CTW Mellon Grant for Information Literacy

Trinity College, together with Connecticut College and Wesleyan University, whose libraries share resources under an arrangement called the CTW Consortium, was the recipient of a $660,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support collaborative programs in information literacy. This grant extended and enhanced the information literacy initiatives already under way at Trinity College.

The grant was co-written by library and academic computing staff of the CTW Consortium. Over three years, library and computing staff members at each institution worked with academic departments and programs to develop tools and practices for information literacy instruction. They met regularly to evaluate methods and share ideas.

In November 2002, Trinity co-hosted an information literacy workshop for about 100 participants, including 20 faculty members from each institution. As the inaugural event of the CTW Mellon Project for Information Literacy, the workshop provided opportunities for faculty members, administrators, and staff members to discuss the concepts of information literacy and their application in classroom teaching.

On April 1, 2003, the Library, Computing Center, and the Dean of Faculty cosponsored a presentation to Trinity faculty of the CTW Information Literacy Mellon Grant and Trinity's initiatives.

On April 23rd, 2004, Trinity hosted a workshop for the three institutions to discuss developing students’ information literacy skills through effective assignments. At this workshop, the attendees generated a list of commonalities drawn from the three presentations.

In March 2005, a reference librarian and an IT staff member from Trinity College, along with a colleague from Connecticut College, presented Developing Tools and Practices for Information Literacy Instruction at the NERCOMP special interest group meeting on IT/Library Collaborations in Teaching and Learning.  Their presentation was well received and resulted in several inquiries for further information about Trinity's information literacy programs.

Concluding the shared CTW grant activities were two workshops, one on assessment organized by Wesleyan's library and IT staff, the other on learner-centered teaching organized by the grant implementation team at Connecticut College.

The collaboration of shared workshops for the three CTW institutions as well as periodic meetings to share and compare the various information literacy projects at each institution were a vital component of the CTW Mellon Grant for Information Literacy. Insights into the similarities and differences of our approaches have aided the program development at our respective institutions.

As a consortium and as individual institutions, we are grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the opportunities the Information Literacy Grant has given us to enhance the teaching and practice of information literacy skills through a rich diversity of programs, projects, and presentations.

For other information on the CTW Mellon Grant information literacy consortium, please see http://camel2.conncoll.edu/is/infolit/