Making sense of librarian-led information literacy instruction

Abstract

This study explored how undergraduate faculty made sense of librarian-led information literacy instruction. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six undergraduate faculty that taught at least two sections of a general education course at Woodlawn College. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze transcripts and identify four superordinate themes and twelve subthemes. The four superordinate themes that emerged from the transcripts were 1) faculty understand the concept of information literacy in similar ways to library professionals, 2) faculty believe there are distinctive roles librarians and faculty play in teaching students information literacy, 3) faculty have a positive perception of librarian-led information literacy instruction, and 4) faculty encountered challenges with librarian-led information literacy instruction. This study suggests that there are opportunities for librarians to further assess how faculty incorporate information literacy, what role they believe librarians serve in promoting information literacy, and how they would integrate information literacy concepts into their classroom.