Faculty

How do USMA Librarians teach Information Literacy skills?

The U.S. Military Academy Library’s Information Literacy Program supports the development of information literate cadets through a centralized, scaffolded curriculum designed to map to course outcomes and the USMA Academic Program goals. Concepts are introduced, reinforced/practiced, and mastered as cadets move through their courses at USMA.

Our Library curriculum team is continually building a portfolio of information literacy lessons, tutorials, learning objects, and workshops. In addition to face-to-face instruction with active learning activities, librarians can create course research guides and/or asynchronous learning objects and tutorials that can be shared with cadets, embedded in your Canvas page, and used for flipped classroom instruction with a librarian.

Archives and Special Collections (ASC) Instruction

We welcome opportunities to work with faculty to teach primary source literacy and incorporate USMA Archives and Special Collections materials into course curriculum. We follow the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy. Our instruction is learner-centered and encourages hands-on engagement with rare materials and archives regardless of the user’s level of experience.

A note about ASC materials:

• When incorporating physical materials into instruction sessions or other activities/assignments, please allow sufficient time for the selection, paging, reviewing, and, if applicable, digitization of the materials. We encourage instructor participation in materials selection.
• Please understand that we may not be able to accommodate all materials requests due to fragility, availability, and time/space constraints.
• Every class session using materials from the collections will cover proper care and handling of Special Collections materials. All members of the class and other visitors are expected to adhere to the Reading Room Rules.

Guidelines for Productive Collaboration

In order for library instruction to be successful and for learners to fully benefit from the sessions, course instructors should:

• Submit instruction requests at least two weeks in advance. This ensures the availability of a library instructor and provides us with adequate time to design an effective lesson.
• Submit a copy of the course syllabus or the relevant assignment description. This guarantees library instructors can better design content and activities aligned with course goals.
• Be present during the library instruction session. This helps create an environment where Cadets are actively participating in the learning process.

Instruction Requests

Please submit instruction requests via the form below, or contact Lauren Dodd, Associate Director for Curriculum and Academic Engagement, at instruction@usmalibrary.org to discuss instructional partnership opportunities.

Information Literacy Instruction Request form