How can faculty teach information literacy?

When information literacy is taught in the context of the students' chosen disciplines, students understand the importance of information literacy and become better at it.

A few ideas to incorporate information literacy in your courses:

• create library-related assignments
• contact the library to organize one or several library instruction sessions
• include library links in your Moodle course,
  especially links to tutorials, research guides or even specific databases
• contact your library liaisons
  to discuss the learning tools best suited to your courses and disciplines
• encourage your students to check out the library's information literacy pages for students

To learn more about information literacy:

• Shapiro J. & Hugues, S. K. (1996). "Information Literacy as a Liberal Art." Educom Review 31(2)
• Patricia Senn Breivik (2005). "Twenty-first Century Learning and Information Literacy." Change 37(2), 21-27.
• Project Information Literacy: a national study of the University of Washington iSchool about early adults and their information-seeking behaviors, competencies, and the challenges they face when conducting research in the digital age.Particularly useful for faculty is the study on research assignments.
• "Information Literacy: The Most Basics of Basics." A Webcast by Michael Eisenberg. A comprehensive overview of essential skills for the information age, current information literacy challenges, and opportunities for educators. (34 mins.)
• Condic, K (2007). "You Can't Just Google It!", Oakland Journal 12, 59-69.
• Information literacy in the disciplines contains a list of resources on discipline-specific standards of information literacy
• The Association of College and Research Libraries has standards and guidelines on information literacy
• Professional associations have developed their own information literacy standards, such as those of the American Chemical Society
• Developing Research and Communication Skills: Guidelines for Information Literacy in the Curriculum. This 2003 publication by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education is a guide designed for faculty and administrators looking to integrate information literacy into the curriculum.
• The British association of college libraries (SCONUL) has developed a useful chart outlining the skills of information literacy.