Library Instruction: Library Support for Your Teaching
The Library Instruction program of the Philip Weltner Library serves as one means of providing an information literacy experience designed to build expertise in mining the wealth of resources available to members of the 21st century college campus.
The Library Instruction Program is composed of four main components: the Library Orientation program for the First Year Experience program, the subject-specific instruction sessions available for all courses, the library and research workshops that are offered for Petrel Points, and the web-based learning program through tutorials.
Schedule a Library Instruction Session
Contact us for a customized library session or tour. The librarian can visit your classroom or accommodate your class in the Library. We have a number of ways we are available:
- Request a Library Instruction Session, tailored to your course matter
- Request an Archives Instruction Session
- Creating Research and Library Assignments, with Assessment Tools
- Petrel Point Library Workshops for Students
- Request a First Year Seminar Library orientation
What is Information Literacy and how does it relate to an Oglethorpe Education?
Information literacy, the ability to access, evaluate, and incorporate information effectively, is an essential component of a liberal arts education. As a liberal arts institution, the mission of Oglethorpe University is to teach students to “make a life, make a living, and make a difference,” and to impart to students “the tools to be analytical, to gather information, and to determine its validity in an age witnessing an explosion of readily available information, much of it incomplete and even erroneous.” (from The Oglethorpe Idea)
In support of the University’s mission, the staff of the Philip Weltner Library assist students in gaining the critical thinking, evaluative, and information literacy skills in a variety of ways, including assisting with research requests, the freshman Library Orientation program, and instruction sessions on a variety of resources. Course-specific library instruction sessions are also available as further means of developing effective skills sets.
Additional resources for developing information literacy skills include course-specific Research Guides created by librarians, information on plagiarism and proper citation skills, and online tutorials.
Information Literacy: A Definition by ACRL
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has adopted a set of guidelines and standards addressing information literacy competency. As ACRL states, “an information literate individual is able to:
- Determine the extent of information needed
- Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
- Evaluate information and its sources critically
- Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
- Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
- Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.”
Click here for more information about the ACRL Information Literacy Standards, including performance indicators and outcomes.
Information Literacy is also a criteria for many accrediting agencies, and SACS defines it as “the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information to become independent life-long learners.”
– Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Criteria for Accreditation, Section 5.1.2 [Library and Other Information Resources] Services. 10th ed. Dec. 1996.
Contact Information:
Anne Salter, Director of the Library
Toni Zimmerman, Reference Librarian
Eli Arnold ’06, Reference Librarian