On June 18th and 19th, 25 Louisiana 4-H students attended Info U: Developing Your Personal Brand with Information Skills and Social Media, an LSU 4-H University/Clover College workshop designed to introduce students to responsible digital citizenship and the size and scope of academic libraries. Cristina Caminita, LSU Libraries’ agriculture and instruction librarian, and Mary Claire Gilder, the College of Agriculture’s coordinator of recruitment, designed and delivered the workshop. This is the second year that Caminita and Gilder have been asked to present at Clover College, the noncompetitive track of LSU’s annual summer 4-H meeting. The workshops, held in Troy. H. Middleton Library, gave many of the students their first opportunity to visit a research institution’s library.

"Many high school students don’t realize that irresponsible use of social media can have serious consequences," remarked Caminita, "They don’t think that a future employer or college admissions officer may find their tweets and Facebook status updates, and base hiring or admission decisions on what students have posted online. There’s also an element of responsibility to others when using social media as well, particularly in cases of cyberbullying and posting inappropriate content online.”

During the workshops, students completed activities to determine the extent of their digital footprints and to discuss issues of etiquette and privacy while using social media. Students also viewed part of the video series “Everything is a Remix,” a documentary that illustrates the idea that art and scholarly research are built upon the work of others, and that responsible use of the work of others is an information literacy and ethical issue that high school and college students are expected to keep in mind as they create their own work and conduct their own research. Students completed the workshop by creating presentations with photographs they took during their Middleton Library tour exercise.

More information about LSU 4-H University and Clover College can be found here: http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/4h/teens/4hu/