Characteristics of Model Information Literacy Programs

1
Characteristics of Model Information Literacy
Programs

• University of Toronto
• November 2001

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What are the components that comprise successful
instruction programs?

• Betsy Wilsons keynote, 1996 LOEX
• Panel discussion, 1996 LOEX
• IIL Best Practices
• BI to IL Continuum

3
Components of Successful Instruction Programs

• Lizabeth A. Wilson, The Way Things Work
  Teaching and Learning in Libraries, Programs
  That Work Papers and Sessions Material
  Presented at the Twenty-Fourth National LOEX
  Library Instruction Conference (Ann Arbor, MI
  Pierian Press, 1996), LOEX 96, 1-11.

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Programs that work

• Are integrated into the educational lifeblood of
  the institution
• Provide an instructional lens for the rest of the
  library
• Create a flexible and agile environment
• Encourage learning at all levels
• Take integrated assessment and evaluation
  seriously

• Are learner-centered
• Involve collaboration
• Bring technology into the service of teaching and
  learning
• Have a solid support framework
• Depend on people and personalities
• Recognize that timing is everything

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Learner-centered

• Based on real, not perceived, learner needs
• Keep in touch with students
• Recognize wide variety of learners

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Collaboration

• Shared visions
• Cross-campus involvement
• Sharing control
• Negotiating skills and making tradeoffs
• Tolerate ambiguity
• Based on trust

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Technology

• Technology is at the service of teaching and
  learning
• Know what to achieve educationally before
  employing technology

8
Support Framework

• Information literacy programs have an
  organizational home in the library.
• Librarys teaching mission is prominent
• Adequate and stable support services
• Support of the library director

9
People and Personalities People who make
programs work

• Confident and articulate in their expertise
• Visionaries, gurus, charismatic who move groups
  forward
• Great mentors, share experiences

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Timing is everything

• Look for connections everywhere
• Experiment, be ready to implement new innovations
• Keep network of enterprises working overtime

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Lifeblood of the Educational Enterprise

• Integrated into the curriculum, not adjunct
  services
• Continual, deliberate, and targeted communication

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Instruction is the Lens

• Instruction is the lens through which every
  function of the library needs to look.
• Cerise Oberman, Avoiding the Cereal Syndrome
  or Critical Thinking in the Electronic
  Environment, Library Trends 39 (Winter 1991)
  189-202.

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Flexible and Agile Environment

• Reward and support experimentation
• Take risks

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Continual Learning at All Levels

• Environment that supports, rewards, and
  encourages librarians to keep learning is critical

15
Integrated Assessment and Evaluation

• Assessment is first and foremost
• Ask the right assessment questions
• Systematically listen
• Gather routine information
• Use information to improve and enhance

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Programs That Work Panel Discussion

• Thomas G. Kirk, Jr., Patricia Iannuzzi, Corinne
  Laverty, Carla List, and Margaret Fain, Programs
  That Work Panel Discussion, Programs That
  Work Papers and Sessions Material Presented at
  the Twenty-Fourth National LOEX Library
  Instruction Conference (Ann Arbor, MI Pierian
  Press, 1996), 35-53.

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Programs That Work Panel Discussion

• Linked to goals and educational philosophy of the
  institution
• Receives library and college administrative
  support
• Is supported by the teaching faculty
• Has stated objectives/ outcomes/ missions/ goals
• Is designed to meet the needs of students

• Evolves continually to incorporate changing
  technology and curricula
• Is assessed/evaluated regularly
• Incorporates active learning techniques whenever
  possible
• Includes an infrastructure to provide clerical
  support, instructional materials, and facilities

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Identifying the characteristics of best practice

• Institute for Information Literacy, Best
  Practices and Assessment of Information Literacy
  Programs, http//www.ala.org/acrl/nili/criteria.
  html
• Used Delphi method to identify characteristics

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Categories of Characteristics

• Mission
• Goals and objectives
• Planning
• Administrative Institutional Support
• Articulation with the curriculum

• Collaboration with Classroom Faculty
• Pedagogy
• Staff
• Outreach
• Assessment

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Mission

• Be consistent with the Information Literacy
  Competency Standards for Higher Education
  http//www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html
• Be consistent with institutional mission
  statement.
• Included a working definition of information
  literacy.
• Clearly reflect the contributions of and expected
  benefits to all institutional constituencies.
• Be consistent with the format of similar
  institutional documents.
• Be reviewed and, and, if necessary, revised,
  periodically.
• Be appropriately worded for the intended
  audience.

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Goals and Objectives

• Be stated to reflect sound pedagogical practice
  and revised periodically.
• Be clearly articulated.
• Be in concert with the goals and objectives of
  the institution.
• Be developed with input from various
  constituencies.
• Include integration of information literacy
  across the curriculum.
• Accommodate student growth in skills and
  understanding throughout the college years.
• Apply both to traditional and, where appropriate,
  distance education environments.
• Include measurable outcomes that allow students
  to demonstrate their mastery of the underlying
  concepts of information literacy.
• Be designed to prepare students for their current
  curricular activities and for effective life-long
  learning.
• Include assessment.

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Planning

• Be conducted at the program, curriculum and
  institutional levels.
• Include an information literacy definition for
  the program.
• Result in a document or documents charting the
  course of the program, including establishing the
  means for implementing and adaptation.
• Articulate the mission, goals, objectives and the
  pedagogical foundation for the program.
• Document budgeting for the program, including
  administrative and institutional support.
• Include periodic assessment of the student
  environment to determine student needs.
• Ensure that the program articulates with existing
  curriculum.
• Establish assessment mechanisms at the outset.
• Include current and projected staffing levels.
• Include a program for professional, faculty and
  staff development.

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Administrative Institutional Support

• Give clear identification of resources and
  responsibility to a person, or team of persons,
  for an information literacy program.
• Recognize and encourage collaboration among
  classroom faculty and librarians and other
  program staff.
• Include in the budgeting and management process
  the programs staffing, budgeting and continuing
  education needs.
• Articulate their support for the program.
• Value and recognize within the institutional
  reward system participation in the information
  literacy program.
• Recognize, identify, fund and support the need
  for appropriate formal and informal teaching
  spaces.

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Articulation with the Curriculum

• Be developed with and integrated into existing
  academic and vocational programs in collaboration
  with departments, rather than solely with
  individual faculty.
• Place the emphasis on students learning in the
  context of other courses and subjects.
• Use teaching methods most appropriate for the
  educational environment of the institution.
• Integrate information skills literacy throughout
  a students academic career rather than as a
  one-time experience.
• Progress in complexity as students move through
  their academic experiences.

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Collaboration with Classroom Faculty

• Foster communication within the academic
  community to garner support for an information
  literacy program.
• Result in a process that includes all groups in
  planning, pedagogy, assessment,
  course/curriculum, and assignment development
  aspects of the information literacy program.
• Occur whether the information literacy effort
  resides in a separate credit-bearing course or in
  existing discipline-based courses.
• Occur before a course syllabus is constructed and
  distributed.
• Provide a mechanism for continuous improvement of
  the program.
• Foster the development of lifelong learning
  skills.

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Pedagogy

• Adopt a diverse, multi-disciplinary approach to
  teaching and learning.
• Encompass critical thinking and reflection.
• Support student-centered learning.
• Include active and collaborative learning
  activities.
• Build on the existing knowledge that students
  bring into the classroom.
• Incorporate variations in learning and teaching
  styles.
• Involve various combinations of teaching and
  learning techniques for individuals and groups.
• Include collaboration with classroom faculty and
  student researchers.
• Relate information literacy to on-going course
  work.
• Experiment with a wide variety of methods.

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Staff

• Be adequate in number and have appropriate
  expertise and experience.
• Include or collaborate with program coordinators,
  graphic designers, distance educators, multimedia
  authoring specialists, librarians and classroom
  faculty.
• Have experience in curriculum development and
  instruction/teaching, and expertise to develop,
  coordinate, maintain, and evaluate information
  literacy programs.
• Employ a collaborative approach to working with
  others.
• Be provided with systematic and continual
  opportunities to take part in professional
  development and training.

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Outreach

• Include both communication and publicity to the
  internal campus constituent groups and to
  external groups such as higher education
  professional organizations, librarians and other
  staff at institutions such as K-12 schools,
  public libraries, colleges/universities targeted
  as transfer institutions.
• Use a variety of outreach channels broad
  mailings of notices/press releases articles in
  campus news media faculty/staff development
  sessions annual reports web pages campus
  discipline-based meetings disciplinary-based
  publications, etc.
• Demonstrate an active involvement in campus
  professional development training by offering or
  co-sponsoring workshops and programs that relate
  to information literacy for faculty and staff.
• Include sharing of information, methods and plans
  with peers from other institutions to further the
  advancement of information literacy in a region
  or state.

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Assessment

• Be primarily used as part of an ongoing
  planning/improvement program.
• Include measurements of both program and student
  outcomes.
• Be integrated with course and curriculum
  assessment.
• Be included in episodic institutional evaluations
  and regional/professional accreditation
  initiatives.
• Be directly related to the goals and objectives
  of the program.
• Be focused on performance, knowledge acquisition,
  and attitude appraisal.
• Include both peer and self-evaluation.
• Respect differences in learning and teaching
  styles by using a variety of measures such as
  portfolio assessment, quizzes, essays, direct
  observation, anecdotal, peer review, and
  experience.
• Use multiple methods of evaluation.

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Model Programs

• University of Washington -- Uwired
• http//www.washington.edu/uwired/
• University of Texas at Austin -- TILT
• http//tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/
• Five Colleges of Ohio -- Integrating Information
  Literacy into the Liberal Arts Curriculum
• http//www.denison.edu/ohio5/grant/

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Model Programs (cont.)

• University of Arizona -- The Information Literacy
  Project
• http//dizzy.library.arizona.edu/infolit/
• California State University San Marcos
• http//ww2.csusm.edu/library/ILP/
• University of California -- Berkeley
• http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/
• Florida International University
• http//www.fiu.edu/7Elibrary/ili/iliprop1.html

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Model Programs (cont.)

• Earlham College
• http//www.earlham.edu/libr/about/about.htm
• University of Louisville --Lifelong Learning
  Through the Libraries
• http//www.louisville.edu/infoliteracy
• University of Wisconsin -- Parkside
• http//www.uwp.edu/library/

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Read More About It

• Directory of Online Resources for Information
  Literacy," edited by Drew Smith and sponsored by
  the School of Library and Information Science at
  the University of South Florida
• http//nosferatu.cas.usf.edu/lis/il