Foundational Level (100/200 level)

Steely Librarians will work collaboratively with faculty to design foundational information literacy instruction classes, customized to the specific assignment of each class and including resources specific to that discipline.

For the four core foundational classes (ENG 101, ENG 291, UNV 101, CMST 101), there is a specific curriculum to address the building block skills. Other library classes will build on these foundational conceptual skills as well as offering discipline specific resources tailored to the individual assignment. Basic Information Literacy concepts are introduced in foundational library instruction and built upon in upper division library instruction.

Foundational library instruction can include basic library concepts such as how to:

  • Navigate Steely Library and the library webpage to locate items/services
  • Understand basic Library of Congress classification
  • Determine information need
  • Develop keywords
  • Formulate a basic search
  • Narrow and broaden a topic
  • Locate items in the online catalog
  • Access databases to locate articles relevant to the discipline and assignment
  • Evaluate sources (electronic and print)
  • Formulate questions regarding additional information needed
  • Distinguish between popular press, trade journals, and scholarly journals
  • Distinguish between primary and secondary sources
  • Acknowledge works of others through accurate citations
  • Select an appropriate documentation style and use it consistently to cite sources
  • Legally obtain and store text, data, images, or sounds, respect intellectual property rights, and post permission granted notices, as needed, for copyrighted material
  • Understand the peer review process
  • Introduce citation software
  • Learn about additional help via the Ask Steely Library Services