The MU Libraries and Information Literacy

The MU Libraries offer expert research instruction across the disciplines in order to provide the MU community with the skills and knowledge to expertly identify, find, and evaluate information. This set of skills is known as information literacy. Students use components of information literacy at different levels (first-year versus senior) and each discipline relies on different aspects of information literacy. Therefore, the best overall result comes from interweaving the concepts throughout the curriculum. MU librarians provide researchers with the conceptual understanding and technical skills necessary to:

• Identify the ways in which knowledge is disseminated, organized and acquired
• Access the wide spectrum of information resources made available to the campus community
• Locate needed information through effective search strategies
• Evaluate retrieved information and information sources in all formats
• Use information ethically and legally

Current MU Libraries information literacy initiatives include:

• Course-integrated instruction sessions for English 1000 courses
• Research instruction sessions to targeted courses across the campus curriculum
• Credit course taught in collaboration with the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies
• Research workshops for faculty and graduate students
• Research instruction for high school classes and visiting scholars
• Collaboration with faculty to create effective research assignments and exercises to teach information literacy concepts (e.g., the difference between scholarly, trade, and popular publications)
• Course courcepacks for specific assignments
• Librarian involvement in online courses (e.g., Blackboard)

Why is this so important?

College students are living in the information age, experiencing rapid technological change every day. Students are facing an ever increasing number of information resources, much of which is unfiltered information. They need to be able to understand and evaluate information, both in print and electronic formats. According to the Association of College & Research Libraries, there is “an uncertain quality and expanding quantity” of information available (2000). For more information about MU Libraries information literacy initiatives, please contact Goodie Bhullar, Library Instruction Coordinator.