Information Literacy: Services for Faculty
Information Literacy Instruction
Departmental Services
Workshop Presentations and Handouts
Information Literacy Instruction
Librarians are available to help your students navigate the often-overwhelming world of information -- in the library and online. We offer many instructional services; what follows is merely a selection. We would be happy to discuss other ways to best help your students.
Examples of Instructional Services Librarians Can Provide for Faculty
- Create a quiz to test students' knowledge of how to use the library for research. Can be tailored to any discipline or level.
- Visit a class for 10-20 minutes to give brief lecture or demonstration or to lead a brief discussion on a specific Information Literacy issue or skill (e.g. plagiarism, doing research on the web, starting research, evaluating web sources, intro to searching the library catalogue/databases, citing web sites). This can be a one-time event, or a few sessions teaching a progression of skills.
- Construct a course-specific (or assignment-specific) web page with pointers to useful resources for that class or assignment. May include some instructional material as well.
Prepare citation guides for a class, including common online sources.
- Classes on a variety of topics, for example:
- Searching the library catalogue with hands-on practice
- Advanced web searching with hands-on practice
- Advanced database searching with hands-on practice
- Evaluating web sources with hands-on practice (or not)
- Evaluating print sources with hands-on practice
- Introduction to different kinds of information sources (popular, scholarly, trade, government, mainstream, alternative, etc.)
- Citation styles and/or plagiarism
- Guest lecture on general principles of Information Literacy; what skills will be expected of students. Can be tailored to a class, and include hands-on exercises.
- Create instructional handout or guide for class without leading a session.
- Tailor a class to a specific assignment.
- Tailor a class based on what students say they are finding most difficult.
- Have small class in reference section of the library (particularly useful in the Music Library) so students can see how print and online sources are used and interact.
- Advise on assignment design
- pointing out areas the library would have difficulty supporting or where students may have difficulty completing the assignment
- suggesting ideas for assignments that would require the Information Literacy skills the faculty member seeks to promote
- Construct a library-related assignment (with the assistance of, or to be approved by, a faculty member) to assist students in discovering useful resources/tools/skills for a particular discipline or course. Librarians may grade assignment or assist with grading.
- Schedule individual consultations with students for guidance on an assignment
- Team-teach a class (in lab or in classroom) with faculty member
- Whatever you and your students need
Planning
Early planning will ensure that librarians have time to prepare something useful and worthwhile for your students, as well as to allow any scheduling conflicts to be resolved.
Ideally, a library class should be planned with a librarian at least two weeks in advance of the class, although we may be able to accommodate requests one week beforehand.
Timing
Librarians have found that students take away more from the library instruction when it is scheduled closer to an assignment’s due date. Classes scheduled at the beginning of term are often long forgotten by students by the time they begin an end-of-term essay.
It is possible to schedule a few shorter instruction sessions throughout the term, rather than one full class early on. This would work particularly well with assignments that students are required to complete in stages (e.g. paper topic by one date, annotated bibliography by another, final paper due at the end of term).
Departmental-Level Services
Your Subject Librarian (above, at right) is available to consult with departments who are interested in developing a programmatic approach to information literacy. Such an approach would involve setting out the information literacy skills believed to be most important for students in a programme, deciding at what point in the programme students need to learn these skills and determining how the skills will be taught.
Workshop Presentations and Handouts
- Strategies for Encouraging Academic Integrity / Deterring Plagiarism (PDF file)
This handout was created for a presentation given at the Teaching Day on September 2, 2003. It is meant as a starting point for discussion about ways to encourage academic integrity and/or deter plagiarism in a way that will mesh with a faculty member's own teaching methods and philosophies.
- Ideas for Assignments to Build Research Skills (PDF file)
This handout was created for a "Fridays @ 4" presentation sponsored by the PCTC on January 31, 2003. The presentation entitled "Research skills by osmosis: Is there a better way?" looked at the multitude of research skills that traditional term paper assignments require of students; skills that students are expected to pick up without much explicit instruction. The handout lists some ideas for assignments that will introduce students to a few research skills at a time, preparing them gradually for the more challenging term paper assignments.
- 2003 IL Institute Bibliography (PDF)
This presentation was shown during the first part of the day-long Information Literacy Institute held at Mount Allison on May 20, 2003. The presentation covers:
- Information Literacy Comptency Standards created by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) in the US
- A document entitled "Information Skills in Higher Education," created by the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) in the UK
- Models of information literacy programmes at other universities in Canada, US, and UK
The bibliography contains references from the presentation.
Last updated 2 May 2008
