A model for information literacy course development : a liberal arts university perspective

Purpose – To report a new model for information literacy course development, one derived from a liberal arts university perspective; and to describe the experience of delivering the course. Design/methodology/approach – Reviews recent studies in Information Literacy and incorporates these research findings into the model, which is then applied in practice. Findings – That each university needs to align course development with its individual mission and unique environment – thus, to a greater or lesser extent, a specific model is required for course design in each context. Research limitations/implications – There is an underlying research principle in this paper which implies that information literacy is not a generic subject and that particular aspects of the local context can be too easily ignored, for example, in the attempt to standardise and codify national (or even international) approaches to information literacy. Practical implications – The findings of this paper offer new ways for delivering IL instruction in the classroom context, ways which have been tested in a real practice environment. Originality/value – The paper describes a course originated by academic faculty into which library staff were then integrated; it also suggests a variety of original factors that need to be incorporated into information literacy course design.