Information literacy is a valuable set of skills and abilities important for people at all educational levels and in all professional careers. These skills encompass the ability to conduct thorough research and then use that research effectively and ethically to produce high quality, informative writing, publications, projects, and presentations. The Van Pelt and Opie Library is here to support both the integration of information literacy into your courses and your development as an information literate individual.
Integrating Information Literacy Into Courses
Information Literacy is one of eight undergraduate student learning goals at Michigan Tech. To guide and assess the development of students’ information literacy skills here at Michigan Tech, a university-level Information Literacy Rubric has been developed. This rubric was based on the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Information Literacy Value Rubric produced by the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). By the time of graduation, all Michigan Tech undergraduate students are expected to be “proficient” or “exemplary” in information literacy, as assessed on our university level rubric.
In Fall 2013, an Information Literacy Committee convened to refine the information literacy rubric, suggest pathways for departments to help students achieve these goals, build a Canvas Course with useful resources, hold faculty workshops on information literacy, and assess goal achievement. The committee will continue to meet to support information literacy integration and assessment.
Information Literacy and Your Research
Librarians are always happy to provide one-on-one consultations with you at any point in your research to discuss search strategies, key resources in your field, how to best use information in a publication or project, and finding ways to stay current in your field.
Additionally, the library offers a wide range of workshops on topics that can help you develop, refine, or refresh your information literacy skills. Some workshop topics include searching citations, managing citations using Endnote software, finding patent and trademark resources, and information literacy. See our workshops page for detailed descriptions and schedules.