Information Literacy

The subject librarians of Fogler's Research & Instruction department have developed information literacy guidelines for First Year students.  We want to work with academic departments, faculty, and instructors to help all first year students achieve these goals, both to improve student's success in their university career and to develop lifelong skills.

The Guidelines

Apply critical thinking

• Identify information needs and resources
• Evaluate credentials of those who create information; understand why and for whom they are creating that information
• Evaluate fit of information sources for a particular use
• Understand how information sources may connect and build on one another

Understand and locate types of information

• Understand and recognize characteristics of a variety of source types, including scholarly and popular sources
• Understand how to access specific types of information sources
• Understand publishing and review processes

Understand search strategies

• Apply a variety of tools and methods to find information
• Understand the advantages and constraints of search tools
• Recognize research is a process

Understand that information has value

• Understand principles of academic integrity
• Recognize issues of information access and privilege
• Understand citation and its importance

Locating, accessing, evaluating, and using information resources is at the heart of academic librarianship. As subject librarians, we possess specialized knowledge in the information needs of particular disciplines, and have a crucial role in information literacy education.  Subject librarians provide instruction and individual or group consultation services to students, faculty, and staff.

The Research and Instruction department uses ACRL guidelines in our work as subject librarians and educators. Our main professional association, the Association of College and Research Librarians (ACRL), first created standards for teaching information literacy in 2001.  These standards were updated by the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education in 2016.

We want to work with you to help incorporate this learning into your courses.  Please contact your Subject Librarian to set up a consultation.

Caico, M., Harris, L., & O’Shea, S. (2024). Is this AI tool right for me? Important questions from the framework. College & Research Libraries News, 85(8), 341-. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.85.8.341

Correll, M. (2019). What do high school students know about information literacy? A case study of one university's feeder schools. Pennsylvania Libraries: Research & Practice, 7(1), 25-27. https://doi-org/10.5195/palrap.2019.202 

Deng, L. (2022). The pathway to success: Facilitating first-generation student learning in academic libraries through cross-campus collaborations. Journal of Library Administration, 62(1), 1–18. https://doi-org/10.1080/01930826.2021.2006975

Fuchs, C., & Ball, H. (2021). Making connections for student success: Mapping concept commonalities in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, the Common Core State Standards, and the American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 28(2), 180–193. https://doi-org/10.1080/10691316.2021.1905577

Head, A.J., Fister, B. & McMillan, M. (2020). Information literacy in the age of algorithms: Student experience with news and information, and the need for change. Project Information Literacy. https://projectinfolit.org/pubs/algorithm-study/pil_algorithm-study_2020-01-15.pdf

Hinchliffe, L. J., Rand, A., & Collier, J. (2018). Predictable information literacy misconceptions of first-year college students. Communications in Information Literacy, 12(1), 4-18. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2018.12.1.2

Latham, D., Gross, M., Julien, H., Warren, F., & Moses, L. (2022). Community college students' perceptions of their information literacy needs. College and Research Libraries, 83(4), 593-609.

LeMire, S., Zhihong, X., Balester, V., Dorsey, L.G., & Hahn, D., (2021). Assessing the information literacy skills of first-generation college students. College & Research Libraries, 82(5), 730-754. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.82.5.730

Lo, L. S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), N.PAG. https://doi-org./10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720

Shao, X., & Purpur, G. (2016). Effects of information literacy skills on student writing and course performance. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 42(6), 670-678. http://dx.doi.org/10/1016/j.acalib.2016.08.006

We have mapped our guidelines both to the AAC&U Information Literacy VALUE Rubric and to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education.  

Participation in the modern world requires all of us to be information literate. In the academic setting, we recognize the importance of educating our students to be information literate, equipping them for both academic success and life-long learning. This is underscored by the emphasis placed on information literacy by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), the University’s accrediting body, and the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), of which the University of Maine is a member. 

The University is using the VALUE rubrics from the AAC&U’s LEAP project as tools for campus-wide assessment and the VALUE approach includes a rubric for assessment of information literacy.