A Tale of Two Syllabi
Program-integrated information literacy instruction in chemistry and journalism

Margy MacMillan, B.A., M.L.S.
Coordinator, Instruction and Information Services
Library
Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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A Tale of Two Syllabi
Program-integrated information literacy instruction in chemistry and journalism
Mount Royal College has a longstanding commitment to information literacy as part of its
mandate to promote student success and satisfaction. The library has provided course-integrated
instruction in a variety of formats for over twenty years. Moving beyond course integration to
program integration was a natural progression. Librarians and teaching faculty saw a need to
plan sequenced sessions that would introduce students to incrementally complex information
skills and resources throughout their academic careers. The librarians anticipated that integrating
the instruction through the program would reduce unnecessary repetition, enhance student
awareness of the myriad resources beyond the catalogue and databases, and develop students’
skills in concert with the increasing demands of their assignments. The process of developing,
implementing, and maintaining program-integrated information literacy plans for two of these
departments, chemistry and journalism, provides the focus for this case study. To avoid
confusion between the academic programs and the information literacy programs, the term
‘syllabus’ will be used to denote the content and sequence of program-integrated information
literacy sessions.
Setting
Mount Royal College is an undergraduate institution offering diplomas, applied degrees,
university transfer programs and brokered bachelors degrees to some 13,000 students. In the
2004/2005 academic year, library personnel delivered information literacy (IL) instruction in
more than 650 classes in all disciplines at the College.
Information literacy instruction at Mount Royal incorporates several success factors noted in the
literature1,2. Our focus on course-integrated instruction ensures that each IL session is tailored to
the individual needs of particular courses and assignments. Most sessions for first-year students
follow a pattern of demonstration and assisted practice to incorporate scaffolding 3 supporting
learners as they develop new skills. Sessions for more senior students incorporate more
exploration to encourage students to apply what they already know to new resources and
research methods. This makes use of the ‘curiosity gap’ principle, developed by Loewenstein4
and applied to IL instruction by Borowske5. Under this principle the learner is engaged through
striking the right balance between boredom and panic; material must be new enough to stimulate
curiosity, but not appear so challenging as to induce anxiety. Instruction at Mount Royal is also
informed by Chickering’s seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education,
particularly in the emphasis of active learning, time-on-task, communication between faculty and
students, and respect for multiple learning styles. In most sessions visual learners are engaged
through demonstration, auditory learners through lecture and kinesthetic learners through handson practice 6. In developing the program-integrated syllabi in this case study, other critical
factors were that each program has a well-defined sequence of courses and that in both chemistry
and journalism, the professional requirements for information literacy are clear.
In accord with the literature on information literacy in higher education, the most significant
factor in the development of Mount Royal’s program-integrated IL syllabi has been the
collaborative relationship between the librarians and other faculty. These relationships have
been maintained, through changes in personnel on both sides, due to a well-established culture of

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collaboration. Librarians are true partners in the educational process. In 1997, Mount Royal
established six College- Wide Outcomes7, one of which was ‘Information Retrieval and
Evaluation’. This indicated strong institutional support for IL instruction to match the individual
support we receive from other faculty. The current membership of the Information Retrieval and
Evaluation Outcome team includes the Chair of Journalism and the Chemistry Coordinator, both
of whom have been key partners in developing the IL syllabi.
This collaborative relationship was even more critical in the evolution from course-integrated to
program-integrated instruction. Partnerships with individuals had to be extended to integrating
the work of departments. D’Angelo and Maid 8 noted the challenge of working in courses with
multiple instructors. Orr, Appleton and Wallin 9, Grafstein 10 and Mackey and Jacobson11 all
describe the importance of working with faculty to extend IL beyond the confines of IL sessions
and into the fabric of courses and programs. The need to build long-term relationships is
underlined by Christensen12 who describes the organic process of weaving IL into a discipline’s
curriculum as a “…slow process, often taking years if not decades to accomplish.” The process
as experienced at Mount Royal has proven the value of faculty-librarian partnerships; the trust,
the mutual respect and the development of common values led to the success of programintegrated IL instruction.
Objectives
The underlying rationale for developing program-integrated syllabi was to deepen students’
understanding of their disciplines’ information resources through closer ties to curriculum and
assignments. Despite significant differences in process, the development of information literacy
plans for chemistry and journalism shared a common set of objectives:
•

Ensure comprehensiveness – that key skills and resources identified by the department
and library faculty were incorporated in the syllabi

•

Build on students’ prior knowledge by incorporating some repetition

•

Ensure that new information is included in each class and develop variations in activities
and assignments to sustain student interest
Introduce more complex information resources to higher-level students
Ensure IL instruction matched discipline/course curriculum, i.e. that resources would be
useful in the course, not just for the library assignment

•
•

Chemistry
Setting
Chemistry as a discipline has been a long-time supporter of IL, and there are numerous current
resources to assist librarians in developing programs13-15. The Committee on Professional
Training of the American Chemical Society notes that “A student who intends to be a practicing
chemist … should know how to use the chemical literature effectively and efficiently. 16” The
chemistry faculty at Mount Royal teach two high-school equivalent courses, the first two years
of university chemistry courses, and a chemical engineering course for the environmental
technology program. The information literacy syllabus for chemistry began in 1989, with the
development of a session for one first-year chemistry class that lead students through a number
of reference tools, the online catalogue and Wilson’s General Science Index. This was later

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supplemented by a similar session for students in a high-school equivalent course. While the
sessions were course integrated and introduced students to a broad range of resources, many of
the chemistry-specific tools were too advanced for first-year students, and there was no followup IL instruction in senior courses where more complex resources would be more appropriate.

Methods
In 2001 instruction librarians and chemistry faculty met to plan an expansion of IL into more
chemistry courses. The firm, shared belief that chemists should know how to find out if what
they were working with could kill them provided the basis for a rich discussion. Librarians and
chemists established key skills and sources, developed ideas for assignments and a plan matching
elements of the IL syllabus with each course’s curriculum. The librarians extended excellent
relations with two chemistry faculty, the Chemistry Coordinator and the senior lab instructor, to
include the entire department, achieving much wider understanding of the importance of
information literacy to chemists. In discussing course curriculum with each other, chemistry
instructors developed a greater awareness of their expectations of students’ knowledge at each
stage of the chemistry program and were able to effectively map IL content to students’
developing knowledge of chemistry. The chemistry faculty also saw the IL sessions as a way to
connect chemistry in the laboratory with chemistry in daily life, which informed the development
of several of the assignments.
This fruitful meeting and the discussion with individual faculty that followed resulted in
expanding the IL syllabus for chemistry from 2 courses to 7, stretching from a junior high-school
equivalency course to a chemical engineering course for the environmental technology program.
This led to a considerable increase in the resources and skills incorporated into the chemistry IL
syllabus and a commensurate increase in demands on the library. The chemistry librarian was
responsible for developing the syllabus, activities and assignments, teaching all senior courses
and maintaining the program through liaison with the chemistry department (because each
chemistry courses has several sections, all instruction librarians teach in the high school
equivalency and first year courses).
A complicating factor in developing the program was the recognition that each of CHEM 0115,
CHEM 0130 and CHEM 2201 might be the last chemistry course a student took, as these were
pre-requisites for other science specialties. The group decided to keep the content of these
sessions and assignments relatively general and transferable and to focus on chemistry-specific
resources from CHEM 2203 onward. Also, as most students in CHEM 2201 have not previously
taken CHEM 0115 or 0130 at the College, reducing duplication between those sessions was not a
major factor in developing the syllabus. Students in CHEM 3357, the engineering course,
typically have no prior library instruction in chemistry and require significant instruction in the
use of many resources to accomplish the major course project.
The preliminary syllabus that arose from the meeting described what each course would include.
Students would be expected to demonstrate an increasing familiarity with information resources
as they progressed through the program, not only in their library assignments, but also in their
lab reports, and would be graded accordingly. The appendix at the end of this chapter includes
the current IL syllabus for chemistry, and examples of the assignments and handouts can be
found on the author’s webpage at http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/pubs/pisal/index.htm.

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The nature of the chemistry program at Mount Royal and that of the information needs and
resources of the discipline have combined to make the chemistry IL syllabus remarkably stable.
As students do not pursue significant chemical research in their first two years, the emphasis has
been on developing their familiarity with key print and electronic chemistry reference resources,
and their skills in researching various environmental, social, medical and industrial aspects of
chemistry using the catalogue, general news and journal databases (e.g. ProQuest Research
Library, Wilson OmniFile), and the Internet. IL sessions and course assignments also incorporate
evaluation of sources, and correct citation and documentation of information.
Although there have been some changes in the past 10 years, the IL assignments and activities
continue to serve the students well. In 2002, faculty requested that basic patent searching be
added to the senior courses, to reflect the growing recognition of the importance of patent
literature. In December 2005, the chemistry faculty met again with the chemistry librarian to
check on the status of the IL syllabus. The meeting provided an opportunity for the faculty to
discuss other broad curricular goals, and the only significant change to the IL program requested
was a greater emphasis on citation and documentation.
The exception to the stability of the syllabus has been Chemistry 2201, the introductory credit
course. This has seen several changes in lead instructor and corresponding changes to the
activities and assignments. The large number of sections of this course, taught by several
different lab instructors is a separate challenge to maintaining a consistent level of support for
the library sessions. Librarians wishing to implement program-integrated instruction will need to
maintain close ties with individual instructors to ensure the continued viability and usefulness of
the IL sessions, and with the department as a whole to monitor and adjust the syllabus to
accommodate changes in curriculum.
Results
While there is no formal review of the chemistry IL syllabus, the recent meeting with instructors
demonstrates that it continues to serve the needs of the department and to meet the objectives
outlined above. Of all of those objectives, the one that students most appreciate is that each class
in the core program (2201, 2203, 3350 and 3351) is significantly different in content, assignment
and activities. Students have remarked that they benefit from the brief review, but always learn
something new from the library sessions. In 2005, students in second-year courses were asked to
fill out an I-SKILLS Résumé17 before a library session. A review of what they included as skills
showed considerable retention of knowledge from previous classes.
Journalism
Setting
The development of the IL syllabus for journalism has taken quite a different path, reflecting
both the rapid change in information skills required by the profession, and major expansion of
the journalism department. In contrast to the stability of the chemistry department’s courses,
much of the journalism curriculum remains under development and the content and sequence of
courses is still evolving to meet changing needs in the profession. Like the chemistry faculty, the
journalism instructors strongly support information retrieval and evaluation as key skills in their
discipline; journalism students are also readily convinced of the relevance of information literacy
instruction to their professional aspirations. As in chemistry, there is also strong support for IL
in the professional associations; in their Standards for Accreditation, the Accrediting Council on

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Education in Journalism and Mass Communications lists the ability to “… conduct research and
evaluate information by methods appropriate to the communications professions in which they
work;” as one of the Professional Values and Competencies journalism graduates should have18 .
Also similar to chemistry is the range of literature available on teaching various aspects of
research to journalism students19-22.
Methods
The IL syllabus for journalism began with one class and one very supportive instructor, and has
grown to the point where there is some formal IL instruction in almost every journalism course
throughout the three years of the program. A strong initial syllabus developed in 2001 lapsed as
curriculum and instructors changed, but a meeting with the instructors in 2004 served to
recommit everyone to integrating IL skills more thoroughly with the program. A key factor in
this turning point was that the instructor who had been working most closely with the librarian,
and who was a member of the Information Retrieval and Evaluation Outcome team, became
Chair of the department. This enabled closer links between the department and the library,
greater sharing of information and a much more active role for the librarian in developing
curriculum. The librarian attended several planning meetings in the department and continues to
meet frequently with individual instructors to develop new assignments and activities. The
current IL syllabus for journalism is included in the appendix and interested readers can trace its
development through several iterations on the author’s webpage.
The overriding concern of the librarian and the department faculty has been to develop students’
knowledge of both the professional and academic information environments, which includes not
only the use of specific tools but also an understanding of how information is generated, used,
misused, and communicated. Students in the program research and write both news stories and
academic papers, and their ability to locate, evaluate, analyze and synthesize information is
crucial to their success. Library assignments tend to focus on specific types of information (e.g.
government, legal, theoretical, etc.) or information gathering activities (e.g. web evaluation, factchecking, finding human sources for stories) to highlight particular skills or resources. In more
senior courses, students assess their own skills for gaps and library sessions are often built
around the needs they identify. Classes at all levels include discussion of broader aspects of
information from the views of both consumers and producers, generally led by the journalism
faculty, but often in collaboration with the librarian.
Results
The journalism IL syllabus has grown from three classes for one senior course to its current state
of 12 classes for nine courses spread throughout the program. This is an indication both of the
value journalism faculty place on IL and of their commitment to developing an integrated
syllabus. As new instructors have joined the department they have also become active
collaborators in creating relevant learning experiences. In meeting the objectives for developing
program-integrated IL syllabi listed at the beginning of this case study, the librarian and
journalism faculty have created a dynamic suite of instruction sessions. Journalism students are
encouraged to evaluate and track their developing information skills through using the same ISKILLS Résumé the senior chemistry students wrote, but in a much more deliberate way. Each
student writes a résumé in their first semester and submits it to the librarian who returns it in
second and third year for updating. These résumés allow the students to reflect on their
understanding of the information environment, and provide excellent information about what

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students are learning. The range and diversity of skills reported and the depth of articulation of
those skills in the résumés indicate that the students are developing information literacy over the
course of their program and that they value the skills and knowledge gained through the
program-integrated instruction sessions.
Conclusion
The IL syllabi for chemistry and journalism both benefit from strong faculty and library support.
The needs of the students in the programs, and the nature of information in the disciplines has
profoundly affected the development of each program. In both disciplines there is a clear value to
both academic and professional careers in learning how to locate, evaluate and use information.
The single most important factor in the success of both programs is the open, collaborative
partnership between the librarians and the journalism and chemistry faculty who have invested
the time to plan and coordinate IL instruction with the curriculum; a process that required
significant trust among the partners. Teaching is an autonomous and oddly solitary pursuit, and
integrating information skills throughout a program requires that faculty open their classes to
others, and negotiate space, time and power both within the department and with the librarians.
Some are more comfortable with this process than others, but the leadership of the Chair of
Journalism and the Coordinator of Chemistry has ensures the continued strength of
collaborations with the library.
For those who wish to create program-integrated syllabi, the first step is to cultivate and maintain
excellent partnerships with the teaching faculty. Tend the IL syllabus like a garden, paying
constant attention to the changes in the environment, the resources, the curriculum, and most
importantly in student needs. Weed and prune material relentlessly as needs change, and be alert
to additions that may enrich and diversify your plan. Allow for cross-fertilization and
transplanting; move ideas, activities and assignments around the plan to improve the fit with the
discipline’s curriculum. Accept that parts of the syllabus will change, grow, or even disappear as
faculty come and go and institutional priorities shift. Most importantly, give it time. The
development of program-integrated instruction requires patience, and may take years to
establish. The benefits to librarians, faculty and students are worth the effort.
Students benefit from program-integrated IL instruction by developing their skills over time
within the context of their curriculum, in sessions that enhance retention through some repetition,
and sustain interest and motivation through innovative and diverse activities. Thorough
integration with the curriculum encourages students to see their information literacy skills as
integrated with their academic and professional abilities, and to value them accordingly.
Spreading IL classes throughout a program allows for a greater diversity of content and learning
experiences, which in turn allows the discipline faculty to diversify their research assignments.
Faculty also benefit from the process of developing program-integrated IL through examining
the curriculum of the courses they teach in the larger context of the department. The greatest
benefits, however, accrue to the librarians. The increased involvement in curriculum planning
has encouraged the development of more innovative and effective instruction sessions and
delivery modes, improved collection development through greater knowledge of the discipline
and facilitated richer, more rewarding relationships with both faculty and students.
References
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