PA Forward Information Literacy Summit, July 24, 2013, State College, PA Abstract: Collaboration between academic librarians and teaching faculty thrives when it is built on shared goals. The ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education outline the goals of information literacy instruction and provide librarians a framework within which to develop in students a disposition toward curiosity, inquiry, and learning how to learn. The disciplines whose faculty we aim to collaborate with also operate within frameworks that articulate what a student studying in that field should know and be able to do. This presentation will make a case for drawing on these disciplinary frameworks as a valuable resource for both understanding the goals our colleagues in other disciplines have for their students and becoming proficient in the vocabulary and language of the disciplines we seek to partner with in information literacy instruction. The presenter will offer her own experience of building a successful collaboration with a writing professor colleague at her institution based on the areas of overlap and complement identified in the ACRL Standards framework and the framework utilized in the discipline of writing and composition, the WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition. Methods for both identifying and reading the frameworks of other disciplines will be modeled by the presenter. Participants will then put these methods into practice by working in groups to read a framework in a discipline other than LIS and make connections between it and the ACRL Standards framework. Participants will leave the session with multiple strategies for how to use these connections to facilitate and/or enhance collaboration with faculty.

1. “You Have Standards?”
Disciplinary Frameworks as a Bridge to
Collaboration
Donna Witek, The University of Scranton
PA Forward Information Literacy Summit
Penn State University, July 24, 2013
donna.witek@scranton.edu

2. Image by Flickr user TschiAe via CC BY 2.0
ACRL Information Literacy Standards
= learning framework for IL
“The competencies presented here outline the process by which faculty, librarians and others pinpoint
specific indicators that identify a student as information literate. Students also will find the
competencies useful, because they provide students with a framework for gaining control over how
they interact with information in their environment.”
--Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

3. Some considerations…
•WHO am I collaborating with?
•WHAT is their learning framework?
•WHERE can I find it?
•WHEN should I do this?
•WHY does this matter?
•HOW do I do it?

4. WHO am I collaborating with?
• department
• subject area
• major
• interdisciplinary?

5. WHAT is their learning framework?
• tied to discipline…
• …or tied to subject
area/major
• learning framework =
goals for students
studying this subject
• what is the scope?
“This statement
describes the common
knowledge, skills, and
attitudes sought by
first-year composition
programs in American
postsecondary
education.”
-- WPA Outcomes
Statement for First-
Year Composition

6. WHERE can I find it?
• scholarly/ professional
association for
discipline
• accrediting body
• locally on your campus
• subject-specific
information literacy
standards documents
• look for outcomes re:
research skills
Council of Writing
Program Administrators

7. WHEN should I do this?
• prep for IL
instruction you’ve
done already
• prep for reaching
out to faculty/
department
you’ve not taught
IL to yet
• to disclose or not
to disclose?
Chart by Dr. Teresa Grettano, The University of Scranton
Faculty are trained in their disciplines at different times
and may approach learning goals accordingly…

8. WHY does this matter?
• shared goals =
better collaboration
• common vocabulary
• collegiality
• IL as discipline
• a place to begin
Information Literacy
Program + First-Year
Writing Program @

9. HOW do I do it?
• start with the
ACRL IL Standards
• read learning
framework for
discipline you’re
collaborating with
• identify
connections
• begin a
conversation!
Mama Bullet 1:
Understand a writing assignment as a series tasks,
including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and
synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary
sources (II.2)
Considers the costs and benefits of acquiring the needed
information (I.3)
Selects the most appropriate investigative methods or
information retrieval systems for accessing the needed
information (II.1)
Constructs and implements effectively-designed search
strategies (II.2)
Retrieves information online or in person using a variety
of methods (II.3)
Refines the search strategy if necessary (II.4)
Extracts, records, and manages the information and its
sources (II.5)
Determines whether the initial query should be revised
(III.7)
Understand a writing assignment as a series tasks,
including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and
synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary
sources (II.2)
Identifies a variety of types and formats of potential
sources of information (I.2)
Reevaluates the nature and extent of the information need
(I.4)
Refines the search strategy if necessary (II.4)
Articulates and applies initial criteria for evaluating both
the information and its sources (III.2)
Compares new knowledge with prior knowledge to
determine the value added, contradictions, or other unique
characteristics of the information (III.4)
Understand a writing assignment as a series tasks,
including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and
synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary
sources (II.2)
Identifies a variety of types and formats of potential
sources of information (I.2)
Refines the search strategy if necessary (II.4)
Extracts, records, and manages the information and its
sources (II.5)
Summarizes the main ideas to be extracted from the
information gathered (III.1)
Articulates and applies initial criteria for evaluating both
the information and its sources (III.2)
Compares new knowledge with prior knowledge to
determine the value added, contradictions, or other unique
characteristics of the information (III.4)
Determines whether the new knowledge has an impact on
the individual's value system and takes steps to reconcile
differences (III.5)
Understand a writing assignment as a series tasks,
including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and
synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary
sources (II.2)
Synthesizes main ideas to construct new concepts (III.3)
Compares new knowledge with prior knowledge to
determine the value added, contradictions, or other unique
characteristics of the information (III.4)
Determines whether the new knowledge has an impact on
the individual's value system and takes steps to reconcile
differences (III.5)
Applies new and prior knowledge to the planning and
creation of a particular product or performance (IV. 1)
Mapped connections between WPA Outcome II.2 and ACRL Standards

10. Disciplinary Frameworks
• Information Literacy: “Information Literacy Competency Standards
for Higher Education” (Association of College and Research Libraries)
• First-Year Writing: “WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year
Composition” (Council of Writing Program Administrators)
• Sociology: “Sample Goals for Undergraduate Research Training”, p.
82 in Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major Updated (American
Sociological Association)
• Journalism: “The Core Principles of Media Literacy Education”
(National Association for Media Literacy Education)
• Education: “Standard 1: Candidate Knowledge, Skills, and
Professional Dispositions” in Unit Standards in Effect 2008 (National
Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education)
• Psychology: APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major
(American Psychological Association)

11. Disciplinary Frameworks, cont.
• Nursing: The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional
Nursing Practice and Took Kit (American Association of Colleges of
Nursing)
• Engineering/Applied Sciences: “General Criterion 3: Student
Outcomes”, accessible from Table of Contents of Criteria for
Accrediting Applied Science Programs (Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology)
• Business: National Standards for Business Education, 4th ed. (2013);
price: $90 (National Business Education Association)
• Humanities: Literature, Philosophy, History, Theology -- MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed., Chapter 1:
“Research and Writing” (Modern Language Association)
• Political Science and Literature have subject-specific IL documents
approved by ACRL
• Other subject-specific IL documents can be found at IL Standards
Committee website