Earlham Libraries Information Literacy: Home

Earlham Libraries Information Literacy Program - Learning Goals

The Earlham Libraries Information Literacy Program learning goals are from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Information Literacy VALUE Rubric. These learning goals map to Earlham College Learning Goals, which are indicated in italics.

• Determine the extent of information needed -- Investigate
• Access the needed information -- Investigate
• Evaluate information and its sources critically -- Integrate, Investigate
• Use information and technologies effectively to accomplish a specific purpose [Earlham added "and technologies" to the AAC&U goal] -- Communicate, Create
• Access and use information ethically and legally -- Communicate, Create

Information Literacy Program - Statistics

The Earlham Libraries Information Literacy Program is based on a course-integrated model. Recent statistics indicate the scope of the program:

• 2022-23: 93 instruction sessions / 1595 attendees
• 2021-22: 67 instruction sessions / 1345 attendees
• 2020-21: 91 instruction sessions / 1215 attendees
• 2019-20: 174 instruction sessions / 2286 attendees
• 2018-19: 230 instruction sessions / 2706 attendees
• 2017-18: 201 instruction sessions / 2804 attendees
• 2016-17: 183 instruction sessions / 2413 attendees
• 2015-16: 209 instruction sessions / 2881 attendees
• 2014-15: 195 instruction sessions / 2522 attendees
• 2013-14: 182 instruction sessions / 2629 attendees
• 2012-13: 145 instruction sessions / 2116 attendees
• 2011-12: 187 instruction sessions / 2249 attendees
• 2010-11: 161 instruction sessions / 2493 attendees
• 2009-10: 154 instruction sessions / 2385 attendees
• 2008-09: 170 instruction sessions / 2250 attendees
• 2007-08: 154 instruction sessions / 2119 attendees
• 2006-07: 162 instruction sessions / 2468 attendees
• 2005-06: 156 instruction sessions / 2337 attendees

The Earlham Libraries also organize and teach in two student-facing instruction initiatives related to information literacy:

• LIFT Program
• Kenlee Ray Library & Archives Fellows

In addition, the Earlham Libraries seek to enhance curricular change related to information literacy through faculty experimentation via course mini-grants, course "design spas" held at least twice yearly, and an annual, themed Teaching with Technology peer community of practice organized by librarians. The 2016-17 theme was "digital writing." The 2017-18 theme was "collaborative active learning environments." The 2018-19 theme was "affordable textbooks."

A course-integrated, information literacy assignment is part of the new Earlham Seminar 1 general education requirement, effective 2014-15.

Increasingly, information literacy instruction at Earlham takes the form of course-integrated sessions about how to create digital research outputs: large-format posters, infographics, podcasts, short videos, digital storytelling, and more. These sessions fall within the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education promulgated by the ACRL Association of College and Research Libraries. The ACRL Framework is capacious by design, not a checklist of specific outcomes but a sequence of overlapping "knowledge practices" and "dispositions." Generally speaking, Earlham's course-integrated information literacy sessions that focus on how to create digital research outputs fall within the ACRL "Frames" - "Information Creation as a Process" and "Scholarship as Conversation." 

More about the Assessment of Earlham Libraries' program can be found on our Assessment page: https://library.earlham.edu/assessment