Strengthening connections between information literacy, general education, and assessment efforts

Library Trends, Fall, 2002 by Ilene F. Rockman

In addition, the CSU system has supported faculty professional development opportunities such as summer fellowships and system-wide conferences to further advance the goals of information competence on the campuses. Successes have been achieved locally, between campuses, and across the system (Clay, Harlan, & Swanson, 2000; Curzon, 2000; Dunn, 2002; Rockman, 2000; Roth, 1999).

In 2002, two of the campuses received national recognition by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). The Fullerton campus was chosen as a "Best Practices" library, and the ACRL Instruction Section bestowed its "Innovation in Instruction" award to the Fresno campus library for the creative "InfoRadio" project. Both of these campus projects received funding from the CSU Information Competence Initiative.

Exclusive of the grants, several campuses have also developed successful local information literacy activities. These have focused on information literacy programs to assist first-generation college students (Tyckoson, 2000), and the establishment of a foundation one-unit information literacy course as part of the general education program which thematically links core courses together in a yearlong freshmen-learning community (Faust, 2001). At the core of the experience is an integrated rigorous educational experience for all entry-level first-year students with a strong emphasis on composition, communication, critical thinking, and information literacy. As noted by Tsui (2001), "students deserve challenging coursework from the start of their freshmen year and throughout each of the college years, rather than having it received at the end of their undergraduate experience" (p. 20). Information literacy has a clear and strong contribution to make toward meeting this goal.

ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Within the last several years, academic libraries have responded to a changing academic environment by becoming more involved with issues related to assessment, especially outcomes-based assessment. Ideally, libraries want to be able to show that the role of the library has a strong impact on campus mission and goals by strengthening the quality of a student's educational experience, empowering students with a renewed confidence in learning, contributing to student motivation and educational persistence, and providing a strong foundation for the retention and transferability of learning to any new experience. Much can be learned from the higher education assessment movement as libraries move into this arena (Pausch & Popp, 1997). Although some may view the role of the library difficult to quantify (Hernon & Dugan, 2002, p. 65), its contributions can best be defined and shaped by its connections to institutional goals and desired educational outcomes (Lindauer, 1998).

Such outcomes-based assessment can be conducted independently as a single library unit, or as a central component of a larger campus-based assessment project such as the general education program. Either way, it is important to collect appropriate evidence to show the library's impact on campus by including the development of information literacy skills in course learning objectives in order to guide improvements, make informed decisions about instructional or curricular adjustments, and document change over a period of time. Improving student learning is the goal.