Library Instruction and Information Literacy

We make countless decisions every day.

Our success depends upon how well informed our decisions are. Information Literacy is the combination of skills that help us to make informed decisions. Information literate people know when they need information, are able to find, access, evaluate and use the best information to effectively solve problems, make decisions and continue lifelong learning.

Your liaison librarian will collaborate with you to develop students who are informed leaders.

What is Information Literacy?
Information literacy is a core of educational competencies for managing information. Problem-based, resource-based, critical thinking-based instruction prepares students for real-life situations whose outcomes depend upon information competence.

While these serve as guiding objectives, the instruction provided by librarians will be unique to the discipline, the course, the assignment, and the instructor's learning objectives for students. To be a truly enriching experience, this instruction must be created in full collaboration with the course instructor.

Overview

As a teaching library, we facilitate and encourage students in the pursuit of knowledge. The library faculty teach skills used to identify information needs, access, location, and evaluation.

Not all people learn in the same manner; therefore, librarians offer instruction in a variety of ways. Instruction may take the form of classroom activities, guides, exercises, demonstrations, or working one-to-one with students.

The success of our information literacy program is based on our understanding of curriculum and course objectives. The more we are involved in your course, the more effective our instruction and program can be.

Goals

Mission

Values

Information literacy is more than teaching students how to use the library. The goal of the program is to develop people who find, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically to solve problems and make decisions. Librarians are active partners in teaching these lifelong skills. We have expertise in the structure of information, how to access it, and how to evaluate it. Our instructional values are

• Discovery based active learning
• Collaboration with classroom faculty and learners
• Outcome driven instruction and assessment
• Continuous improvement

Outcomes

The framework for the Library’s Information Literacy Program curriculum is the North Georgia College & State University’s Information Literacy Standards and Learning Outcomes. This document was adopted from Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). This ACRL document was endorsed by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) and other higher education organizations, and was incorporated by numerous disciplinary and accrediting associations.

Librarians use this Information Literacy Course Worksheet & Assessment Plan to plan and assess instruction.

Librarian / Faculty Collaboration

Why work with a librarian?

• Librarians work with classroom faculty to create unique instruction for each course, integrating presentation, lecture and activities.
• Librarians stay current in using and organizing information resources, and are professionals at educating users about effective research.
• Library faculty can help you accomplish information literacy outcomes with your students. The librarians focus on the NGCSU Information Literacy Outcomes identified as “library” or “library/instructor” collaboration.
• Librarians teach how to use information resources and research materials and methods linked to your courses and assignments.
• Librarians address information literacy outcomes and assessment plans within the context of helping students complete your research project.
• Librarians collaborate - Talk with your liaison librarian; share your syllabus, your assignments, and sample topics. With this information, librarians can support your educational goals using relevant examples and resources your students need.
• Librarians can talk with you about assessment options that work. Realistically, 1-3 outcomes are reasonable for a 50-minute research session. Do you need ideas for outcomes? Take a look at the Library Instruction Menu that incorporates the NGCSU Information Literacy Outcomes.
• Talk to librarians about assignments planned before or after our session that might prepare for and reinforce learning. Consider embedding assessment of specific information literacy skills within your assignments.
• Discuss your assignment with a librarian, as it relates to the library’s collections and holdings. What resources are you asking students to use? We can enlighten each other about newer, better, more user-friendly sources.
• Your presence and participation in classroom instruction is critical to success.

Tips for creating effective library assignments

Well designed course-related library assignments introduce students to research and provide an excellent active learning opportunity. Looking for a fresh approach to research assignments? Your liaison librarian can provide suggestions.

There are a few considerations when evaluating or developing research assignments:

Goals – Have you stated your research goals to the class and in course materials? What specific library resources and services do you want students to understand and access? What information literacy outcomes do want to achieve?

Skills – Do students have the necessary research skills for this assignment? Familiarity with surfing the internet does not readily translate into understanding the intricacies of research and the sophistication of databases.

Focus - Break the research process down into steps such as finding encyclopedias for background information, finding articles, evaluating articles or web pages, or citing sources. Consider a sequence of short assignments focusing on one particular reference book, database, or skill.

Resources – Are the resources needed for this assignment readily available? Periodically do the assignment yourself to gauge the library’s resources and services. Let us know what you discover and we will address gaps. Remind students that GIL Express and Interlibrary Loan are vast and free resources, but only useful when they plan ahead.

Explicit - Be specific in what you want the students to do. If you want them to use scholarly articles, teach them to distinguish between a scholarly journal and a popular magazine. Direct them to specific databases by title. Telling students to find articles in GALILEO is not specific enough and your results will be disappointing.

Provoke Thought - Create assignments that push students to think deeply about the information they are retrieving. Talk to them about specific criteria for evaluating resources—and ask them to defend their information sources, or rank their works cited list by importance.

Deep Learning - In order to make “sustained, substantial and positive influence on how students think, act, and feel” (Bain 5) information literacy must be integrated into the curriculum with multiple opportunities to practice outcomes and skills.

With as little as a 7 day lead-time, librarians can provide instruction—lectures, activities and written materials, geared specifically to your course and assignment. Contact your liaison librarian.

Adapted from:
Bain, Ken. What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Library Instruction Menu and NGCSU Information Literacy Outcomes
PDF version

When planning instruction sessions with librarians, use this table for ideas to correlate teaching topics with Information Literacy Outcomes and the estimated times needed for teaching. For example, a valuable session for freshmen includes “Background Reading” and “Articulating a Research Question.” This takes a librarian approximately 35 minutes for explanation, demonstrations, and activities with students and may touch a number of related outcomes. If you wish, brainstorming combines effectively with these topics for a challenging 50 minute session.

Alternatives to the Research Paper
PDF version

The research paper is one method for students to practice finding, accessing, evaluating and using information. Below are ideas for other assignments that focus on information literacies. These activities may require some instruction or explanation of resource tools, processes and skills. Contact your liaison librarian for assistance or if you wish to discuss these ideas or add other suggestions to this list.

Annotated letters/diaries
Have students examine letters or diaries written by a figure discussed in class. From these texts, students will generate questions and prepare an annotated version of the text that answers or provides speculation on aspects of the text that are unclear. This could be a group project, with a set of letters or diary entries distributed among the class.

Annotated bibliography
Create an annotated bibliography about a particular subject or by a particular writer. Include a range of sources.

Annotated bibliography, justified
Compile 10 sources for a bibliography. Students choose the best, and justify their choices or explain selection criteria. Information resources may be confined to type of source (books, websites, etc.) or be comprehensive.

Anthology
Compile an anthology of readings for a unit of study or with some theme. Select parameters, such as scholarly articles written within the past 10 years, or including book chapters and historical material. Include an introduction with biographical information about the author(s), or critical evaluation, and the rationale for including the works (justify with reviews or critical materials). The assignment could also require a bibliography of items considered for inclusion, as well as copies of items selected.

Art interpretation
Have the class examine a painting or other graphic image from a time period you are dealing with or which touches on a theme you are discussing in class. Brainstorm questions and theories about the image, then list information sources that might help address those questions. Have groups take a cluster of questions to the library for information-gathering and then pool interpretations.

Autobiography & secondary sources
Choose an autobiography of someone related to the course content. Find secondary sources that deal with an idea or event described in the autobiography. Compare and contrast the sources.

Bibliography update
Update an existing bibliography or review of the literature.

Biography
Select a scholar/researcher in a field of study and explore that person's career and ideas. Besides locating biographical information, students prepare a bibliography of writings and analyze the reaction of the public or scholarly community to the work.

Browse the shelves first
Journals: Browse the journal shelves (or specific journals) and copy an article relevant to a given topic. Compare this to searching the databases for articles on that topic. Reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.
Books: Browse the bookshelves and retrieve a particular item. Compare this to searching the catalog for books. Reflect on the advantages and disadvantages.

Career choice
Describe a career that you envision yourself in and then research the career choice. What are the leading companies in that area? Why? Choose a company and find out its employment policies in regards to flextime, family leave, stock options etc. If the company is traded publicly, what is its net worth? What is the outlook for this occupation? Expected starting salary?

Case study
Present a real-life discipline-based problem that students must research and remedy. Students design a research project, gather the relevant data, and present the results in a form appropriate for the "client." This assignment may lend itself to group projects.

Contradict your perspective
Working in pairs or small groups, take for and against positions on an issue - based on a specific article or resource. Find information sources that disagree or contradict your point of view. Bring this back to the wider group for further discussion.

Contrasting views
Contrast two journal articles or editorials from recent publications reflecting conservative and liberal tendencies. It might be interesting to carry out this exercise again using publications from the late 1960s.

Controversy coverage
Examine the treatment of a controversial issue in several sources (newspaper editorial, scholarly journal, journals from different disciplines, etc.), or among different titles of one source type.

Convert a newspaper article
Ask students to locate a newspaper article or editorial of interest. Their next task is to convert that newspaper article into a scholarly piece - using other information sources (and writing style). Or vice-versa.
OR
After a discussion of standard statistical sources in your discipline, have students read an editorial you have selected, and find facts and statistics to support it. Examine the source of the statistics using criteria to ascertain its credibility.

Cutting edge issues
Have the class generate a list of cutting edge issues in a field by having them survey the current literature and identify topic areas that are especially under debate.

Database analysis
Select one or more bibliographic databases (e.g. library catalog, journal database) and critically analyze them in relation to the bibliographic record (e.g. record structure, the depth of descriptions, etc.), access points (the searchable fields), and other elements of the user interface (e.g. layout and design, help screens, etc). Include details of literature or searches conducted to help you find information related to this assignment. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your work.

Database search
Students will provide a precise statement of the search topic, a list of keywords or thesaurus terms (as appropriate), and an outline of search logic. Justify the choice of databases. Carry out the search. Present some representation of the search results and analyze the findings.

Databases/web
Students conduct a search on a topic on both the web and in an article database. Discuss the results of their search in terms of what kinds of sources they found and the likely quality of those sources. (It would be interesting to do two topics-one that yields poor results on the web and another that provides useful sources.)

Different accounts of same event
Locate and compare different accounts of the same event in the current news, in past sources or international sources.

Double entry journal
Keep a journal throughout the term that shows how and what information you collected for an assignment or project. In a parallel column to this information, include reflective comments about your experience of gathering and using information.

Discipline Literature
Students will browse the library stacks shelving the books in the discipline. They will consult a volume of a relevant specialized encyclopedia and its index. They also examine the contents of several journals in the discipline. Students write an essay in response to these questions: What is (discipline)? i.e., define the discipline. How would you use these information sources in other courses, especially in other disciplines? From this exercise, what have students learned about the scope of the discipline?

Discipline tour
Students will develop a regional 5 day tour based on a course-relevant theme (e.g. authors of the Lake District, Georgia’s Cherokee history sites), providing background readings, literature, photos and other information to create a brochure or a guide’s script.

Encyclopedia entry
Analyze encyclopedia articles on a course topic from two or three encyclopedias. The class will create a checklist of information items included in an encyclopedia article. Using textbook, notes and other assigned readings, students will devise a brief encyclopedia entry on another topic.

Evaluation of own work
Using evaluation criteria for information resources, apply this to a recent class writing assignment (either yours or a peer’s). Assess this assignment, based on the evaluation criteria.

Evaluation of source
Use small groups to explore a resource (e.g. database, subject encyclopedia). Give a presentation to the wider group on its use, and advantages / disadvantages.

Gather & sort
Students generate as comprehensive a list of books and/or articles about a topic as possible in a class period. Students spend the next class period "weeding" the selections, discussing signs of quality from a disciplinary perspective. Have each student use those qualities to select one worthwhile article and write an annotation; compile the annotations for the class.

Interview
Students research a key historical figure and create an “interview” with that person, demonstrating a grasp of the contexts of the time and place in which that person lived. Grading rubric will include credit for name-dropping.

Journal analysis
Analyze the characteristics (e.g. content, style and audience) of three disciplinary journals (popular, trade and scholarly) identified by the professor. This helps to clarify the differences between popular, trade and scholarly journals.

Keyword dictionary
Have the class generate a list of "key words" which are important concepts for the course. Have them locate uses of these key words in a variety of contexts and/or disciplines and write an analysis of the words' multiple meanings.

Keywords
Explore the differences between everyday English, discipline terminology, and library jargon when searching for information. From a list of everyday terms (on a topic), develop a concept map/search strategy for each term (identifying broader, narrower and related terms), appropriate for searching on the catalog/journal databases/www. Use these terms in these sources, and comment on the success of each term.

Keyword multiplication
From a thesis statement provided by student or professor, students will select the keywords for initiating a literature search. Students will find and copy a general or specialized encyclopedia article, highlighting additional keywords, places and names that may aid in their search. After performing a database search, add more terms to the list found in assigned subject headings and abstracts (attach copies of helpful database records). This sequence can be used to initiate a research paper.

Legislation progression
Follow a piece of legislation through Congress. Use the exercise to help understand the process of government, or following the politics of a critical issue.

Letter to government
Write a letter to the Commissioner of ___, protesting the lack of ___ in your region/state. Give economic and social arguments; emphasize statistical sources and evidence in government reports.

Literature of the discipline
What does "the literature" of a discipline look like? What comprises it? Investigate the production and dissemination of information in a given discipline. How is the knowledge produced? By whom? In which media is it presented or communicated? What is the publishing cycle? How important is informal communication in the field?

News report
Follow a current news topic and write a background paper. Keep up with current literature and submit periodic updates. Finish with a final report summarizing changes.

Newspaper article
Write a newspaper article describing an event - political, social, cultural, or whatever suits the objectives - based on research. This is a good exercise in critical reading and in summarizing. The assignment gains interest if several people research the same event in different sources and compare the newspaper articles that result.

Nobel Prize
Nominate someone for one of the Nobel prizes. Learn about the prize, selection criteria and jury for that particular prize.

Novel fact
Find published information supporting or disputing the truth of an historic event, scientific, legal or other piece of information that appeared in a novel read or movie viewed by the class.

Personal Research
Students must find research articles to back up or explain their experience in one particular aspect of their lives (e.g. child of single parent, health or socio-economic issues).

Policy progression
Follow a particular policy situation as it develops. Who are the organizations involved, what is the history of the issue, what are the ideological conflicts?

Political cartoons as text
Using the Baldy Editorial Cartoons or cartoons from America’s Historical Newspapers or other source, have students locate a cartoon about a political event relevant to the course and put it in historical context, explaining its referents and meaning.

Popular magazine article sources
Examine a popular magazine article for the sources of information that were used (typically none). Find sources that could be used to make it a more academic paper.

Popular vs. scholarly
Locate a popular and scholarly article on the same topic. Using a prepared checklist, compare the two articles for content, style, bias, audience etc.

Poster presentation
Research a topic, and present it in poster form. Prepare support materials as well, to provide to fellow students.

Primary sources
Locate primary sources about the date of your birth i.e. one newspaper headline of a major event, one quotation, one biography, one census figure, one campus event etc. Use a minimum of six different sources. Write a short annotation of each source and include the complete bibliographic citation.

Primary & secondary sources
Use bibliographies, guides to the literature and the web to find primary sources on an issue or historical event. Compare and contrast the treatment in primary sources with the treatment in secondary sources.

Provocative question
Ask a provocative question in class to which students must briefly respond. Students should include invented facts, statistics or other information intended to persuade their reader. The next assignment will be to rewrite the response replacing false information with true and cited information.

Read the references
Read the articles cited in a research paper. Explain how each relates to the original paper. Explore the circumstances in which it is appropriate to cite other papers. Discuss the different purposes served by those citations.

Research paper skeleton
Conduct the process of writing a research paper except for writing the final draft. At various times students are required to turn in 1) their choice of topic, 2) an annotated bibliography, 3) an outline, 4) a thesis statement, 5) an introduction and conclusion.

Research popularized
With a research announcement made in the popular press, locate the original research on which the popular article was based. Evaluate the accuracy of the announcement.

Review
Write a review of a book or website. Discuss the purpose of the work; the author's credentials; the accuracy, objectivity and currency of the information. Compare and contrast to similar works.

Same article/different journals
Examine characteristics of popular and scholarly journals in the field. Select one article from a scholarly journal to rewrite for the popular. Include a reflective/evaluative component as well.

Scrapbook
During the semester collect a newspaper/journal article each week. Create a written response to it. Each week's response needs to be of a different 'type' based on a provided list e.g. letter to editor, theoretical analysis of topic …

Search strategy
As part of an activity that requires searching an electronic database for information, include the search strategy developed/used for that search, and analyze how it was refined and what made it more (or less) successful.

Search strategy paraphrase
Ask students to paraphrase what they have learned about search strategies for a younger sibling who has asked for help with a school assignment.

Snapshot
Have the class develop a snapshot of a year that is significant for your course. Starting with a chronology (such as Timetables of History) have groups report on politics, the arts, science and technology, or whatever categories make sense for your course.

Statistics
Based on a selection of articles that contain or use statistics, ask students to locate the primary source of those statistics. Examine the use of statistics in the article. Were they interpreted correctly? Can the students find other statistics to support or refute the arguments used?

Synthesis assignment
Have the class develop a collaborative lecture. Rather than present material in lecture form, have students gather information and during class compile it. (Works best with topics that have a natural organizing principle such as chronology in order to process the information brought to class.)

Time travel
Have students examine an issue across time by looking at how it is currently treated and comparing it with treatment 25, 50, or 75 years ago. Analyze both the different approaches to the issue and the ways in which the issue was framed in ways that reflect the values and assumptions of the time.

Topic by discipline
Compare the way the literature of two or more different disciplines handle the same topic (e.g. advertising by marketing, art, communication or child development disciplines).

Web evaluation
Formulate criteria to evaluate a website with the class. Individuals evaluate a website based on those criteria. Work must include a proper web citation.
OR
Students develop personal assessment criteria (and hints) for web sites. Apply these criteria to finding and assessing a website for a specific topic. Adjust criteria as needed.
OR
With criteria for evaluation in-hand, ask students to find the best web page and the worst they can find about a topic. They must justify their opinions in an essay.

Adapted from and permission granted by:

Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library, Gustavus Adolphus College “Suggestions for Assignments” http://www.gustavus.edu/academics/library/IMLS/assignmentsuggestions.html

Central Queensland University Library. Information Literacy @ CQU Library. "Assessment Ideas" http://www.library.cqu.edu.au/services/staff-research/infolit/teaching/assess-ideas.htm

University of California. Office of Educational Development. A Berkley Compendium. Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence. "Section Twenty-one: Giving Interesting Assignments" http://teaching.berkeley.edu/compendium/sectionlists/sect21.html

Kent State University. Transitioning to College. http://www.transitioning2college.org/index.html

Memorial University Libraries. University of Newfoundland. "Ideas for library/information assignments" http://www.library.mun.ca/qeii/instruction/assignment_ideas.php

VT Sapziano and JL Gibbons, "Brain chemistry and behavior: A new interdisciplinary course" Journal of Chemical Education 63 (1986), 398-399.

Request Instruction

• Contact your liaison librarian at least one week in advance of the desired class date to give faculty time to prepare, and to ensure classroom and instructor availability.
• Call your liaison librarian, the reference department at 706-864-1520, email refdesk@ngcsu.edu, or stop by the reference office to arrange a class.
• Classes can be taught in the library classroom or computer labs.
• Classrooms with one computer per student provide better practice opportunities. The library classroom contains 20 laptops.
• Help us by providing a syllabus, sample research topics and an open mind.

Student expectations for research

Help us set the stage for student earning about library and research processes:

• Assume that students don’t know how to conduct research. Students may tell you they know how to use the library because they use the internet daily. However, our experience shows that surfing the web does not readily transfer to conducting intentional research.
• Help students realize that the research process is time-consuming and complicated, with many critical decisions made along the way, including choosing the most appropriate tools for the task-at-hand.
• Help students understand the relationship between critical thinking skills and the research process. Demonstrate how finding and using the best information is important to their success in college, in their professional careers and personal lives. Information literacy empowers.
• Most students have never experienced the number of information choices they find in a university library. Help students understand the difference between popular and scholarly resources. Scholarly journal articles can look just like ordinary websites these days. Help students understand the different purposes of books and articles, newspapers and political speeches...
• It is unrealistic to “cover the library” in one class session. Consider multiple and focused short sessions at strategic points throughout the semester.