Information Literacy Instruction in an English Capstone Course: A Study of Student Confidence, Perception, and Practice

An English professor and an instruction librarian at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester felt that the college\u27s new English Capstone course for majors provided a unique opportunity to assess the information literacy skill levels of graduating English majors. They therefore engaged in a three-year study to evaluate the IL competency of these students, to gauge their perceptions of library instruction provided during the Capstone course and throughout their academic careers, and to determine students\u27 confidence and self-efficacy with respect to these skills. The researchers sought to determine the ways in which the IL program for English majors effectively met established IL goals and to identify areas for improvement

Librarian and Faculty Conversations about Information Literacy: A Pilot Study on Communication across Disciplinary Boundaries

The purpose of this pilot study is to discover how academic instruction librarians discuss the concept of information literacy with faculty colleagues outside the library and information science field; how they negotiate shared meanings of the term; and what pedagogical actions result from these conversations. The researcher interviewed a purposive, convenience sample of three early-career ILI librarians employed at private colleges in the Northeastern United States to ascertain their perspectives on the quality and nature of their conversations with faculty members about information literacy. The researcher used the theoretical framework of Etienne Wenger’s dimensions of boundary processes to interpret the qualitative interview data. The researcher discovered that the interviewed instruction librarians do not often discuss disciplinary definitions of information literacy with their faculty colleagues, that they adapt their teaching as needed to meet faculty expectations, and that they develop fruitful pedagogical partnerships with key faculty “allies.

Excavating Visual Texts: Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, and the Graphic Novel in the Crime Fiction Classroom

Comics as the textual basis of information literacy (IL) instruction provide distinct pedagogical advantages at the same time as they throw up obstacles to that pedagogy. This chapter explores how students’ facility in decoding visual texts challenges instructors’ and librarians’ ability to provide the interpretive scaffold upon which students critically engage with visual primary materials. The authors, an English faculty member and an instruction librarian at the urban commuter campus of a state university, collaborated on an instruction unit which focused on Alan Moore’s graphic novel From Hell, as well as visual and textual contemporary sources exploring the comic’s subject matter, the Jack the Ripper events in Victorian London. Their case study describes the instructors’ and students’ journey through the graphic novel, newspaper cartoons, broadsheets, and articles, and their uncovering of the anti-Semitic, xenophobic, classist, and gendered responses to the serial murders in Victorian London. Guided by the instructors, students learned to decode visual narratives using the metadiscourse of graphic fiction; to interrogate their sometimes visceral reactions to those images; to apply their IL skills to new texts; and to excavate the biases of what has come down to us in the received narratives about the Ripper events

Navigating Research Waters: The Research Mentor Program at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester

This essay uses a journal format to describe the research mentor program at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester (UNHM). Librarians, Learning Center staff, and writing instructors at UNHM have collaborated to train class-linked tutors to present basic library instruction in the classroom and to provide one-on-one research assistance to students in freshman-level composition classes. This information literacy initiative has expanded our students\u27 community of learning by providing them with point-of-need research assistance from knowledgeable peers

Research Mentor Program at UNH Manchester: Peer Learning Partnerships

At the University of New Hampshire at Manchester (UNH Manchester), the librarians, the Center for Academic Enrichment (CAE) professional staff, and the First-Year Writing Program faculty established a rich collaboration for supporting undergraduate students throughout the research process. This effort was realized by adapting a highly effective peer-tutoring program, integrating basic information literacy instruction skills into the tutor training curriculum, and incorporating the peer tutors within library instruction classes and activities. This chapter focuses on the current iteration of the Research Mentor Program, describes recent changes to the mentors’ information literacy training, and examines valuable lessons learned throughout the program’s evolution

Librarian and Faculty Conversations about Information Literacy: A Pilot Study on Communication across Disciplinary Boundaries

The purpose of this pilot study is to discover how academic instruction librarians discuss the concept of information literacy with faculty colleagues outside the library and information science field; how they negotiate shared meanings of the term; and what pedagogical actions result from these conversations. The researcher interviewed a purposive, convenience sample of three early-career ILI librarians employed at private colleges in the Northeastern United States to ascertain their perspectives on the quality and nature of their conversations with faculty members about information literacy. The researcher used the theoretical framework of Etienne Wenger’s dimensions of boundary processes to interpret the qualitative interview data. The researcher discovered that the interviewed instruction librarians do not often discuss disciplinary definitions of information literacy with their faculty colleagues, that they adapt their teaching as needed to meet faculty expectations, and that they develop fruitful pedagogical partnerships with key faculty “allies.

Guiding Students from Consuming Information to Creating Knowledge: A Freshman English Library Instruction Collaboration

In this paper we examine how faculty and librarians\u27 own approaches to and attitudes toward library tools, as well as their assumptions about student research practices, impede students\u27 ability to view learning as a recursive, creative, and ongoing inquiry. We propose first that librarians and faculty examine the assumptions of knowledge that characterize their respective university constituencies; second that they dismantle some of the disciplinary boundaries that separate these constituencies; third that they collaborate to craft analytical assignments that stress knowledge as process; and fourth that they transform library instruction from tool-based demonstrations to analytical, problem-based learning exercises. Finally, we describe how we have collaborated to craft a Freshman Composition library instruction session that moves beyond developing students\u27 information-gathering expertise by focusing on the development of transferable knowledge and critical thinking skills