Library Instruction West 2018

As with many colleges and universities, academic program assessment has risen to the top of Auburn University's educational agenda. Departments across campus are adapting curricula to meet student learning outcomes, the first of which is information literacy (IL). To support this this learning outcome, subject specialist librarians are partnering with departments to scaffold IL instruction into each program. While the idea of systematically integrating IL into the curriculum is often met with enthusiasm by department administrators, the logistics of effecting such change can be challenging. Implementation requires buy-in and collaboration with course instructors, who may not be willing to sacrifice time normally devoted to content. As the Biological Sciences Librarian, I reviewed the revised curriculum and created a sample plan, which was approved by the program coordinator. Since then, I have successfully integrated IL into upper division classes, but the freshman core Biology course eluded me until recently. Freshman Biology is taught by two different instructors and differs in course content, so a “one-size-fits-all” approach was not an option. In this presentation, I will describe two successful strategies for getting a foot in the door, neither of which took away from class time. Though my IL sessions with students did not conform to my original plan and I violated several “rules of instruction” (e.g., instructors mush be present in class), this flexibility ultimately created an opening for more one-on-one interactions with students and more open, fruitful, and collaborative relationships with faculty.