Instructional Services for Faculty

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Overview

The campus Library & Information Literacy Instruction Program collaborates with faculty, instructional staff, and campus administrators to pursue its primary mission: to ensure that students develop the information literacy skills, attitudes, and knowledge that they need in order to become efficient, effective users and producers of information. This essential set of abilities will not only give students some of the critical tools necessary for success in their academic careers at the university, but also help them prepare for a lifetime of learning.

About our Program

What We Do

More than 20 campus libraries participate in presenting about 2,000 instructional sessions each year, reaching more than 25,000 campus library users. Our program provides instruction in a variety of ways to meet the diverse needs and learning styles of those in the campus community:

  • Course-Related Instructional Sessions
  • Orientation Tours and Presentations
  • Drop-in Workshops
  • Instructional Handouts and Web Materials
  • Individual Instructional Consultations

How We Can Work With You

Information literacy instruction is most effective when it is fully integrated into the goals of your class.

  • We can help you design an effective research assignment that introduces your students to the most useful, logistically feasible resources.
  • We can help you determine the most appropriate type of library instruction: class session, part of a class session, Web page, handout, tutorial, Learn@UW link, etc.
  • You can schedule library instruction to coincide with the time when students are working on their research assignments and are most motivated to learn.
  • We usually provide instruction in our library classrooms, but we can and will come to your classroom.
  • We know the information resources, but you know your students. We need your presence and involvement in the planning and teaching of a library session to ensure that your students will be actively engaged.
  • With your help, we can stay in touch with your students to provide follow-up assistance after the library session through e-mail and individual consultations.

How We Do It

The following goals guide the design of all instructional modules developed for our program:

  • Teach students to define their information needs, identify and select appropriate sources of information, and to evaluate these sources in terms of relevance, reliability, and objectivity.
  • Teach students strategies, as well as mechanical skills, for information seeking.
  • Teach students information seeking as a process that involves critical thinking and decision making.
  • Integrate hands-on learning techniques, including in-class exercises and database searching, using our computer-equipped classroom.

How to Get Started and Get More Information

Effective library instruction takes time to prepare and is in great demand. To ensure that your students will get the instruction they need when they need it, please contact us as far in advance as possible.

See Scheduling a Library & Information Literacy Instruction Session or Library Tour.

For more information about the campus Library & Information Literacy Instruction Program or the instruction program in individual campus libraries, please contact the program's coordinator:

Sarah McDaniel , (608) 262-4308.

Program Mission

The campus Library & Information Literacy Instruction Program's primary mission is to collaborate with faculty, instructional staff, and campus administrators to ensure that students develop the information literacy skills, attitudes, and knowledge base that they need in order to become efficient, effective users and producers of information. This essential set of abilities will not only give students some of the critical tools necessary for success in their academic careers here at the university, but also help prepare them for a lifetime of learning.

In the information-driven society of the 21st century, students who graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison need to be information literate in order to succeed in their professional, personal, and civic lives. In an age of rapid technological change and proliferating resources of varying quality, it is simply not enough to provide students with access to information. It is essential that students learn not only how to access resources efficiently, but also how to evaluate, manage, and use them effectively.

An information-literate person has the ability to:

  • Determine the extent of information needed;
  • Access the needed information effectively and efficiently;
  • Evaluate information and its sources critically;
  • Incorporate selected information into one's knowledge base;
  • Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose;
  • Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.

This complex set of abilities cannot be learned in a vacuum but must be explored in the context of different disciplines within the curriculum. The mission of this program is to collaborate with faculty, instructional staff, and campus administrators to integrate information literacy into learning objectives across the curriculum and to provide faculty with resources that can help them to realize these objectives.

Characteristics of Information Literate Students

The student who is information literate is able to:

1. Identify and select appropriate information sources.
More information

  1. Recognize a specific information need.
  2. Focus and articulate the information need into a researchable question.
  3. Understand that the type and amount of information selected is determined in part by the parameters of the need, as well as by the information available.

2. Identify and articulate needs which require information solutions. More information

  1. Recognize the availability of a variety of sources and of assistance with using them.
  2. Identify types of information resources in a variety of formats (e.g., primary or secondary, books or periodicals, print or electronic) and understand their characteristics.
  3. Select types of information resources appropriate to a specific information need.

3. Formulate and efficiently execute search queries appropriate for the information resource. More information

  1. Understand that different information sources and formats require different searching techniques, including browsing.
  2. Select the search strategies appropriate to the topic and resource.
  3. Understand that various resources may use different controlled vocabularies to refer to the same topic.
  4. Use search language appropriate to the source, such as a controlled vocabulary, key words, natural language, author and title searches to locate relevant items in print and electronic resources.
  5. Use online search techniques and tools (e.g., Boolean operators and symbols, limiters, and truncation) to locate relevant citations and to further refine the search.

4. Interpret and analyze search results and select relevant sources. More information

  1. Understand that search results may be presented according to various ordering principles (e.g., relevance ranking, author, title, date, or publisher).
  2. Assess the number and relevance of sources cited to determine whether the search strategy must be refined.
  3. Recognize the components of a citation and differentiate between types of resources cited, such as a book, periodical, or government document, as well as the format (e.g., electronic or physical).
  4. Use the components of a citation (e.g., currency, reputation of author or source, format, or elements of a URL) to choose those most suitable for the information need.
  5. Perceive gaps in information retrieved and determine whether the search should be refined.

5. Locate and retrieve relevant sources in a variety of formats from the global information environment. More information

  1. Understand the organization of materials in libraries and use locally produced location guides.
  2. Understand how to use classification systems and their rationale.
  3. Use location information in the bibliographic record to retrieve locally owned resources.
  4. Use local resources to locate information sources in the global information environment.
  5. Understand that libraries have developed methods for locating and sharing resources not owned locally and use the appropriate resource sharing system, such as interlibrary loan or document delivery, to retrieve information.
  6. Understand that the Internet may be a useful resource for locating, retrieving and transferring information electronically.

6. Critically evaluate the information retrieved. More information

  1. Use a variety of criteria, such as author's credentials, peer review, and reputation of the publisher, to assess the authority of the source.
  2. Assess the relevancy of a source to an information need by examining publication date, purpose, and intended audience.
  3. Recognize omission in the coverage of a topic.
  4. Recognize and evaluate documentation for the information source, such as research methodology, bibliography or footnotes.
  5. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources in different disciplines and evaluate their appropriateness to the information need.
  6. Apply evaluation criteria to all information formats.

7. Organize, synthesize, integrate and apply the information.
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  1. Use appropriate documentation style to cite sources used.
  2. Summarize the information retrieved (e.g., write an abstract or construct an outline).
  3. Recognize and accept the ambiguity of multiple points of view.
  4. Organize the information in a logical and useful manner.
  5. Synthesize the ideas and concepts from the information sources collected.
  6. Determine the extent to which the information can be applied to the information need.
  7. Integrate the new information into existing body of knowledge.
  8. Create a logical argument based on information retrieved.

8. Self-assess the information-seeking processes used.
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  1. Understand that information-seeking consists of evolving, non-linear processes that include making multiple decisions and choices.
  2. Describe the criteria used to make decisions and choices at each step of the particular process used.
  3. Assess effectiveness of each step of the process and refine the search process in order to make it more effective.
  4. Understand that many of the components of an information seeking process are transferable and, therefore, are applicable to a variety of information needs.

9. Understand public policy and the ethical issues affecting the access and use of information. More information

  1. Understand the ethics of information use, such as knowing how and when to give credit to information and ideas gleaned from others by appropriately citing sources in order to avoid plagiarism.
  2. Respect intellectual property rights by respecting copyright.
  3. Understand concepts and issues relating to censorship, intellectual freedom, and respect for differing points of view.
  4. Understand the social/political issues affecting information, such as:
    1. privacy
    2. privatization and access to government information
    3. electronic access to information
    4. the exponential growth of information
    5. equal access to information
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