Information Literacy in Action: Frequently Asked Questions about Services and Resources for Faculty
What is information literacy?
Broadly defined, information literacy is the set of skills students need to identify an information need, locate information efficiently, evaluate information, and use information effectively and ethically. These are skills that students will find essential throughout their undergraduate and graduate careers and beyond, yet many come to UCLA with critical gaps in this skill set.
Can information literacy skills be integrated into my course?
Yes, that's the most effective way to help students learn these skills. A librarian can collaborate with you to create or adapt assignments and exercises to build students' research and information skills and support your course goals and curriculum.
What instructional services do librarians offer for my classes?
Classes can come to a library for a hands-on session on research skills, course-specific information sources, and library and article databases. If the class is too large to fit in library classrooms, a librarian can come to your classroom to conduct a research session tailored to the subject focus of the course or assignment.
How can librarians help my students to find and use reliable and scholarly sources?
Helping students discover that they can't find the most useful and reliable sources on Google is a major focus of librarians' efforts. In addition to the instructional services described in the preceding question, a librarian can develop course-specific information resources such as Web pages, offer individual and small-group consultations with students, and review students' research proposals and suggest strategies and resources. Librarians even teach one-unit courses that enhance research skills in parallel with assignments in students' other courses.
What about plagiarism -- can librarians help students avoid it?
When you collaborate with a librarian to enhance students' research skills, students will also learn about the basics of intellectual property and how to cite and document sources, which will help them avoid plagiarism. Workshops designed for the specific research needs of graduate students are also offered to enhance their skills in this area.
In addition, the Library has developed an engaging, interactive online tutorial for students called Bruin Success with Less Stress, in which characters Carlos and Eddie encounter typical situations and pitfalls. Each section ends with an interactive quiz that gives immediate feedback on the answers, and after finishing each quiz, students can print a certificate of completion or email it to you. Each section also contains lists of Web and print resources that provide further information, and students can download Adobe PDF documents that summarize each section's content. The tutorial is accessible to students on or off-campus.
Finally, the Library works closely with the Dean of Students office both to help students understand how to avoid plagiarism and to conduct quarterly workshops for students who have been referred to the dean's office for breaches.
Are there resources for building research skills that students can use independently?
The Library has created an exercise that helps students recognize what Google Scholar can and can't do for them and what other search engines or article databases would be more effective. It is accessible at .
In addition to the Bruin Success online tutorial described above, there are a number of resources students can use independently.
Road to Research teaches basic research skills for locating and evaluating sources as well as citing and documenting them. It contains a pretest and quiz scores, which instructors can access through an online gradebook.
Dissecting a Database: Teaching Yourself How to Search offers a checklist of database features to help students search an unfamiliar database quickly and effectively.
What consultation services do librarians offer for my research?
The librarian with specific expertise in your discipline is available to discuss your research projects, new curricula, and grant proposals requiring supporting Library materials. A complete list is available online.
Further details on these and other information literacy-related services and resources are available on the Library's Information Literacy Program Web pages.
