Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Negotiating Information Literacy and Information Overload With Incoming Students Rebecca C. Albrecht and Sarah K. Burns Pace University Library LOEX of the West - June 9, 2000

Search Exercise Groups of 2 or 3 Refer to the Pace Library Home Page handout Write down the first three things you would do to address your research scenario

Overview of UNV 101 Program Required for all first-year students Provides strategies for college success Goal is to help the students become “better decision makers and critical thinkers” and to better understand the Pace community

Fertile Soil: Pace Westchester’s Library Instruction Program Active instruction program needed more consistency 1998 Mission statement To support the library’s mission to “provide guidance” and “promote information literacy”…

Fertile Soil (cont.) Mission Statement (cont.) Provide each participant with the ability to adapt intellectually and technologically to an increasingly dynamic environment … Empower Pace University students to become critical thinkers and competent users of information resources…

Fertile Soil (cont.) Instruction program was had been mostly faculty-driven Need to reach a broader audience in order to meet our stated goals UNV 101 was an opportunity to meet lower skill level needs and build a foundation

The Crop to be Planted: Developing UNV 101 Library Sessions Incorporation of Immersion ’99 ideas Reference to the ACRL Standards/ Performance Indicators Recognized the value of UNV 101

Sowing Seeds: The Session Designed to be active and collaborative Gives ownership of the learning to the students Encourages students to think critically about how they might use library resources

Sowing Seeds (cont.) Allows us and the students to get on-the-spot assessment The students model the process of a research strategy Gives the students some basic and transferable skills to take them beyond UNV 101

Weeding: Evaluation of the Program Librarian self evaluations and discussions Student evaluations Faculty impressions and feedback

The Next Generation Mock syllabus idea from LOEX 2000 Scheduling of sessions earlier in the semester Add the questions to the scenario handouts Keep questions on the whiteboard throughout the session to appeal to visual learners

The Next Generation (cont.) Library session materials were included in general UNV 101 packets which went to faculty Update and objectives Brochures on the library instruction program’s Information Literacy goals “Creating Effective Research Assignments” guidelines

Questions or Suggestions? Sarah K. Burns Sburns@pace.edu Rebecca C. Albrecht Ralbrecht@pace.edu