A team at the University of California, Merced, collaborated to evaluate the value of integrating information literacy into introductory composition courses through a curriculum developed by librarians and writing faculty. Using a mixed-methods approach, the team investigated the impact of the curriculum on students' learning and achievement at the end of their first semester of college. Students participating in the curriculum demonstrated greater gains than their peers in using suitable sources and presenting arguments and multiple viewpoints with evidence. This learning did not translate to higher student achievement as represented by course grades and grade point average. IntroductionAs educators and librarians at a research university, we are eager to contribute to student learning, especially to students' information literacy and critical-thinking skills. Often those contributions have been limited to one-shot instruction sessions introducing students to basic research skills and strategies. An exciting collaboration between University of California (UC), Merced, librarians and faculty from the Merritt Writing Program (MWP) focused on a course-embedded approach to information literacy in introductory composition curriculum. This project and curriculum, called TRAIL (Teaching Research and Information Literacy), 1 meant that writing faculty introduced students to content about the research process and information literacy via activities, readings, tutorials, and reflections before students had in-person instruction with a librarian. Five writing faculty members piloted the first sections of TRAIL in spring 2014, and librarians, with a desire to evaluate the effectiveness of this courseembedded model, applied for the Association of College & Research Libraries' (ACRL) Assessment in Action (AiA) program.2 Upon acceptance, they formed a campus AiA team to assess the impact of this course-integrated writing and research curriculum on student learning and achievement. Team members included the MWP co-director, an MWP faculty member, and the Director of Institutional Assessment. In addition, the campus's Principal Research Analyst from Institutional Research and Decision Support doi:10.5860/crl.77.2.164 Assessing the Value of Course-Embedded Information Literacy 165consulted with the team. The assessment project exhibited some of action research's key characteristics, including collaboration with others, systematic planning with ongoing reflection, a focus on producing change, and a flexible and adaptable practice. 3 Research QuestionsAs the team considered how it might design an assessment that could determine the impact of this course-integrated model of library instruction (TRAIL) on students' learning and achievement, team members articulated research questions. Did TRAIL students who participated in Writing 10 sections with curriculum crafted around integrating the research process with the writing process express the knowledge, skills, and attitudes representative of developing student researchers? Did they ...

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe how librarians at UC Merced developed an iPod Touch Video Library Tour to replace in‐person instruction for freshman library orientations.Design/methodology/approachLibrarians developed and marketed the iPod Touch Video Library Tour, collaborated with Writing faculty to promote and measure the effectiveness of instruction, then collected and analyzed student assignment scores and survey assessment data to evaluate the project.FindingsPost‐tour assessment data from student assignments suggest that the iPod Touch Video Library Tour is successfully introducing new students to the space, services and resources of the library. Post‐tour comments from students and faculty also indicate that they consider the tour an effective means of being introduced to the library.Practical implicationsFaced with increasing teaching workloads, instruction librarians can benefit from developing asynchronous instruction objects such as podcasts/vodcasts. Asynchronous teaching allows the time shifting of instruction activities, offers scalability, and optimizes assessment. Students often value the freedom to receive instruction when it is most convenient for them.Originality/valueThis paper offers practical information that will assist academic libraries in developing and justifying asynchronous instruction alternatives for traditional face‐to‐face library classroom sessions. Assessment data presented supports the effectiveness of asynchronous instruction through podcasting with popular iPod technology.

Guide-on-the-Side (GOTS) open source software is emerging as a popular new platform for library tutorials. Unlike video tutorials, GOTS tutorials provide an active learning experience for students. This research sought to determine student preference for passive video screencast tutorials versus interactive GOTS tutorials. In addition, the study compared creation time for GOTS versus video screencast tutorials, an important consideration in the adoption of this technology. Findings suggest that students are evenly split on tutorial preference, largely based on their individual learning styles. Furthermore, results showed that GOTS tutorials take significantly longer to create than simple screencasts, but may save time in the long-run because they are easily edited.

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