Information literacy and the undergraduate curriculum

Abstract

Information literacy (IL) instruction is common in first-year writing (FYW), but what should librarians do when that core requirement is satisfied elsewhere? At the author's institution, a curriculum revision saw the IL competency attached to classes other than FYW. Regardless, the Coordinator of Instruction collaborated with the FYW Director to embed library instruction in FYW classes, which had common learning outcomes but varied content. Outcomes spoke to concepts in the Information Literacy Framework. The collaboration resulted in increased librarian contact with first-year students. The vast majority of those surveyed in select FYW sections at the end of the program's first semester reported this as their sole classroom interaction with a librarian. Librarians reached 61% of the sections overall in three semesters, totaling approximately 30% of first-year students. Simultaneously, they sought opportunities to speak with faculty about the future of IL in the curriculum. These included having a librarian placed on the Core Curriculum Committee and serving as scorers for assessing student work from IL core competency classes. This case study encourages librarians to consider ways to leverage existing relationships to grow library instruction, think about other potential partnerships, and learn about the advantages and disadvantages of teaching IL lessons across multiple sections of the same class.