Information Literacy @ ASU: Information Literacy

The Information Literacy (IL) Program provides ASU students (at all academic levels, on and off campus), faculty, and staff with necessary skills for finding, evaluating, and using information to further their academic, professional, and personal growth.  These skills are essential in today’s ever-changing, information-rich world.  As experts in information seeking, evaluation, and use, librarians are in a unique position to enhance IL on the ASU campus and consequently to support the learning, teaching, and research missions of the University.

Throughout this guide, you will find out how your librarians work with you in support of student success through a dynamic information literacy program.

LWLC has adopted the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) to guide and inform the Information Literacy Program developed for you and your students.

Guiding Principles

• To provide information literacy support for all students
• To integrate information literacy skills into the curriculum
• To ensure that all ASU students have the opportunity to gain information literacy skills before they graduate
• To build a support network for instructors at ASU

Scope

Information Literacy is a blend of information literacy, technology literacy, and media literacy combined with critical thinking skills.  Information literate students have acquired the skills necessary to access, evaluate, and synthesize information across multiple information-sharing systems. Outcomes include the ability to find, evaluate, and ethically use information efficiently and effectively to solve an information problem. 

Learning Outcomes

• IDENTIFY:  Students will be able to identify and articulate their information need in the process of defining a problem, question, or project for research.    

• ACCESS:  Students will be able to use library and information technology resources and tools to carry out research.  

• EVALUATE:  Students will be able to design and execute a research project using a systematic process to collect, analyze and synthesize information.

• CREATE: Students will be able to present information in written formats, properly incorporating, citing, and documenting sources.

The process of integrating these four concepts requires students to engage critical thinking skills when evaluating and analyzing information found.

Information Literacy (IL) at ASU begins with the First Year Experience courses:  ORI 100, ENG 131 and ENG 132.  An interactive tour introduces students to resources available in the library during ORI 100.  ENG 131 students practice IL skills with various in-class activities and ENG 132 focuses on the research process. In  200-400 level courses, IL focuses on skills and resources specific to a major/discipline.  Different instructors have different approaches to how the library is integrated into their classes.

Students need to know certain basics regarding library services and resources, but learning theory tells us that learning is most effective at the time of need. 

• Ways college level research might differ from high school research
• Basic library services
• Library web site navigation
• The basics of constructing an efficient search strategy
• Finding a book or other resource in the LWLC catalog.

Additionally, students should know by the end of their second semester the following:

• The difference between popular magazines and scholarly journals i.e. the peer-review process.
• How to use a database to access articles. Student use of specialized subject databases will increase through their college career, but initially, all should have a fairly comprehensive understanding of EBSCO's Academic Search Complete.
• How to access an article via database, through linking software, on the library shelves or through interlibrary loan.
• Criteria to evaluate the authority and usefulness of web sites and print materials

Some students will retain the information until they need it, but often the first time they will have an opportunity to practice looking for academic information will be in your classes.