Landman Library - Arcadia University

2008-2009 Faculty Grant Winners

Six grants were recently awarded to support collaborative efforts among faculty and faculty-librarians to promote information literacy across the Arcadia campus. These grants, which were sponsored by the Library and Instructional Technology department and the Faculty Development Awards Program, are designed to support award winners in the task of modifying a course to include a stronger and more integrated focus on teaching students information seeking and research skills. A faculty-librarian will partner with each award winner over the next semester to plan outcomes and develop activities and assignments designed to teach and assess information literacy skills. Award winners were chosen from among fifteen proposals submitted at the end of last year. The Library and Information Technology department hopes to be able to offer this grant again next year, and perhaps expand the award to include support for efforts at integrating information literacy into a program or departmental curriculum.

Grant Award Winners

• Brett Alyson Ange: PBH 110 Introduction to Public Health
• Peter Appelbaum: FY 103 Strangely Familiar Music Group
• Eleonora Bartoli: PY570 Professional Issues in Counseling
• Jodi Bornstein: ED 319 Social Studies Methods
• Peter Siskind & Jennifer Riggan: HS 201/IS 201 History/IS Research Writing

• Michelle Washington: BA 101 International Business and Culture

New Arcadia Curriculum

Rather than treating information literacy as a separate area of inquiry or intellectual practice, the model adopted by Arcadia’s new curriculum for teaching information literacy skills to students is one modeled on the ideas of integration and collaboration. Using this model faculty and librarians collaborate to develop information literacy goals and integrate these goals throughout all levels of the university’s curriculum and throughout all disciplines.

In keeping with the new curriculum’s focus on the first year student, both First Year Seminar and EN 101 are key components of Arcadia’s information literacy program. Students taking these courses will be introduced to library resources and gain experience evaluating different types of information sources. Beyond the first year, the library will work within the new curriculum to collaborate with faculty teaching Research Writing and Senior Seminar courses. This focus will enable students to develop and hone research skills within their chosen academic discipline.

Below are some tentative goals for these areas of the Arcadia Curriculum. These goals will evolve over time as the Library collaborates with the faculty members who teach in those curricular areas.

First Year Seminar Outcomes

• Students will be able to critically evaluate information available on the free web so they can effectively determine which online sources are reliable and best meet their information need.

• Students will be able to identify, locate and utilize basic Arcadia University library resources and services. Emphasis will be placed on students gaining knowledge about how to access resources and staff assistance.

English 101

• Students will be able to identify a topic that is appropriate in scope and develop effective keywords to use when searching library databases for information. Other searching techniques will also be discussed and modeled for students to help them make better use of the features of an academic database.
• Students will be able to effectively evaluate database searches and alter search strategies based on an analysis of initial search results.
• Students will be able to differentiate between scholarly and popular articles and use this knowledge to determine which type of source is most suitable for their information need.
• Students will be able identify the purpose of, and possible biases in, specific information sources so that they can most effectively incorporate that information source into their work.

• Students will practice academic honesty and correct MLA citation style when citing references in their papers.

Research Writing

• Students will be able to discuss and reflect upon the cyclical nature of the research process. Recursive models of inquiry will be modeled for and practiced by students so they will be prepared to conduct sophisticated research.
• Students will be able to evaluate information sources using more advanced (or discipline specific) criteria, such as a knowledge of important authors and publishers in a particular field.
• Students will examine sources and types of information specific to their discipline, understand how information is produced in their discipline, and make use of cross-disciplinary research strategies where appropriate.

• The principles of academic honesty will be reinforced and students will practice proper citation style format for the discipline being studied.

Senior Capstone

The outcomes listed above have been designed to give students a solid foundation in several fundamental areas of information literacy. By their senior year, Arcadia University students should be able to bring the general information literacy proficiencies listed below to the task of researching their senior capstone project. However, even though students will have learned general information skills earlier, it is recommended that students and faculty in Senior Capstone courses engage in a dialog with their liaison librarian because there are higher level skills that can be taught to help students refine their ability to conduct research and use information.

An Arcadia University Graduate will have:

• An understanding of the nature of information in the digital age, both as it applies to their own lives and to effective research within their chosen discipline.
• Ability to effectively search for needed information using library and free web sources.
• Skill in evaluating the information they have found to determine its reliability and how to most effectively use that information to accomplish a goal.

• The ability to use information while adhering to standards of academic honesty by avoiding plagiarism and practicing proper citation format.