Incorporating Statistical Competancies into University-Level Information Literacy Programs in the Social Sciences

This paper will address strategies for incorporating statistical literacy competencies into information literacy initiatives at the university level.nbsp; Integration of statistical and information literacy into coursework for upper division undergraduates and entry-level graduate students requires careful planning.nbsp; Key elements are the use of active learning methods and coordination with student research and faculty expectations.nbsp; The authors will discuss how the information literacy standards developed by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) provide the theoretical framework in which to situate data literacy learning outcomes.nbsp; Discipline-specific standards, such as those currently in draft form by the ACRL's Anthropology and Sociology Section, further help to place statistical literacy into the context of information literacy and critical thinking for social science students. The authors will also describe the one-unit information literacy course they developed for the UCLA Department of Sociology that utilized a set of tools and techniques designed to develop research skills and critical thinking in the use of statistical resources.