Information Literacy Program Overview

How to Involve a Librarian in your Course

Librarians are available to visit your class, to meet with your students in person or virtually, or to provide you with learning objects and resources in order to guide learning related to information and the research process. Though it is tempting to assume that students enter the college environment with a good handle on how to locate and effectively use information sources, research has shown that they tend to overestimate their abilities and that faculty are often surprised by their level of preparation. Because many K-12 institutions have eliminated their library and media programs and classroom instruction often focuses on content and test preparation, digital and information skills are not commonly integrated into students’ learning, though their fluency is often expected for college-level assignments. As we all recognize, information has changed in leaps and bounds in the past 5 years, and even more so in the last decade. Librarians can help you think through scaffolding for your project or assignment so that your students produce the high quality work you expect.

Targeted or Project-based Instruction

If your project requires students to find, read, evaluate, synthesize, document, or use a particular technology, targeted instruction at the point of need can provide the scaffolding of both concept and skill students will need to be successful in their learning. We offer a variety of asynchronous modules for this type of learning, or a librarian can visit your class for hands-on practice.

Collaborative

Librarians are happy to collaborate as you design your assignment and can provide insight for areas where students might require foundational or advanced knowledge on a particular aspect of the research process. Connect with your liaison librarian to talk over building support into your course leading up to a research assignment.

Consultations

For individual projects, librarians can meet with students to help them think through any aspect of research. Consultations are most useful for those students with complex research needs. If you are thinking about sending your whole class over for consultations, contact your librarian to discuss ways certain topics might instead be delivered in a classroom setting

Modes of Instruction

In person

Librarians will work with you to design in-class sessions tailored to your pedagogical needs. These sessions are interactive and activity-based to ensure maximum engagement and learning. In-person instruction allows librarians to directly connect with students and helps to dissolve barriers to learning.

Active learning

Librarians develop instruction to bring students into the process of their own education. Through activities such as small group discussions, hands-on exercises, interactive modules, and inquiry-based learning, students develop better analytical, evaluative, and synthesis skills that allow them to more deeply engage with disciplinary material and to become lifelong learners.

Asynchronous modules

A suite of tutorials that use microlearning and scalability concepts can help you scaffold information literacy instruction throughout a course with or without a librarian. They are based on the flipped classroom experience where the general concept is introduced and the disciplinary application or perspective on that concept is explored through synchronous or even additional asynchronous activities.

FYE

We believe that all students should begin their college career with a basic foundation of information in the academic environment, regardless of their experiences prior to entering college. To help reach this goal, we’ve partnered with Advising and LCDI to join in the FYE Lab instruction efforts. The Library’s contribution to the FYE Lab experience includes asynchronous content through the first 10 weeks as well as an in-person instruction session during week 7 on evaluating sources.

Your FYE research assignment may be the first opportunity your students have to apply what they learn in the Lab. We can work with you to tailor an in-class instruction session to your assignment and help bridge the gap between concept and application. Possible session topics include:

• Working with primary sources
• Finding and using news sources
• Developing a research topic
• Searching in library databases
• Reading a scholarly article
• Creating an annotated bibliography
• Open search time with librarian support
• AI and the research process

To schedule sessions for your FYE, please email research_instruction@wheatoncollege.edu.