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University Vision Statement

Library Vision

Information Literacy

INFORMATION LITERACY -- ENACTING THE VISION

University Vision Statement—A Guide for the Library

Seattle Pacific University has developed a vision of what it wants to be as a Christian university in the 21^st century.  The three goals that guide the SPU learning community in reaching this vision are as follows:

• We seek to graduate people of competence and character.
• We seek to become people of wisdom.
• We seek to model grace-filled community.

Library Vision—Specific Information Literacy Component

As part of the SPU university community, the library seeks to support the campus vision and goals according to its stated mission:

• To encourage growth in knowledge, discernment, and Christian character by facilitating access to and promoting dialogue with information resources.

One way for the SPU library to do this would be by transforming the existing library instruction model into an information literacy (IL) program.  This IL program would:

• Enable students to understand the structure of the information world and apply information-seeking skills successfully.
• Encourage thinking and reasoning so that students can become independent life-long learners.
• Utilize a curriculum-based approach to students learning skills of information problem solving.
• Partner with faculty in setting up this curriculum-based approach and in assisting students to use research materials effectively.

Information Literacy In Action

The SPU IL program would focus on having students learn IL skills that are embedded into the curriculum.  This would provide both a systematic and strategic way of guiding students to become effective users of ideas and information on a general level, as well as in their particular subject areas.  Thus, the goal of the IL program would be to graduate people who have learned how to learn and who have the IL skills to continue that learning throughout the rest of their professional and personal lives.

The SPU IL program envisions using a variety of approaches because IL teaching methods should be tailored to the particular curriculum of the subject area.  The IL program would take into consideration that curriculums fall along a continuum of some subject areas requiring students to take courses sequentially and other subject areas requiring “funnel” courses that are less sequentially based.  Some approaches that the SPU IL program could use are:

• Designing and assessing course-integrative IL components, which could be accomplished through librarian/instructor collaboration or by the instructor (e.g., IL graded assignments).  Using both Web and/or class IL presence would be appropriate, matching components to class format and delivery approaches.
• Providing tutorial IL instruction by the librarian or through librarian/instructor collaboration in order to aid students in a particular class assignment or project.
• Providing guides and search approaches for specific class assignments (e.g., posted on the Web; handouts).

Within the specific curriculum of the subject area, students would need to become aware of what the IL competencies would be and how the expected student outcomes would be assessed.  Assessment of expected student outcomes would then logically occur at both the program and classroom levels.  As an example, the Online Master’s curriculum in the School of Education is being developed to follow this model:

• Information literacy competencies and a structured plan for how those competencies will be addressed and assessed throughout the program would be integrated into the initial residential component of each cohort.  This approach would emphasize the importance of this IL thread within the curriculum and would clarify expectations for student performance.

The SPU IL program would need to provide support for faculty as the IL program goes through the stages of development, implementation, application, and continuous evaluation of the curriculum-based approach associated with various subject areas.  Some ways to facilitate faculty support could be to:

• Provide Web pages geared to faculty IL needs.
• Keep faculty up to date with new IL developments.
• Schedule workshops for faculty on IL issues.
• Establish a collaborative library/faculty working group to review IL issues.

To be most successful, the SPU IL program would need to be accepted at an institutional level.  Otherwise, faculty in some subject areas might not see the need to partner with librarians in setting up a curriculum-based approach.  Institutional support could be sought in ways such as:

• Submitting an SPU IL program proposal to the Provost’s Council.
• Submitting an SPU IL program proposal to both UPEC and GPEC of faculty senate.
• Submitting an SPU IL program proposal to the Instructional Development Committee of faculty senate.

rev. 04/19/04