For this session, we will be discussing the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2011) with the understanding that arts information professionals are currently working towards bridging current visual literacy competencies and learning outcomes with the more flexible ACRL Information Literacy Framework (2016) model.
Join us to gain a better understanding of visual literacy, critical visual literacy, and tactile and visual literacies using special collections. Together we'll discuss a lacunae in the literature around the intersection of critical visual literacy, special collections materials (especial modern & contemporary collections), and the art and design student.
The Special Collections Librarian will be facilitating short activities and brief discussions to get us thinking about how to effectively engage student-creators with our local special collections holdings as they learn to find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media.
No required reading, although taking a look through the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education would be a helpful place to begin.
Rebel, Janelle. TALL Workshop: Visual Literacy + Special Collections. March 29, 2021.
Visual Literacy Background Information & Bibliographies
ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education
ACRL Visual Literacy Task Force, “Resources”
Meeks, Amanda. Alignment Charts for ACRL Information Literacy Framework, Information Literacy Standards, and Visual Literacy Standards. Google Doc.
Visual Literacy Today (The Curved House publishers), see the searchable bibliography “Recommended Reads”
Topical Professional Associations & Their Publications
Art Libraries Society of North America and Art Documentation (link to Goldstein Library's subscription)
Art Libraries Society UK & Ireland and Art Libraries Journal (link to Goldstein Library's subscription)
Association of College & Research Libraries and College & Research Libraries and RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage (link to Goldstein Library's subscription)
International Visual Literacy Association and Journal of Visual Literacy (link to Goldstein Library's subscription)
Critical Visual Literacy for Art and Design Students
Grimm, Stephanie, and Amanda Meeks. “Break the Stereotype! Critical Visual Literacy in Art and Design Librarianship.” Art Documentation 36, no. 2 (2017): 173–190.
Meeks, Amanda. “Learning to Look Critically: Teaching and Learning Visual Literacy in Art and Design Librarianship.” Art Libraries Journal 42, no. 2 (2017): 89–94.
Tactile and Visual Literacies in/with Special Collections
Badhe, Anne, Heather Smedberg, and Mattie Taormina. Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2014). See for example the chapters, “Picturing the Past: Introducing Special Collections Research through Photographs,” “Book Illustration and Cultural Change: Reading Visual Images in Context,” “Exploring Artists’ Books,” and “Judging a Book by Its Cover.”
Garland, Jennifer. “Locating Traces of Hidden Visual Culture in Rare Books and Special Collections: A Case Study in Visual Literacy.” Art Documentation 33, no. 2 (2014): 313–326.
Related Art Museum Education Resources
New Museum of Contemporary Art. Rethinking Contemporary Art and Multicultural Education. Edited by Eungie Joo and Joseph Keehn II with Jenny Ham-Roberts. New York: Routledge, 2011.
Resources for Academic Art Museum Professionals (RAAMP, a special project of CAA)