LibGuides @ URI: Reffie Resources: Instruction Resources

Crash Course in Instruction Topics

As a reffie, you're getting experience supporting programmatic instruction, but instruction in libraries is this AND more! Here are some resources to help you orient to the larger world of instruction.

Resources coming soon!

Assessment

This is the text of an email Amanda sent a mentee from another institution who was looking at a position where assessment was part of the job duties. Please note that I have violated all the LibGuides best practices with these links in the text. Don't follow my formatting example, because it is terrible.

Assessment can be on a number of levels.

For reference services, it could be satisfaction surveys, it could be an examination of the types of service (in person, chat, email), an examination of the depth of services (like the READ Scale), or an assessment of whether the reference services support an institution's goals of fostering information literacy. For more on assessment in reference, you may want to do a quick search of Reference & User Services Quarterly to see what has been covered recently.

Assessment of information literacy services has an even broader range. What services does the library offer? Tutorials? Embedded librarians? One-shots? A credit-bearing course? Integrated sessions with Writing or First Year Experience courses? Then you'll want to get a sense of whether they're focusing on assessment of instruction, student learning, or an entire program. Does the school have information literacy as a learning outcome? Is that being assessed, and how?

For this latter set of ideas, I'd check College & Research Libraries. For example, there's a good article from 2018, "Outcomes Assessment in Undergraduate Information Literacy Instruction: A Systematic Review" that might get you oriented. Once again, run a search for information literacy assessment in C&RL and you should find some sources that can help get you up to speed.

All that said, your question would be a good one for the search committee to see what they envision happening. For a new librarian coming in, maybe they're thinking about starting small and coming up with a standardized assessment tool for classroom instruction. In that case, you might want to check out the book Classroom Assessment Techniques for Librarians - it's not new, but it's a compact tool for assessment. Not sure if it might have been a textbook for your instruction class, but it's quite good.

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

Many academic librarian positions that center on instruction will require (or prefer) some knowledge or experience with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. The Framework establishes six foundational concepts (frames) that academic librarian instructors should center in their instruction:

Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
Information Creation as a Process
Information Has Value
Research as Inquiry
Scholarship as Conversation
Searching as Strategic Exploration

Each frame incorporates knowledge practices and dispositions that break down ways learners can demonstrate their development or proficiency with that frame. Some lesson plans address just one frame, while others will engage with multiple frames at different levels.

At the URI Libraries, we incorporate the Framework into our planning and preparation for information literacy instruction, whether that "instruction" is programmatic, one-shot, embedded, or part of our credit-bearing courses. We track what frames are covered (and at what level) in the instruction we offer for classes in different disciplines. We also communicate this information to other faculty, including through our Instruction Services & Information Literacy libguide.

Controversy: The ACRL Framework replaced the previous ACRL Standards: Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education in 2015. Both documents have strengths and weaknesses (e.g. the Framework provides room for more nuance as well as more focus on DEI issues, whereas the Standards are more measurable and easier to communicate to stakeholders). Many librarians feel very passionately for or against one or the other, so just be aware that there are some arguments out there about the value of the Framework.

Learn more about the Framework: While you might not be teaching other information literacy classes yet, you might find the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox helpful to explore to see examples of lesson plans, assessment, learning objects, etc. that align with one or more of the frames.

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox