Information literacy as liberal arts: Pilot course at AUCA

The proposal seeks to present the outcomes of the first credit bearing information literacy course at AUCA. In fall 2019, the new course titled “Introduction to Research Practice in Liberal Arts” was introduced within Liberal Arts and Sciences department. The course developed and taught by librarians aims to engage students into discussion of core ideas and practice of skills around information and research. It is designed to lay foundation for more advance subject-specific research methods and skills-based instruction that students will be engaged in upper classes. Information literacy does not only stand for the ability to understand the form, format, location and access method. It should be conceived more broadly as part of liberal arts, as it extends from knowing how to use information to critical reflection on the nature of information, its infrastructure, and its social, political, public and cultural context. We use ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education as the conceptual framework for this course. Major themes and knowledge practices of the course are based on the six threshold concepts used as core ideas to strengthen students’ information literacy competency. In our presentation we will talk about our experience in designing the course which required extensive collaboration with Liberal Arts program; we will highlight the core concepts and skills we focus on; and we reflect on pedagogies and methods we use.