Librarians are stretched thin these days-budget cuts and decreasing numbers are forcing us to look at new ways of doing things. While the embedded information literacy model has gained popularity in the past number of years, it may be time for a new model of information literacy. We must arm teaching faculty with the tools they need to teach information literacy to their students. Ideas and examples of how academic librarians can weave information literacy into the teaching culture on campus, and provide instruction to faculty members on how to teach research and information skills to their classes, are explored. By meeting faculty members in their usual 'learning spheres' we can show them a more holistic perspective on information literacy and give them examples of how libraries can help them in their own teaching and research, thus encouraging them to transfer some of that knowledge to their students.

Library Administration at the University of Lethbridge recently decided to explore options for providing information literacy instruction to students enrolled in the introductory academic writing course at the University's two satellite locations. This was motivated both by fiscal restraints as well as a desire to explore using information technology to provide enhanced library service to satellite campus students on an ongoing basis. After conducting an extensive literature review, a scan of practices for distance learning in libraries at other institutions, and exploring a variety of technological options, it was decided that information literacy sessions would be provided at these campuses via a live Skype video call. In the Fall of 2010, this was attempted with five sections of Writing 1000. Despite some technical challenges, this pilot was determined to be largely successful. In the Spring 2011 term a similar project was undertaken with some minor modifications based on the lessons learned in the previous term. In addition, students were provided with additional information literacy instruction via online tutorials that were developed for Writing 1000 students at all three locations, including the main campus. This paper provides a broad outline of the current climate in adult information literacy for distance education students according to our research. The successes, challenges and lessons learned from our pilot project are also shared.

To learn about the experiences of librarians working through COVID-19, we conducted semi-structured interviews with academic librarians from across Canada on issues such as workload, collegiality, and overall satisfaction with their working conditions during the pandemic. Themes emerged around job security, workload changes (both in terms of hours worked and the type of work being done), working from home, relationships with colleagues and administrators (including the perceived speed of the institution’s pandemic response and the state of communication from or with administration), and hopes for the future. This article focuses on the semantic elements of librarian work during COVID-19 uncovered during thematic analysis, including an in-depth discussion of how academic librarians’ workload changed; a second planned article will focus on latent themes on the caring nature of library work. This study connects isolated individual situations with the overall picture of what librarians’ work looked and felt like during the COVID-19 pandemic. For library administrators, we identify the ways in which institutional support helped or hindered librarians in doing their work.

Today's post-secondary students are digital natives. Much has been said and written about how to reach this generation, and the consensus seems to be that we need to meet them on their turf. In this session, presented at WILU 2011 in Regina, SK, two librarians from the University of Lethbridge shared their experiences with using technology to engage students in library instruction. The hands-on session introduced some simple tools librarians can learn quickly and apply to spice up their instruction with technology. These include creating online animated videos using Xtranormal, a lowcost way to create polished and humorous videos to introduce or summarize key information literacy concepts; and adding interactive polling to PowerPoint presentations using a tool called Poll Everywhere, which is an effective way to instantly engage students in instruction using the web or web-enabled devices. Interactive polling eliminates many of the challenges of using clickers which are prevalent in many postsecondary library instruction environments. The presenters also discussed how they have experimented with wikis to encourage active learning and student collaboration in a series of library instruction sessions. Wikis allow for free and paperless student participation in knowledge creation in an online forum. Finally, they demonstrated how they have used Skype to deliver library instruction at a distance, including the use of the screen sharing feature. The presenters stressed the ease of use of these free or lowcost tools to improve classroom engagement and add interest to sessions.

In keeping with this month’s theme of trustworthy information, the editors of this column have written about the ways that libraries have capitalized on the currency of this topic to market themselves and their information literacy programs.—Editors