U Research...

In order to understand more about Information Literacy at Mississippi College (MC), especially in preparation for helping develop a training module for our student workers, I need to learn more about MC's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).  For accreditation purposes, MC is required to develop a QEP to become the major focus of the university's resources.  This major plan will center around Information Literacy and will be called U Research: Engaged, Enhanced, Empowered (http://www.mc.edu/qep/index.php).

QEP Logo (http://www.mc.edu/qep/images/uresearch_logo.jpg)

The goal of U Research, according to MC's QEP website,  is "for Mississippi College students to become discriminating users of information as a result of a deliberate and sequenced information literacy program."  The intended purpose of this initiative is to help students become lifelong learners by helping them know when they need information, where to locate it, how to evaluate it and how to use it effectively (http://www.mc.edu/qep/u_research_faqs.php).

The entire QEP development process has been an arduous one requiring the participation of the whole campus including students as well as faculty and staff.  The university solicited initial ideas and then narrowed down or combined the proposed topics.  Teams or individuals developed white papers, which were made available to everyone on the campus to read before voting on their first and second choices.  In the end, the top two choices were removed as options because they needed to be addressed more imminently than what the QEP time-line would allow, so the next best choice was U Research.  After this stage of the process came to an end, committees were developed to work on literature reviews, proposal development, and other important components.  Although the library will play a crucial role in the creation and implementation of the QEP, other departments will join the initiative to help carry it out.

There is so much more to learn about Information Literacy, especially in how it applies to U Research, so I feel that I've only gotten my feet wet.  This means that I will need to learn more about the QEP and how it will affect the library.  I will be able to use any knowledge gained from my studies on this topic to aid in developing a training module for library student workers who will work closely with peer tutors and students who have questions about Information Literacy.

To be continued...