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Information Literacy: Instruction for Your Classes

Information Literacy: what it is, why it is important to you, and how to incorporate information literacy skills into your assignments.

What do students say about library instruction?

"The library website provides links to many useful databases under which you can plug in multiple key words at once, which is much more thorough than other websites i've used before for research."

"I learned what a scholarly article looks like and how to pick one out when doing my research."

Planning an Instruction Session

Information literacy instruction sessions focus on research skills and are most effective when they are tied to a specific class assignment or project. If you do not have a library assignment in mind, we will be happy to assist you in designing one.

Instructors often mistakenly believe that scheduling an instruction session as early in the semester as possible is the best course of action to take with their students. Actually, this is not the case.

Instruction sessions should be scheduled at point of need, as close as possible to the time when the students will begin their research. Students will be more motivated to learn and will be able to practice their newly acquired skills on an actual assignment.

To schedule an instruction session, please complete the Information Literacy Instruction Request Form.

Your request will be referred to the appropriate librarian, who will then contact you to discuss your research assignment and to confirm the date, time, and location of your session.

We follow up every session with a brief research exercise that helps us evaluate how well students assimilated the concepts and skills taught in the instruction session. The information provided is important in helping us to continually improve our teaching.