Information Literacy
Information Literacy is defined as the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.
- National Forum on Information Literacy (An organization of educators, librarians, and business leaders dedicated to preparing Americans for the challenges of the information age. www.infolit.org)
History:
Pulaski Technical College faculty and staff were introduced to the concept of information literacy in August 2002. The following two years included workshops, campus-wide discussions and expert speakers. With support from College administrators, faculty and staff, information literacy became an official campus-wide initiative in fall 2004. All PTC courses must include at least one information literacy component, and it must be identified in the course syllabus.
Background information is available through this link:
Current Status:
PTC Ottenheimer Library provides information literacy instruction and workshops, online training modules, a librarian embedded in online courses, and individual assistance in person, or by e-mail or telephone. Library liaisons are assigned to divisions to work collaboratively with faculty to integrate information literacy skills into the curriculum.
Library professionals have conferred with certain department chairs to map the PTC Information Literacy Curriculum for library-related portions of the ACRL Standards to gateway and advanced courses in the PTC Associate of Arts degree program. Curriculum objectives that are not library-related have been matched with course content. This Curriculum is not a static document and changes are made as classroom instructor, student needs, and program assessment indicate. Standardized Information Literacy instructions have been developed for College Seminar, Speech Communication, and Composition I and Composition II. These instructions are revised and additional instructions are developed in conjunction with faculty as needed. Assessment tools include instructor evaluations of presentations and pretests in College Seminar courses. Librarians are planning the use of additional assessment tools.
In addition to the mapped instructions, librarians collaborate with faculty from all divisions to target class instruction for a particular curricular need. Areas as diverse as auto body, dental assisting, business, history, and mathematics have participated in information literacy instruction. Through the Liaison program, librarians maintain two-way communications with all faculty members so that available resources and services can be matched to faculty and student needs. Crash courses, which are targeted 30-minute open classes for all students are developed based on faculty/student feedback. Additional crash courses are offered to faculty as professional development.
Other more traditional library services support the information literacy initiative. Interlibrary loan, collection development based on student and faculty requests, a strong and evolving electronic resource collection, and individual reference assistance are all part of the PTC Ottenheimer Library program.
Need more information? Call PTC Ottenheimer Library at (501) 812-2272 or e-mail us at LibraryStaff@pulaskitech.edu.