Hidden Architectures Of Information Literacy Programs

In 39 chapters, authors from a variety of diverse institutions highlight the day-to-day work of running and coordinating information literacy programs and the soft skills necessary for success in the coordinator role. They discuss the institutional context into which their work fits, their collaborators, students, marketing, and assessment, as well as the many varied duties they balance. Chapters examine the delicate balancing act of labor distribution, minimal or absent positional authority coupled with making decisions and assignments, generating buy-in for programmatic goals and approaches.

In 39 chapters, authors from a variety of diverse institutions highlight the day-to-day work of running and coordinating information literacy programs and the soft skills necessary for success in the coordinator role. They discuss the institutional context into which their work fits, their collaborators, students, marketing, and assessment, as well as the many varied duties they balance. Chapters examine the delicate balancing act of labor distribution, minimal or absent positional authority coupled with making decisions and assignments, generating buy-in for programmatic goals and approaches,

The book raises a broad scope of themes including the intellectual, psychological, cultural, definitional and structural issues that academic instruction librarians face in higher education environments. The chapters in this book represent the voices of eight instruction librarians, including two Immersion faculty members. Other perspectives come from a library dean, a library school faculty member, a library coordinator of school library media certification programs, and a director emerita from a School of Education.

The result is an indispensable volume that provides an integrated, comprehensible approach for creating a successful, sustained program.

This book helps demystify how to incorporate ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education into information literacy instruction in higher education as well as how to teach the new Framework to pre-service librarians as part of their professional preparation. This authoritative volume copublished by the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) demonstrates professional practice by bringing together current case studies from librarians in higher education who are implementing the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education as well as cases from educators in library and information science, who are working to prepare their pre-service students to practice in the new instructional environment. Instructional librarians, administrators, and educators will benefit from the experiences the people on the ground who are actively working to make the transition to the Framework in their professional practice.

Leading Dynamic Information Literacy Programs delves into the library instruction coordinator’s work. Each chapter is written by practicing coordinators, who share their experiences leading information literacy programs that are nimble, responsive, and supportive of student learning. The volume discusses the work of instruction coordinators within five thematic areas: Claiming our Space: Library Instruction in the Landscape of Higher Education; Moving and Growing Together; Curriculum Development; Meaningful Assessment; and Leading Change. Readers will gain insight from their colleagues’ advice for situating information literacy within the higher education institution, developing meaningful curricula, and using assessment in productive ways. Many of the stories represent a departure from traditional models of library instruction. In addition, this book is sure to spark inspiration for innovative approaches to program leadership and development, including strategies for growing communities of practice. From leadership skills and techniques, methods for cultivating shared values, pedagogical approaches, team building, assessment strategies – and everything in between – the aspiring or practicing instruction coordinator has much to gain from reading this work.

The report profiles the information literacy efforts of a broad range of North American colleges including: Syracuse University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Windsor, Ulster County Community College, the University of North Texas, the University of California Berkeley, the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Southeastern Oklahoma University, Central Connecticut State University and Seattle Pacific University. Participants discuss how they promote information literacy at their institutions, how they win support of key faculty and administrators, and how they develop courses, guidelines, tutorials and standards. Other major issues include student assessment, instructor training, integration of info literacy into other curriculums, grants and institutional financial support, the impact of new educational technologies, and the role of learning and computer centers in supporting the info literacy effort, among other issues. Indiana University library officials discuss info literacy efforts for specialized populations, such as athletes, while librarians at the University of California, Berkeley explain their grant funded information literacy outreach program that reaches all corners of the University. University of North Texas librarians relate how they are developing special classrooms to ready themselves for the likely move towards more formal information literacy classes, while faculty at Ulster County Community College explain how the college developed a required information literacy course that is delivered through traditional means and through the college?s distance learning program. Instructional library faculty at North Carolina State Wilmington explain the political process of getting a required information literacy course approved at their university, while Seattle Pacific University librarians discuss the challenges of student assessment. As North American colleges move towards mandated information literacy courses, this study can help information literacy coordinators to reduce the time and effort involved in developing courses and tutorials, and assist them in dealing with in-house politics and in finding useful institutional models and best practices.

The six threshold concepts outlined in the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education are not simply a revision of ACRL's previous Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. They are instead an altogether new way of looking at information literacy. In this important new book, bestselling author and expert instructional librarian Burkhardt decodes the Framework, putting its conceptual approach into straightforward language while offering more than 50 classroom-ready Framework-based exercises. Guiding instructors towards helping students cross each threshold, this book discusses the history of the development of the Framework document and briefly deconstructs the six threshold concepts;thoroughly addresses each threshold concept, scaffolding from the beginner level to the intermediate level;includes exercises that can be used in the one-shot timeframe as well as others designed for longer class sessions and semester-long courses;offers best practices in creating learning outcomes, assessments, rubrics, and teaching tricks and tips; andlooks at how learning, memory, and transfer of learning applies to the teaching of information literacy.Offering a solid starting point for understanding and teaching the six threshold concepts in the Framework, Burkhardt’s guidance will help instructors create their own local information literacy programs.