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Semester-based First-year Information Literacy Learning Objectives

Fall Semester Information Literacy Learning Objectives

Based on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education

Scholarship is a Conversation

  • Students will be able to describe the rationale for citing one’s sources, particularly in an academic setting.
  • Students will be able to distinguish between scholarly and non-scholarly sources.

Authority is Constructed and Contextual

  • Students will be able to use authority as a criterion for evaluating sources.

Information Creation as a Process

  • Students will be able to connect format/creation process to a specific need.
  • Students will be able to describe the peer-review process (or editing process).

Information has Value

  • Students will be able to differentiate between paid and “free” information systems.

Research as Inquiry

  • Students will be able to develop initial research questions/scope of investigation.

Searching as Strategic Exploration

  • Students will be able to efficiently navigate the library to find materials.
  • Students will be able to recognize how adding additional search terms, quotation marks, and Boolean operators will affect their search results.

 

Spring Semester Information Literacy Learning Objectives

Scholarship is a Conversation

  • Students will be able to describe how the conversation around a particular topic has changed over time within a discipline (or across multiple disciplines)

Authority is Constructed and Contextual

  • Students will be able to discuss what types of authority are respected in a specific social context.

Information Creation as a Process

  • Students will be able to identify strengths/weaknesses of specific formats/creation processes.

Information has Value

  • Students will learn about how subscription sources add value to searching through the addition of subject heading systems/thesauri and through specialized search fields adapted to the topic of the database.

Research as Inquiry

  • Students will be able to give examples of how research is an iterative process that develops over time.

Searching as Strategic Exploration

  • Students will be able to recognize how adding additional search terms, quotation marks, and Boolean operators will affect their search results.