Information Literacy Curriculum Guide

Introduction

Recently, the availability of information has been compared to a flood relative to the "desert" in the past, especially with respect to scholarly information.  With so much information available from so many sources, the ability to comb through it to find valuable and usable information is becoming a necessary skill, rather than a luxury.  The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), recognizing that the information environment has become more complicated and complex, has defined information literacy (IL) as: "The ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand."  The O'Grady Library's Information Literacy (IL) curriculum has been designed to enrich Saint Martin's University students' ability to:

1. Define their information needs
2. Find information sources that will help them fulfill those needs
3. Evaluate the legitimacy and usefulness of those sources 
4. Use that information in ethical ways 

Curriculum overview

The IL curriculum includes the following types of interactions between students and librarians:

• CORE instruction sessions
• Course instruction sessions
• Individual consultations
• Workshops

CORE instruction sessions

The backbone of the IL curriculum is a series of linked sessions designed to be presented throughout the university’s core curriculum.  These sessions have been designed to help students develop a framework that they can apply to many different types of information needs, to help them transfer their knowledge of the information environment between multiple research situations—biology class, marketing class, sociology class, professional research, etc.  Sessions will be part of the following CORE courses:

• COR100 (First-Year Seminar)
• COR120 (Critical Reading and Writing)

Course instruction sessions

These sessions are more geared towards specific information needs.  Librarians will consult with instructors to design presentations or research guides that will help students with defined assignments and contexts.  Librarians are also available to help create or modify assignments.

Individual consultations

These sessions are meant to focus on the explicit needs of individuals or student working groups.  Librarians can help students locate usable information sources, evaluate sources, work through how those sources can be used in their work, or cite sources.  Librarians will also gladly help faculty and staff members find information sources or help with citations.

Workshops

Occasionally, librarians will present workshops on topics that can help develop students’ research skills or help faculty and staff better understand library resources.  Examples of workshops could include APA citation, MLA citation, streaming video resources, primary sources, open educational resources, etc.  If you have a workshop suggestion, please feel free to contact your librarian (https://www.stmartin.edu/academics/academic-resources/ogrady-library/research).