The IUB Libraries’ Information Literacy Grants began in 2011, when the IU Libraries partnered with the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and The College of Arts & Sciences to offer grants for faculty interested in creating or redesigning an undergraduate course in order to integrate information literacy throughout the academic term. The revised courses incorporate concepts and processes related to information gathering, evaluation, and use. Such courses, whatever their subject matter, teach students to select, to critically analyze, and to cite sources; to build upon and respond to others’ ideas; and to create new knowledge informed by the research process.
In 2014 the Information Literacy Grants program grew substantially, thanks to a generous donation from the Jay family. With this additional support, the Libraries now offer Course Grants every fall and spring semester. In addition, a two-year Curriculum Grant is offered each academic year to an academic department or program that chooses to integrate information literacy into its curriculum.
Below are descriptions of these unique collaborative projects.
Fall 2022
F150 Introduction to Lifespan Development
Deb Getz (Department of Applied Health Science)
Thea Atwood (Sciences Library)
This proposal seeks to intentionally incorporate information literacy throughout the semester, to increase student knowledge and ability of human development, and to engage them as scholars working toward their “greater role and responsibility in creating new knowledge, in understanding the contours and the changing dynamics of the world of information, and in using information, data, and scholarship ethically” (ACRL, 2015, p. 7). Developing this knowledge and skillset through a scaffolded approach will create a strong foundation that will support students’ success in SPH F-150 and throughout their entire academic and professional careers.
Geography of International Development
Michael Dwyer (Department of Geography)
Theresa Quill (Libraries, GIS)
This project overhauled a series of three assignments in which students apply core concepts from the course to a country of their choice. These assignments require them to locate and interpret a wide variety of information and synthesize findings in a variety of ways.
SLST-T155 Academic Speaking
Beatrix Burghardt (Department of Second Language Studies)
Alyssa Denneler (Libraries, Scholars' Commons)
This course is designed to provide linguistic support in oral skills of IUB's multilingual students. In this context, multilingual students enter higher education in America with a variety of experiences in libraries and information literacy. Through collaboration between the instructor and librarian, this course created a number of teaching materials and an instructional manual that did not previously exist for practitioners worker with learners in this context.
Spring 2022
EDUC Y 639: Multilevel Modeling
Julie Lorah (School of Education)
Christina Jones (Libraries, Education)
Ethan Fridmanski (Libraries, Scholarly Communication)
Graduate school statistics classes and textbooks often focus narrowly on the math and application of specific quantitative methods, leaving a huge gap between what is taught in class and what students may be expected to do in practice. Quantitative researchers are often faced with messy and ambiguous data in a world where model assumptions are never truly met. They must contend not just with the narrow focus of their research questions; but also the whole weight of the history of quantitative work and the implications of their methods and results. Therefore, the goal of the present proposal is to fill in existing gaps in statistics education through integrating a new class project with a professionally curated social justice-oriented reading list. The following sections describe the goals of the project and the accompanying statistics class.
HIST W-350 Baseball as History
Ke-chin Hsia (Department of History)
Scott Libson (Libraries, History)
This course underlines the importance of historiography in undergraduate classes as a framework that informs information literacy by engaging with the scholarly conversation.
Spring 2020 Course Grants
Introduction to Animal Behavior
Adam Smith (Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior)
Jen Laherty (Libraries, Science)
The course will introduce students to the process of accurately identifying scientific information and communicating that information. This will be accomplished by having students design a textbook in order to create a textbook that fills a gap in the literature which is directed to advanced students.
CEUS-C292 Introduction to Turkic and Iranian Civilization
Zeynep Elbasan-Bozdogan (Central Eurasian Studies)
Akram Habibulla (Libraries, Middle Eastern, Central Eurasian, and Islamic Studies)
As as result of the grant, course learning objectives changed to include information literacy principles, course content was redesigned to add checks for understanding on information literacy concepts and the final project was altered to align with material presented by the librarian over the course of the semester.
ARTH A390 / A590: Artists, Materials, and Techniques
Christopher Meyers-Nunn (Eskenazi Museum of Art)
S. Carter (Libraries, Art)
This course introduced the Libraries into student work for the first time by creating meaningful collaborations that increased students' experiences related to the final project.
Fall 2019 Course Grants
EALC-C467 Chinese in Social Sciences
Yingling Bao (Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures)
Wen-ling Liu (Libraries, East Asian Studies)
As a result of collaborating with librarians, we were able to offer two sessions on information literacy to students. The first session aimed to show general skills such as identifying major Chinese databases and navigating various databases. The second session gave students hands-on practice searching for sources for their topics in targeted Chinese databases. As a whole, the students have developed skills to navigate databases, identify useful information, and evaluate the reliability of their search results.Students were engaged in the process of conducting research on a topic related to Chinese society. Compared to past years, they were not only able to search information from websites for the general public, but also became more adept in conducting research using reliable sources such as China Academic Journals. Most students agreed that the library components of this course provided them with valuable new insights into topics of their interests.
Personality Psychology
Alan Roberts (Psychology)
Carrier Schwier (University Archives)
Students were asked to access either diaries or oral histories of IU alumni and use this individual as a case study for concepts discussed throughout the semester. Specifically, they were instructed to identify as many of the traits we discussed in these individuals as possible, how the traits influenced their behavior at IU, and how the traits changed throughout the course of their time at IU.
Spring 2019 Course Grants
M402: History and Literature of Music II
Phil Ford (Music)
Misti Shaw (Libraries, Music)
Our collaboration was for a multi-stage research and writing project culminating in a fully-scripted 15-minute podcast on a piece of music. (I have attached the project full prompt to this survey.) Ford had done a version of this project the previous year, but without a robust information-literacy component it only partially managed to achieve its goal of recasting the traditional research paper in a (for working musicians) more practically useful form. Our biggest goal was to improve the research component of this project and make student instruction in information literacy more systematic. To this end Shaw organized class-section visits from library assistants and devised specific exercises that guided the students’ efforts in crafting and substantiating formal arguments. Ford and Shaw also worked together to redesign the overall structure of the project.
COLL-X211: Literacy and Leadership in Rwanda
Vera Marinova (Director, Books & Beyond Project)
Michael Courtney (Libraries, Teaching and Learning)
Our principal objective was to develop a reimagined and revised curriculum that reinforces the significance of becoming aware of and taking into account one’s own cultural expectations, perspectives, and interaction patterns. Our aim was to strengthen cross-cultural information literacy assignments, research and critical thinking/evaluation skills, meaningful critical reflection, as well as more fully incorporating information literacy instruction into students’ pedagogical training and praxis. A new direction we took this semester was to have students create e-portfolios and online collections that involved several skills that are desirable for students to learn and cultivate: writing, critical thinking, visual literacy skills, digital literacy skills, and in some cases, a basic understanding of copyright law and fair use guidelines. Students began developing a collection of their work that provides a digital archive and narrative of their growth, progress, and achievement in the areas covered in this course.
SOAD-D268 Architectural Theories and Concepts
Kennon Smith (School of Art, Architecture, and Design
S. Carter (Libraries, Art)
The class included a new semester project that involved students researching a designer of their choice. To support student research, the following activities were incorporated: A librarian-led workshop on finding and evaluating information sources to help students gather suitable resources for their projects; A LibWizard tutorial to present ideas related to the idea of Scholarship as Conversation and to evaluate student understanding of these concepts (and the inconsistencies students might encounter in their research); A workshop related to visual literacy – to support students in evaluating the suitability of various images for communicating important ideas in their research. This also included an introduction to methods for developing their own illustrations and diagrams for use in the project.
Fall 2018 Course Grants
MUS-T151, Music Theory & Literature I
Julian Hook (Music)
Misti Shaw (Libraries, Music)
To tie this topic to information literacy skills, we pivoted to a discussion about sound recording renditions, and the various objective and subjective criteria students can use when choosing what they consider to be the best recording. For example, some recordings are live performances while others are made in a studio, with post-production editing. After listening to varying renditions of Tristan excerpts, we finished class by reading a handout containing quotes from contemporary critics and composers from Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective. The Lexicon is a collection of the scathing, horrific things composers and critics have written about famous composers in their day. Students are often surprised to read that in Beethoven’s day, some critics hated his music. These primary resource excerpts are a reminder to students that Scholarship is a Conversation, and that Authority is Constructed and Contextual. Reading the insults that critics hurled against Wagner and Tristan in the late nineteenth century gave students a low-stakes, fun introduction to primary resources and two frames from the ACRL framework.
EDUC-L700: Seminar in Literacy, Culture and Language Education
Beth Samuelson (School of Education)
Julie Marie Frye (Libraries, Education)
Sarah Hare (Libraries, Scholarly Communication)
Students used research tools and indicators of authority to determine the credibility of sources, understanding the elements that might temper this credibility. Exposed students to the concept that many within the field of Education have acknowledged authorities in the sense of well-known scholars and publications that are widely considered “standard,” and yet, even in those situations, some scholars would challenge the authority of those sources. Increased students’ understanding of open access research, the limitations that scholars without access experience, and how that impacts scholarly conversations.
Spring 2018 Course Grants
Advertising and Consumer Culture
Saul Kutnicki (Media School)
Andy Uhrich (Film Archive)
New assignments were designed to scaffold students' exposure and interactivity with library and archival resources. These assignments were integrated into existing course structures aimed at helping students develop a sophisticated capacity to think critically about advertising, interpret advertising messages according to their use and invention of cultural symbols, and understand the role of advertising in shaping attitudes towards social and political issues.
Imaging Race: 20th and 21st Century Photography and the Archive
Faye Gleisser (Art History)
Carrie Schwier (University Archives)
Building on a previous Course Grant, this project restructured the course to make even more effective use of the Archives. Additionally, the project re-imagined a number of assignments to make them more effective and added new options for the final project.
MSCH 428 Public Relations Research and Planning
Minjeong Kang (Media School)
Christina Sheley (Business/SPEA Information Commons)
Gary Arave (Business/SPEA Information Commons)
This course focused on producing insights via primary and secondary research for strategic communication planning purposes. Insights were generated via multiple assignments that emphasized media monitoring, secondary research (market reports, audience research, consumer reports, academic and institutional papers, case studies, etc.), and primary research (survey, interviews, content analysis, or focus groups). Modifications were made to the structure of the course to integrate instruction related to evaluation and search strategies.
PSY-P102 Introductory Psychology 2
Emily Chesire Brown (Psychology)
Jen Laherty (Libraries, Sciences)
A wholly online course, this project developed assignments, assessments, and modules to address the following learning outcomes: 1) Students will be able to identify search terms, navigate search databases, access and evaluate peer-reviewed journal articles relevant to their search needs, and 2) Students will be able to identify common research fallacies, and synthesize results of multiple sources to reach a conclusion about a research question.
Fall 2017 Course Grants
Music Theory and Literature I (MUS-T 151)
Julian Hook (Music)
Misti Shaw (Cook Music Library)
This project built on the success of previously integrated information literacy instruction to expand and redesign a music theory assignment so that students gained practical experience locating music materials, which are particularly challenging to find due to variations in format and the presence of foreign languages. The course content integration activities and discussions gave students creative opportunities to engage with core information literacy concept such as Searching as Strategic Exploration and Scholarship as a Conversation.
EDUC-H 340 Education and American Culture
Kristen Hengtgen (Education)
Carey Beam (Wylie House)
This proposal integrated information literacy throughout the course, with a particular focus on pedagogy and assignments which develop historical empathy, research skills, making an argument, and critical evaluation of evidence. The two main objectives for the collaboration included the following: students should be able to analyze, interpret, and use information to develop an argument; and students should be able to use resources and artifacts at Wylie House to argue whether the museum was useful to them as students and future teachers. The grant supported further exploration of integrating evidence analysis and information literacy skills in the classroom, as well as establishing a partnership between the course in the School of Education and the Wylie House Museum.
Histories of Humanitarianism (HIST H-695)
Michelle Moyd (History)
Mireille Djenno (Libraries, Area Studies)
The proposed project incorporated higher order information literacy skills into the design of a graduate level history course on humanitarianism being taught for the first time. As part of their intensive investigation of a topic related to the history of humanitarianism, students in this course selected, evaluated, acknowledged, and challenged sources, and used those sources to effectively complete assignments that leverage and disseminate the results of these investigations in innovative ways.
Imaging Race: 20th and 21st Century Photography and the Boundaries of Visual Representation
Faye Gleisser (Art History)
Carrie Schwier (University Archives)
This course surveyed major developments in photographic practice from the invention of the medium in the 19th century to the present with special emphases on the role that this technology and its interpretation has played in shaping racial imaginaries and art historical discourse, primarily within an American context. The course paid special attention to the concepts of blackness and whiteness that become materially manifest through photography in order to consider how race is made legible through dichotomies of visibility and disappearance, truth and fiction, and materiality and ethereality. Lectures and reading assignments examined the ways in which artists have reinvented the medium of photography to critique institutionalized notions of race, privilege, and cultural memory, while also paying close attention to the circulation, reproduction, and preservation of images. In order to examine the impact of histories of photography over time, each week students considered historical examples of photography and contemporary artistic responses to them. By bringing photography and aesthetic theory together with visual narratives of slavery, decolonization, civil rights activism, tourism, immigration, and policing, this course invited students to interrogate the complex relationship between images, knowledge, and power. Integral to this course were assignments and visits to campus archives andmuseum collections, as well as consultations with IU library archivists and librarians that helped students cultivate archival intelligence by becoming more attuned to questioning and analyzing images vis-a-vis circuits of reproduction and distribution.
Urban Field Experience (EDUC K495)
Wenjing Zheng (Education)
Wendy Marencik (Education)
Nicholas Wyant (Libraries, Social Sciences)
This project aimed to revise the Urban Field Experience course and its accompanying seminar, offered by Teaching All Learners program, by integrating information literacy training and practice for students to explore myths and facts of urban education, and special education in urban areas. With revised guiding principles, activities, and assignments, the new course offered students multiple opportunities to practice and improve their information literacy competency through exploring issues and topics about urban education in the literature and on social media.This course is a major milestone for becoming a licensed teacher. The revised course with its seminar prepared students with the skills to challenge and reflect on their own beliefs and practices as teachers working with students from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.
Fall 2016 Course Grants
L600: Issues in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education (LCLE)
Mary Beth Hines (Education)
Christina Wray (Libraries, Disability and Community)
This proposal integrated the principles of information literacies for higher education into a new online doctoral course, L600: Issues in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, the first course in a new online Ed.D. doctoral program in the Department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education. As the first course in the program, L600 serves as a foundation, inviting students to learn how to learn with information resources and literacy tools of IU, professional organizations, and leading journals in the field. Gaining proficiency with information tools as they navigate the disciplinary landscape of theory and research, students came to understand research as inquiry, mobilizing disciplinary and information tools in strategic exploration of key sources and issues. As they considered the conventions of American academic discursive practices in language and literacy educational research, they interrogated what counts as “good” research in language and literacy education. Drawing from critical sociocultural perspectives, they analyzed how academic authority is constructed, produced within and against ongoing disciplinary conversations about issues in the field. It is within and against those particular historical, social and political contexts that such conversations occur, reflecting and shaping what counts as “good” language and literacy research. They will came to understand that the production of knowledge both shapes and reflects particular norms, interests, and values, exploring what and whose interests are served in these debates. Throughout the course, students developed and strengthened information literacy skills across the ACRL information literacy framework.
SLAV-R 201 INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN I
Sofiya Asher (Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures)
Wookjin Cheun (Libraries, Area Studies)
This project introduced information literacy instruction into a second-year Russian language course (3rd semester of language instruction). The project sought to address the following question: How do students evaluate foreign language resources available on-line with a limited language proficiency? Through a scaffolded series of activities and mini-projects designed by the language instructor and the librarian, students were introduced to various techniques that allowed them to develop and apply information literacy knowledge in a foreign language
MSCH-C 225: Reporting, Writing and Editing
Kelly Benham French (Media School)
Joseph Coleman (Media School)
Emily Alford (Libraries, Government Information)
Nicholae Cline (Libraries, Arts & Humanities)
This grant implemented a key element of the revitalization of MSCH-C 225: Reporting, Writing & Editing. This is a core skills course in the journalism degree sequence in the Media School, serving approximately 120 students each semester in sections of about 18. Currently, this course contains no unit on documentary sources, public records, or freedom of information.These skills are indispensable to journalists and also are fundamental to students’ understanding of freedom of information and of the role of a free press in a democracy. We proposed to use this grant opportunity to design such a unit, and to build resources and assignments to support students and faculty not only in this course, but in the Media School’s more advanced reporting courses as well.
Spring 2016 Course Grants
English L208: Topics in English & American Literature and Culture
L. Anne Delgado (English)
Rebecca Baumann (Lilly Library)
This project designed and implemented a new special topics class for the Department of English which asked students to think critically about a very complex and fascinating topic: crime in popular culture. Seeking, evaluating, and responsibly using information when researching crime in popular is an undertaking fraught with difficulty, as strong emotional responses, knotty ethical issues, and conflicting or biased reports must be sorted, weighed, and considered. In this course, students studied and analyzed the cultural history of crime from the 18th to the 21stcentury, with a special focus on how ideas about both criminals and victims are shaped by popular narratives. It looked at both works of fiction—crime stories and novels from Sherlock Holmes to Gone Girl—and true crime reporting from the Newgate Calendar to Nancy Grace. Research included extensive work with primary sources from the 18th through 20th century at the Lilly Library as well as diving into the sea of 21st century 24/7 media coverage of crime news. Students navigated the difficult intellectual landscapes in which fiction and fact are never fully separate, and they emerged from this class with the ability to think and discourse intelligently on this topic—a topic which, in a world which presents us with a new shooting almost every day, is increasingly something we must be able to discuss.
Fashion Design F340 History of Fashion
Ashley Hasty (Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design)
Carey Beam (Wylie House)
This project united the Wylie House Museum and a History of Fashion course in an effort to enhance the instructor’s use of primary source material and focus on the inclusion of information literacy specifically. The intention was to deeply integrate information literacy through the course with a focus on two learning objectives: Students will use sources to inform work on project or design of students’ choosing and Students will identify key garment details from a given time period. The participants used the grant to further develop their ideas for assignments including writing more detailed assignment descriptions, creating rubrics, and designing smaller assignments that will act as scaffolding for the larger mid-term and final assessments.
Intensive English Level 5 Reading and Writing
Beatrix Burghardt (Intensive English Program)
Christina Wray (Center for Disability Information & Referral)
This project aimed to redesign the Level 5 Reading-Writing class curriculum, offered by the Intensive English Program, by revising the research component of the existing course to incorporate the theoretical knowledge and skills identified in the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (2015) and to utilize elements of the flipped classroom method to maximize student success. This course is a major milestone in the academic development of non-native English speakers, who come with various discourse backgrounds and may not possess the necessary skills necessary to conduct independent research in the American classroom.
English W350: Advanced Expository Writing
Laura Clapper (English)
Nicholae Cline (Libraries, Arts & Humanities)
Carrie Schwier (University Archives)
This project implemented a re-design of the English course, W350: Advanced Expository Writing. A course that usually entails student learning about rhetorical situations, writing in various forms and competency in source-use, this W350 section became—with an information-literacy revitalization—a site for deeper student thinking about the ethical and practical implications of print and digital collections and archives and their use. Undergraduates participated in a class designed to give them unprecedented access to academic, popular, and historical sources by engaging in one-on-one partnerships with library consultants. Librarians helped students identify and effectively use—and even build—relevant archival collections. One-on-one librarian-student partnerships meant that students developed thoughtful inquiry questions about IU’s holdings and their jointly culled research collection. However, students will not only used archives and compiled personal research collections but also wrote and co-wrote material to become part of IU’s University Archives, creating the opportunity for both their writing and their collaborations with Crawford Homes residents who have experienced long-term homelessness to be represented in IU’s historical records and exhibited in the Scholars’Commons for a broader public.This innovative pedagogical approach built IU’s library archives by documenting the course and the students’ work, while emphasizing assignments as authentic tasks. Likewise,the heightened information literacy framework positions students to write from both sides of the archive while supporting their service-centered learning about a population (people who experienced homelessness)historically underrepresented in traditional archives. Students produced analysis, creative non-fiction, and reflective writing strengthened by a partnership with IU libraries. Because of this collaboration, W350 students had the opportunity to more responsibly serve and to better learn from their community partners who have requested a place in our collective self-representation.
English W131: Elementary Composition Multilingual
Katherine Silvester (English)
Angela Courtney (Libraries, Arts & Humanities)
This proposal was for the redesign of key writing assignments associated with W131 Multilingual to better integrate culturally and linguistically appropriate information literacy. This course is a first-year writing course that currently serves approximately 360 international students across 24 sections. Currently, 16 instructors teach the course each semester (2 professors, 3 lecturers, 11 AIs). The Information Literacy Course Grant supported a pilot section of W131 ML using the redesigned sequence of assignments. Findings and instructional materials were disseminated to associate instructors and lecturers of W131 ML during the 3-day pre-service training in August 2016.
Fall 2015 Course Grants
Ling-L 306: Phonetics I
Kelly Berkson (Linguistics)
Catherine Minter (Libraries, Arts and Humanities)
This introductory phonetics course for undergraduate linguistics majors introduces core aspects of phonetics, the scientific study of speech sounds. Students learned about the anatomy and physiology of the human vocal tract and how this apparatus is used to produce speech sounds, were introduced to the full inventory of speech sounds humans are capable of making, and learned how to perform acoustic analysis of speech sounds using computational tools. Over the course of the semester, in tandem with learning about the more academic and theoretical components of phonetics, students engaged in hands-on, real-world research: "adopted language” groups were formed at the beginning of the semester based on the students' linguistic interests and aspirations. Each group spent the semester investigating how the concepts discussed in the classroom were instantiated in their specific “adopted language.” (This semester’s languages included Bashkir, Egyptian Arabic, Finnish, Gujarati, Hungarian, Polish, San Juan Quiajihe Chatino, and Taiwanese.)
The final project required students to create a stimuli list, record a native speaker of their adopted language and to report the results of several acoustic analyses. Information literacy played a key role in rendering this possible: students had to learn how to engage with the existing linguistic literature in order to determine what resources related to their adopted language already existed, and they also had to evaluate the quality and reliability of the resources they located. Final oral group presentations and individual papers were, for the most part, of high quality, and two groups hope to present their work at a national conference later this year.
POLS-Y490: Senior Seminar in Political Science
Sumit Ganguly (Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Political Science)
Karen Farrell (Libraries, Area Studies)
This senior seminar was focused on contemporary global security issues. To that end it dealt with major theoretical approaches to the study of international security, focused on a series of topical issues and discussed some emergent questions in the field of security studies. The students were all expected to submit a draft term paper which was then critiqued and returned to them for revisions and final submission. One of the key requirements of the paper involved explicitly modeling it for a hypothetical submission to a major, refereed security studies journal. To that end, both instructors worked closely with the students to try and ensure that the draft papers conformed to the submission requirements of the specified journals. The other major requirement of the course was a comprehensive final examination.
NELC-N 260/JSTU-J 260: Literary Masterpieces of Muslim Spain
Guadalupe Gonzalez Diequez (Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Jewish Studies)
Akram Khabibullaev (Libraries, Area Studies)
SLAV-S320: Kievan and Muscovite Culture
Ariann Stern-Gottschalk (Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures)
Wookjin Cheun (Libraries, Area Studies)
This course introduces students to Russian Jewish authors and their works. Building on years of collaborations in various Slavic courses, the instructor and librarian have designed the course so that it will introduce subject content in concert with research activities associated with that content. Specifically, during this course students will investigate how we define “Russian Jewish Writers” and the roles that language, origin, and the complicated definition of “Jewish” in the Russian and Soviet context all play in forming a coherent, working definition. The information literacy learning objectives for the students’ investigative research focus on guided practice in finding, evaluating, and presenting resources for this research.
2014 - 2015 Information Literacy Grants
FINA-A400: Senior Seminar
Jeffrey Saletnik (History of Art)
Kristina Keogh (Fine Arts Library)
Senior Seminar is the capstone course in the Department of Art History. It is meant to be an intensive examination of selected topics in the discipline and, in this iteration of the course, which involved deliberate integration of information literacy, to offer art history majors the opportunity to survey, deploy, and reflect upon the methods used to describe and analyze art objects from ancient traditions of ekphrasis to current academic writing and criticism. Students who are seeking departmental honors are required to enroll. In the context of this course, these students determine a research topic, conduct research for, and begin to write their honors papers. The revised learning outcomes describe competencies that are critical for finding, understanding, and analyzing ideas about forms of human expression. The instructor and the librarian modeled the research process in order to introduce these competencies. Students were asked to identify the appropriate research tools to access relevant scholarly sources; they articulated a gap in current art historical knowledge that is important to investigate and synthesized information from multiple sources to construct an argument for their proposed research papers. They demonstrated these competencies in oral and written formats.
SLAV-R322: Linguistic Approaches to Literature
Ariann Stern-Gottschalk (Slavic Studies)
Wookjin Cheun (Libraries, Area Studies)
In spring 2015 SLAV-R 322 introduced students to the structural and linguistic elements of Russian Silver Age poetry. In the Silver Age, artists and poets aligned with various movements pioneered new approaches to the arts that complemented events and ideas at this critical period in Russian history. To better introduce students to poetic movements as a device for organizing linguistic, cultural, and historical information related to their study, the librarian and instructor developed two research projects focused on these movements. These included a student-produced library research guide, or "LibGuide," for other undergraduates interested in studying Russian Silver Age poetry. They also provided students with tools to thoughtfully organize, evaluate, and describe the resources used in their research, including rubrics for evaluating print and online resources, an extensive introduction to EndNote, and guidance in writing synopses of materials.
HISP-S429: Spanish Sociolingiuistics and Pragmatics
César Félix-Brasdefer (Spanish & Portuguese)
Luis Gonzalez (Libraries, Area Studies)
HISP-S429 is an upper-division course in Hispanic Linguistics that allows undergraduate students in Spanish (majors and minors) to conceptualize and write a research paper in one area of pragmatics and/or sociolinguistics. The focus of this course was on the development of research skills by undergraduate students and the assessment of their research performance. To accomplish this goal the instructor used principles of research-based assignments that allow students to conceptualize, develop, revise, and complete a research project in one semester. Some of the teaching principles used to promote the development of research skills include scaffolding, authenticity (understanding and practicing the scientific method), raising awareness of disciplinary challenges, and the appropriate use and citation of information sources. The instructor implemented critical thinking activities during different stages of the research project. The librarian collaborating in this course visited the class and provided students with useful information with regard to linguistic corpora, text databases, video archives, indexes for bibliographic annotation, and online resources for locating primary and secondary resources. The ultimate goal of this course was to raise awareness of the scientific method and to provide students with tools necessary to write a successful research paper.
2013 - 2014 Information Literacy Grants
INTL-I315: Methods in International Studies
Peter Nemes (International Studies)
Mike Courtney (IU Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
I315: Methods in International Studies is designed to train students in social sciences research methods, while also preparing them to follow a broader course of interdisciplinary study. The course encourages students to collaborate across thematic concentrations and methodologies and thus to better understand the interconnectedness of international issues. The class simultaneously focuses on information literacy skills, research design, and reflection while cultivating critical reading, writing, and analytical skills. The librarian working with this course collaborated on syllabus and curriculum design, consulted on design of a research-based assignment, and provided guidance to students as they worked through a tiered, cohort-based research assignment.
CHEM-C117: Principles of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Kate Reck (Chemistry)
Brian Winterman (IU Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
C117 is a foundational course taken every semester by 700+ students pursuing various science majors. The class was therefore a good springboard for introducing information literacy skills to students in several science disciplines. Thus, in fall 2013 an information literacy assignment was added to its traditional multiple-choice assessment. The predominant learning goal was establish foundational information literacy skills that students will need to be successful in their future coursework and careers. Through a sequenced assignment that broke down the process of researching and writing on a course-related topic, students developed critical research skills including: selecting a research topic, using search tools to locate scholarly sources, dissecting and interpreting primary research articles, making explicit connections among source types, and representing information from sources accurately and logically.
Student success was measured with assessment rubrics for each of four assignments. Associate Instructors were taught how to use the rubrics consistently and how to minimize the amount of time spent on each paper, considering the size of the class. Over 85% of the class met or exceeded the student learning objectives.
CMCL-C425: Culture, Identity, and the Rhetoric of Place
Cindy Smith (Communication & Culture)
Carey Beam (Libraries, Wylie House Museum)
C425 provides an introduction to the study of the built environment from a rhetorical perspective. The course is also designated as an intensive writing course. Students explore the rhetorical nature of architecture and evaluate its implications in society and on human values and behavior. The librarian working with this course collaborated with the instructor to introduce concepts and skills associated with primary source materials with a focus on how these materials support architectural research. These were incorporated into small research-based assignments which culminated in a final paper.
FINA-S439: BFA Painting Seminar
Caleb Weintraub (IU Libraries)
Kristina Keogh (Fine Arts Library)
S439: BFA Painting Seminar is a comprehensive painting course designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of painting as a discipline and as a profession. A key component of this course centered on students’ developing an understanding of their work in the context of the greater art world and cultural media. The instructor and the librarian worked with the students on several ongoing research projects, some of which introduced discipline-specific research resources. The research projects allowed students to gain an understanding of and facility with tools that helped them recognize and interpret trends in thinking and in tastes.
2012 - 2013 Information Literacy Grants
BUS-X498: Internship for Credit
Keith Dayton (Kelley School of Business)
Christina Sheley (Libraries, Business/SPEA)
Chanitra Bishop (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
X498: Internship for Credit is an online course for Kelley School of Business juniors and seniors, designed to deepen the overall learning gained from an internship. Business student interns need to possess Web 2.0 know-how and advanced information and research skills when placed in corporate internships. All library instructional and assessment content was delivered through a combination of Web 2.0 technologies and OnCourse. Outcomes required reflection on workplace information use and behavior via a blog. In addition, participants practiced concepts of information choice and evaluation through completion of a peer-focused annotated bibliography and wiki entry.
"...what you all contribute makes a huge, huge difference ...the libraries' impact is meaningful and makes a difference in these kids' lives." --Keith Dayton
AMID-R404: International Textiles and Apparel Trade
Mary Embry (Apparel Merchandising & Interior Design)
Emilee Mathews (Fine Arts Library)
Brian Winterman (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
R404 provides a global understanding of social, economic, and political forces that shape the textile and apparel industry. To be successful in the course, students are expected to use library resources to support their development of multiple perspectives as sophisticated global thinkers. The librarian working with this course facilitated students' learning and partnered with them in the research process as they worked through a scaffolded research-based assignment culminating in a visual presentation and final report.
BIOL-L211: Molecular Biology
David Kehoe (Biology)
Brian Winterman (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
L211 is a large, required sophomore-level course that is lecture-based but also has smaller learning groups. A writing assignment was design based on principles of information literacy and integrated with the course during the fall semester. The focus of the assignment was on the process over product, and the students had several weeks to write a 1-page paper using a step-wise approach: exploring, outlining, drafting, etc. They were asked to use current primary literature to develop a perspective on a topic, and they received feedback from teaching assistants at each step along the way. Also a rubric was developed, normed, and used to evaluate the students' work. Results and student feedback were positive overall. This approach will continue to be developed in L211 and other courses in the program.
CJUS-P290: The Nature of Inquiry
Marla Sandys (Criminal Justice)
Carrie Donovan (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
One of five required courses for Criminal Justice majors, this course is intended to familiarize students with various methods used to conduct scientific research. The information-gathering that students do in preparation for their own research is an excellent opportunity to build in learning outcomes related to the location and evaluation of scholarly research. The librarian and faculty member worked together to build these elements into the course in order to create a more direct connection for students between the process of investigating the scholarly literature and conducting one's own research project.
2011 - 2012 Information Literacy Grants
CLAS-C494: Problems in Classical Studies
Bridget Balint (Classical Studies)
Catherine Minter (Libraries, Arts & Humanities)
Chanitra Bishop (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
C494 is the undergraduate capstone course in Classical Studies. The main research project in the course required students to evaluate the classicism of an artifact, genre, or period from a contemporary point of view. To assist students with this process, the librarians introduced the students to a variety of subject specific and general library resources.
EDUC-M464: Content Area Reading
James Damico (School of Education)
Gwen Pershing (Libraries, Education)
Chanitra Bishop (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
M464 is a required course for secondary education majors. The major course project required students to research and analyze a complex, multi-faceted issue. The librarians involved in this grant, assisted students with developing research questions and locating and organizing library sources.
BUS-X220: Strategic Business Career Planning
Keith Dayton (Kelley School of Business)
Christina Sheley (Libraries, Business/SPEA)
Carrie Donovan (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
Focusing on real-world outcomes, this project resulted in incorporating research skills into two courses (X220 and X420) in order to teach students how to do company research prior to a job interview. Interviews with corporate recruiters to find out specifically what they expect students to know when going into a job interview ensured the relevance of content. In addition, concepts and ideas gathered during focus groups with former X220 and X420 students were used as a means to discover the students’ prior library research experience and their insights regarding the potential for these two courses to be vehicles for information literacy education. Since its revision, X220 builds information seeking, evaluation, and use into the course through in-person learning experiences and self-paced online modules.
“I have worked with the library over a period of years and know the high skill level they bring. What was incredible was the depth at which Christina contributed with the materials she provided and the high level of expertise that she brought – that would include the research elements, focus groups and technology that she added.” –Keith Dayton
SPSH-S311: Introduction to Research Methods
Lisa Gershkoff (Speech & Hearing)
Brian Winterman (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
DeLoice Holliday (Libraries)
The instructor for this course collaborated with librarians to lead students through the process of designing and carrying out speech and hearing experiments related to memory. Information literacy principles were incorporated at each step, particularly those regarding literature organization in the sciences, distinguishing between document types, and supporting research with literature.
HPER-R160: Foundations of Leisure
Rasul Mowatt (HPER)
Carrie Donovan (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
R160 is a large course, enrolling HPER majors and non-majors. The course incorporates research throughout the stages of a final “progressive” essay in which students gather and use only scholarly sources to complete a final research paper. Student learning of the research process and understanding of the libraries’ resources is measured through a pre- and post-test, as well as a reflective writing assignment in which students describe their experience with research, what they learned, and what they will do differently next time.
“The benefits of working with a librarian in a repeated fashion allows for more detailed “imagining” when designing a study, structuring the scales, conducting the research, and teaching the course. Having the library intimately involved in the workings of courses should be the future direction for all general education courses.” –Rasul Mowatt
COLL-C105: The Psychopharmacology of Herbal Medications
Philip Quirk (Human Biology)
Brian Winterman (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
Fulfilling the “critical approaches” category in the College, this course had a fairly even distribution of students from freshmen to seniors from many different majors. The librarian and instructor collaborated to teach basic principles of science and science information, with a particular focus on evaluating the validity and authority of information about herbal medicines and remedies.
HPER-T142: Living Well
William Ramos (HPER)
Carrie Donovan (Libraries, Teaching & Learning)
In a class that encourages students to focus on their own wellness by asking questions about what they know and read, T142 is an ideal vehicle for information literacy education. The course begins by introducing students to health-related claims made in a variety of types of sources. Students are taught to ask questions, seek evidence, and understand credibility of various sources, from print to multi-media. Toward the culmination of the course, students begin to use scholarly sources and their understanding of how the information in these sources is developed, reviewed, and disseminated is enhanced by their prior knowledge.
“The greatest benefit of this project was the chance to brainstorm with people who truly understand, and are excited about, empowering students to use information. As a result of this project, I will continue to find ways to weave the concept of informational fluency and research into all my classes as a way to enhance the goals.” –Bill Ramos
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