Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Pragmatic And Flexible Approach To Information Literacy: Findings From A Three-Year Study Of Faculty-Librarian Collaboration, Barbara Junisbai, M. Sara Lowe, Natalie Tagge

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

While faculty often express dismay at their students’ ability to locate and evaluate secondary sources, they may also be ambivalent about how to (and who should) teach the skills required to carry out quality undergraduate research. This project sought to assess the impact of programmatic changes and librarian course integration on students’ information literacy (IL) skills. Using an IL rubric to score student papers (n=337) over three consecutive first-year student cohorts, our study shows that when faculty collaborate with librarians to foster IL competencies, the result is a statistically significant improvement in students’ demonstrated research skills. Our study also reveals …