Library Assessment Plan

Mission Statement of Henry Buhl Library's Instruction Program

The mission of Henry Buhl Library's instruction program is to empower students to use information and data critically to learn and to create new knowledge in a dynamic information landscape, fostering academic, personal, and professional success. In order to achieve such success, our mission also includes facilitating informed access to library collections and services.

The program utilizes incremental information literacy instruction provided in the general education curriculum, as well as in the majors. Instruction sessions are tailored to the needs of individual courses/faculty, using traditional and electronic formats that are supported by helpful and professional teaching at all times.

Our instruction program mission is aligned with Henry Buhl Library's mission "to promote information literacy for all students and faculty across all areas of study and will subsequently provide, with the assistance of the College administration and staff, the services necessary to support this endeavor," Grove City College's institution-wide objective of "promoting academic development," and ACRL's Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

General Education

Students will be able to:

• Find various locations in the library, as well as the Writing Center and TLC HelpDesk
• Find assistance at the library, when needed
• Identify authoritative information sources based on information need
• Recognize that similar content may be presented in different contexts, which may affect interpretation of the content
• Select a source that best meets an information need based on the audience, context, and purpose of various formats
• Give credit to the original ideas of others through attribution and/or formal conventions
• Formulate questions for research of an appropriate scope, based on information gaps or by reexamining existing information
• Evaluate information from a variety of perspectives in order to shape their own knowledge base

Major-Specific

Students will be able to:

• Identify markers of authority recognized by disciplines, professions, and other communities of knowledge and practice
• Distinguish between format and method of access, understanding that these are separate entities
• Formulate questions for research of an appropriate scope, based on information gaps or by reexamining existing information
• Select research methodology(ies) based on need, circumstance, and type of inquiry
• Demonstrate persistence, adaptability, and reflection as components of inquiry
• Design searches strategically, considering and selecting systems to search and evaluate search results
• Reflect on the search process in order to refine searches
• Identify how information systems are organized in order to access relevant information

Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Association of College & Research Libraries, 2015; http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/issues/ infolit/framework.pdf (accessed August 4, 2017).

Hernon, Peter, Robert E. Dugan, and Candy Schwartz. Revisiting Outcomes Assessment in Higher Education. Westport: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.

Oakleaf, Megan. "Writing Information Literacy Assessment Plans: A Guide to Best Practice." Communications in Information Literacy 3, no. 2 (2009): 80-90 .

Suskie, Linda. Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide. Anker Publishing, Bolton, MA, 2004.

Tuisku, Connie. "Information Literacy Outcomes." Palm Beach State College Library. August 2006. https://www.palmbeachstate.edu/library/Documents/ Information%20Literacy%20Outcomes3.pdf.

University of Southern California Libraries. "USC Libraries Information Literacy Outcomes for Undergraduates." April 16, 2015. https://libguides.usc.edu/ld.php?content_id=10093239.