At Salisbury University, information literacy is the acquisition of skills and concepts that enable learners to access information efficiently, evaluate it critically, and use it appropriately.
Information literate students are competent independent learners able to use information for problem solving and lifelong learning.

Faculty Librarians welcome the opportunity to work with course faculty to incorporate Information Literacy into existing courses. To this end, the following items may prove useful:

Building Blocks
     Standards
         ● Summary of ACRL Competency Standards (PDF)
         ● Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (ACRL) (PDF)

     Learning Objectives & Performance Outcomes
         ● Model Information Literacy Development Plan for First Year Students (PDF)
         ● Model Information Literacy Development Plan for Fourth Year Students (PDF)

Nuts & Bolts
     Ready-to-use assignments
         ● Writing an Annotated Bibliography (PDF)
         ● Group Discussion: What is a Catalog? What's in a Catalog? (PDF)
         ● Database Discovery Project (PDF)
         ● Use a Library Database or Use the Web? (PDF)
         ● Evaluating the Value of Books (PDF)
         ● The Quality of Information (PDF)
         ● Understanding the Chain of Information (PDF)
         ● Information and Time (PDF)
         ● Plagiarism (PDF)
         ● The Successful Research Process (PDF)
         ● Creating a Research Question (PDF)
         ● Creating Effective Search Statements (PDF)
         ● Keywords and Subject Headings (PDF)

     Enhance your existing assignments
         ● You may use the ready-to-use exercises above to revise your current assignments OR
         ● You may wish to consult with a faculty librarian to infuse IL concepts -
            FIND YOUR LIBRARIAN LIAISON

How-To Tools
     Ready-to-use tools from the library (as stand-alones or to weave into your course content)
         ● Magazines vs. Journals (PDF)
         ● Evaluating Web Site Content (PDF)
         ● Preventing Plagiarism: A Student Guide (PDF)
         ● Interlibrary Loan Tutorial (Windows Media Player)
         ● Find It Button Tutorial (Windows Media Player)
         ● Interlibrary Loan & ILLiad FAQs (PDF)
         ● Finding Government Information (PDF)
         ● Direct Borrowing (Windows Media Player)
         ● Locating Course E-Reserves (PDF)
         ● Off Campus Database Access Tutorial (Windows Media Player)
         ● Citation Style Guide (HTML)

         ● Online Library Tutorial - a 30 minute tutorial highlighting library services and resources,
            where to find them and how they function. The tutorial can be used as an assignment.
         ● Research Guides by Subject - subject-specific guides that recommend specific books,
            databases, journals, websites and other useful resources

Traditional Implements
     Librarians continue to offer the more traditional library instruction sessions - arranged during
     regular class meeting times and taught by librarians (librarians taught 214 classes for 4413
     students this last academic year) - a sort of 'guest lecturer' model. To learn more about it,
     click on the 'Instruction Home' or 'Instruction Policy' links at the top of this page.

By combining strengths, both course and library faculty can work together to help students see that information literacy is not something that exists in a vacuum and that by becoming information literate, they can better understand coursework, develop critical thinking skills, produce better research papers, ask more probing questions and access necessary information with ease.

Research/Instructional Services Home | Library Home FACULTY SURVEY

The Library Instruction Coordinator is Stephen Ford,
saford@salisbury.edu | 410-548-5972