Added Value or Essential Instruction?: Librarians in the Twenty-First-Century Classroom

Abstract

In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of the amounts of information that we’re exposed to, and our ability to critically navigate that information hasn’t kept pace with the speed at which it’s coming at us. As information professionals we must ask ourselves—what is our role in helping students and patrons navigate information? What value can we add in a world where information is increasingly complex, contradictory, and competitive? Are our traditional methods of delivering information literacy enough? This paper looks at the evolution of information literacy instruction from the skills in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) through the newly adopted Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016), using examples from my own experience as a reference and teaching librarian. I will focus on how the ways in which we reach students has changed—from one-shot information literacy sessions to more in-depth interactions with students under the new Framework. I will argue, ultimately, that to truly serve students in our current information age, librarians must consider moving even deeper into the classroom, developing and teaching information literacy and critical thinking skills for credit in the college and university setting, and I will highlight a course I developed at my own institution.How will this change what we do in the classroom?

Librarians’ competencies for implementing embedded librarianship in university libraries

“…Evidently, librarians are engaged in a variety of teaching activities such as teaching student groups and supporting individual learning through diverse teaching methods (Bewick and Corrall, 2010; Burke and Tumbleson, 2016) and this is nothing new. Librarians teach users how to search for, retrieve, and use information (Edwards, 2018; Vassilakaki and Moniarou-Papaconstantinou, 2015). However, the number of librarians adequately prepared for these instructional roles that involve the preparation of teaching notes and handouts is insignificant (Mupa and Chinooneka, 2015).…”

The future of academic librarianship: the imperatives of embedded librarianship practice and implementation

“…94, 95). As the importance of technology in education continues to increase, librarians with strong teaching skills are better equipped to seamlessly integrate technology into their teaching methods, thereby offering efficient technology support to both students and faculty (Edwards, 2018).…”

“Cyber World” as a Theme for a University-wide First-year Common Course

“…An important aspect of cybersecurity for the everyday person is a strong set of information literacy skills. Librarians and other information specialists have indicated a pressing need for courses that promote understanding of the reliability of information, especially on the web where expertise is often difficult to determine [8,9]. First-year seminars as well as critical thinking and project-based courses are places where this type of learning objective is addressed because of a general agreement that students need information literacy skills to be successful throughout college.…”