Teach Them What You Teach: How Training Faculty in Infolit Can Expand Your Instructional Program

Instructional librarians often walk a fine line meeting college instructors\u27 infolit needs: creating digital instruction provides on-demand access to the library’s services, but can sometimes result in fewer in-person teaching opportunities as faculty use it to the exclusion of classroom visits. To combat this issue, librarians at Walters State Community College chose to train faculty in information literacy. In a one-day training, volunteer participants learned about infolit and the ACRL Framework, then conducted an “infolit audit” on one of their classes. Faculty learned both the need for expert infolit instruction and when and how best to take advantage of the librarians’ services. Librarians worked with individual faculty to improve course assignments and scaffold students’ infolit skills across the semester. Ultimately, faculty who had never before incorporated information literacy into their learning goals began integrating it into their courses, and the librarians built new cross-campus relationships, creating connections with both full-time and adjunct instructors. In this workshop, participants will first learn more about the librarian-led faculty trainings offered at Walters State and then explore techniques and best practices for teaching faculty about the ACRL Framework. Through time spent discussing training techniques and brainstorming activities, participants will begin to create a plan for incorporating faculty training into their institution’s infolit instruction program, discovering the pitfalls of teaching infolit to faculty and listening to lessons learned at the WS trainings along the way. Participants will leave with a deep understanding of the unique ways in teaching what the library teaches can strengthen the library’s connection to both faculty and students and facilitate cross-campus collaboration