Information Literacy Program

Course-Specific Research Instruction

• Sessions are tied to current course assignments, which faculty should provide to the instructional librarian when the session is scheduled.
• Faculty must be present for each session.
• Night sessions should be requested at least a month in advance; day sessions should be requested at least two weeks in advance.
• Some examples of skills taught in library instruction include: finding library resources, using search strategies, limiting and expanding searches, accessing sources of different types/formats, evaluating sources, and becoming familiar with the best sources for a particular discipline. Instructional librarians collaborate with faculty to plan instruction tailored to their class’s information needs and take into consideration students’ previous library instruction.
• Librarians create a LibGuide resource page for your class that can be linked to from a Canvas page or accessed from our website.

Core Curriculum Information Literacy

Rivier University’s instructional librarians collaborate with faculty to provide a carefully designed information literacy program. The program’s goal is to reinforce and build on each student’s information literacy skills throughout the three-year core curriculum: First-Year Seminar (FYS); Literature, Art, and the Human (LAH); and Junior-Year Seminar (JYS). For more information, see Information Literacy in the Core Curriculum.

Upper-Level Information Literacy

The Upper-Level Information Literacy Program is designed to reach juniors and seniors in their majors’ capstone research courses in each of the university’s academic divisions. Instructional librarians continue to collaborate with faculty to align instruction sessions with research assignments. Students learn advanced research strategies and become familiar with authoritative sources in their fields. The library instruction team emphasizes the ways that information literacy will benefit students after graduation in advanced academic and professional careers.

Evaluation and Assessment

• Evaluation. The library instruction team strives to improve and adapt in response to student and faculty feedback. At the end of each session, students fill out a library instruction feedback form that includes the option to request additional assistance from library staff. Faculty also receive a library instruction feedback form to evaluate the collaborative process of planning and providing the session and are invited to schedule a brief follow-up conversation with the instructional librarian to assess how well students applied information literacy skills to their class assignment.
• Assessment. Library management has representation on the university’s Assessment Committee. A goal of the committee is to work with the administration and divisional chairs to design a program that will assess students’ information literacy skills before completing the undergraduate program.
• Assessment Rubric. The library instruction team, in consultation with faculty, developed an Information Literacy Assessment Rubric that evaluates whether students can seek and use information effectively and responsibly. Members of the library instruction team assess FYS, LAH and JYS poster presentations informally to provide feedback to instructors, and formally assesses capstone course research papers.
• Data. Assessment and evaluation data for the information literacy program is collected in the library’s annual report.

Definitions and Links

• ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
• Authority is Constructed and Contextual. Information resources reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility and are evaluated based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. Authority is constructed in that various communities may recognize different types of authority. It is contextual in that the information need may help to determine the level of authority required.
  • Summary: People publish or post information and have varying levels of knowledge and reliability. You choose information sources differently depending on why you need the information.
• Information Creation as a Process. Information in any format is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising, and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences.
  • Summary: No two people find, write, edit, and share information the same way, even if the process seems the same.
• Information has Value. Information possesses several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world. Legal and socioeconomic interests influence information production and dissemination.
  • Summary: Information is important for different reasons, and the method and cost of providing it and accessing it depends on who produces and distributes it and who needs it, and why.
• Research as Inquiry. Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers, in turn, develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field.
  • Summary: The basics of searching are often the same no matter what information you need, and the questions that come up as you search may lead you in new directions.
• Scholarship as Conversation. Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations.
  • Summary: People who write, produce, and post information, as well as those who seek it, are part of a give and take about that information.
• Searching as Strategic Exploration. Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.
  • Summary: As you look for and find the information you may end up changing where and how you’re searching, and repeat as you think of new possibilities.