Information Literacy: Information Literacy at MCLA

First-Year Experience: Part 1

First-Year Writing: Part 2

Overall Outcome:

• Students will become familiar with the academic library, the resources and services offered, and be introduced to the basic concepts of information literacy, including finding and evaluating resources and crediting sources.

Breakdown:

• Overview of Freel Library Resources
  • Staff
  • Chat function
  • Library Building
  • Lib Guides

• Finding Books: Library Catalog

• Finding Articles: Basic introduction

• Evaluating web resources for credibility

• Academic Integrity (avoiding plagiarism)

• Crediting Sources in your work

Overall Outcome(s):

• Locate and evaluate (for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, bias and so on) primary and secondary research materials, including scholarly and professionally established and maintained databases or archives, and informal electronic networks and internet sources

• Learn common formats and/or design features for different kinds of texts (academic and public)

• Explore the concepts of intellectual property (such as fair use and copyright) that motivate documentation conventions

• Practice applying citation conventions systematically in their own work

Breakdown:

• Learn how to use Academic Search Premier and Google Scholar (applicable to many courses across the disciplines) to answer a research question

• Learn how to distinguish/identify texts written for public audiences vs. peer reviewed, scholarly articles

• Understand the difference between primary and secondary sources and when to draw from them

• Learn how to use keyword searches/synonyms/“cited by” tools and other techniques to both broaden and narrow a research conversation

• Revisit citation tools and academic integrity