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DSU’s Rise Smith accepted to participate in ACRL project

            Rise Smith, Dakota State University associate professor and librarian at the Karl Mundt Library is one of 20 nation-wide librarians recently accepted to participate in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) project, “Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in Information Literacy Programs: Training Academic Librarians.”

            The purpose of the ACRL project is to give librarians the skills to create data that supports the merits of information literacy programs. Information literacy is the ability to find, evaluate and use information effectively in daily problem solving and decision-making, not just in the classroom.

“It (information literacy instruction) isn’t as good without the content of the subject matter,” said Smith. “It requires a lot of collaboration with faculty to be successful.”

            For participating in the program, Smith will be given a grant to help her team up with faculty members to design, implement and evaluate tools for assessing student learning outcomes resulting from information literacy taught by librarians and faculty.

 “It’s a good opportunity to impact the quality of education,” said Smith. “We are being asked to assess and help identify what works and what doesn’t, then use that information to improve the program.”