Teaching Information Literacy at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad

Abstract

This paper describes the development of IL100: Foundations of Information Literacy, an online course designed to teach information literacy skills to students of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus. The course uses the WebCT course management software and consists of seven modules. Students can follow the course as a whole or can select the module appropriate to their information needs. Positive feedback about the course has been received from faculty and students who have done the course. The Library would like it to be incorporated into the curriculum, either within a current foundation course or as a stand-alone course for credit. Future enhancements to the course will include assessment and evaluation materials.

Keywords

Information literacy user education library instruction course development University of the West Indies

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Library Association , Presidential Committee on Information Literacy . (1989) Final report. American Library Association, Chicago, IL . Available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/ilit1st.html

Association of College and Research Libraries . (2000) Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Association of College and Research Libraries, Chicago, IL . Available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html

Clarke, R. (1999) User education at the Main Library of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine: a historical chronicle . Library Review, 48 (5), 242–250 .

MacDonald, M.C. , Rathemacher, A.J. and Burkhardt, J.M. (2000) Challenges in building an incremental, multi-year information literacy plan . Reference Services Review, 28 (3), 240–247 .

Open University . Library . (2001) SAFARI: Skills in Accessing, Finding and Reviewing Information. Open University Library, Milton Keynes, UK . Available at http://ltssolweb1.open.ac.uk/safari/signpostframe.htm

Parise, P. (1993) Information power goes online: teaching information literacy to distance learners . Reference Services Review, Fall/Winter 1998, 51–52 , 60.

Parker, J. (2003) Putting the pieces together: information literacy at the Open University . Library Management, 24 (4/5), 223–228 .

University of the West Indies . Campus Libraries . (2002) Strategic Plan for the Campus Libraries 2002–2007. University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago . Available at http://www.mainlib.uwi.tt/staffpage/stratplan/plan.htm