History of the Hartfield Library

History of the Hartfield Library's Library Skills Instruction Program

Since 1995
To insure that all students learn library skills, workbooks and linked class assignments called Pathfinders, were created for ENG 101 and ENG 102 classes. Since both classes were required for graduation, library skills instruction through them should serve all of the college’s students.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) recommendations for information literacy demand that students:

access the needed information effectively and efficiently.
evaluate information and sources critically.

The Pathfinders were given to students in hard copy format during fifty-minute presentations. The philosophy of these assignments was that students would better understand how to use information resources if librarians demonstrated the searches and if the assignments involved the students in hands-on practice.

The assignments were graded by librarians and incorporated into the students’ semester grades in the ENG 101 and ENG 102 courses. This strengthened collaboration between the librarians and the English faculty.

Returned Pathfinder assignments featured both grades and comments as an avenue of communication with students.

Evaluations were written and disseminated with the assignments. The feedback from these evaluations was integrated with the results of surveys given to general library users and the college faculty in an effort to update and improve general library services.

Learning-centered approaches do not dispense with existing programs; rather they modify existing practices that have proved useful to integrate new learning-centered ideas and philosophies.