CURRENT POSITION Lead Teaching & Learning Librarian/PhD Candidate in Information Studies, University of Maryland DEGREE MLIS, University of Maryland, 2019 FAST FACT Jennings-Roche is a registered yoga teacher who sometimes teaches at libraries and library conferences. FOLLOW linkedin.com/in/allison-jennings-roche-146b16162; The Political Librarian; orcid.org/0000-0003-3477-4656 Photo by Corey Jennings

Understanding Information

Librarians shape how the public interacts with information. In her scholarship, as in her instruction, Allison Jennings-Roche aims to seize opportunities to make people think critically about libraries as public institutions and about the information systems that impact their lives. As lead teaching and learning librarian at Towson University and a PhD Candidate in Information Studies at the University of Maryland, Jennings-Roche teaches students, faculty, and librarians that research is “really about understanding systems of information, and how they work within society, how you can interact with them,” she says.

Jennings-Roche has written and published on the topic of intellectual freedom in the United States, exploring “how libraries exist as a civic institution within American society.” She examines political influence on libraries and recent pushes to remove materials from library shelves, reframing the conversation around book banning and how people respond to censorship. “It’s not really about the books, it’s about controlling who is and isn’t allowed to be heard in the public sphere,” she says. She has also published and presented with colleagues about how models of instruction are grounded in deficit thinking, leading others to look for more effective methods of teaching information literacy and writing.

She employs culturally responsive practices in her instruction, acknowledging that everyone brings their own experiences to information seeking. Ultimately, her goal is for students to leave her instruction as engaged citizens, thinking critically about the information around them— a lifelong skill.