Information literacy for all: Looking back at six years of information literacy instruction in a required freshman course

In fall 2011 the University of South Carolina Aiken implemented their Quality Enhancement Plan titled “Critical Inquiry: Think DEEP”, enrolling all incoming freshmen in a one-credit hour critical inquiry course taught by faculty from across the academic disciplines. This program was designed to improve our students’ critical inquiry and information literacy skills and one of the primary learning outcomes was for students to demonstrate information literacy by gathering, evaluating, and using information effectively and responsibly. Information literacy instruction is approached as a partnership between the library faculty and the faculty teaching the CI courses. Students in the CI course spend one class day at the USCA library where they are introduced to collegiate level research. Information literacy skills are then reinforced throughout the rest of the semester in CI. The presenters will explain how information literacy instruction has evolved over the six years since the QEP was implemented, share results of information literacy assessments and student surveys, and present evidence of how student involvement in the CI program has changed overall library usage at USCA