Information Literacy Instruction Programs: Supporting the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Community at Virginia Tech

When developing instructional programs related to information literacy at a university, a logical audience to focus on is undergraduates. However, information literacy spans far beyond the traditional ability to find, access, evaluate, use, and properly cite information. It also encompasses the ability to evaluate the impact of scholarship, determine appropriate data-management practices, understand author rights, promote ethical use of scholarship, and maintain an awareness of changes in scholarly communication. Between 2010 and 2016 librarians at Virginia Tech have focused on developing programs to strengthen several of these information literacy skills across the continuum of students, faculty, and extension agents in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). Starting with undergraduates, traditional information literacy skills were incorporated into the two CALS First-Year Experience programs. A scientific writing workshop and online information literacy course were designed for CALS graduate students. Extension agents and faculty were introduced to both traditional and more advanced applications to explore how changes in the information landscape impacts their work. This paper will discuss how these librarians have partnered to create and promote these information literacy initiatives.