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  • Information Literacy Instruction that Works: A Guide to Teaching by Discipline and Student Population, and: Information Literacy Collaborations that Work
  • Zofia Lesinska
Information Literacy Instruction that Works: A Guide to Teaching by Discipline and Student Population, ed. Patrick Ragains . New York: Neal-Schuman, 2006. 329p. with CD-ROM $89.95 (ISBN 1-55570573-1)
Information Literacy Collaborations that Work, ed. Trudi E. Jacobson and Thomas Mackey . New York: Neal-Schuman, 2007. 264p. $85 (ISBN 1-55570579-0)

These two volumes are recent additions to the series Information Literacy Sourcebooks, a forum to share ideas and practical advice about research skills education in academia. The collection of essays edited by Patrick Ragains, a librarian at the University of Nevada, Reno, addresses the audience of professionals involved in information literacy instruction (ILI) to specific groups such as students with disabilities, community college students, first-year undergraduates, distance learners, disciplinary majors, or patent researchers. Contributors are academic librarians who represent a variety of institutional experience and disciplinary expertise.

Information Literacy Instruction that Works appeals to both new and seasoned professionals because the editor prefaces the more narrowly focused chapters with essays that introduce the fundamentals of ILI in the academic setting. The collection recommends tested strategies for adapting general information literacy (IL) concepts to the learning needs of special groups. Even more practically, it offers examples of lesson plans, resource lists, assessment tools, exercises, promotional tools, and other resources. The included CD-ROM facilitates customization of these samples.

As part of the same series, Information Literacy Collaborations that Work shares many characteristics with Information Literacy Instruction that Works. Both collections [End Page 390] are equally relevant to practitioners and to IL researchers because, in addition to professional advice, they include literature reviews and bibliographies. Furthermore, both elaborate on ILI in the disciplines, albeit each book addresses different aspects of this subject.

Information Literacy Collaborations that Work documents recent progress in integrating information literacy learning outcomes within the learning objectives of programs and courses. It showcases 14 successful collaborations between instruction librarians and other campus constituents. Appropriately, teams of librarians, disciplinary faculty, and/or administrators are authors of all chapters. The editorial team is based at the State University of New York at Albany. Jacobson heads the Library User Education Program, and Mackey teaches in the College of Computing and Information.

Part one discusses campus-wide IL initiatives. The opening chapter identifies accreditation agencies as powerful advocates of integrating IL into academic curricula. At the University of California Berkeley, in response to accreditation recommendations, a Mellon Fellowship Program and the vice-provost for undergraduate education encouraged course-redesign collaborations between librarians and 35 faculty fellows. The other chapters in part one present effective collaborations that transformed smaller institutions.

The importance of administrative support is implied in several case studies in part two (IL and the disciplines). For example, at the California State University Long Beach, Librarian Susan Luévano and her faculty partner Pena Delgado in the Chicano and Latino Studies Department acquired a grant from the California State University Information Competence Initiative to support their project Semillas de Cambio (Seeds of Change). This venture involved the curriculum redesign to include information competencies as well as the training of disciplinary faculty in assignment development, learning outcomes, and assessment.

Semillas de Cambio is significant because it articulates several themes that shape the entire collection. For example, the authors emphasize that cordial librarian-faculty relationships serve as catalysts for incorporating ILI into disciplinary curricula. Such relationships are often rooted in shared values. Drawing on Paulo Freire's work, Luévano and Delgado emphasize that IL empowers underprivileged groups. A similar commitment to disadvantaged students motivated Christy R. Stevens and Patricia J. Campbell to work on integrating IL into the political science curriculum at the University of West Georgia. Notably, chapters that discuss writing programs also underscore the connections between IL and political power in democratic societies.

Finally, part three explores how librarians can leverage information technology to include IL into general education curricula. Some used their expert knowledge of the Web, others video technology—all to win their faculty partners over. The closing chapter, co-authored by the book editors, highlights the limitations of...

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