Information literacy grants

The Lafayette libraries and the Provost’s Office is again providing grants to faculty who wish to add an information literacy component to one of their upper-level classes. The goal is to encourage faculty to develop classes in which students have repeated opportunities to build information literacy skills and learn how information is created, disseminated, and organized in a discipline.

Faculty who wish to add an information literacy component to any class above the 100 level to be taught in spring 2022 are invited to apply for a grant ($1,500). To be eligible, the class must include projects in which students gather, evaluate, and use information; involve collaboration with a librarian; and provide opportunities for students to do at least one of the following:

1. Discover that the information they use exists within a framework developed to record, store, and access it and that research allows them to tap into an ongoing conversation among scholars;
2. Critically examine the research process;
3. Explore the economic, social, legal, and ethical issues surrounding information in today’s society.

Ideally, information literacy concepts will be woven into class discussions throughout the semester and each project that involves gathering or using information, but the class also should include one or two sessions devoted to information literacy. Students’ work on information literacy should be a part of their grade.

Application deadline is Dec. 15. Read more information, including examples of information literacy components and details on the application process. An information literacy brownbag has been scheduled for Friday, Nov. 12, at 12:10 on Zoom. It will feature two grant recipients, professors Lindsay Ceballos and Erin Cottle Hunt.

Lijuan Xu
Associate Director of Research & Instructional Services
123 Skillman Library
xul@lafayette.edu