From cornerstone to capstone: information literacy collaboration across the curriculum

Abstract

Librarians and academics alike are passionate about how students engage with scholarly information. We want students to build on their existing information literacy skills when they commence university and to graduate with the information skills needed for lifelong learning in their chosen profession and society at large. Collaboration between librarians and academics to embed information literacy into curriculum design is a key strategy for developing students’ information skills. But what impact does our collaborative effort have on student learning outcomes and long-term information seeking behaviour? Are our graduates information literate and ready for a complex information society? At Latrobe University information literacy is situated as part of inquiry/research graduate capability. Librarians and academics invest much time and effort in teaching and learning partnerships at the institutional, course and subject level. The emphasis is on a coherent, consistent and coordinated approach to embedding information literacy into curriculum design across these three domains. This approach is supported by reusable online resources that have been developed by library staff at La Trobe and intended for use in a blended learning environment. This paper describes the results of a longitudinal study that tracked the information literacy skills of a particular cohort of students from cornerstone to capstone (2009-2012), and reflects on how this evidence-base has informed collaborative practice and development of learning activities and assessment tasks. The study includes the outcome of international benchmarking for final year students at La Trobe University using a standardised information literacy assessment tool. In conclusion, the paper returns to the importance of embedding information literacy into the curriculum design and measuring information literacy learning outcomes progressively during a course. Highlighting the advantages of collaborative practice in terms of student learning outcomes and graduate capabilities reinforces the impact of library and faculty partnerships in the university teaching and learning environment. ['International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries. [34th : 2013 : Cape Town, South Africa]']

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