UC San Diego Library

Information literacy skills, both general and discipline-specific, are widely recognized by college faculty and librarians as necessary for supporting critical thinking and communication. Starting in first year, these skills are most effectively developed as part of a course curriculum rather than in a one-time visit to the library. However, integrating information literacy instruction in freshmen-level courses can be a challenge as instructors and librarians both must consider scalability for the large class sizes, relevance to the coursework, and difficulties in giving up class time. A recent library reorganization at UC San Diego and creation of a new, instruction-focused program offered us the opportunity to build upon previous efforts to embed chemical information literacy (CIL) in a third quarter introductory chemistry lecture course for science and engineering majors, as well as a new introductory laboratory course for chemistry majors. The chemistry professor and three librarians (chemistry, instructional design, and instructional technologies) successfully collaborated to create a series of online tutorials and in-person activities that addressed the scalability and relevancy issues, while minimizing the impact on regular class time. In this presentation, we will share how we revised a list of CIL undergraduate learning outcomes, mapped outcomes to the specific courses, and developed curricular materials to support the outcomes. We will also highlight logistics like technology and communication workflows, what was successful and what needs improvement, and how this can inform future information literacy partnerships between our librarians and faculty, as well as potential CIL integration into other courses.