To some, climate change is a simple scientific question to be answered with data while to others climate change is a misguided hoax that could cost our country jobs and hurt out economy. UNM University Libraries is hosting a speaker series looking at these different perspectives and how they impact thought processes.  

Troy Swanson, library department chair at Moraine Valley Community College, will present a morning talk and afternoon workshops on Wednesday, March 20 in Zimmerman Library. The free event will include refreshments at 9:30 a.m. and the program will begin at 10 a.m. in the Willard Room in Zimmerman Library, where Swanson will give a talk titled, “The Mechanics of Skepticism: What Climate Change can Teach Us About Belief and Reason.”

The decisions made around climate change can help researchers understand the mechanics of skepticism and reason. This talk will seek to recognize the interconnections between the affective and cognitive aspects of decision-making. It will consider how educators can better reveal the personal nature of information to our students.

The afternoon will begin at noon with a lunch for registered workshop attendees and then a two part workshop, “Library as Podcast Platform: Creating a Podcast Infrastructure” starting at 1 p.m.

The podcast presentation will include information on the infrastructure at Moraine Valley Community College, including conceptual approaches, hardware, software and staff training. During the first part of the presentation, participants will emerge from the workshop a basic understanding of podcasting, potential applications to the college classroom and the role of libraries in facilitating this content creation. Participants in the second part of the workshop will record and publish a podcast about information literacy.

Register for the afternoon using these links:

Part 1 | 1 – 2:30 p.m.  Overview of Podcasting and MVCC program

Part 2 | 3 – 5 p.m. Recording an “Information Literacy” Focused Podcast

Swanson is library department chair at Moraine Valley Community College where he teaches information literacy and coordinates the library's online presence. He has published on social media, website usability and information literacy. Swanson co-edited the book, Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think About Information, which received the Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award from the Association of College and Research Libraries’ instruction section. In 2017 and 2018, he guest hosted a series of interviews on fake news for the Circulating Ideas podcast. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on the management of Web 2.0 in higher education. He served on ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force which drafted the Framework for Information Literacy.