Incorporating Information Literacy Into Oberlin First Year Seminars

"Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning."

- ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

The Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2016) identifies six core concepts fundamental to understanding the purpose and process of research.

You may have mastered these concepts as an experienced researcher, but they should be practiced and developed by novice researchers. We recommend focusing on four of the six concepts in a first-year seminar context. 

• Authority is Constructed and Contextual
• Information Creation as Process
• Information Has Value
• Research as Inquiry
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Searching as Strategic Exploration

How to Use this Guide

• Under two common focus areas for first-year students, finding and evaluating information, we have crafted possible exercises and other ways to integrate the core concepts identified in the ACRL Framework. 
• We have provided a few starting points and additional background reading for faculty interested in revisiting or creating new assignments focusing on introducing these concepts.
• Librarians are happy to collaborate with you on assignment design or other support. We have also shared a few resources to share with your students about how they can make the best use of the librarians and collections in the Oberlin College Libraries.

"From many Writing Associates' observations, students seem to be having trouble figuring out how to do research, as well as finding good sources. Especially for classes with students who are new to the field, providing explicit instruction on how to find sources that are relevant would be very helpful. Students often came in not knowing how to find sources, as well as how to distinguish sources that were "good" and helpful." Ryo Adachi, Fall '22 Oberlin Writing Center Summary Report

There is often a significant difference between how the research process is taught at the high school level and how Oberlin students will be expected to be able to perform inquiry-based assignments beginning in 100-level classes. A first-year seminar provides a unique opportunity to get students thinking at a college level about: 

• Evaluating information: The more students are explicitly taught about the process of creating scholarship and other kinds of information, the better they will be able to determine if a source is useful in a particular context. The more students are asked to think about the functions of different types of evidence in writing, the more equipped they will be to find evidence appropriate to their own arguments. 
• Retrieving information: The pandemic and the advent of AI chatbots have created a situation where many recent high school graduates are unfamiliar with search tools besides Google. They need to be explicitly directed to various tools and trained in how to use them. The more they build the habit of looking beyond what is immediately and obviously available on Google, the more successful they will be in completing research assignments, and the less their research will be limited by the biases of the Google algorithm. 

Inquiry-based Assignments

The most authentic and comprehensive way to prepare students for later college research is to include a research or inquiry-based assignment in the first-year seminar. However, if that doesn't fit your course goals, you can also foster information literacy skills in students through in-class discussions and activities.

Ensuring that students go beyond discussing the content conveyed in assigned readings and engage with the format, structure, and use of evidence will lay a foundation for their writing and research.