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Information Literacy Instruction Menu

Thank you for taking the time to fill out the Egan Library's new Information Literacy Instruction Menu. Assist librarians in creating the most useful instructional sessions with the best information literacy learning outcomes.

Select multiple items below that match your assignment’s learning objectives. Items are arranged to roughly correspond with information literacy competencies appropriate for introduction to lower- and upper-division students.

The times indicated are the minimum time needed for a librarian to demonstrate concepts and use active learning strategies to reinforce learning.

Add at least 10 minutes if you prefer that students use laptops to participate in any hands-on activities using library resources. Times should add up to the maximum allotted for a librarian’s presentation.

Lower-division Information Literacy Instruction Menu

Will your students need to select and narrow a topic?

  • brainstorming a topic based on assignment criteria
  • identifying keywords, synonyms, and controlled vocabulary on their topic
  • browsing relevant resources for background information: see sample outcome
  • articulating a research question or thesis statement

Will students need to interpret different citation styles?

  • recognizing elements of a citation
  • distinguishing book, article, and media citations in various styles
  • decoding journal abbreviations

Will students need to retrieve items from a bibliography or works cited list?

  • searching for books/media by title or author in library catalog: see sample outcome
  • placing holds in the library catalog
  • interpreting results lists and marking relevant items
  • using call numbers, location designators and signage to locate items on library shelves
  • searching for books/media by title or author in WorldCat and using ILL
  • searching for journals by title (Journal Search) and locating them locally or using ILL

Will students be using the library’s catalog to do searches on their topic?

  • searching for books/media by words/phrase vs subject
  • finding relevant subject headings
  • interpreting results lists, marking and saving relevant items
  • using call numbers, location designators and signage to locate items on library shelves
  • placing holds in the library catalog
  • recognizing e-resources (e-books, web resources) within the catalog [more detailed ebook usage taught separately]

Do you want your students to be able to use electronic books effectively?




  • finding e-books in the library catalog
  • recognizing various e-book collections and their viewing requirements
  • searching full-text vs subject descriptors
  • using advanced features (creating accounts, highlighting, navigating, printing)

Are your students required to use only peer-reviewed resources?

  • comparing and contrasting journals vs magazines
  • discussing scholarly vs popular publishing procedures
  • comparing and contrasting academic vs public library collections

Will students be required to distinguish between primary vs secondary scholarly resources?

  • comparing and contrasting primary research articles with books/chapters: see sample outcome
  • discussing scholarly publishing procedures
  • discussing the contributions of primary and secondary literature to disciplinary knowledge building

Will your students need to search relevant article databases effectively and acquire full text?

  • determining the nature and scope of literature indexed
  • searching with natural language keywords and phrases
  • using the database thesaurus or controlled vocabulary to search
  • combining terms using Boolean operators and/or search boxes
  • evaluating results lists for relevance
  • checking for full-text availability (Journal Search) and making ILL requests
  • revising search strategies for related or more focused results
  • marking, e-mailing, exporting, saving, and printing results

Will students need to identify and evaluate scholarly and/or popular Internet resources?

  • recognizing and distinguishing between fee-based vs free Internet resources
  • using controlled vocabulary vs natural language search terms
  • analyzing Internet site organization and search capabilities
  • determining the scope, audience, and currency of information
  • determining the authority, accuracy, and objectivity of sources
  • analyzing the relevance of information for an information need

Upper-division Information Literacy Instruction Menu

Select multiple items below that match your assignment’s learning objectives.

Items are arranged to roughly correspond with information literacy competencies appropriate for introduction to upper-division students.

The times indicated are the minimum time needed for a librarian to demonstrate concepts and use active learning strategies to reinforce learning. Add at least 10 minutes if you prefer that students use laptops to participate in any hands-on activities using library resources. Times should add up to the maximum allotted for a librarian’s presentation.

Do your students need guidelines for observing copyright restrictions and avoiding plagiarism?

  • recognizing what is copyrightable intellectual property
  • understanding the fair use provisions of copyright law
  • understanding the conditions for using resources (licenses, Creative Commons, etc.)
  • knowing when to cite authors and who to cite
  • attributing authorship when making presentations
  • creating bibliographic citations in a given style

Will students be required to use bibliographic manager software to manage information?

  • becoming familiar with the capabilities of RefWorks
  • learning to export and import citations from licensed databases
  • creating records for resources not included in licensed databases and library catalogs
  • editing records and creating annotations
  • formatting bibliographies
  • using Write-n-Cite to cite properly within papers

Do your students need an overview of how to use disciplinary research literature effectively?

  • becoming familiar with the principal reference sources for a major field
  • understanding the generation and dissemination of a discipline’s research literature
  • identifying the principal investigative methods used in a major field
  • locating and using dissertations, non-print media, archival materials, statutes, etc.
  • observing professional standards/guidelines for research within a discipline
  • performing cited reference searches to follow a research topic forward and backward in time
  • identifying and using remote, specialized research collections

*Please note the amount of time required for this session based on the number of selections made above.




 
 

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