Meme Maker

Maggie Murphy is known for her expansive collaborative creativity when it comes to transforming information literacy instruction at the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) libraries and across the country. Says Murphy, "I really want students in all disciplines to think about art and visual media as sources of information alongside textual information sources," she says.

Collaborating with colleagues, including 2016 Library Journal paralibrarian of the year Brown Biggers, Murphy conceived and launched the "Uplifting Memes" series. By shifting her approach to information literacy to focus on concept-driven online tutorials, and by incorporating infographic literacy into the program, Murphy "breathed new life into our information literacy program" says Jenny Dale, UNCG information literacy coordinator and one of several who nominated Murphy.

The Uplifting Memes series features guest speakers; interactive workshops on topics such as creativity, visual literacy, and information ethics; a student art contest and show; and a student-curated digital meme collection (though sadly, at press time, in-person programming had been canceled due to COVID-19). "Part of what makes this project so noteworthy…is that it brings together information and visual literacy skills with a core focus on students as information creators," says Dale. Participants learn about copyright and public domain, visual rhetoric, and analogy pedagogy.

Murphy’s collaborations around visual literacy extend across campus, to other universities, and through professional networks. On the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Visual Literacy Task Force, Murphy looks forward to aligning the existing Visual Literacy Competency Standards with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education.