Turning the tables: a faculty‐centered approach to integrating information literacy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze Eastern Washington University's Student Research Skills initiative, a three‐year ongoing project, in which librarians work with faculty members from selected departments, to aid them in articulating and integrating information literacy skills into their curricula. Design/methodology/approach The library selected two departments in 2007‐2008 and another two departments in 2008‐2009. Librarians met with department faculty members multiple times. Librarians asked the faculty: What library research skills do you want students to demonstrate? At what point during the major will they demonstrate the skill? How will you know whether they have the skill? What should the librarian's role be in this process? Findings Participating faculty wrote specific information literacy learning outcomes, and revised at least three courses in order to strengthen students' information literacy skills. All of the faculty who answered the survey (12 out of 15) found value in the project, and said they would recommend this project to other faculty. Based on faculty response, the initiative has successfully increased information literacy instruction across the EWU curriculum. Also, it was found that department faculty value librarians' technological skills. Originality/value Many institutions do not have a campus‐wide program to incorporate information literacy across the curriculum. This paper provides a detailed strategy for librarians to work with department faculty, in order to accomplish this goal. Here, department faculty write their own information literacy learning outcomes. In addition, the EWU project is successful at least in part because the library pays faculty for their time.