As a librarian, I have spent my career addressing learning from the student perspective. At Wake Forest University, I initiated an information literacy program that included existing one on one instruction, one-shot instruction sessions, and an online information literacy tutorial, and added a credit based course (LIB100), all with the goal of creating a learning environment that furthered lifelong learning.

As the Head of Reference, Outreach & Instruction at the Social Sciences & Humanities Library (SSHL) at UC San Diego, I was responsible for providing leadership in reference, outreach, and instruction and for translating policy into practice. My focus there was on creating a strong, effective instructional program. Training the library’s staff was necessary in order for the transition from bibliographic instruction to information literacy to be possible and less superficial. The solutions for us? We formed two professional learning communities that any interested person involved in instruction could join. The communities discuss professional literature, current practice, and brainstorm ideas for enhancing instructional sessions.
Why Information Literacy?

In a world that suffers from information glut, there is a growing need for education on finding, evaluating, and using information. In library circles, this concept is the basis for information literacy. In a nutshell, information literacy is: The ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively (and ethically) use that information for the issue or problem at hand. Ideally, knowledge learned should be transferable and the learner should acknowledge the socio-economic impacts of information on society.

This differs greatly from bibliographic instruction, where librarians taught tools. We showed students a source, talked moved to the next source. In a typical 50 minute session, a librarian would begin by demonstrating how to use the catalog, then discuss how to use an encyclopedia, and end with how to use about five different databases. At no time was the student to engage the source. The presentation was scripted and the script was strictly followed. Walk into a session where the librarian has information literacy as the goal, and the session is vastly different. The beginning is a discussion of what the students know about the topic (indicating that the student possesses prior knowledge!) and what they know about searching for information. A discussion may then move to how they know when they’ve found the right type of information, or it might move into a discussion of searching. The sessions are more organic and allow interactivity, both between the student and librarian, and between the student and the information sources. Information literacy builds upon prior knowledge by acknowledging student learning and by using tools such as curriculum mapping.

Does it require face to face instruction? No, of course not. There are many online information literacy tutorials that serve to support the goal of providing instruction. As technology improves, and as our knowledge of teaching and learning improves, so do the tutorials.