Dr. Bradley Custer is a higher education policy expert in Washington, D.C. He was most recently an analyst at the U.S. Department of Education, where he resolved complex complaints from student loan borrowers. He was previously a researcher at the Center for American Progress and a student services administrator on public college and university campuses. He holds a Ph.D. in higher, adult, and lifelong education from Michigan State University.
SHOW NOTES:
Nicole A. Cooke is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and a Professor at the University of South Carolina. Her research and teaching interests include human information behavior, critical cultural information studies, LIS Education, and diversity and social justice in librarianship. She has been awarded the 2019 Association of Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2021 MLK Social Justice Award presented by the University of South Carolina, and the 2024 American Library Association (ALA) Lippincott award. She has edited and authored several books, including Information Services to Diverse Populations (2016) and Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-truth Era (2018). She is the Founding Editor of ALA Editions/Neal-Schuman’s Critical Cultural Information Studies series, and her latest book is The Legacy of Black Women in Librarianship: When They Dared to Be Powerful (2025).
SHOW NOTES:
The Legacy of Black Women in Librarianship: When They Dared to Be Powerful
Elizabeth Kamper has been teaching information literacy in libraries for 10 years and received their MSLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They are currently the Information Literacy Librarian and an Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Elizabeth also teaches in the University Honors Program on ‘Questions and the Spirit of Inquiry’ and ‘the Nature of Liberal Education’. Elizabeth has served on several university and national committees focusing on information literacy in university curriculum and held faculty fellowships supporting the campus freshman experience. Their research interests include criticality in information literacy, LGBTQIA+ librarians, wonder-led inquiry for research and writing, as well as using tabletop gaming to roleplay empathy in the classroom.
Gayle Porter holds the rank of Assistant Professor in the Gwendolyn Brooks Library at Chicago State University. She earned a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Brigham Young University and a Master’s degree in History from Chicago State University. As an academic librarian, her specialty is cataloging materials in all formats. Her research interests include cataloging and metadata description.
Hunter Dunlap is a tenured professor and systems librarian at Western Illinois University, where he serves as the Coordinator of Resource Management Services. Dunlap has written widely about technology and academic libraries over his 28-year career, including authoring the widely held book “Open Source Database Driven Web Development” (Chandos). The senior member of the (all) nine librarian faculty eliminated at Western (effective May 2025), he created the savewiulibrarians.org website to help mobilize support for academic librarianship at WIU, and beyond.
SHOW NOTES:
Save WIU Librarians
Subscribe to the Circulating Ideas newsletter for more!
Nora Wiltse has been a school librarian with Chicago Public Schools since 2003. After 20 years in K to 8th grade elementary schools, she now works at King College Prep High School in the Kenwood neighborhood. Since 2012, Nora has advocated against the rapid loss of librarians in the Chicago Public Schools district. She is the chair of the Chicago Teachers Union Librarian Committee and a member of the 2024 contract bargaining team. Nora hopes to gain more job security for all librarians, as well as more librarian positions, in the next union contract. You can email her at norawiltse@gmail.com. You can follow CTU’s Librarian Committee on Instagram or X @ctulibrarians.
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including his book Knowledge as a Feeling: How Neuroscience and Psychology Impact Human Information Behavior was published by Rowman & Littlefield. His Ph.D. research focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy in 2016. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campus’ Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL. Additionally, he serves as Legislative Chair for Cook County College Teachers Union which serves 5,000 community college employees.
SHOW NOTES:
Subscribe to the Circulating Ideas newsletter for more info about this episode and its guest!
Wayne Bivens-Tatum is the Librarian for Philosophy, Religion, and Anthropology at the Princeton University Library. He has taught academic writing at the University of Illinois and Princeton University and courses on librarianship for the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences and Rutgers University’s Department of Library and Information Science. He currently teaches college English classes to incarcerated students in New Jersey state prisons as a volunteer with Princeton’s Prison Teaching Initiative. He’s published two books, Libraries and the Enlightenment and Virtue Information Literacy, both with Library Juice Press.
SHOW NOTES:
Libraries and the Enlightenment
Virtue Information Literacy
Subscribe to the Circulating Ideas newsletter for more!
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campus’s Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL.
SHOW NOTES:
Subscribe (FREE!) to the Circulating Ideas newsletter!
Knowledge as a Feeling: How Neuroscience and Psychology Impact Human Information Behavior
CJ Ivory is an Associate Professor and Librarian at the University of West Georgia, where she teaches Information Literacy & Research. With expertise in open education resources and textbook alternatives, she serves as a Library Champion for Affordable Learning Georgia, a statewide initiative. She has been awarded grants for developing open textbooks in the fields of teacher education and chemistry. Professor Ivory recently published a book with ACRL Press titled “Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice.”
Additionally, she teaches courses helping librarians develop their diversity and inclusion skills through Library Juice Academy. She has been invited to speak on these topics in academic libraries and professional organizations. Professor Ivory’s commitment to providing inclusive and equitable educational resources aligns with her passion for social justice education.
Angela Pashia has over a decade of experience as an academic librarian focusing on teaching critical information literacy, mentoring colleagues, working against structural oppression within libraries, and growing as a collaborative leader. Angela is currently a professor / learning & research support librarian at a regional comprehensive university. Angela is also an academic career and leadership development coach, supporting faculty and librarians in aligning their work with their core values, so that they can focus more on things that bring meaning to their life and less on things that are just chores that drain their energy. Angela teaches several courses at the Library Juice Academy. Learn more at https://angelapashia.com/
Mary Ann Cullen is an associate professor and Associate Department Head at Georgia State University’s Alpharetta Campus. She has been involved in the open and affordable educational resources movement since 2013, when she participated in the adaptation of an OER text for an introductory English composition course. Since then, she has assisted faculty with OER adoption and grants, and presented about librarians’ roles in OER at ACRL, the Distance Library Services Conference, and a Carterette Series webinar. She has been recognized as an Affordable Learning Georgia Featured Advocate and co-edited the Fall 2020 special edition of the academic journal, Library Trends, “OER and the Academic Library,” with Elizabeth Dill, in addition to the ACRL book, Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy, discussed in this podcast.
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. He is also the President of the Moraine Valley Faculty Association. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campuses Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL.
SHOW NOTES:
Subscribe (FREE!) to the Circulating Ideas newsletter!
Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy
Using Open Educational Resources to Promote Social Justice
Alison J. Head, Ph.D. is an information scientist and social science researcher. She is the founder and director of Project Information Literacy (PIL), a national research institute that studies what it is like to find, use, and evaluate information in the digital age as students and lifelong learners. In a series of 12 groundbreaking research studies with a collective sample of nearly 21,000 undergraduates from U.S. colleges and universities, PIL has investigated how college students and recent graduates utilize research skills, competencies, and strategies for completing course work and for solving information problems and engaging with news in everyday life. Dr. Head’s research about today’s students and their information practices began with a small study at Saint Mary’s College of California, where she taught new media as the Roy O. Disney Visiting Professor in New Media for 10 years. More about Dr. Head’s research and PIL is available at: http://projectinfolit.org/
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. He is also the President of the Moraine Valley Faculty Association. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campuses Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL.
SPONSOR:
Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing.
Today’s show is brought to you by Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing. Syndetics Unbound helps public and academic libraries enrich their catalogs and discovery systems with high-interest elements, including reader’s advisory, cover images, summaries, author profiles, similar books, reviews, and more. Syndetics Unbound encourages serendipitous discovery and higher collection usage, and was awarded Platinum distinction in the LibraryWorks 2021 Modern Library Awards
To learn more about Syndetics Unbound, visit Syndetics.com. While there, be sure to visit the Syndetics Unbound Blog for news and analysis, including a break-down of libraries’ top titles and other stories of interest to the library community. Again, that’s Syndetics.com, to learn more about today’s sponsor, Syndetics Unbound.
SHOW NOTES:
Subscribe (FREE!) to the Circulating Ideas newsletter!
Project Information Literacy
Jacoby Cochran is a writer, educator, and storyteller. He is the award winning host of City Cast Chicago, which was named Best of 2021 by the Chicago Reader and Chicago Magazine calls it “the essential Chicago podcast.” You can also catch Jacoby discussing news, sports, culture and events on Chicago’s NPR and PBS stations. As a performer, keynote speaker, and workshop leader, Jacoby has partnered with corporate clients (Google, Spotify, AT&T, Chicago Bulls, Best Buy, Kohl’s); academic institutions (DePaul University, City Colleges, Syracuse University); and non-profits (The Moth, Boys & Girls Club, American Writers Museum).
Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian and Library Department Chair at Moraine Valley Community College. He is also the President of the Moraine Valley Faculty Association. Troy is the author or editor of several books and articles including co-editor of Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from ARCL’s Instruction Section. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of technology policy in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which issued the Framework for Information Literacy. Over his tenure as a librarian and educator, Troy has won his campuses Master Teacher and Innovation of the Year awards, as well as the Proquest Innovation in College Librarianship award from ACRL.
SPONSOR:
Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing.
Today’s show is brought to you by Syndetics Unbound, from ProQuest and LibraryThing. Syndetics Unbound helps public and academic libraries enrich their catalogs and discovery systems with high-interest elements, including reader’s advisory, cover images, summaries, author profiles, similar books, reviews, and more. Syndetics Unbound encourages serendipitous discovery and higher collection usage, and was awarded Platinum distinction in the LibraryWorks 2021 Modern Library Awards
To learn more about Syndetics Unbound, visit Syndetics.com. While there, be sure to visit the Syndetics Unbound Blog for news and analysis, including a break-down of libraries’ top titles and other stories of interest to the library community. Again, that’s Syndetics.com, to learn more about today’s sponsor, Syndetics Unbound.
SHOW NOTES:
Subscribe (FREE!) to the Circulating Ideas newsletter!
City Cast Chicago
Dr. Virginia Campbell is an experienced Emergency and Palliative Medicine physician with a long-standing interest in the brain and consciousness. For over 15 years, she has hosted the Brain Science podcast where she has interviewed leading neuroscientists sharing recent discoveries and exploring ideas from the frontlines of research. The Brain Science podcast has been one of the top-ranking podcasts in Medicine on iTunes enjoying over 12 million downloads.
Dr. Campbell believes that understanding how the brain works gives us insight into what makes us human. She is also committed to showing how the scientific method has unraveled many long-standing mysteries.
Dr. Campbell has also hosted the Graying Rainbows: Coming out LGBT+ Later in Life and the Books and Ideas Podcast both of which are no longer in production but are still feely available online.
In 2022, Dr. Campbell was selected as a member of the Podcaster Hall of Fame.
SHOW NOTES:
Circulating Ideas 