Melissa Chomintra, a Libraries faculty member, hosted the event co-sponsored by Purdue University’s Tech Justice Lab.
About the talk
Throughout the talk, Rushkoff referenced his book “Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age,” providing a blueprint for navigating the challenges of the modern digital era. The book presents guidelines for using technology to empower individuals rather than diminish their agency. Rushkoff’s “Ten Commands” serve as a framework for maintaining autonomy in an increasingly digital world.
Rushkoff began his talk by discussing the history and evolution of digital technology. Initially, digital tools seemed ready to open up a world of potential and promised to unlock creativity, novelty, and a sense of freedom for its users. But over time, the vision and focus changed.
“We turned the Internet from a space of infinite possibility into one of probability,” Rushkoff said, reflecting on how commercialization shifted the focus of the digital world. The Internet, once a place for exploration and experimentation, has increasingly been used to guide behavior and influence actions in specific, profit-driven ways.
He also addressed the darker side of digital technology. “If you analyze how technology is being used today, it’s largely about domination, subjugation, and control,” he explained, setting the tone for a deep dive into how our digital landscape shapes—and limits—our autonomy.
Rushkoff urged the audience to evaluate the technologies we use daily: “When you look at a new piece of technology—an app, a platform—ask yourself, ‘Is it creating new possibilities, or is it shepherding?’” He also discussed the often-overlooked issue of labor behind technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting how these systems rely on invisible, often exploitative work.
The central theme of Rushkoff’s talk was the growing acceptance of new technologies without a true understanding of how they work and impact us. He emphasized that while we eagerly adopt new devices, we often fail to learn how they are programmed or how they program us in return. Most people don’t know how to code their computers, and even fewer are concerned with the underlying systems that govern these tools. Instead, we spend our energy using these technologies to manipulate and influence each other.
Rushkoff cautioned that this lack of awareness could be a serious mistake. By blindly adopting digital technologies, we surrender control over our autonomy.
Just as the invention of written language reshaped society—detaching us from much of our traditional ways of life—Rushkoff believes that our shift to the digital realm requires a new framework to preserve our humanity. He argued that understanding the biases inherent in digital media is key to ensuring that we use these tools to support, rather than undermine, our collective well-being.
About Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Rushkoff, named one of MIT’s “world’s ten most influential intellectuals,” is an author, documentarian, and expert on digital age autonomy. His twenty books include “Survival of the Richest” and “Team Human,” and he has produced PBS Frontline documentaries like “Generation Like” and “The Persuaders.” Rushkoff has coined terms such as “viral media” and “social currency” and advocates for using digital media for social justice. A professor at CUNY/Queens and research fellow at the Institute for the Future, he is also a columnist for Medium, with his novels and comics in development for film.Visit Rushkoff’s website to learn more about him and his work.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsFebruary 20th, 2025
On Wednesday, February 19, Purdue Libraries and the Black Cultural Center hosted a lecture by Georgetown Professor of Law and author Sheryll Cashin titled “Residential caste: How West Lafayette can transcend segregation and opportunity hoarding” in honor of Black History Month.
About the lecture
How does a community with a history of segregation and disenfranchisement move forward to heal, repair, and transform?
West Lafayette is similar to other cities where Black migrants have settled. As a law professor at Georgetown University, Cashin applied her theories to the specific contexts of various communities, drawing on examples of hope, transformation, and healing from different cities.
“America is where the residential caste is destroying opportunity, if high opportunity is sequestered only in certain places. Neither cities, nor struggling suburbs, nor far out rural hamlets are an engine of opportunity of this country anymore. We’re not the land of opportunity in this system of residential caste,” said Cashin in the lecture’s introductory video.
Cashin discussed Indianapolis and West Lafayette, and how both cities are affected by the residential caste system—a system of segregation that separates wealthy white neighborhoods from impoverished Black neighborhoods. This system creates inequality and opportunity gaps that are passed down through generations. She also talked about “redlining,” the illegal practice of denying financial services to neighborhoods based on race or ethnicity. Her lecture took a deep dive into the history of these practices and how they appear now in the 21st century.
She also provided hope and ways to begin repairing the residential caste system. Repair involves forming a multiracial coalition that advocates for policies promoting and uplifting vulnerable populations. Dismantling and repairing residential caste necessitates perfecting local multiracial democracy, which W. E. B. Du Bois referred to as abolition democracy.
“The residential caste is born of a very peculiar history of anti-blackness. If you can set aside that decades-long pathologizing of those folks, it frees your focus on evidence-based strategies that work and actually cost a lot less than what the state is spending now for surveilling, containing, policing and incarcerating these people,” she concluded.
About Sheryll Cashin
Sheryll Cashin, a law professor at Georgetown University, authors works focused on race relations and inequality in America. Her most recent publication, “White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality,” released in September 2021, reveals how the government established “ghettos” and wealthy white neighborhoods, solidifying a system of residential caste in the U.S. that serves as a core element of inequality, while advocating for abolition.
Cashin is a prominent member of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. She has served as an advisor on urban and economic policy during her time in the Clinton White House, focusing on community development in inner-city neighborhoods. Additionally, she was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, where her parents were political activists, she now lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.
View her website to learn more about Cashin and her work.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsFebruary 19th, 2025
On February 14, the Knowledge Lab celebrated its second anniversary with an exciting array of activities, including button-making, crochet, and origami. These hands-on crafts brought students together for a fun and festive day and provided a perfect opportunity to develop creative thinking skills while exploring new technologies and techniques.
Throughout the day, students were invited to express their appreciation for the lab by writing Valentine’s messages on paper hearts. Now displayed in the lab, these messages reflect the community the Knowledge Lab has fostered over the years. The anniversary event highlighted the lab’s mission to expose students to innovative offerings and showcased the lab as a space for exploration, experimentation, and skill-building.
About the lab
Located on the third floor of the Wilmeth Active Learning Center, the Knowledge Lab is a rapid prototyping space where the Purdue community can experiment with exploring and presenting their ideas using various materials, equipment, and software.
The space offers low-stakes resources such as a vinyl cutter, sewing machines, a Riso printer, a podcast booth, a heat press, yarns, cardboard, fabrics, and more. It serves as a first stop within a pipeline of opportunities on campus to actualize an idea and integrate the left-brain and right-brain.
Visit the Knowledge Lab website to learn more, borrow equipment, and view workshops and events.
Filed under: general, News and Announcements