Comments on: Information Literacy Online: If you build it… will they come?

By: Janice Beal

Janice Beal — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:43:44 +0000

Hey, Meredith
I am finding this discussion very interesting. We do indeed need to do a sales job to faculty and administration. NEASC just handed us a peach, by requiring information literacy in both the standard for instruction and the standard for libraries. Everyone needs to be on board, administration, faculty and librarians. I just got an information literacy component included to the UNE Core Curriculum–the faculty voted it in, we developed it in collaboration. I have been after this for years, but the change in the NEASC standard got the job done.
I never meant to suggest that librarians not engage the students, we must. But if they are not getting the message loud and clear from every direction that information literacy skills are critical to their education, they won’t take it seriously.
Looking forward to learning from you about using technology for the common good. cheers, Janice

By: Robin Shapiro

Robin Shapiro — Mon, 08 May 2006 20:03:22 +0000

A colleague and I are working on a pilot this summer. We’re asking writing instructors to add a library RSS feed to their WebCT courses. We’ll do a weekly blog on library services for DL, keyed at least somewhat to course syllabi — first week, welcome and get your barcode by e-mail; second week, using library resources to help select paper topics, down to the last two weeks when we’ll look at citing sources and a brief evaluation.

In past quarters, many of our DL course templates have included links to TILT. Students have only used it when instructors insist, and it’s not really customized to the resources our institution offers. We think a weekly update with a human “voice” will get students’ attention and help utilize the (asynchronous) teachable moment.

By: Chadwick Seagraves

Chadwick Seagraves — Mon, 08 May 2006 13:06:34 +0000

We deal with similar issues where I work. I would bet quite a bit that this is endemic to higher ed. Please continue to share your insights on this process. What do you use to build and deliver your tutorials? Blackboard, HTML, PowerPoint, screencasting? Are any of your instruction sessions classroom based or is it all web based?

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Sat, 06 May 2006 13:58:56 +0000

“It finally hit me over the past few weeks that it is more imporant right now for me to provide marketing and instruction to the instructors than it is for me to provide instruction to the students. They are the people who will guide the students through the programs.” Yes! Also love Ludovico’s point: you are marketing the L Word. Agree also with Steven that the library director has to be the one to set this as a priority. How do you get to that person?

By: C Ludovico

C Ludovico — Fri, 05 May 2006 14:52:25 +0000

I am several months into a new position as Distance Ed Librarian at a liberal-arts school, and realized about two days into the job that I had stepped into a sales position. For me to be successful, I need to be selling library services to the faculty. (Scary, for someone who went into librarianship because she loved to read, but also a good ‘stretch’ role!)

By: Angel

Angel — Thu, 04 May 2006 23:14:58 +0000

I definitely have to agree with Mr. Bell on that one: it takes the administration as well to make things work. Changing that culture when they either have no clue or are just too sceptical can make for an uphill battle, one worth fighting I think. Then again, I am new to the profession (not to teaching), so maybe I am bit idealistic? Who knows? I will have to see if I can get a hold of that issue he mentions (as if I did not have enough to read over already). Some good advice there.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Thu, 04 May 2006 22:54:10 +0000

Great, great post (applauds). This is almost exactly what I found to be true at my campus. We were providing stuff to our distant students but without the faculty saying, “hey, check this out” we were getting nowhere. Probably about 80-90% of my outreach efforts are now to distant faculty rather than students. They’re easier to reach at my institution than distant students are, at least at this point.

By: steven bell

steven bell — Thu, 04 May 2006 18:31:41 +0000

I would add that it’s not just about librarians and faculty – the institutional administration (on the academic side) is the third critical leg of the stool that supports IL on campus. If the provost (or VPAA) and Deans don’t know about information literacy – if there is no place for discussions about IL in the governance structure – then why would most faculty pay more attention. We would like to think because there is a WIIFM factor for faculty – which is better student research – writing – and literacy. But with faculty having many pressures, IL is not considered essential. That why the administration needs to make it an institutional priority. That’s why the real responsibility isn’t with the librarians or the faculty (as the candidate suggested) but it is the responsibility of the library director. He or she is the one who has access to the provost and deans and must get them on board. The library director is the catalyst for campus change when it comes to IL. Then the provost and deans can communicate to faculty (and even make participation part of the reward structure) that IL needs to be happening. That opens up the door for the librarians to the type of real collaboration that needs to happen at the librarian-faculty level. So if your library director isn’t aggressively pursuing this at the administrative level, your efforts to get faculty on board (excepting the few who are truly dedicated to improving the quality of student research) for IL are likely doomed to failure. The case of the tutorials makes this all too obvious. If faculty don’t make viewing the tutorials a part of the assignment why would any student bother to watch it. Three suggestions. (1) Try to get hold of a copy of the May 2005 issue of Library Issues (Mountainside Press) which covers the topic of “Faculty-Led Information Literacy Instruction”. (2)For some ideas on what you can accomplish when information literacy is truly integrated into the curriculum – and the governance structure – see http://www.philau.edu/infolit. I’m sure you can find other good examples at other IHEs. (3) Find out when your next faculty development day is (probably in the fall). See if your library director will push for a program on IL – not one where you talk about it though. Rather, identify a campus near yours that has a successful IL program – and then invite faculty who are actively involved to come and talk to your faculty about IL. They may not listen to you, but they may listen to their peers from another institution – and make sure the Deans are there. One last comment. You have sometimes questioned what is the value of ALA membership. Have you considered joining the Instruction Section? This may be the real value (and why many ALA members don’t identify with ALA but their sections). That connects you to a network of IL librarians who can provide you with the benefit of their accumulated knowledge in working to create IL on your campus. That way, while you certainly made some discoveries on your own, you may have found some workable strategies that would have prevented wasted time and energy. Good luck on bringing IL to your campus. With your enthusiasm I am sure you can make it happen.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Thu, 04 May 2006 15:06:11 +0000

She definitely didn’t say that it’s not our job to engage the students, only that there is so much we can do in our role and that the instructor also need to express a committment to information literacy to his students. There are definitely limits to what we can do as supports (as opposed to instructors), no matter how hard that is to swallow.

When you’re dealing with on-campus faculty, it’s a bit easier to provide outreach because at least you can meet with them and talk to them. We are in the situation where not only are the instructors physically located all over the place but we don’t know who they are and some of them only teach for one semseter and move on.

By: Angel

Angel — Thu, 04 May 2006 14:54:21 +0000

Like you say, it may be obvious to those of us who have been doing this kind of work a while, but I think the main point is what you learned and discovered. And even to someone who has experience in instruction, I found the way you wrote this up clear and neat. Working on the instructors is something that pretty much every librarian in academia has to go through at one point or another. OK, maybe not the technical folk as much depending on the setting. For me, working on those teachers is crucial. Initially I was a bit miffed about that new Public Services person and saying it is not our job to engage them, but to be honest, I have always known what she knows: that we can only do so much. I learned that the hard way in my days as a school teacher (teachers will always face the one or two students one cannot reach no matter what. In a way, the principle is the same for libraries). Having said that, I still aim to engage students any way I can. Saying it is not our job is not really acceptable to me at least, ideally anyways.

You keep working at it. Best, and keep on blogging.