Assessing Information Literacy in a Living Learning Community: An Academic Library Case Study

Assessment of information literacy efforts can impact college students’ success and retention. Library outreach and partnerships with teaching faculty, especially those targeted towards first-year students, are important. Library involvement with High Impact Practices (HIPs) including Living Learning Com-munities provide librarians with an assessment-rich environment to connect information literacy with student success and retention. This case study sought to assess the impact of information literacy library instruction on first-year Living Learning Community (LLC) Criminology students and asked the follow-ing question: Are the general information literacy class and the Special Collections information literacy class beneficial to Criminology LLC students? The authors learned that students’ comfort, awareness, and knowledge of library services increased from the pre- to post-surveys. Most pre- and post-responses showed an increase in knowledge gained during the general library and Special Collections library infor-mation literacy sessions.