Information Literacy and Course Instruction

About Information Literacy Instruction at Macalester

Librarians as teachers empower individuals to analyze, create, and disseminate information as they interact with the world. An information literate student understands the premises of diverse disciplines and has a sophisticated awareness of the evolving universe of information. Librarians and students critically engage with information in various forms and formats, synthesizing and contextualizing while pursuing lifelong transformative journeys through learning and service.

In our teaching, we emphasize critical thinking, academic integrity, the value of alternative perspectives and voices, and the politics and economics of information. Our curriculum is designed to be iterative and aligned with the campus curriculum. We do this through a variety of instructional modalities including:

• Course-integrated session (e.g. first year courses, senior seminar courses)
• Specialized workshops (e.g hands-on with archival material, makerspaces)
• Guest lectures
• Online tutorials
• Individual consultations

DeWitt Wallace Library Strategic Directions For Instruction

Our information literacy instruction program is comprehensive: designed for all students, regardless of level of research experience or academic discipline. We will create a progressive, sequential program to develop information literate students. We will teach the wide range of information sources, the relationship of information to power and privilege, the skills for challenging commonly held beliefs, and the application of critical thinking to rigorous research and scholarship. The information literate student will value librarians and libraries and carry these principles beyond their time at Macalester.

To accomplish the above, we will focus on the following objectives:

• We will develop an instruction program that includes an iterative curriculum
• We will integrate our information literacy curriculum into the departmental curriculums
• We will collaborate outside of academic departments
• We will establish our own community of practice

Information Literacy Curriculum Learning Goals and Outcomes

Information Literacy Curriculum Learning Goals and Outcomes

Course-Integrated instruction

Taught by your Research & Instruction Librarian, these sessions are developed with faculty to meet the specific needs for a particular course. Appropriate for all levels of students, the instruction may vary from the basics to the advanced.

Held during your regular class time, this is an in-depth, hands-on session with discipline-specific library resources, integrated with course assignments. It goes beyond the basics covered in first year courses to concentrate on scholarly communication and information within a discipline.

The specifics of the session will depend on the needs of the faculty and students. Past instruction sessions have included:

• Narrowing topics
• Selecting and using appropriate resources
• Primary, secondary and tertiary sources
• Academic integrity
• Plagiarism
• Citation management
• Copyright and intellectual property
• Open access and scholarly communication models

Please Note

• Our schedule fills rapidly, especially in the fall, so please schedule early and be flexible about dates
• It is best to schedule the session(s) to coincide with a library research project.
• We often collaborate with faculty on developing the class research project. Contact your Research & Instruction Librarian for additional information.

Questions?

Please contact our Research and Instruction team via email:  [email protected]