UIC Library Faculty Profile: Carl Lehnen, Liaison for Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics: Home

I got interested in librarianship while completing a dissertation on national identity, sexuality, and art in Victorian travel narratives about Italy. Before coming to UIC in May 2016, I worked in a variety of library settings, including a large research university, a community college, and a small liberal arts college. I have over ten years of academic teaching experience as a librarian, writing consultant, and instructor, including responsibility for credit-bearing courses on information literacy, composition, and literature. 

My research agenda is premised on two ideas: that sociocultural and disciplinary contexts affect how people seek out and make sense of information, and that a rich understanding of the interaction between context and information behavior can help libraries to better support and connect with students and faculty. In line with my librarianship, my research focuses on literature, language, and humanities disciplines. In several qualitative research studies, I have looked at how librarians address disciplinary audiences through online instruction, what research practices of literature faculty can tell us about information literacy pedagogy, and the needs of graduate students on their journey to becoming independent researchers.

Lehnen, C. (2021). Skills, support networks, and socialization: Needs of dissertating graduate students. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2021.102430

Johnson, E., and Lehnen, C. (2021). A scoping review of the application of systematic instructional design and instructional design models by academic librarians. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2021.102382

Lehnen, C., and Insua, G. (2021). Browsing, networking, contextualizing: Research practices of humanists and implications for library instruction. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 21(2), 275-297. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2021.0016

Lehnen, C., and Artemchik, T. (2018). Survey of modern language research guides: A window on disciplinary information literacy. Reference Services Review, 46(3), 463-478. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-06-2018-0055

As a Reference & Liaison Librarian at Daley Library, I support the learning and research needs of students and faculty in the School of Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics through course-integrated instruction, research consultations, and acquiring and maintaining relevant library resources.

If you are a student, you can talk to me about developing a research topic and finding quality information on that topic.

If you are a professor, you can talk to me about:

• Designing targeted instruction to help your students get a richer perspective on the published research in your disciplines
• Purchasing library materials that support your teaching and research
• Creating online resource guides for students and integrating library resources into Blackboard
• Understanding your options about where to publish, your rights as an author, and making your published research more accessible