A small group of Oregon librarians and educators have recently shared their work on the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT).

The project started when Team Lead, Sara Robertson, saw a need for a metacognitive self-assessment for information literacy. When used thoughtfully, a metacognitive assessment approach has the potential to increase equity by positioning students as experts on their own learning. The ILRT is not an assessment that generates a score or a grade, it invites people to reflect on how they approach and use information and prompts them to consider what constitutes information literacy.

The ILRT contains a curated list of statements derived from threshold concepts articulated in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Ed. A select group of information literacy librarians and writing instructors volunteered to be expert reviewers, and the team refined the original statements in light of their input.  As part of three years of research and testing, the instrument was used in Fall 2019 with students in 20 foundational writing courses at Portland Community College, as well as several first-year-experience courses, also at PCC. 

When testing was complete, the team worked with two graphic design classes and from their work selected an ILRT design by Sari Field.

The ILRT team invites discussions about the opportunities and challenges presented by teaching with self-reflection and is interested in sharing thoughts and ideas for using the Information Literacy Reflection Tool in instruction. They will be posting an all-text version of the ILRT on the website, along with a user manual that includes technical information about the development. They will also make the documents that map the statements to the ACRL frames available.

The ILRT research team is:

• Sara Robertson, Team Lead, Faculty Librarian at Portland Community College
• Michele Burke, Faculty Librarian at Chemeketa Community College
• Kim Olson-Charles, Head of Library Public Services: Reference, Instruction and Access Services at University of Western States 
• Reed Mueller, Program Director for Undergraduate Psychology and Professor at Bushnell University

Contact for the ILRT team and additional information can be found at https://ilreflection.org/contact/.