Leveraging collaboration for information literacy in psychology

Abstract

A case study of the integration of information literacy into a psychology research course is presented. The process of integration began with developing learning outcomes, a four‐hour curriculum, exercises, and an assessment instrument, which were approved by the Psychology Department's undergraduate curriculum committee. Also emphasized is the ongoing exchange of expertise between liaison librarian and psychology faculty to enhance library‐related components in the design of the course. Difficulties in implementing the program are described, along with the use of outcome statistics to underscore the value of the partially implemented program. Librarians used data from student assessments to highlight the need for more intensive and extensive student training to meet learning objectives. The sometimes laborious process of academic negotiation is discussed, along with the resulting decision to develop a psychology literature tutorial through collaboration between a junior Psychology Department faculty member and a librarian.