Gearing up for new students

Each semester a new class of freshmen begin their collegiate experience. Most likely these students are leaving home for the very first time. Most have lofty and misplaced ideas about how things will be at college. In reality students are usually overwhelmed with the rigors of being a college student.

The first difficulty a freshmen faces is the mere size of a college campus. It usually takes a few weeks for a student to become familiar with their new surroundings. The second difficulty is adjusting to a new learning structure. At college it is up to the student to complete his or her work without anyone monitoring them. The third difficulty is learning how to effectively use a college library and its resources. Let's consider these difficulties in relation to new students and information literacy.

Most academic libraries conduct new student orientations each year to welcome incoming freshmen. New Student Orientations take place at Florida State University from the middle of May until the end of June. Unfortunately, like most universities, the sessions are not mandatory at FSU. One reason is because numerous campus informational sessions take place at the same time. So librarians are forced to convince students and parents to come in, sit down, and learn about the library instead of Greek life. No easy task to say the least, not even for an instruction librarian.

You may be thinking, "How does this relate to information literacy?"

First, if we want students to be information literate, then we must convince them to use the library and its resources. Second, if we don't portray our best face when a student begins her/his college experience, then they'll probably be harder to reach later. Third, its in the library's best interest to wow and hook them early with the resources and magnitude of information. All three of these points will promote information literacy, for a student can't find, evaluate, and use information unless we first introduce the necessary tools.

And if the librarian can convince the student he/she can help with all three difficulties instead of just the third, then the student might be more inclined to attend the libraries session and visit the library.

During the orientation we can demonstrate the campus geography by using the library as a central location. This will help a student always keep the library in the forefront of their mind when navigating the campus. And we can explain how the library is the perfect place to prepare for the student's new learning environment. This entails not only providing adequate support services but fostering the idea that the library is the coolest place to spend time.

So if we address difficulties one and two, then the third step takes care of itself.

What is Information Literacy?

Image borrowed from our friends at University of Central Florida

Let's take a few moments to consider what Information Literacy really entails. Overall, I think the majority of librarians would consider IL to broadly mean finding, evaluating, and using information, but what if this isn't the case at all? What if creating life long learners means something even broader?

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Today my boss told me I needed to incorporate more information literacy into my library instruction sessions. Initially, I was taken back since my boss has never even attended one of my sessions. Naturally, I was surprised when confronted with such a statement.

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I thought I had been showing students how to find, evaluate, and use information all along. Of course the lesson has always been wrapped in a package in order to keep the students attention, nevertheless IL is there in a predominant way.

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So I was left scratching my head. I think the difficulty lies in having five standards and dozens and dozens of objectives and indicators. There's no way a librarian can incorporate everything in 50 minutes. Is there?

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Maybe my friends at UCF are onto something investigating Information Fluency, however, I think we should strive to fully understand IL before moving onto to IF.

Helping everyone

It's the job of all librarians to reach as many patrons as possible. We shouldn't limit ourselves to helping people who are only like ourselves. Rather we need to break away from our comfort zone. This means even helping a big yellow bird! Remember patrons, no matter what they look like, talk like, smell like are all just searching for some type of information. Let's do them and our profession a favor by serving everyone the same.

Information literacy is for old and young alike. Everyone wants to know how to find, how to evaluate, and how to use information. And it's our job to help them begin and complete the process.

Reaching Students Through Resident Assistants.

At the beginning of the 2006-2007 academic year the FSU Library Learning Services Department let 150 Resident advisers know we needed their help. This was done by giving every graduate student resident hall advisor a gift package, which included a wonderful white board.

Our department hoped this 8"x 11" whiteboard, absent the the information literacy statement, would help attract students to the library. It is our belief that the more places that provide library contact information the better.

Reaching Undergraduates with Alternative Instruction

During the 2006 Spring semester Florida State University Libraries kicked off its brand new Term Paper Clinics concept. This marked an innovative approach to promoting information literacy through individual instruction. The vision was to lessen student anxiety by providing an noninvasive atmosphere where students received personal assistance from professionals.

Advertising the clinics was an essential component to the Library's Learning Services Department's initiative to promote information literacy. In order to achieve the latter the former had to be successful.

The Learning Services Department realized the only way its librarians could enlighten students about information literacy was to get them to the clinics. This prompted a campus wide advertising campaign to get out the word on the Term Paper Clinics.

Overwhelmingly various University Support Services assisted with the promotion. The assistance provided by these units was truly remarkable. Our department received help from the campus television, radio, and newspaper, but these were only a few of the groups that stepped up to the plate. We worked in correspondence with student housing and union marketing to post our initial fliers and posters around campus.

The poster displayed is a modification of a poster that I and Chuck McCann of our Digital Media Center created. Another poster was created (seen beside posting area) by myself during the middle of the semester. This gave us the opportunity to switch out posters to keep things fresh. We now utilize both posters simultaneously.

Promoting Information Literacy

How can a library effectively promote information literacy? The answer to this question may be more complicated than it appears. The tough part of the question is "effectively promote." Of course most if not all libraries try to incorporate information literacy but are they promoting it effectively?