Document Type

Campus Connection

Publication Date

7-2009

Abstract

“I just can’t get faculty interested in information literacy” - sound familiar? We used to say this too. At a regional ACRL Immersion program, the Seattle Community College District librarians asked themselves how they could get faculty more involved with information literacy on their campuses. One way to do it: Take Immersion home.

Engaging faculty in developing information literacy programs is a common concern among librarians. Our program was the result of a year of planning, development, and implementation that is now bearing fruit. In a three-college district with over 27,000 students and only a dozen librarians, faculty across the district are taking notice of information literacy and revising their curricula to give students opportunities to seek and use information in a variety of contexts. We believe that other college and university programs will find our process and program adaptable to their own faculty.

The goals for the program were to:

  • Promote faculty driven initiatives to incorporate IL outcomes in curriculum design;
  • Encourage teaching that integrates IL outcomes with course content.

The three-day program offered engaging and playful activities designed to support the curriculum projects that faculty proposed when they registered. Faculty who completed projects within three weeks of the program—and 29 of them did—received a $200 stipend. Our program has helped build critical mass for continuing to integrate information literacy outcomes in our college curriculum.

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