Librarians Collaborating with Faculty to Provide Information Literacy Instruction:

A Golden Gate University Library Case Study with Applications for Working with Other Library Constituencies

Janice Carter, Director, University Library

Golden Gate University jcarter@ggu.edu

Working to Incorporate Information Working to Incorporate Information Literacy into the CurriculumLiteracy into the Curriculum

• Often when librarians approach faculty hoping to schedule an information literacy or research session for the faculty member’s class, the faculty member indicates s/he does not have time to cover the basic material in the course, and so cannot include an information literacy session.

• Does this sound familiar?

Understanding Faculty Needs and Understanding Faculty Needs and InterestsInterests

• By starting with an understanding of the faculty member’s needs and interests, the librarian can find ways to address the challenges faculty members face, and in the process, incorporate information literacy into course curricula.

Using Brenda Dervin’s Model of Using Brenda Dervin’s Model of Information Seeking BehaviorInformation Seeking Behavior

• Librarians may find Brenda Dervin’s (1999) model of Information Seeking Behavior helpful in understanding the challenges faculty face, and finding ways to team with faculty to help them achieve their goals and incorporate information literacy into the curriculum.

Using Technology to Incorporate Using Technology to Incorporate Information LiteracyInformation Literacy

• Librarians at Golden Gate University have found that faculty are encouraged to use technology, yet often they don’t know how to do it, and don’t feel they have the time to learn how to do it.

• Library staff can help faculty incorporate technology into the class, and, in the process, help faculty incorporate information literacy into their courses, as well.

Team Teaching to Motive Students and Team Teaching to Motive Students and Teach Information LiteracyTeach Information Literacy

In a required English course, to motivate students to write Dr. Judith Browning teamed with Librarian Janice Carter, to teach students how to create a website and put their writing on the Web. (Browning & Carter, 1998)

In the process of working with the students, Judith and Janice discovered students needed help evaluating sources, so they focused more on teaching how to evaluate sources, and Janice developed a website on evaluating sources. (Browning & Carter, 2000)

Working with Early Adopters Leads to Working with Early Adopters Leads to More OpportunitiesMore Opportunities

• Success in collaborating with early adopters has opened the door for librarians to work with other faculty, and to extend the range of information literacy topics embedded into courses.

• Judith Browning and Janice Carter received a grant to share their experiences incorporating technology into teaching with faculty in English, then with faculty in math and other departments, as well.

Working with Faculty ObjectivesWorking with Faculty Objectives

As Judith and Janice explained: “We were eager to share what we had gained with other faculty. As we worked with other faculty, we learned to begin where they were. We developed a list of ways faculty could incorporate ideas from the English 1B project depending upon their own objectives and their own comfort level with technology.” (Browning & Carter, 2000, p. 21)

Judith and Janice then codeveloped and copresented with Dr. Peg McPartland, and Dr. T. J. Tabara a workshop: How virtual do you want your classroom to be? Selecting technology that fits you, your teaching style, your course objectives and your students, at Syllabus99, Santa Clara, California, (Browning, Carter, McPartland & Tabara, 1999, July)

Collaborating Increases VisibilityCollaborating Increases Visibility

• Collaborations with early adopters have brought more visibility to the library and more opportunities for librarians to work with faculty to incorporate information literacy skills in courses.

• Throughout the process, technology has also made it increasingly easy for Janice and other librarians to incorporate information literacy

skills into courses, as well.

Addressing Faculty Concerns Addressing Faculty Concerns About PlagiarAbout Plagiarismism

Over the years, librarians at Golden Gate University have found that citing appropriately and avoiding plagiarism is the information literacy topic of greatest concern to most faculty.

The University Library staff address that issue in research instruction sessions tailored to course assignments, and through the development of online research guides, such as the APA Citation LibGuide, http://ggu.libguides.com/apa, consistently the University Library’s most popular guide.

Even faculty who don’t think they have time for a research session in

class, or who teach only online, incorporate this guide in their syllabi.

Using Using LibGuidesLibGuides to Embed Information to Embed Information Literacy into CoursesLiteracy into Courses

LibGuides, www.libguides,com, developed by Springshare, are one of many products that help librarians keep at the forefront of technological innovation.

At Golden Gate University, and perhaps many other universities, LibGuides are among the most interactive and visually appealing Web 2.0 resources available. Thus, faculty see them as an easy and appealing way to add Web 2.0 technologies to their classes.

As of September 1, 2012, librarians could “search and explore 276,399 guides by 48,969 librarians at 3494 libraries worldwide,” according to the website www.libguides,com

Creating Creating LibGuidesLibGuides

• Librarians at Golden Gate University and elsewhere, have developed LibGuides to support the various programs of study, such as Finance, Management, Marketing, Public Administration, etc.

• In many of the GGU LibGuides, the GGU librarians also link to the APA citation website. See, for example, the LibGuide for Public Administration http://ggu.libguides.com/empa

AdministeringAdministering TurnItIn TurnItIn

• Another technological resource that has helped librarians team with faculty to help teach students to cite resources appropriately and avoid plagiarism is TurnItIn. http://turnitin.com/ which, on its website, bills itself as “The global leader in plagiarism prevention …”

• At Golden Gate University, TurnItIn is administered through the library, so librarians help faculty set up their TurnItIn accounts. Librarians often use this opportunity to tell faculty about resources and services of the library that can help faculty address the concerns they may have about citation and other information literacy topics. This can lead to broader conversations about how library can provide other support, as well.

• When a student or faculty member submits a paper to TurnItIn, TurnItIn compares the paper to the resources in its extensive database of other student papers, web resources, books, and journal, magazine and newspaper articles. TurnItIn highlights the sections of text in the student paper which are not original. Librarians encourage faculty to set up their TurnItIn accounts so students can submit their papers to TurnItIn multiple times for one project, and thus use TurnItIn as a learning tool.

Creating Multimedia Using Creating Multimedia Using VoiceThreadVoiceThread

• Currently, faculty at Golden Gate University are encouraged to include videos and other multimedia in the online platform for their courses. Many faculty do not feel they have the time to develop their own videos, but they can easily incorporate videos and other multimedia librarians have developed on information literacy and other topics.

• Librarians use technologies such as VoiceThread http://voicethread.com/ to create multimedia. – Librarians at Golden Gate University have incorporated voicethreads in

LibGuides. – See GGU University Library’s APA citation guide

http://ggu.libguides.com/apa for a voicethread on Why Cite? http://voicethread.com/#q.b580587.i3099190

– See also the Information Literacy libguide http://ggu.libguides.com/infolit for voicethreads on the home page and under the tabs Use the Library and Research Topics.

Creating Multimedia Using Creating Multimedia Using Screencast-o-maticScreencast-o-matic

• Using Screencast-o-matic, http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ librarians are now creating screencasts such as http://youtu.be/NQ0GXAmf6AU which provides a tour of the University Library webpage, including resources for information literacy. – Faculty can easily embed the screencasts in the

online components of their courses. – Librarians have been working with instructional

designers to embed a widget into all online courses which includes the library screencast.

Exploring Opportunities with Online Exploring Opportunities with Online CoursesCourses

• Online courses, and even courses in person with online components, do not have the time constraints that classes which only meet in person do.

• Thus there are more opportunities for librarian and faculty collaboration to embed instruction on information literacy and other topics.

Seeking New OpportunitiesSeeking New Opportunities

• Librarians at Golden Gate University are constantly looking for new technologies and new ways to partner with faculty to incorporate information literacy in classes.

• They are also using Brenda Dervin’s model of

information seeking behavior to analyze the gaps faculty and other library constituencies face, to find new ways to partner with constituencies, bridge the gaps, and incorporate information literacy instruction, and other guides and resources, to address patron needs.

• What opportunities do you see?

ReferencesReferences

Browning, J & Carter, J. (1998, November). Motivating student learning through web site development. Presentation at the Association for Business Communication 63rd Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas.

Browning, J., & Carter, J. (2000) “Putting your best web-foot forward: Adapting web technologies to fit you, your teaching style, and your students.” Teaching and learning in a network world, TechEd2000 Proceedings, edited by P. Hoffman and D. Lemke. Amsterdam: IOS Press, pp. 19-26.

Browning, J., Carter, J., McPartland, P., & Tabara, T. (1999, July) How virtual do you want your classroom to be? Selecting technology that fits you, your teaching style, your course objectives and your students. Preconference workshop at Syllabus99, Santa Clara, California.

Dervin, B. (1999). “On studying information seeking methodologically: the implications of connecting metatheory to method.” Information Processing & Management, 35(6), 727-750, as cited by Godbold, N. (2006, July) Beyond information seeking: towards a general model of information behaviour,” IR Information Research, Vol. 11 No. 4, retrieved via http://informationr.net/ir/11-4/paper269.html, September 15, 2012.