Lane Community College Library strives to educate information-literate lifelong learners. Information literacy enhances the pursuit of knowledge by preparing students to think critically and use information for their academic, professional, and personal lives.
Community college students should have the following information literacy proficiencies to move into upper-division coursework.
- Identify gaps in their knowledge and recognize when they need information.
- Find information efficiently and effectively, using appropriate research tools and search strategies.
- Evaluate and select information using appropriate criteria.
- Treat research as a multi-stage, recursive learning process.
- Ethically and legally use information and information technologies.
- Recognize safety issues involved with information sharing and information technologies.
- Manipulate and manage information, using appropriate tools and technologies.
- Create, produce, and communicate understanding of a subject through synthesis of relevant information.
These recommendations are endorsed by the Information Literacy Advisory Group of Oregon (ILAGO), the Oregon Writing and English Advisory Committee (OWEAC), and the Oregon Community College Library Association (OCCLA).
The Library promotes information literacy by educating students to understand the organization of knowledge, to gather data of all kinds using both print and online resources, and to evaluate the relevance and authority of information in all forms. The Library provides resources and services in an environment that fosters free and open inquiry and serves as a catalyst for the interpretation, integration, and application of knowledge in all fields of learning.
We support this mission with the following efforts.
- Promoting the use of library resources in all formats, and promoting the library as an integral part of education.
- Determining best practices for infusing information literacy skills into assignments or curriculum.
- Collaborating with other faculty to integrate information literacy into course objectives.
- Creating teaching tools to help students master information literacy skills.
- Working to plan curriculum with distinct, sequenced information literacy content that allows practice and reinforcement without duplication.
- Providing single-session and course-integrated classes, library workshops, and orientation sessions.
- Striving to make every interaction at the library a learning opportunity for users. We reinforce information literacy concepts from prior instruction and provide students with further opportunities for guided practice.