Information literacy (IL) is a critical thinking skill that must be developed over time. A single, one-hour library session will not, in and of itself, instill the higher order skills needed for competency. Information literacy is the responsibility of all academic areas of the University, including the Core Curriculum (Foundations), All-College Honors, majors, and supporting units such as the center for student success. The library’s instructional programs are intended to support each of these areas with programming that will help to introduce and reinforce information literacy skills.
The Canisius University library instruction program is based on the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We offer instruction on a range of topics related to the Framework and to academic integrity. We have established the following guidelines to ensure effective library instruction for Canisius students:
- Connect the library session with your course
- Share your belief in the value of information literacy. Students who understand how information literacy is embedded in your course and field of study will get more out of the session. We welcome your assistance with planning the session in order to better meet learning goals.
- Participate in the library session
- Instructors are encouraged to actively participate in library instruction sessions. When your students see you engaged during a session, they will come to understand that you value information literacy skills. Students may have questions related to the assignment, topic, or field that are best answered by faculty.
- Point of need sessions
- Library sessions should be directly connected to a course assignment. All faculty are required to submit the assignment upon which the library session is based before the session. Library instructors will use the course assignment to prepare for the session. Sessions may be cancelled if no assignment is submitted.
- Online tutorials for students
- The library instruction team uses the “flipped classroom” model to structure sessions. This means that students may be asked to complete one or more online tutorials about information literacy before they come to the library. It is vital that ALL students complete ALL elements of the tutorials, including the quizzes. We strongly encourage faculty to make this a graded part of their course so that students recognize the value of the tutorials. Library instructors are available to assist faculty with embedding tutorials into their courses. If tutorials are required and students have not completed them, session time will be used for tutorials and library instruction will be rescheduled.
- Scheduling of library sessions
- All library instruction requests should be made at least two weeks prior to the session using this form: https://library.canisius.edu/instruction-booking-form.
- Library instruction is more effective at the point of need so please schedule your session to coincide with the timeline for the assignment being addressed. Please notify us as soon as possible if you need to reschedule.
- Librarian Observation
- As part of our ongoing assessment plan, library sessions may be observed and evaluated by another librarian for peer review purposes. Please note that this is an evaluation of the librarian teaching the session and not of the course instructor or students.
