Presentation given by Tom Ipri about Transliteracy for the Northeast Chapter of PaLA.

1. Tom Ipri
Media Arts and Design Librarian
Drexel University, Philadelphia PA

2.  Smartphone
ownership among
American adults has
risen from 35% in 2011
to 46% in 2012

3.  74% of smartphone owners use their phone
to get real-time location-based information
 18% use a geosocial service to “check-in”

4.  The median teen text user sends 60 texts a
day

5.  70% of cell phone users and 86% of
smartphone users have:
 Coordinated a meeting or get-together
 Solved an unexpected problem
 Decided whether to visit a business
 Found info to settle an argument
 Looked up sports scores
 Got traffic or public transit info
 Got help in an emergency situation

6. 62% of the entire adult population

7.  Number of adults
using Twitter every
day has doubled since
2011
 21% of Americans
have read an e-book in
the past year

8.  10% of Americans have donated to charity
via text message
 33% have made a banking transaction on
their smartphone

9.  Of adults who use the Internet:
 80% have looked online for information about
health topics
 34% have read someone else’s commentary or
experience about health issues
 25% have watched a video about health issues
 24% have read reviews of drugs or medical
treatments

10.  A bill circulating in NC would force
scientists to estimate future sea levels on a
linear path based on trends since 1900

11.  According to
Symantec, users are 3x
more likely to
encounter malware on
religious sites than
porn sites

12.  According to the research group, The 4th
Estate, men are quoted in the media nearly
5x more often than women in matters of
abortion, birth control and Planned
Parenthood

13. How do we understand and navigate these
unprecedented changes?
How do we negotiate plentiful media options
to create a reasonable picture of the world?

15. Media Arts and Design Liaison Librarian
 Animation  Graphic Design
 Architecture  Interior Design
 Art and Art History  Music
 Dance  Performing Arts
 Digital Media  Photography
 Fashion Design  Product Design
 Film & Video
 Game Art

16.  Head, Media and Computer Services, 2007-
2011, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
 Media Librarian, 2000-2007, La Salle
University

18.  Origins are not from  Different
the library world interpretations even
among us
 Very new and working
definitions are still
evolving

19.  Cross-disciplinary
Transliteracies Project group,
headed by Alan Liu,
Department of English UC
Santa Barbara
 Research in the Technical,
Social, and Cultural Practices
of Online Reading

20. 1. The negotiation between technology and usage
to create a material practice of reading
 Blended realms of technology & human experience
 Innovations in technology and usage
2. The negotiation between individual and social
practices of reading

21. 3. The negotiation between media
4. The negotiation between historical and
contemporary reading practices
 Inherited conventions and expectations
 Recent inventions and improvisations

22.  Sue Thomas,
professor of New
Media at De Montfort
U
 2005: attended
Translieracies
conference and has
since built upon their
research

23. “the ability to read, write and interact across a
range of platforms, tools and media from
signing and orality through handwriting,
print, TV, radio and films, to digital social
networks.”

24.  Transliterate: “to write or print a letter or
word using the closest corresponding
letters of a different alphabet or language.”

27.  Government agencies no longer issuing
print forms
 Health insurance plan has website and you
have an account
 Banks are sending alerts via text messaging
 Social media privacy setting are complex
and constantly changing

28. “For many people all of the above are new
experiences. Experiences they can have with
no training, no supervision and no support.”

29. Libraries and Transliteracy Blog, Feb 2010

30.  June 2010 LITA
Interest Group
approved
 Nov 2010,
“Introducing
Transliteracy: What
Does It Mean to
Academic Libraries?”

31.  June 2011 “Why Transliteracy?” presentation
at ALA Annual with Bobbi Newman,
Gretchen Caserotti & Lane Wilkinson

32.  What it means to be literate in the 21st
Century by analyzing the relationship
between people and technology, most
specifically social networking, but it is fluid
enough to not be tied to any particular
technology.
 Focuses on the social uses of technology.

34.  Mapping meaning across different
media, understanding ways various means of
communication interact
 Understanding, not necessarily teaching, the
skills necessary to move effortlessly from one
medium to another
 Not about learning disparate literacies in
isolation from one another but about the
interaction among all these literacies

35.  Because it is technology independent, it
can be seen as an umbrella term that
accommodates many other “literacies”
 Sue Thomas: “a unifying ecology of not just
media, but of all literacies relevant to
reading, writing, interaction and culture”

36.  Not so much about skill sets as about
outcomes
 Analytical/ pedagogical conundrum

37.  Are we looking at a
skill set, and, if so, are
those skills teachable?
 How does
transliteracy relate to
information literacy?

38.  Explores the participatory nature of new
means of communicating
 Social construction of knowledge
 Breaks down barriers between academia and
the wider community
 Calls into question standard notions of what
constitutes authority by emphasizing the
benefits of knowledge sharing

39.  “Reframing Information Literacy as a
Metaliteracy.”
 Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson
 College & Research Libraries, Jan 2011

40.  “promotes critical thinking and
collaboration in a digital age, providing a
comprehensive framework to effectively
participate in social media and online
communities…

41.  …It is a unified construct that supports the
acquisition, production, and sharing of
knowledge in collaborative online
communities.”

42.  “Standard definitions of information
literacy are insufficient for the
revolutionary social technologies currently
prevalent online.”

44.  Are IL standards enough to support the
growing research with how people
currently communicate across various
media, how they produce information in
myriad forms and formats, and how they
establish rapidly expanding social
networks?

45.  Yes?
 No?
 Maybe?

46.  Should these standards be expanded to
encompass these issues, or should
transliteracy proponents adopt clear
standards and define specific skills to
supplement information literacy?

47.  Not only question previous assumptions of
authority, it also calls into question the
often assumed privilege of printed text

48.  ALA Committee on Literacy defines literacy
as the ability to use “printed and written
information to function in society, to
achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s
knowledge and potential.”

49.  Not unique in questioning this bias
 Is unique in
 Combining democratizing communication
formats
 Expressing no preference of one over the other
 Emphasizing the social construction of
meaning via diverse media

51.  What is important is not just transferring
information but creating an information
narrative that evolves over time and adds
value
 Libraries can help add value for patrons by
allowing patrons to contribute to the social
construction of knowledge bases

52.  Because of the ways in which transliteracy
questions authority and devalues
hierarchical structures proponents tend to
advocate for issues that help level the
information playing field, such as ensuring
net neutrality and bridging the digital
divide

53.  So much of transliteracy overlaps concerns
much at the heart of librarianship
 Librarians can incorporate these new ideas
into the ways they assist patrons with
accessing, understanding, and producing
information

54. Tom Ipri
Media Arts and Design Librarian
W.W. Hagerty Library
Drexel University
Philadelpia, PA
thomasipri@gmail.com
tomipri.net

55.  Statistics from: Pew Internet & American Life Project -
http://www.pewinternet.org/
 North Carolina considers outlawing accurate predictions
of sea level rise - http://io9.com/5914378/north-carolina-
considers-outlawing-accurate-predictions-of-sea-level-
rise
 Unprotected Sects:
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/20
12/05/malware_and_computer_viruses_they_ve_left_porn
_sites_for_religious_sites_.html

56.  Men Rule Media Coverage of Women’s News:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/31/men-
rule-media-coverage-of-women-s-news.html

57.  smartphone show08
 jontintinjordan
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/jontintinjordan/296580748
8/
 Earth from Mars
 NASA Goddard Photo and Video
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4542423536/
 Texting
 woohoo_megoo
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/themegster/3363714747/

58.  eBook Reader
 goXunuReviews
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/43602175@N06/407001882
8/
 Tiny Crashing Waves
 michaelnpatterson
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelnpatterson/504287
7045/
 Bailey Surfs the Internet
 lakewentworth
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/roome/3470135915/

59.  Group of fifteen men posed in front of a large wall
 Powerhouse Museum Collection
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/3310
075525/
 Office View 1
 Tom Ipri
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomspix/802360548/in/set
-72157600800200347
 Ancient Scrolls at the Shanghai Museum
 farflungistan
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/farflungistan/7180169864/

60.  Transliteracy Unconference
 Meg Pickard
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/meg/1383504812/
 Transliteracies Project
 http://transliteracies.english.ucsb.edu/category/research-
project
 Sue Thomas
 Runran
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/runran/2150561274/in/phot
ostream/

61.  Transliteration
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transliteration
 Libraries Need to Focus on Transliteracy
 http://librarianbyday.net/2009/09/16/libraries-need-to-focus-
on-transliteracy/
 lita
 http://www.ala.org/lita/
 Why Transliteracy
 Librarian by Day
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianbyday/5869956201/

62.  Tantek Multitasking
 Thomas Hawk
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/3071055422/
 Teaching Excellence
 ucentralarkansas
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucentralarkansas/4535060
043/
 InfoLit
 Librarian by Day
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianbyday/6746182269

63.  Question Mark
 Doug Caldwell
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougcaldwell/4214603256/
 books
 Robert Couse-Baker
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/29233640@N07/6101573515
/
 High School Sucks
 beX out loud
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/bex_x_pi/3180576600/