Libraries and Student Success: Information Literacy

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We all remember those trips to the library in elementary school. Perhaps we sat on the carpet, listened to a story and had a quick lesson about the Dewey Decimal System. It’s likely the library was never visited again after elementary school, except to check out textbooks. Fortunately, school libraries are adapting to new technology and recognizing the need for a new approach to assisting students in the library: teaching information literacy. 

Information literacy is absolutely crucial to our students in the K-12 school system. With new technology comes new questionable resources on the internet. Students need to be taught how to differentiate between what is opinion and what is fact, and how to find reputable sources for research and assignments. This is important in not only K-12 schooling, but higher education as well. 


Libraries have begun providing quality classes, activities, and programs that are focused on information literacy. In the article “Flipping Library Information Literacy Sessions to Maximize Student Learning,” Ladislava Khailova discusses a unique approach she has used to teach information literacy in the library. Students come to class with a lecture previously listened to as homework. They are prepared to begin working with digital resources, critically analyzing them under the guidance of Khailova, the librarian. The classroom teacher is also there, but becomes a “guide on the side” to provide assistance. By receiving hands on practice and in depth guidelines about interpreting a source, students can achieve information literacy. 


Khailova’s method is just one technique that libraries have begun implementing. Many libraries simply do not have the budget and time to conduct full lessons like this, but are still finding ways to support students in information literacy by providing handouts, setting out signs, and squeezing in a quick conversation whenever possible.


Lucy Davis





Sources Cited: Khailova, Ladislava. “Flipping Library Information Literacy Sessions to Maximize Student Active Learning.” Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 3, Spring 2017, pp. 150–155. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5860/rusq.56n3.150.
Image: https://www.brandeis.edu/library/teaching/images/teaching.jpg

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