Scenic Routes to K-16 Information Literacy in Georgia Jeremy WorshamBerry College Mindy DolerNorth Oconee High School Lorene FlandersUniversity of West Georgia Nadine CohenUniversity of Georgia

What is information literacy?  The ability to find, evaluate and use information effectively for academic and personal purposes.

Info Literacy and Today’s Students  Computer savvy but research illiterate  Research = GOOGLE  Unaware of value/purpose of GALILEO or put off by its complexity

What’s Your Problem, Instruction Librarians?  Lazy? Teaching more classes every year Continual faculty outreach  Ineffectual? Innovative, interactive teaching methods  Do we need to look at the bigger picture?

The Info Literacy: Big Picture Problems  Disarticulated, single-shot teaching sessions  Poor integration of IL into the curriculum  Unaware of info literacy instruction at other grade levels

What is your solution, instruction librarians? Collaboration between K-16 librarians to create a IL curriculum that spans all grade levels.

Roads to K16 Collaboration  No national guidance yet  Scattered, local efforts  Georgia in the vanguard  Early, experimental phase

NWGA CLOC Building a Library Community Jeremy Worsham Inst. & Digital Services Librarian Berry College

Who are We?  Librarians & Media Specialists from Berry College Shorter College Georgia Highlands Floyd County Schools

How did we begin?  Collaboration between local Higher Education Institutions Shorter, Berry, & Georgia Highlands Discuss techniques and methods for IL Instruction  Discovered UGA was beginning K-16 efforts

How did we begin? (cont.)  Contacted Floyd County Schools Director of Technology Explained our intentions Gauged interest in participation  Addressed meeting of Floyd County Media Specialists  Recruited Volunteers

Goals  Gain better understanding of how IL is taught in local schools  Share ideas on how to teach IL skills  Build a contact network to inform each other of local resources

Plans for the Future  Involve other local Institutions Coosa Valley Technical College Rome City Schools Darlington School Sara Hightower Public Library Surrounding Counties  Bartow, Chattooga, Gordon, Polk

Plans for the Future (cont.)  Develop Workshops For PLU Credit  Certified through NWGA RESA OR  Certified through local Departments of Education  Shadowing Coordinating IL Instruction between local schools through site visits and collaboration through the year

Shadowing  IL Concept Transition  Mirror with Collaboration between Librarians & Media Specialists

CLOC: Community Librarians Outreach & Collaboration Athens Area K-16 librarians working together to promote information literacy. Mindy Doler Media Specialist North Oconee High School Oconee County Public Schools

Who we are…  Librarians from the University of Georgia, Athens Technical College, Gainesville College and Piedmont College  Librarians from Athens-Clarke Regional Library system  Media Specialists from Clarke, Jackson, Madison, Oconee and Oglethorpe county public and private schools

How did we begin?  Recognized the problem  Contacted local high school media specialists  Contacted colleagues

How do YOU find information?  Teach the students  Teach the teachers  Take the skills into the REAL world

What have we done?  Initial brainstorming  Gathered information, people and resources  Created website

Where are we coming from?  Elementary schools (K-5)  Middle schools (6-8)  High schools (9-12)  College level (13-16)

Learn from each other!  Year long series of workshops… with Professional Learning Unit available. Be 18 again: Live the UGA freshman experience Fighting Apathy: Making IL relevant in High School Building from the Ground Up: Creating a solid foundation for IL in the middle and elementary school levels Pimp my Standards: Transform our Draft Standards into a K-16 Information Literacy Matrix

Next?  Continue to reach out to schools and librarians in our area  Contact UGA College of Education What can your library/media center do for you? Integrate IL into the teacher education program

What’s the key? ….Keep it SIMPLE!!  For the students  For the instructors  For us!

Scenic Routes to K-16 Information Literacy in Georgia What have we done so far? What difference has it made? Where do we go from here?

What have we done so far?  Organizing and meeting  Identifying the challenges  Developing a common understanding of issues from our different perspectives

What difference has it made?  Raising awareness of common goals  Seeking opportunities for collaboration  Collaboration = Solutions!

Opportunities for Collaboration:  Training and raising teachers’ awareness  Working with teacher preparation programs  Training and raising parents’ awareness  Marketing availability of library resources and services  Marketing GALILEO

Where do we go from here?  Developing a sequenced K-16 IL curriculum based on GPS  Marketing GALILEO to students, parents and the general public

Goal 1 = A More Educated