We are happy to announce a new strategic initiative, the Information Literacy Teaching and Outreach Mapping Initiative, in which participating librarians, curators, and staff will engage in a process of individual and collective inquiry focused on identifying strategic pathways to providing information literacy instruction and outreach through the University Libraries. This initiative supports the following Strategic Directions:

• Equip Students for Lifelong Success/Teaching and learning effectiveness
• Equip Students for Lifelong Success/21^st century literacies

Initiative Goals

The ultimate goal of the project is to support student learning and student success, by ensuring that students (and instructors) receive the instruction, support, and resources that they need in order to develop (or teach) information literacy. As part of the initiative, participants will develop Information Literacy Teaching and Outreach Maps in which they connect their teaching, outreach, and collaboration efforts with the curriculum in their areas, and/or explore options for supporting information literacy through co-curricular programming.

This project is intended to help participants explore questions such as:

• How do my teaching, outreach, and collaboration efforts align with the curriculum in my subject area(s)/instructional focus areas?
  • Are there specific courses or programs that I should be targeting for some type of engagement or collaboration? Or that I should no longer be targeting?
• Which types of teaching, engagement, or collaboration are most suited for specific courses, programs, or audiences?
  • Are there courses (or programs) where I may want to change my approach?
  • Do I need to make any changes in terms of the target audience (students, instructors, graduate teaching assistants) for my efforts?
• What types of teaching and learning partnerships are open to me? What opportunities exist to partner with faculty, instructors, GTAs, instructional designers, or others, to develop students’ information literacy?
• What options exist for supporting information literacy through co-curricular interventions?
• How can the University Libraries support the integration of information literacy, in a scalable and sustainable manner, at the course, program, and general education levels, through both curricular and co-curricular interventions?

Why is this initiative needed?

At Ohio State, there are significant challenges in providing information literacy instruction and resources (including course and subject guides) in a way that is scalable and sustainable. Librarians, curators, and staff have limited time and multiple responsibilities. Due to the sheer size of the institution, it is impossible to provide direct instruction to students in all classes where it might be needed or desired.

In this context, how can we best expend our time and energy to help ensure that students, instructors, and graduate teaching assistants are receiving the instruction and resources that are needed to develop (or teach) information literacy? Those who participate in the program will gain insight that will help them to identify those areas in which instruction, outreach, or collaboration is most needed and will have the most impact, allowing them to expend their efforts in a strategic and sustainable manner.

Who is eligible to participate?

Librarians, curators, and staff with instruction and/or outreach responsibilities related to information literacy are invited to participate. Such responsibilities could include, but are not limited to, providing face-to-face instruction sessions or workshops, creating or maintaining print or online instructional resources (including LibGuides), developing or leading co-curricular programming related to information literacy (including FYSS and STEP programming), acting as mentor to a research fellow, collaborating with instructors to design or develop course content or materials, or teaching or co-teaching as an instructor of record.

What will participation involve? What is the timeline?

Participants will engage in a semi-structured program, over the course of 12 months, in which they will:

• Identify individual goals and develop initial project plan (January)
• Document their teaching, outreach, and collaboration efforts related to information literacy, or explore potential options for teaching, outreach, and collaboration (February-March)
• Analyze the curriculum in one or more departments or programs, or analyze co-curricular options in their area (March-May)
• Create a teaching and outreach map, aligning their efforts with the curriculum (or co-curricular programming) in one or more departments or programs or instructional areas (June)
• Create an action plan or strategy for serving as a teaching partner or collaborator in one or more departments or programs or instructional areas, or for revising existing partnerships, or for revising or implementing co-curricular IL programming (July-August)
• Implement and assess their action plan or strategy (August-December)
• Submit a short report documenting their efforts and analysis (November-December)

Please note that the proposed timeline is flexible and may be adjusted based on group or individual needs.

Participation Options

Those who are interested in taking part in the initiative will have two options for participating:

Learning Community Option

Participants will meet monthly with other members of the learning community in order to identify and share goals for each stage of the initiative, learn about available resources and support, and discuss progress and challenges. In addition, participants will explore potential options for collective inquiry related to the development of a scalable and sustainable approach to information literacy in the University Libraries.

Those who select this option will be asked to:

• Attend a Kickoff Event/Workshop in January
• Meet as a group once per month throughout 2020
• Attend and/or present at a concluding Showcase event in December (which will be open to interested individuals within and outside of the library)

Learning community participants will also have the option to schedule individual consultations with representatives from the Teaching and Learning department as they conduct their analysis and implement their plan.

Individual Option

Those who are not able to participate in the learning community but are still interested in conducting a mapping project may request to work individually with the Teaching and Learning department.  Please note that, due to time commitments, it may not be possible to initially accommodate all who are interested in the individual option.

Interested in participating?

If you are interested in participating, or if you have additional questions, please contact Jane Hammons.