NEWS For Immediate Release March 25, 2013

Contact: David Free

CHICAGO - Korey Brunetti, associate librarian and collections coordinator at California State University, East Bay; Amy R. Hofer, distance learning librarian at Portland State University; and Lori Townsend, learning services coordinator at the University of New Mexico, have been chosen as the winners of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section (IS) Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award, for their article “Threshold Concepts and Information Literacy,” published in 2011 by portal: Libraries and the Academy. The award recognizes an outstanding publication related to library instruction published in the past two years.  

The award, donated by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., consists of a plaque and a cash prize of $3,000. Brunetti, Hofer and Townsend will receive the award during the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. 

“Any librarian who has struggled with turning theory into practice when it comes to information literacy instruction will appreciate this article,” said award committee co-chairs Erin Ellis of the University of Kansas and Robin Kear of the University of Pittsburgh. “The awards committee appreciates this excellent mix of the theoretical and practical and believes it presents a new and exciting way to think of what and how we teach.

“It offers ‘a way to focus and prioritize instructional content’ in ways that lead to more engaged learning. The authors present a model through threshold concepts that can truly transform information literacy teaching, as well as students' understanding of information literacy and its relevance. This article provides great potential in moving the conversation on effective information literacy teaching forward.”

Brunetti received his MLIS from San Jose State University and his B.A. from Bradford College. He has taught Introduction to Information Literacy to first year students at California State University, East Bay since 2006. He applied threshold concepts theory in the context of this class and also adapted it for online delivery.

Hofer received her MLIS from San Jose State University and her B.A. from Brown University. She taught information literacy to a variety of populations since 2007 and applies the threshold concepts approach developed with her coauthors to the fully online credit course that she currently teaches.

Townsend received her MLIS from San Jose State University and her B.A. from the University of New Mexico (UNM). She has taught information literacy for seven years. In her new position as learning services coordinator, she hopes to lead the UNM University Libraries in building an online curriculum informed by the threshold concepts approach

For more information regarding the ACRL IS Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award, or a complete list of past recipients, please visit the ACRL awards website.

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ACRL is a division of the American Library Association, representing more than 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians.  Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.ACRL is on the Web at http://www.acrl.org/, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ala.acrl and Twitter at @ala_acrl.

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