Visual Thinking Strategies from the Museum to the Library: Using VTS and Art in Information Literacy Instruction
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) offers teaching librarians a unique opportunity to integrate a work of art directly into their instruction. VTS is a technique developed by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine that uses art in facilitated discussions to encourage participation, critical thinking, and close looking as well as synthesis of different points of views and complex thinking. In this article the author examines how VTS can be used in instruction to further the outcomes of information and visual literacy. Observations and questions that are generated as part of a VTS session can be employed to model a successful research strategy and to scaffold to the art historical concepts of formal analysis and critical analysis. The author starts with an introduction to the theory behind VTS and follows with examples of how VTS is being used as part of an information literacy instruction program offered by The Spencer Art Reference Library at The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. [This article is based on a paper presented at the "Charmed, I'm Sure: Introducing New Users to Libraries and Visual Resources Collections" session at the ARLIS/NA VRA conference held in Seattle, Washington, in March 2016.
Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America