Mansfield Library instructional strategy
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"Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand."
American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, The Importance of Information Literacy to Individuals, Business, and Citizenship. Chicago: ALA, 1989.
Introduction
The central mission of library instruction is to create information literate students who know how to find, evaluate, and use information effectively. Information literacy leads to life-long learning, the ultimate goal of education. The library is uniquely positioned to provide the resources that teach students how to learn within the university curriculum and then carry those applications forward in a highly competitive, information rich society.
The role of the library on the university campus is vital within a framework of resource-based education and active learning which are at the center of current educational reform. Breivik and Gee emphasize the need for partnerships between the university and the community, the library and the classroom, and the library and the university administration in their groundbreaking work, Information Literacy: Revolution in the Library. The library serves as a primary resource of information and becomes a learning laboratory when integrated into the curriculum.
Essential to this philosophy is the partnership and collaboration with faculty to embed information literacy throughout the curriculum. The Role and Scope Statement of The Montana University System includes the "...fundamental purpose of developing the intellectual potential and aesthetic awareness of all students, including the skills of inquiry, reasoning, and expression. Through a variety of professional programs, the System seeks to impart essential competencies that students will require for successful careers both now and in the future."
By closing the gap between the classroom and the library, instruction is focused within the framework of the information environment, and the library takes its place as a curriculum integrated entity where students assume responsibility for their own learning. Active, integrated learning is a model for which libraries are well-prepared. Active learning transforms the library from a place where books are housed to a learning laboratory essential throughout the curriculum. Library instruction likewise evolves from a show and tell format separate from the classroom to an active learning process through which information literacy instruction is delivered in concert with the university curriculum. Within this model, librarians become co-teachers within the library as a learning laboratory.
Instructional Strategy
Faculty
The primary target of an instructional strategy to integrate information literacy into the curriculum is the teaching faculty. This audience is critical to the implementation of library-based learning in the curriculum. Contacts with teaching faculty should be a high priority and can be implemented at almost any level of instruction.
Faculty development efforts could include the following:
- Notify faculty of new information resources and services.
- Contact faculty relative to library assignments.
- Offer specialized assignment services.
- Integrate all instruction sessions into the curriculum.
- Develop resource-based instructional opportunities.
- Utilize the Special Projects and/or Independent Study series to develop credit classes, internships, team teaching opportunities, or other collaborative projects.
- Offer resource-based instruction to faculty groups.
- Offer new faculty one-on-one sessions with divisional librarians.
Students
- General Education
All undergraduate students will receive library instruction through curriculum integrated components as a part of a series of required courses including Basic Composition (ENEX 101), Public Speaking (COMM 111), and Acting for Non-majors (DRAM 111). The model for implementation of this component includes the design of unique integrated instructional sessions for each course. Instructors are trained to integrate these sessions into their curriculum with the library instruction coordinator serving as a liaison to the departments and coordinator for library services. Currently, ENEX 101 teaching assistants include the library as part of their TA Camp Orientation. All ENEX 101 classes also schedule Research Workshops to coincide with an ongoing assignment of invention and research. Collaboration with English faculty has strengthened this program. In addition, a unique instructional component has been designed for Freshman Seminar sessions and Freshman Interest Groups. Collaboration with teaching faculty has been the basis for incorporation of information resources into the General Education curriculum.
- Undergraduate Curriculum
Information literacy in undergraduate education should be imbedded into the curriculum and expand on the general education concept. Development of this program could include the following:
- Pro-active contact with all faculty teaching writing and or research methods classes.
- Team teaching. (High priority for literature research classes within each department.)
- Design specialized handouts/homepages for particular courses and disciplines.
- Participation in university curriculum committees.
- Contact faculty regarding specific library assignments.
- Development of information resources courses.
Graduate Students
Information literacy at the graduate level utilizes the subject specialization of the divisional librarian and continues the implementation of imbedding information resources into the curriculum. Special strategies to support graduate education could include the following.
- Offer a library component in seminars or research methods classes designed for new graduate students.
- Develop credit classes that are offered in conjunction with and as a complement to required research classes.
- Provide doctoral students one-on-one sessions with divisional librarians.
- Contact the Graduate Office and establish liaisons with new student orientations, etc.
- Provide free database searching for graduate students needing databases not locally available.
Evaluation
To maintain a viable instruction program, regular evaluation must be incorporated into the process. This can be accomplished by maintaining and analyzing instruction statistics that include numbers of classes, numbers of students, types of classes, etc. Pre- and post-class tests administered to students can provide an assessment of content. Another evaluation process particularly appropriate for single class sessions is the one-minute evaluation. Students are asked to list the one most important thing they learned and the one thing they wanted to learn but did not. Student evaluations could also be implemented as part of a regular evaluation process.
Librarians as Teachers
Teaching users how to use the library has always been critical to the
overall mission of the library. Types of instructional activities include
preparation of handouts and pathfinders, interface design of library
systems, collaboration and consultation with faculty regarding their
assignments, course integrated instructional session, department seminars,
credit classes offered through the library series or team-taught with
other departmental faculty, point-of-use instruction at the reference
desk or in offices, one-on-one appointments, and e-mail and telephone
questions. An academic library is a teaching library, and the rapid
growth of technology has made the need for teaching information skills
even more important. As information brokers, librarians are the best
suited to provide instruction with information resources to faculty
and students while strengthening the position of the library within
the curriculum of the library and providing the cornerstone for a strong
bibliographic instruction program.
Compiled by: Sue Samson, Library Instruction Coordinator