The library's information literacy program supports the teaching and learning mission of CSUDH. We focus on integrating information literacy throughout the academic curriculum and contributing to students' life long learning through teaching and instruction.
Collaborate with one of our librarians to teach information literacy concepts and research skills. We’ll design a customized class session for your class and/or assignment(s) in an online environment for Spring 2021.
Request an Online Instruction Session Read about our Spring 2021 approachLibrarians can consult with you on building information literacy concepts throughout your curriculum, the design of research assignments, and recommend additional instructional materials. Please contact Carolyn Caffrey Gardner, Information Literacy Coordinator, or your liaison librarian.
Alternative Research Assignments Writing Across the CurriculumWe offer a self-paced mobile tour, interactive tutorials, and research guides to build information literacy skills and support your teaching outside of a face-to-face classroom environment. Please contact Tessa Withorn, Online Learning Librarian, or your liaison librarian, for questions and ideas for integrating online learning into your course.
Research Guides & TutorialsThe CSUDH Library’s Information Literacy Program will empower all CSUDH students to engage critically with information throughout its lifecycle in their academic, personal, and professional lives. Our program will inspire inquiry and promote social justice through a proactive approach to teaching information literacy skills. While the library views itself as an integral part of information literacy curriculum on campus, we believe that meaningful partnerships with faculty to integrate information literacy and robust assessment vertically throughout the curriculum are vital for teaching information literacy core competencies.
We introduce students to physical and virtual library spaces and services as they enter CSUDH.
We build a student's foundation by focusing on strategic searching, evaluating sources, identifying multiple perspectives in sources, describing markers of authority, and citation practices.
We build on students' prior knowledge by focusing on discipline-specific information literacy skills such as understanding primary/secondary/tertiary literature in a discipline, tracking a scholarly conversation, finding specialized sources of information, and information ethics.
We focus on discipline-specific information literacy concepts at the graduate-level such as selecting a publication to publish scholarly work, contributing to a scholarly conversation, developing a professional information network, and citation practices.
We assess student learning and the efficacy of our program in a variety of ways. After each customized library instruction session students receive a survey measuring their attitudes and perceptions on the effectiveness of the library session. We periodically survey faculty on their perceptions too. For student learning outcomes we have built-in assessment for our tutorials and regularly partner with other instructional faculty to analyze student work. Recently we've partnered with Biology and Psychology reviewing senior-level research papers for key information literacy outcomes and developing instructional interventions as needed. If you're interested in partnering with us on an assessment project please contact Carolyn Caffrey Gardner, Information Literacy Coordinator.
Instructors must attend library sessions with their classes. Contact your librarian for alternative arrangements in the case of extenuating circumstances. Instructor attendance is required because students benefit from the combined knowledge of the librarian and the professor and see the value of the information literacy session.
Interested in learning more about information literacy and how to integrate it into the curriculum? Check out these resources: