Integrating Information Literacy into your classroom

Information Literacy Across the Curriculum   General Education   Disciplines   Psychology Department's IL plan

Hey, it's Wikiality!!!

Section 1: What is Information Literacy?

• Information Literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information (American Library Association, 1989)

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"Information literate people are those who have learned how to learn." (ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy)

• IL is based on 5 standards from ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries)

1. Can the student identify the information need?

2. Can the student find the information needed?

3. Can the student evaluate the information retrieved?

4. Can the student synthesize to create a new information product?

5. Can the student use information ethically and legally?

• For more information see Information Literacy in a Nutshell for Faculty from ACRL

Section 2: Why is it important?

To Belmont faculty members?

• Accreditation - SACS 3.8 Library & other learning resources
• Many discipline specific accrediting agencies and professional organizations also list IL as a standard

To Belmont students?

• ICT (Information & Communication Technology) Assessment - found that "College students and high school students preparing to enter college are sorely lacking in the skills needed to retrieve, analyze, and communicate information available online...." (Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006)
• Students are tech-savvy....they can chat, IM, download MP3 files, but.....
• Students are not information savvy....they can't: identify manageable research topics, develop research questions and theses, evaluate information sources, and synthesize information from multiple sources

Common observations by Belmont librarians

• students believe the answer is in a single article
• students turn to the free web for every information need and believe that if it's on the web, it must be true
• students can't distinguish between online library resources and the free web
• students will accept the first article that appears with their keyword in it, without any further evaluation

Ultimate Goal - Not just a library thing!

• Together, librarians and classroom faculty can prepare students for lifelong learning

Section 3: Belmont's IL Plan

Where it all began....Transformation of the College Library Conference (April, 2006)

• attended by Ernest Heard (Library Director), Marcia McDonald (Assoc. Provost), Andrea Stover (English faculty)

Information_Literacy_Action_Plan_2006_to_2009.xls This spreadsheet is the original three-year plan.

IL Campus Team 2009-10

The Campus Team consists of librarians, coordinators of General Education courses, and a few faculty members from various departments. The team serves as an advisory committee to the librarians on information literacy issues.

• Jenny Rushing (Coordinator)
• Ernest Heard (Library Director)
• Rachel Scott (Reference Librarian)
• Judy Williams (Reference Librarian)
• Courtney Stephens (Electronic & Educational Resources Librarian)
• Andrea Stover (English faculty, Coordinator of First Year Writing and Third Year Writing)
• Jeff Coker (Director of General Education)
• Ken Spring and Regine Schwarzmeier (Coordinators of First Year Seminar)
• Lonnie Yandell (Coordinators of Junior Cornerstone)
• Lori McGrew (Biology)
• Jose Gonzalez (Business faculty)

ILactionplan_June08.xlsx The action plan was revised in June 2008 in order to plan for the next three years.

Information Literacy in General Education

IL in the Disciplines