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Information science is increasingly focused on giving voice to marginalized communities, improving their daily lives, and contributing to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). However, challenges facing marginalized communities in the Global South are less frequently investigated, yet of great importance. Millions of people depend on information for essential everyday life activities such as transportation. Successful, timely daily commuting between home and work influences financial stability, family time, and safety. Everyday life information behavior as a research lens can reveal information activities, influencing factors, information sources, and contexts applying to informal transportation use by poorer socio‐economic groups. Theories of information behavior such as information poverty and information horizons can shed light. Understanding information behavior contexts, and how to bridge the digital divide and promotion of networking, sharing, and learning for marginalized populations through community‐led digital literacy training can help tailor interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North–South scholarly collaboration and academic exchange programs help to address the challenges experienced by developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, and provide unique benefits to scholars in developed countries. Many academics in the global north, however, have limited, or no, information about opportunities to visit academics and institutions in developing countries and those in such countries in the global south do not have contacts to whom they can reach out. The intention of the panel is to stimulate future north–south collaborations by increasing awareness of both funded opportunities and low budget initiatives for scholarly exchanges and collaborations, benefits for scholars and their institutions in developed and developing countries, and best practices with respect to north–south collaborations and scholarly exchanges. This panel is sponsored by the Africa Chapter and SIG‐III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information horizons is a theory and method that embraces behavioral, cognitive and social aspects of information seeking, sharing, and use. As the first method originating in information science that uses a graphical data collection technique (Hartel, 2016), it has served as the underpinning methodology for numerous investigations for over 20 years. The method is often applied in studies of diverse communities not traditionally included in research, such as lower socio‐economic populations. Information horizons is also valuable in teaching master's and doctoral students about information behavior and importance of theoretical constructs. For example, over 700 master's students at the University of Toronto have completed exploratory, empirical studies using the method. A strength of the method is its extensibility; researchers have extended and adapted the method for use with different populations and to investigate different types of information behavior. This panel will explore the varied applications of the information horizon method, engage the audience in open discussion about the information horizons method for research and teaching, and explore how theoretical and methodological approaches can be more effectively shared across the information science and related communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many universities are now developing inclusive curricula with the intention that all students have an equal opportunity to achieve learning outcomes. But what in practice is an inclusive curriculum? This panel organized by the European and South Asia ASIS&T chapters will explore understandings of inclusive curricula by engaging with academics from different regions including Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and the UK. By gathering a multiplicity of practices and perspectives from panel members and the audience, we seek to create a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities in developing inclusive curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Internationalization is a critical issue in LIS/IS education and the LIS/IS profession. This panel assembles educators from various continents to discover their experiences and to address the following issues: International students should comprise what percentage of a student body in order to adequately represent the spectrum of disciplines that are critical to contemporary LIS/IS schools? International faculty members should comprise what percentage of a faculty in order to adequately represent the spectrum of disciplines that are critical to contemporary LIS/IS schools? How international must a curriculum be in order to adequately prepare graduates for the challenges of the rapidly changing information environment of the future? How do our panelists build beneficial partnerships with international professional stakeholders? How do our panelists ensure the quality of LIS education from an international perspective? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Recently, in the election that took place in the United States, we have heard a lot about 'fake news' and its influence. The discourse regarding 'fake news' and 'alternative facts' points to the importance of information literacy, a set of skills that enables people to seek, evaluate and use information in an effective way. The objective of this panel is to bring together experts from different countries to discuss how they perceive the future of information literacy (IL). The question that arises is will IL be the sole focus of librarians, information professionals and educators, or will it be regarded as a lifelong learning skill that affects different aspects of our everyday life such as health, workplace and even culture? The session will begin with a short overview of the recent literature on this issue, followed by the panellists' findings and examples of research projects, as well as their insights about new approaches in the area of IL. The panel will conclude with an engaging discussion with the audience to identify future trends in IL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]