Library and Teaching and Information Services Assessment Results

• Mission Statement
  As part of the Stewart Library, the Teaching and Information Services Department supports Weber State University’s mission to nurture student success. We appreciate our membership in multiple, pluralistic communities and are committed to facilitating access to the breadth of knowledge for all campus community members. We foster information literacy, intellectual engagement, individual empowerment, and lifelong learning through course-integrated instruction, personalized research help, online learning tools, robust collections of relevant resources, and unique opportunities for library involvement.
• Student Learning Outcomes
  • Program Learning Outcomes

    TIS will use the following outcomes, which are listed and expanded upon in the Curriculum Grid.

    • Students will be able to identify the scope of information needed.
    • Students will be able to strategically discover and access the information needed.
    • Students will be able to evaluate information and its sources critically.
    • Students will be able to ethically and legally access and use information.

     

• Learning Outcome Alignment

  Information Literacy Learning Outcomes
  
  Definition: Information Literacy refers to the set of integrated abilities that encompasses knowing when there is a need for information; being able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the situation at hand; participating ethically in communities of learning; and understanding how information is produced and valued. (Adapted from the National Forum on Information Literacy, the AAC&U VALUE Rubric for Information Literacy, and the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.)

  Outcome 1: Students will be able to identify the scope of information needed.

  • Mastery 
    • Students effectively identify the scope of the research question or thesis. They effectively determine key concepts, understand the scholarly conversation on the topic, and situate their research question or thesis within it. Types of information (sources) selected directly relate to key concepts or answer the research question.
  • Competence 
    • Students identify the scope of the research question or thesis completely. They can determine key concepts and identify the scholarly conversation on the topic and recognize that their research question or thesis has a place within it. Types of information (sources) selected relate to key concepts or answer the research question.
  • Emerging 
    • Students identify the scope of the research question or thesis incompletely (parts are missing, remains too broad or too narrow, etc.). They can determine key concepts and begin to identify the scholarly conversation on the topic. Types of information (sources) selected partially relate to key concepts or answer the research question.
  • Lesson/Module learning outcomes may include:
    • Students will be able to identify the scope of a research question or thesis statement and the information needed to address it.
    • Students will be able to articulate key concepts represented by a research question or thesis statement.
    • Students will be able to select appropriate and relevant information types and formats to fulfill the need.
    • Students will be able to analyze the research question or thesis within the context of the scholarly conversation on the topic.
       

  Outcome 2: Students will be able to strategically discover and access the information needed.

  • Mastery
    • Students access information using effective, well-designed search strategies and select the most appropriate information sources and tools.
  • Competence
    • Students access information using a variety of search strategies and tools and select some relevant information sources. They demonstrate the ability to refine a search.
  • Emerging
    • Students access information using simple search strategies and retrieve information from limited sources with limited variety.
  • Lesson/Module learning outcomes may include:
    • Students will be able to create effective search strategies to discover appropriate and relevant information to fulfill the need.
    • Students will be able to utilize search tools to select and access needed information.
       

  Outcome 3: Students will be able to evaluate information and its sources critically.

  • Mastery
    • Students choose a variety of information sources appropriate to the scope and discipline of the research question or thesis. They select sources after considering the importance (to the researched topic) of the multiple criteria used (such as relevance to the research question or thesis, currency, authority, audience, bias or point of view, information creation processes, and the various voices involved in the scholarly conversation on the topic).
  • Competence
    • Students choose a variety of information sources appropriate to the scope and discipline of the research question or thesis. They select sources using multiple criteria (such as relevance to the research question or thesis, currency, authority, and information creation processes).
  • Emerging
    • Students choose a variety of information sources. They select sources using basic criteria (such as relevance to the research question or thesis, and currency).
  • Lesson/Module learning outcomes may include:
    • Students will be able to evaluate information for credibility and appropriateness to the information need.
    • Students will be able to employ a wide variety of criteria for evaluation and selection of sources.
    • Students will be able to identify and evaluate the sources used within a piece of information and the scholarly conversation.
       

  Outcome 4: Students will be able to ethically and legally access and use information.

  • Mastery
    • Students correctly apply all of the following information-use strategies: use of citations and references; differentiating between and applying paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting; using information in ways that are true to original context; distinguishing between common knowledge and ideas requiring attribution. Students demonstrate a full understanding of, and can critique, the ethical and legal restrictions on the use of published, confidential, and/or proprietary information.
  • Competence
    • Students correctly apply the following information-use strategies: use of citations and references; differentiating between paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting; using information in ways that are true to original context; distinguishing between common knowledge and ideas requiring attribution. Students demonstrate an intermediate understanding of the ethical and legal restrictions on the use of published, confidential, and/or proprietary information.
  • Emerging 
    • Students correctly apply the following information-use strategies: use of citations and references; using information in ways that are true to original context; distinguishing between common knowledge and ideas requiring attribution. Students demonstrate a basic understanding of the ethical and legal restrictions on the use of published, confidential, and/or proprietary information.
  • Lesson/Module learning outcomes may include:
    • Students will be able to use citations and references.
    • Students will be able to use information in new contexts in ways that are true to the original context.
    • Students will be able to distinguish between common knowledge and information that must be attributed to its creator.
    • Students will be able to differentiate between paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting information, and effectively apply them in writing.
    • Students will be able to identify and employ ethical and legal means of accessing information. 
    • Students will be able to critique the ethical and legal issues surrounding information use.
       

  This work is adapted from the AAC&U Information Literacy VALUE Rubric and is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License. 

• Program and Contact Information

  Contact Information

  Miranda Kispert
  Chair of Teaching & Information Services
  Stewart Library, 218
  (801) 626-6093
  mirandakispert@weber.edu

  Library Website

• Assessment Plan

  Teaching & Information Services (TIS) is shifting from a credit-bearing model of instruction to a new model, due to changes over the last few years: USHE R470 updates, the restriction of Gen Ed programs to 27-30 credits, Weber State’s decision to move to a 27-credit Gen Ed model, the elimination of the IL credit requirement and attribute as of the 2025-2026 catalog year, and the subsequent sunsetting of courses that fulfill that requirement, including LIBS courses.
  
  The department is currently (Fall 2025 and Spring 2026) piloting a new program whereby information literacy (IL) skills and concepts are embedded into the new English 2010 curriculum to address the new IL outcomes. The new model is unlike ENGL 2015, which required individual library faculty to partner with individual English faculty, merge the complete LIBS and ENGL 2010 curricula to create a four-credit course, and co-teach said course. Instead, a team of library faculty worked with ENGL 2010 course designers to map IL outcomes to the new ENGL 2010 curriculum, identify points at which IL content could most usefully and strategically support student learning of EN1 and EN2 outcomes, and develop content, learning activities, and lesson plans for librarian visits to achieve those limited goals. In this way, ENGL 2010 remains a three-credit course, student learning is supported, IL outcomes are addressed in the context of a research project, neither students, faculty, nor the curriculum is overburdened, and library faculty become familiar to students in a supporting role over the course of three classroom visits rather than in a “grading teacher” role, making it more sustainable that some of the prior models.
  
  Under this model, the goal is to conduct assessment in two ways:
  
  First, each semester English instructors will be asked to have students complete a questionnaire similar to the course evaluations, giving students a chance to provide feedback on librarians and course materials, reflect on what they learned, and suggest improvements.
  
  Second, each year (likely at the beginning of the summer), TIS will request artifacts from that year’s ENGL 2010 classes (via the Office of Institutional Effectiveness), to assess for IL outcomes according to a rubric (to be created). This method is akin to GEIAC’s assessment mechanism – ideally, the rubric will include the outcomes and an “operationalized” or “instantiated” example of how that outcome should appear in the artifacts to demonstrate competence. The artifact will most likely be the final, revised research paper students will complete by the end of the semester. During the pilot, a sampling of artifacts will be requested from LIBS, ENGL 2015, ENGL 2010 with embedded IL content, and ENGL 2010 without embedded content, to allow for comparison across models and comparison to a control (no embedded IL). After the pilot, if the model is successful, and if it is chosen as the mechanism for the program going forward, a sampling of artifacts will be requested from ENGL 2010 with embedded IL content only.
  
  These assessments will be conducted by TIS members, including faculty and staff, again in a model similar to the one GEIAC employs, with some norming samples, then pairs working through the artifacts and reporting their results. The TIS chair will compile and share those results.
  
  Moving forward, LIBS instructors will continue to assess and improve their own courses during the LIBS teach-out, but the department’s focus will, by necessity, shift to new models of instruction. It is likely we will shift from a two-year Biennial Review process to a five- to seven-year Program Review process, unless the status of credit-bearing LIBS classes changes. It should also be noted that the embedded-IL model outlined above may not be the one the department eventually chooses as the foundation of the program; the floor remains open for new proposals for IL education models, though there aren’t any at this time. It also seems that English is planning to revise the 1010 curriculum, and a similar mapping/embedding model may be used to introduce some IL concepts in that class as well.

• Assessment Report Submissions

  To view assessment report submissions prior to April 2026, please visit our assessment archive.

• Program Review

  2019-20

This information is part of the cyclical program review process. Details such as mission statements, learning outcomes, etc., are updated as part of the biennial assessment reporting process, an integral component of program review.