Curriculum maps are grids for subject-specific research and information literacy skills. They include a sequence of skills that are meant to be developed at different levels of a student's academic career. One of the major benefits of a curriculum map is that it introduces students to new concepts and skills over time, beginning at the freshmen level and progressing through their senior year. Library instruction in upper level courses builds on previous instruction, ensuring that students are developing transferable skills that can be used beyond graduation.
WSU Libraries has developed a general curriculum map for skills and concepts students should master throughout different stages of their career at WSU, as indicated by the WSU Libraries Student Learning Outcomes. Note that while a concept may be introduced at the Beginning or Intermediate level and reinforced in higher level courses. Likewise, some higher level concepts may be introduced earlier, depending on the research requirements of specific disciplines. Information about subject-specific curriculum maps, developed at the department or program level, can be found below.
Skills Addressed at Different Competency Levels
| Beginning (100 and 200 level courses) | Intermediate (300, 400, and some 500 level courses) | Advanced (some 400 / 500 level and 600 level courses) |
| Information resources exist beyond Google (explanation of SmartSearch) | Discipline specific research trends | Scholarly communication in the discipline |
| Recognizing when help is needed and how to access it | Citing information sources | Fair use and copyright |
| Evaluate information sources | Understanding assignments and recognizing when topics need revision | Synthesizing information from different sources |
| The concept of peer review | Conducting a literature review in discipline specific sources | Interdisciplinary connectivity |
Curriculum maps are flexible, and can be customized to the needs of a particular department or major. The map will focus on the courses required for degree programs, mapping information skills to the outcomes of the course and the skills students need to be successful. While all students need to become critical thinkers and problem solvers, some skills (such as researching clinical trials or finding financial statements) are particular to their future profession.
Below, you will find examples of curriculump maps created for WSU departments.
The ACRL Instruction Section has created a wiki for Information Literacy in the Disciplines. Resources include articles, presentations, lesson plans, accreditation standards, and more.
See the page below for Discipline-Specific lesson plans, assessment activities, and more.
Townsend, L., Brunetti, K., & Hofer, A.R. (2011). Threshold concepts and information literacy. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 11(3), 853-869.
What do we teach when we teach information literacy in higher education? This paper describes a pedagogical approach to information literacy that helps instructors focus content around transformative learning thresholds. The threshold concept framework holds promise for librarians because it grounds the instructor in the big ideas and underlying concepts that make information literacy exciting and worth learning about. This paper looks at how this new idea relates to existing standards and posits several threshold concepts for information literacy.
