{"id":21677,"date":"2019-09-21T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T04:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=21677"},"modified":"2025-05-09T12:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T16:06:08","slug":"serving-up-outreach-with-a-side-of-information-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/serving-up-outreach-with-a-side-of-information-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Serving up Outreach with a Side of Information Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Information literacy can add new dimension to outreach programs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> The ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee is continuing its series of blog posts on incorporating intellectual freedom and information literacy into cornerstone, everyday library programs. Just like sneaking healthy food into a kid\u2019s meal, these techniques will enrich the work you already do as a librarian. For this post, we\u2019ll focus on tips for incorporating information literacy into outreach programming for kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consider these tips to build information literacy skills at any age:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tip 1: create opportunities for kids to brainstorm and come up with good questions about things they\u2019d like to know (Identifying the information need).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tip 2: help kids become aware of tools they can use to answer their questions -library materials, community groups, and individual experts (Planning how to find information).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tip 3: provide practice in using keyword searches, taking notes, and designing things like simple surveys or interview questions. (Gathering information)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tip 4: show how to look critically at sources, identify high-quality information, and investigate questionable claims (Evaluating sources).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tip 5: have your participants put their information to some use, help them with strategies for presenting it effectively (Organizing and communicating information).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Outreach is critical for extending service to non-users or underserved groups. Effective outreach for children often involves community partnerships -childcare providers, schools, shelters, hospitals, summer camps, or local festivals, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are 2 sample programs to try. Adapt them to fit your community!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-theme-nutrition-nbsp-nbsp-nbsp-nbsp-skills-collect-and-use-data\"><strong>THEME<\/strong>: Nutrition&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<strong>SKILLS<\/strong>: Collect and use data<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Am I eating a nutritious lunch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following a shared lunch (perhaps through outreach programs like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fns.usda.gov\/sfsp\/summer-food-service-program\">Summer Food Service<\/a>), read and share books relating to the elements of good nutrition, like <em>How did that Get in My Lunchbox?<\/em> (C. Butterworth) or <em>The Monster Health Book<\/em> (E. Miller).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What food groups are represented in today\u2019s lunch? Are the meals balanced?\u00a0<em style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">Search for nutrition information<\/em><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">, using related nonfiction titles or materials from sites like <\/span><a style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/healthy-lifestyle\/childrens-health\/in-depth\/nutrition-for-kids\/art-20049335\">Nutrition for Kids<\/a><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\"> (Mayo Clinic), or the USDA\u2019s <\/span><a style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.choosemyplate.gov\/ten-tips-choose-myplate\">Choose My Plate<\/a><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\"> site.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Which foods are most popular? How can we find out?\u00a0<em style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">Create a survey, gather and organize results, produce a visual representation<\/em><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For older kids: Provide nutrition labels for a variety of food products. Using these, challenge kids to assemble a healthy menu, for a meal or a day. EatRight, from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, has some accessible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eatright.org\/food\/nutrition\/nutrition-facts-and-food-labels\/the-basics-of-the-nutrition-facts-label\">information on reading nutrition labels<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-theme-weather-forecasting-nbsp-nbsp-nbsp-nbsp-skills-identifying-information-need-locating-information\"><strong>THEME<\/strong>: Weather forecasting&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>SKILLS<\/strong>: Identifying information need; locating information<\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Why are weather forecasts important, and how do we find out about the weather?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This topic could be of particular interest to kids taking part in outdoor programs, such as those provided through local parks departments.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You can get the conversation started by appearing in clothes that are inappropriate for the weather that day (a big coat in summer; flip-flops in winter\u2026). How do you know what to wear for the day?<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Share the book <em>Rain<\/em> by Manja Stojic and discuss ways we can tell when the weather is changing.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Talk about the value of weather forecasts.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">How do we know what the weather will be (what are some sources)?<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What\u2019s the forecast for tomorrow?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Close the session by reading about the completely outlandish weather conditions in Judi Barrett\u2019s <em>Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Liz Hartnett is a Program Coordinator at the South Carolina Center for Community Literacy, part of the University of South Carolina\u2019s School of Library and Information Science, and a co-chair of the ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee. Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competency: Programming Skills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Information literacy can add new dimension to outreach programs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[272,1604,53,1607],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-intellectual-freedom-committee","category-competencies-for-librarians-serving-children-in-public-libraries","category-information-literacy","category-programming-skills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}