Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery

This is a chronology of the progress accomplished by the Information Literacy Task Force at UMBC:

• April 2004--Assignment Design Workshop: Integrating Information Literacy Skills into Assignments
  The Faculty Development Center and the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery co-sponsored a workshop on assignment design. The workshop focused on integrating information literacy skills (based on the ACRL Information Literacy Compentency Standards) into assignments. The PowerPoint presentation is available online.
• March 2004--Copyright and Fair Use Workshop: What Faculty and Students Need to Know
  The Faculty Development Center and the Library co-sponsored a workshop on copyright and fair use. The workshop featured David McDonald, Special Assistant for Academic Affairs, Towson University. David's handout is available in PDF format. The workshop also included an update on the campus draft policy on copyright.
• Winter 2003-2004--The Taskforce ran a slide show on Commonvision detailing interesting findings from the survey.
• November 2003--The AOK Library & Gallery sponsored several Brown Bags to foster a campus discussion about the findings from the Information Literacy survey implemented in fall 2003, and a list of recommendations were developed in response to the survey findings. If you would like to make a recommendation for program development, contact the Information Literacy Task Force.
• Fall 2003--An Executive Summary reporting on the results of the Survey was prepared and distributed to those involved in the project.
• Fall 2003--The Information Literacy Survey was administered to students in core and select courses in the disciplines of English, History, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Biology, and Psychology.
• Spring 2003--Piloted the Information Literacy Survey to students employed in the A.O.K. Library & Gallery. The data collected from the pilot was used to refine the instrument questions.
• Fall 2002--Information Literacy Taskforce extends invitation to area libraries for exploration of a collaborative effort in the development of information literacy materials focused on faculty.
• Fall 2002--Information Literacy Taskforce begin developing Faculty Information Literacy Awareness Web site.
• Fall 2002--Graduate Student hired to automate information literacy survey instrument and provide technical support for the development of faculty information literacy awareness resources for faculty.
• Fall 2002--Library Director and the Head of Reference began meeting with Department chairs and Deans of targeted departments for support and approval to test students in introductory discipline courses.
• Fall 2002--Reference department reorganization results in the creation of a formal Instruction Group within the Reference department. Information Literacy Task Force born.
• Summer 2002-Fall 2002--At the request of the Provost's Council, consulted with Diane Lee, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and Marilyn Demorest, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, on information literacy instrument design, reliability and verifiability.
• Spring 2002-Summer 2002--Library Director and the Head of Reference begin meeting with campus groups to inform and garner support for information literacy initiative.
• Met with Provost's Council--Initial timeline revised and program re-evaluated
• Spring 2002--refine information literacy survey instrument
• January 2002--invited campus faculty and staff to participate in program development
  • Developed a pre-/mid-/post- assessment instrument
    • Final version--Information Literacy survey
  • Fall 2001--Reference department members, dubbed "information literacy task force" began information literacy program development.
    • Reviewed the information literacy literature, including assessment instruments, and developed filing system for literature/materials acquired;
    • Identified campus programs and academic departments to target for initial information literacy efforts;
    • Identified information literacy standards for benchmarking and generalization purposes. Selected the ACRL information literacy standards as a basis for the program.
  • September 2001--Reference department members began meeting to discuss outcomes assessment and the Library's role in supporting the campus initiative.
  • August 2001--A.O.K. Library and Gallery Libraries Executive Council (LEC) referred outcomes assessment and information literacy to Reference Department for action and recommendations.
  • December 2001--UMBC "Technology Fluency—Core Skills: Results of a Survey of UMBC Faculty" released. See also, UMBC's Policy on Technology Fluency.
  • January 2000--USM Board of Regents "Resolution on Technological Fluency" adopted.