Oxford Librarians Teach New Course this Fall
For the first time, Oxford College Librarians are teaching a class of their own. During the Fall 2025 semester, Oxford Librarians Paige Crowl and Jacob Lackner are teaching OCS 101: Introduction to Information Sciences.
Any student at Oxford College can register for OCS 101, which is a one-credit course that meets for 50 minutes every week.
To create the course, Crowl, Lackner, and other librarians at Oxford College, including Ellen Neufeld, Alexandrea Kord, and Ginny Hudgins, drew on years of classroom experience. The course offers the opportunity to teach new concepts and introduce ideas that would not be possible in a standard library visit, such as media censorship, expertise in the art world, open-access publishing, and data privacy. The class is intended to be interdisciplinary, exploratory, and relevant for all majors, disciplines, and interests.
Crowl and Lackner hope that the students who take the course will be more aware of the systems of information in the world and the different ways in which human choices can change these systems. Crowl remarked, "We hope they feel informed and empowered to participate in these conversations and help create the information landscape that they’d like to see in the future."
To create the course, Crowl, Lackner, and other librarians at Oxford College, including Ellen Neufeld, Alexandrea Kord, and Ginny Hudgins, drew on years of classroom experience. The course offers the opportunity to teach new concepts and introduce ideas that would not be possible in a standard library visit, such as media censorship, expertise in the art world, open-access publishing, and data privacy. The class is intended to be interdisciplinary, exploratory, and relevant for all majors, disciplines, and interests.
Crowl and Lackner hope that the students who take the course will be more aware of the systems of information in the world and the different ways in which human choices can change these systems. Crowl remarked, "We hope they feel informed and empowered to participate in these conversations and help create the information landscape that they’d like to see in the future."
Based on the class's success and positive responses from students, staff, and faculty, the class will be offered again in Spring 2026, to be taught by Alexandrea Kord and Ginny Hudgins.