Library News for the Faculty

Information Literacy Instruction in Action

Information Literacy Integrated into Instruction

The UCLA Library's Information Literacy Program is becoming increasingly integrated into regular classroom instruction, as its support of the Department of Sociology and the Freshman Cluster Program demonstrates.

Department of Sociology

The sociology program is one of the largest on campus, with more than 1,100 undergraduate students. A collaborative approach to integrating information literacy (IL) into the department's curriculum began to develop at a May 2003 meeting organized by department chair Roger Waldinger.

Out of that meeting grew a sequentially tiered program that will introduce graduated skills and tools throughout students' undergraduate careers. The three tiers include an IL requirement in an introductory lower-division course, an IL component in the research methodologies course, and a sociology IL lab for upper-division students.

The implementation of the first tier began in Fall 2003 in "Introductory Sociology," a lecture-based course taught by Mark Lupher. Librarians worked with Lupher to develop three required IL components: two online tutorials for basic IL concepts and finding books in the catalog, and a hands-on session on using relevant databases. Students were invited to assess the IL efforts on evaluation forms attached to the final exam; 78% gave positive comments, and instruction in critical thinking skills -- building the most effective search strategy, choosing sources, and critically analyzing information -- was identified as one of the areas in which the IL efforts are particularly useful.

IL instruction was also incorporated into "Introduction to Sociological Research Methods" during the 2003-04 academic year. Librarians again worked with the department chair and the course instructors to develop an approach that met both course requirements and instructional methods, which change from quarter to quarter as different faculty members with different teaching styles teach the course.

A basic format was developed that should fit with any instructional approach: during group discussion time, students received or chose a topic; had to find relevant articles using assigned databases and a relevant Web site; then shared their search methods, strategies, and results and compared the ease and usability of each source.

The third tier of the IL curriculum-based approach is being implemented this fall with a one-unit, upper-division lab, Sociology 105. The lab's curriculum will guide students through advanced IL skills and resources in order to support and enrich their research projects in core course groups. Professors Aziza Khazzoom, Abigail Saguy, and Mel Pollner worked with librarians to develop the lab.

Freshman Cluster Program

The Freshman Cluster Program is a particularly useful place in which to focus IL efforts, since it has been created to strengthen the intellectual skills of entering freshmen, introduce them to faculty research work, and expose them to instructional approaches such as seminars and interdisciplinary study.

IL support for cluster courses is tailored to the subject matter of each cluster and the needs of faculty members. IL librarians assigned to each cluster offer customized tours of the College Library at the beginning of the academic year that focus on resources and services relevant to the subject. They create course Web pages linking to useful resources and participate on class discussion boards to answer research questions and provide assistance. IL librarians also speak at orientation sessions and seminar-development workshops for teaching fellows in the Cluster Program and offer upon-request instructional activities ranging from syllabus review to feedback to students on research assignments to in-class instruction.

Specific activities for two particular clusters during the 2003-04 academic year illustrate the breadth of IL support. In conjunction with Cluster 23, "Inside the Performing Arts: Interdisciplinary Explorations of Performance in Society and Culture," the College Library presented two historical dances in the Powell Library Rotunda. For Cluster 80, "Frontiers in Human Aging: Biomedical, Social, and Policy Perspectives," librarians taught a one-unit Fiat Lux seminar entitled "How to Stop Just Googling, and Find the Really Good Stuff!"

Do you want to improve your students' research skills? The Library's Information Literacy Program will work with you to create a collaborative approach tailored to your subject matter and instructional methods. Contact Eleanor Mitchell, director of the program and head of the College Library, by phone at extension 63593 or by email.