Information Literacy: The Role of the
Library in Ensuring Student Success
Inter-Institutional Committee of Chief
Librarians
Final Revision
January
31, 2006
For over a decade, the Inter-Institutional Committee of
Chief Librarians (ICCL) has worked collaboratively through the Council of
Presidents to significantly enhance access to library and information resources.
The highly successful Cooperative Library Project and the award-winning
Orbis Cascade Alliance with its powerful
Summit
program demonstrate how deep and sustained collaborations can contain costs and
transform research, instruction, and the delivery of library services.
ICCL seeks to build on these successful collaborations by
partnering with the community and technical colleges to enhance academic success
for all students enrolled in
Washington
State higher education
institutions by developing shared learning goals for information literacy.
Articulating information literacy skills and principles
that rising juniors need to succeed and implementation of programs to support
the realization of these learning goals will have multiple benefits for higher
education in Washington State:
-
Elimination of redundancy of educational effort
-
Enhanced learning experience for all students
-
Assurance that graduates of
Washington
higher education institutions have attained levels of information literacy
that them to be contributing members of an increasingly knowledge and
technology based society and economy.
ICCL charged a group of librarians with significant
expertise and experience in information literacy to draft a set of information
literacy learning outcomes expected of “rising juniors.” These learning outcomes
apply to students regardless of whether the freshman and sophomore coursework is
taken at a community and technical college or at a baccalaureate institution.
The list of basic skills and principles will serve as a foundation for
continued and enhanced programmatic and pedagogical collaboration among the
community and technical colleges and baccalaureate institutions.
Information Literacy Learning Outcomes for Rising Juniors
at
Washington
State Higher Education
Institutions
The student should:
- Be able to shape a basic research question appropriate
to the topic and to the audience; be able to modify or revise research
questions to achieve a manageable focus.
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of the types of
information resources available and distinguish which ones are relevant to
the task; formulate effective search strategies.
- Begin to explore how researchers formulate questions
and use specific research methods to generate evidence and support
conclusions.
- Recognize differences between popular and scholarly
information.
- Recognize differences between primary and secondary
sources.
- Gain a sense of when and what type of web sources are
appropriate to a given research project.
- Understand that there are multiple approaches to
research; be flexible, creative, and resourceful in using research
strategies.
- Practice critical assessment of sources (i.e.
usefulness, authorship, currency, point of view, bias, use of evidence,
etc.)
- Demonstrate basic skills in summarizing, analyzing,
and synthesizing information from a wide variety of sources.
- Incorporate an understanding of their personal values
and biases when making inferences and drawing conclusions about sources of
information; reflect upon their own assertions.
- Appreciate that there are ethical issues inherent in
research.
- Communicate results of research (via written, oral, or
visual means) meeting standards of organization, evidence, coherence, and
correctness.
- Be aware of institutional regulations concerning
plagiarism and academic honesty.
- Know how and when to document sources using an
appropriate citation format.
- Understand the role of library professionals and
faculty in guiding them towards reliable information resources and effective
research methods.