A Best Practices
Model for Integrating Information Literacy into the Curriculum
sCIL Open House, January 17 2003
Presenter: Suellen Cox
Suellen Cox outlined the procedure
used at Cal State Fullerton’s Pollack Library to infuse the departmental
curricula with information literacy.
Step 1:
- Form alliances with other units
on campus: V.P.s, Curriculum Committee, Senate, etc.
- Secure funding; secure funding;
secure funding.
Step 2:
- Offer release time, through campus-wide
e-mail announcements, to develop new curricula.
- Advertise at campus-wide meetings,
departmental meetings, and at poster sessions.
Step 3:
- Give 3 retreats to faculty, 6
months apart; offer breakfast and lunch.
- Ask survey questions, for example:
"Please rate your students’ competence in evaluating the quality
of a source of information." (Scale of 1-6)
- Create deliverables: 1) A list
of the department’s student learning outcomes that include the skills
of information literacy; 2) Two syllabi from required courses (1 entry level
and 1 capstone) in the dept. that specifically identify assignments that promote
information literacy; 3) Representative assignments indicating that students
are being asked to demonstrate the various skills of information literacy.
- Create a campus Information Literacy
web site: http://www.library.fullerton.edu/information_comp/
Step 4:
Provide on-going support:
- Assign a librarian to each department
to continue the infusion of IL activities
- Coordinate tech support and continued
funding.
- Offer workshops (results: not
well attended).
Step 5:
- Convene meetings to allow sharing
of activities, verbally & in print or paper copy.
Results:
- 41 departments (not all) are participating,
some more avidly than others.
- The bibliographic instruction
program is more systematic and increased to 300 sessions a semester.
- Some depts. have identified 2
classes as the L.I. vehicle for their dept.
Advisories:
- Funding matters! CSUF offered
$1000 to get departments to participate.
- Administrative commitment (money,
time, and value) is essential.
- Do not offer funding all at once;
give seed money.
- Formally evaluate the program.
- The "ideal" would be
a campus-wide I. L. requirement.
- Infuse "hot initiatives"
on campus with the I. L. directive: accreditation, student retention, learning
communities, distance learning, and technology in the classroom.
- Create alliances with campus stakeholders:
Senate, GE, Curriculum Committee.
- Have patience! Keep inspired.
Re-read Patricia Iannuzzi’s "Faculty Development and Information
Literacy: Establishing Campus Partnerships." Reference Services Review
26 (1998):3-4.
Summary by Barbara Rugeley
