A collaborative effort: Librarians and composition faculty integrate information literacy into first year writing courses

First year college students are called upon to do research, to write in varied rhetorical modes, to synthesize and analyze new information fostering more acute critical thinking skills. It has become evident that these skills are better honed in a blended course as a cycle of reading, writing and research.

New Generation Academy (NGA), AUCA’s preparatory program, and AUCA Library started collaboration to integrate Information Literacy (IL) into the preparatory curriculum to evaluate the impact of early IL intervention. NGA is the university’s integral department, which trains and produces 87% of the AUCA entering freshmen. In fall 2016, AUCA library delivered a five-week IL course for 83 NGA students to introduce yet-to-be undergrad students to the basics of information search and to train them in using academic sources effectively. The course was included in the NGA curriculum as required and is a pre-requisite for Academic Research Writing Course. The IL intervention impact is under evaluation in the current semester through interim test, follow-up sessions, faculty/student survey, and post-test. In Fall 2017, we will continue assessing progress of NGA graduates enrolling into various departments of AUCA as freshmen. The purpose of this faculty-library partnership is to research and provide evidence of impact of early information literacy intervention for students’ success in the first and foregoing years in a liberal arts institution.