What are Library Learning Outcomes?

Library learning outcomes are statements that reflect research and information literacy goals.  Including library learning outcomes in your instruction request to the UCLA Library will help your Library Instructor design a tailored instructional approach that reflects your course’s information needs.

Turning your Request into a Library Learning Outcome

Unsure how to craft library learning outcomes and incorporate them into your Library instruction request? We’re here to help!

When crafting a library learning outcome, think broadly about the underlying research, information, and literacy goals you hope the Library Instructor will help you achieve.

For instance, if you are asking for the Library Instructor to attend your class to “Demonstrate how to use the Library website,” your underlying Library outcome may be one or more of the following:

“Upon completion of the Library instruction session, I hope learners will …

• Identify how to use the UCLA Library to find journal articles and other scholarly   sources
• Understand the distinctions between databases searching and searching on the web
• Developing a disciplinary vocabulary to strengthen research skills, including developing keywords and searching experimentally
• Identify where to find Library research guides and how to use them
• Identify how to get in touch with a librarian
• Understand how to use the Library website to search for particular source  types, such as primary sources

Keeping the Library’s Core Competencies in Mind

Define the goals, scope, and plan

• Generate and focus one research question related to the topic or assignment
• Identify the requirements, audience and expectations for your research.

Investigate diverse sources and perspectives

• Develop multiple search strategies involving iterative searching to find multiple relevant sources of more than one type.
• Demonstrate how primary, secondary, and tertiary sources are defined and used in a specific disciplinary context(s).

Gather and organize information and data

• Develop criteria for source selection and/or data collection.
• Use a citation management tool to collect, organize, and share your sources.

Evaluate and synthesize information and data

• Summarize multiple and/or changing scholarly perspectives on your subject.
• Synthesize existing research and identify a gap in the research that merits further study.

Use information and data ethically

• Apply proper attribution for your sources, including multiple source types, using expected conventions in multiple formats for multiple audiences and/or disciplines
• Articulate how and why some individuals or groups of individuals may be underrepresented or systematically marginalized within the systems that produce and disseminate information

Share the work and engage with audiences

• Engage with your audiences, articulating the relevance of your work in ongoing conversations and presenting your work appropriately for the audience and format
• Explore diverse modes of disseminating information, including scholarly, open access, self-publishing, and community-based models

Reflect on and refine the search process

• Review scaffolded assignments from your course and reflect on how your research and writing have progressed, improved, or stalled
• Reflect on your research journey in your course to identify your growth and future areas of improvement