Strategies for Implementing a New Curriculum for Information Literacy

Helen Webster and Katy Wrathall

Emma Coonan and Jane Secker's report identified WHAT needs to be taught. The next question is HOW such a radically new curriculum might be implemented. Helen is internal to Cambridge University, and will explore strategies for implementation in the Cambridge environment. Katy will do the same for other institutional settings.

Project aims and objectives

The project will cover:

• Scoping the different contexts in which the curriculum could be implemented:
• to the different forms this would take
• the types of role
• who might deliver it across those contexts: lecturers, supervisors, librarians, learning developers, disability advisers, counsellors etc. (this could be used to produce an audit tool for other institutions, determining who might be involved in implementing the curriculum and in what form).
• Identifying any needs or barriers in terms of training or materials, differentiating between the needs of different users. These might be guidance on educational approaches rather than library training or subject teaching, or a menu of flexible activities and/or more fixed lesson plans, or diagnostic tools to ascertain students’ level of information literacy.
• Identifying existing materials and collating them.
• Developing sample materials which take into account the different needs and remits of users, to facilitate the implementation of the curriculum across several contexts.