Information research development
Information research development in students and staff of USQ is a fundamental part of academic development and professional development. Information literacy is the abilities that enable a person to recognise an information need, locate and retrieve relevant information, and evaluate and use information.
USQ has a strong focus and emphasis on ensuring the qualities of a USQ graduate (*PDF 30 KB) in all of its students. The University is committed to serving its regional and global communities with qualities in the domains of: discipline expertise; professional practice; global citizenship; scholarship; and lifelong learning. Information literacy underpins many of these domains, especially scholarship and lifelong learning.
USQ Library has written the USQ Information Literacy Strategy (*PDF 65 KB) to provide the context, aims and scaffold for collaboration and the development of information literacy as a graduate capability in USQ graduates.
Scaffolding development of information research skills
USQ Library fosters a scaffolding approach to information research skills development, where base-level skills are developed in first-year undergraduate courses, and these skills are further developed and reinforced in second, third and fourth-year courses. Postgraduate programs acknowledge the prior learning of students, and foster continued development of information research for postgraduate scholarship. USQ Library has mapped behaviours, characteristics and learning outcomes to the Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework (*PDF 405KB). The behaviours and characteristics provide the ability to measure the achievement of information literacy understandings and skills in USQ Graduates.
These behaviours demonstrate information literacy development at three levels:
Collaborating for information research development
USQ Library acknowledges that most effective learning and development of information literacy understandings and skills occurs in an intracurricular context, allied with discipline knowledge, professional skills and core attributes in communication and decision-making.
Academic staff and course designers work in consultation with the Library in teams and individually, to offer information research development with their courses and programs and/or embed information literacy development within their curricula (intracurricular). Examples of this collaborative effort have resulted in development of curriculum strategies that teach students to understand, find, evaluate and use information within a discipline-specific problem or context, and assess their ability to employ these skills within discipline-related assessment.
USQ Library professionals provide curriculum design and development guidance in relation to information literacy to other staff involved in student learning and development, such as the Learning and Teaching Support Unit (LTSU). Faculty Librarians work with Learning and Teaching Designers in Faculty Support Teams to ensure the most effective collaboration.
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