In my role as a library subject-specialist, I’ve worked to build relationships with faculty and provide subject-specific instruction for students in academic departments including: Architectural Technology, Human Services, and Humanities. One of my future goals is to develop more discipline-aware information literacy practices that reflect the information needs that students will have in academic and professional settings after graduating. I believe that one of the biggest challenges with information literacy instruction is transferability of research skills to different disciplinary contexts and professional environments. I believe the framing of information literacy as a general education skill is limiting since research and knowledge production practices are different across disciplines.
I would like to facilitate more college-wide conversations about disciplinary scholarship and that will organically reinforce critical connections between faculty scholarship and teaching practices. I believe that another way to strengthen discipline specific information literacy is through the development of more interdisciplinary courses. The library curriculum committee has discussed possibilities for new interdisciplinary courses and in particular, collaborations with STEM and Health Science departments.
