Teaching Information Literacy through Faculty Development

Provides an approach to information literacy centered around faculty development to support academic librarians in building more scalable, sustainable, and impactful information literacy programs.

Academic librarians devote significant effort to teaching information literacy, often in “one-shot” sessions. However, the one-shot has received criticism for its pedagogical ineffectiveness and its impact on librarians’ professional status and personal well-being.

This resource provides an overview of an alternative approach, the faculty-focused model, also known as the “teach the teachers” or “train the trainers” approach. In this model, librarians concentrate their efforts primarily on faculty development, which has the potential to allow them to develop more scalable, sustainable, and impactful information literacy programs. This practical guide explores the benefits and concerns associated with the model, gives examples of library-led faculty development initiatives and librarian involvement in campus-level faculty development, and offers recommendations for building faculty development into an information literacy program. Librarians will appreciate the book’s guidance on making the mental shift necessary to adopt a more faculty-focused approach and its willingness to address concerns that librarians may have about the model.