UC Santa Barbara

This paper outlines the attempt by librarians at California State University Channel Islands (CI) to authentically assess the information literacy levels of first-year and third-year students, their partnership with faculty from CI’s writing and rhetoric programme in receiving a grant for this endeavour, the creation of a rubric and specialised assignment to facilitate the assessment process and the initial assessment data that came from the three-year grant period. Information gathered during our pilot study suggests that student information literacy proficiency levels can be determined by assessing student writing assignments, and that a targeted rubric is an effective authentic assessment measure in this endeavour. This study is of use to practising librarians as it highlights the efforts of the authors to partner with faculty, not only in assessing student papers, but also in creating a rubric and specialised bibliography assignment that can be used by librarians and faculty at their institutions.