Beyond Session Counting: A Program Development Model for Information Literacy in a Liberal Arts College

ABSTRACT

Academic librarians have long struggled to evaluate, report, promote and grow library services in order to effect positive changes in curricula. Metrics reported to faculty and administration generally include how many information literacy sessions are taught, how many students were present, and what subject areas were taught. However, merely counting information literacy sessions does not convey goals, opportunity, or progress. The Information Literacy Program Development Model (ILPDM) described in this article demonstrates how academic librarians at a small, liberal arts college moved beyond counting the number of information literacy sessions as a measure of value by clearly defining what a successful information literacy program should look like, and by demonstrating the impact, strengths, and limitations of a developing information literacy program. The model further allows librarians to track progress and identify opportunities for information literacy in each department and program across campus, and provides focal points for goal setting, outreach, and assessment. The model is adapted from the software industry’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM), later known as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), which tracks the evolution of complex processes along a continuum of five development levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Information literacy
• Academic libraries
• Capability maturity model (CMM)
• Capability maturity model integration (CMMI)
• Program development
• Assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Footnote 7 in the Framework explains that “Metaliteracy expands the scope of traditional information skills (determine, access, locate, understand, produce, and use information) to include the collaborative production and sharing of information in participatory digital environments (collaborate, produce, and share). This approach requires an ongoing adaptation to emerging technologies and an understanding of the critical thinking and reflection required to engage in these spaces as producers, collaborators, and distributors. The footnote quotes Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. E. (2014). Metaliteracy: reinventing information literacy to empower learners. Neal-Schuman.

² The ILPDM was presented as a poster at the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Conference in 2017.