Welcome to the Learning Resource Centers (Libraries) at CACC!

What is an embedded librarian?

Embedded librarianship is when a librarian and/or library resources and services are integrated directly into your course. This provides a more thorough alternative than the traditional one-shot lectures that librarians provide about using the library and its databases. 

Students will then be able to message the librarian directly from Canvas! A librarian can also drop research modules directly into your course if requested. 

Please email Leslie Rewis lrewis@cacc.edu with your Course Number and Section Number if you would like an embedded librarian in your class.

Library Instruction

A librarian can visit your class to provide instruction in the following topics: 

1. General orientation / overview of library services
2. To help with a specific assignment or research project. In this case, a librarian can visit for 30 minutes to the full class period. Students will leave class with sources and instruction on how to search AVL or library databases
3. Source evaluation activities that require students to actively participate to learn about various source types (peer-reviewed articles, websites, unreliable sources, books, etc). 

Email lrewis@cacc.edu with your request for a librarian to visit.

​​​​​Please include:

1. Your course title 
2. Campus, time, location
3. Number of students (and if any students need accommodations)
4. Assignment (if visit is connected to an assignment). 

The Greater Western Library Alliance completed an incredibly large study of "about 42,624 students enrolled in 1,725 courses was collected from twelve (12) participating universities for the academic year 2014-2015." What they found strongly supports including library information literacy instruction in your classes!

They found that:

"Student retention rates are higher for those students whose courses include an information literacy instruction component."

"On average, First-Year GPA for students whose courses included information literacy instruction was higher than the GPA of students whose courses did not."

"Students exposed to library instruction interactions successfully completed 1.8 more credit hours per year than their counterparts who did not participate in courses containing information literacy instruction."

Library instruction is very valuable for your students!

All research lesson plans on based on the following framework provided by the American College and Research Library Association. 

ACRL's Framework for Information Literacy

1. Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
   Information resources reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility, and are evaluated based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. Authority is constructed in that various communities may recognize different types of authority. It is contextual in that the information need may help to determine the level of authority required.

2. Information Creation as a Process
   Information in any format is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising, and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences.
3. Information Has Value
   Information possesses several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world. Legal and socioeconomic interests influence information production and dissemination.
4. Research as Inquiry
   Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field.
5. Scholarship as Conversation
   Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations.
6. Searching as Strategic Exploration
   Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.

View the full text.

This information is abbreviated from:

"Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education", American Library Association, February 9, 2015

https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework (Accessed June 4, 2024)

Document ID: 890cccdc-cd7e-4973-981f-92baea71d2eb