Integrating Information Literacy into the Curriculum

Library faculty collaborate with other faculty, instructional staff, and campus groups to ensure students develop the information literacy skills they need to become efficient, effective, and fluent users and producers of information. Some ways we collaborate include:

• Classroom Instruction - Librarians are available to conduct sessions tailored to your individual classes or assignments. HACC faculty may request information literacy instruction for any class.

• Guided Research - Have a librarian available to your students while conducting research during class time. This your students support as they are actively conducting research to address any stumbling blocks they might be facing.

• Creation of Research Assignment - From the development and implementation of the assignment to the recommended library resources used to complete it, your campus librarians are happy to work with you!

• Virtual Librarians - A librarian can be added into your D2L course and we can create discussion boards to answer research questions, embed library class guides and tutorials, hold scheduled chat sessions, send email reminders, and more.

• Guides & Tutorial - We can create a guide with content specifically aimed at your assignment, class, or discipline.

• Selection of Materials - We are always happy to receive recommendations for books, magazines, trade journals, academic journals, databases, and more.

You can request an information literacy session for your in-person or remote classes, as well as an embedded librarian in your online courses. 

Tips for an Effective Information Literacy Session

Library sessions are most effective after students have an immediate and concrete need for the information literacy skills we teach. Your presence and involvement in the planning stages as well as the library session itself ensure help us to create a meaningful and engaging session for students. 

• Give the assignment to both students and the librarian before the library instruction session. This will help the librarian prepare a relevant session as well as give the students an understanding of what they may need to get out of the session.
• Have students choose topics in advance and provide that list to the librarian. Let us know if you want us to avoid or use them as examples during instruction.
• Tell us the types of resources needed to complete assignment (e.g. books, peer-reviewed, primary, etc.), and paramters you would like them to follow (e.g. published in the last five years) and the required citation style.
• Your presence at the session itself indicates to students that this information is an integral part of the course. Additionally, you will know what was covered and be able to answer questions about the assignment that may arise during the session.
• Time the session to coincide with the timeline of the assignment so students are immediately using the skills they are learning.
• Consider scaffolding the assignment so students can build on their research skills. Rather than teaching one longer session at the beginning of the assignment, librarians could break up the instruction throughout the semester to support the specific aspects of the research process.