Content area
Information literacy is the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information. These skills are more important today than ever. Information literacy skills are linked to academic success and the future employability of students. This mixed-methods program evaluation studied the short and intermediate-term outcomes of the activities related to the information literacy instruction provided by the Class Librarian Program for an Associate of Arts Degree Capstone Course at a mid-sized state college in the southeastern United States. This study also investigated the perceptions of the program’s participants about the program’s information literacy activities. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in the form of focus group interviews with student, faculty, and librarian participants and student test scores from the Association of College and Research Library’s Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy. The program’s participants perceive the activities and inputs related to the information literacy instruction as beneficial, while the program’s lack of a formal assessment tool for student learning makes it difficult to determine the effectiveness of the instruction on student learning. Other findings include the creation of faculty and librarian instructional partnerships that are perceived as beneficial by the program participants. Recommendations for the program include an annual review of the information literacy curriculum and the creation of an assessment plan including both formative and summative assessments of the information literacy curriculum.
