Authors: Tess Grynoch, Negeen Aghassibake, Alisa B. Rod, and Angela M. Zoss
The Visualizing the Future (VTF) Symposia is an IMLS National Forum Grant-funded community of praxis focused on envisioning the future of data visualization services and instruction, made up of librarians and information professionals from institutions across the United States and Canada. One of the aims of the VTF Symposia is to advance data visualization instruction and move beyond hands-on, technology-based tutorials toward a nuanced, critical understanding of visualization as a research product and form of expression. While the Symposia approached this goal from multiple angles, one of the deliverables which directly addressed this aim is a series of instructional modules for librarians to reuse in their own classes. Recognizing that librarians teach to a wide range of audiences and in different settings, we knew that the modules needed to be flexible to meet the needs of as many librarians as possible from the start. The resulting modules, "Ethics in Data Visualization" and "Data Visualization 101", were designed with flexibility in mind and contain suggested content for different lengths of time, instructor notes on where different examples can be substituted, and a mixture of small group and whole class activities that could be run in-person or online. The poster will outline the elements that provide the flexibility for these modules without compromising accessibility and how the modules can be reused by librarians and other information professionals in their own instruction.