Variations on the Theme of Information Literacy – Implementation of Information Literacy into the First-Year Curriculum at Åbo Akademi University

Abstract

How can information literacy (IL) courses be organized into the curriculum in the best possible way for first-year students at Finnish universities? This question has been discussed time and time again. At Åbo Akademi University we have, since fall 2015, developed a course in Academic study skills where IL is included in the course. This means that IL is now for the first time included in all study programmes at the university. The IL module is, however, implemented in different ways in different faculties. In this article, we will focus on the method of embedded learning of IL in the study programme of Chemical Engineering, as it was implemented during the fall semester 2015 for all freshmen. For the first time the library was involved in a “hands-on” project with practical tasks at the Faculty of Science and Engineering. The students were motivated to learn how to search for information and how to improve their skills in reference management, and they passed the course.

Keywords

• embedded librarianship
• academic study skills
• information literacy
• first-year experience