Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts

edited by Samantha Godbey, Susan Beth Wainscott, and Xan Goodman for ACRL

9780838989708

378 pages 
6” x 9”

The definition of threshold concepts has been expanded over the years based on the work of many educational scholars and practitioners, but are essentially described as a portal, transition, or threshold to additional learning and deeper understanding for a learner. Threshold concepts are transformative, integrative, irreversible, bounded, and troublesome, and can be a valuable tool in both facilitating students’ understanding of their subject and aiding in curriculum development within the disciplines. 

In 25 chapters divided into sections mirroring ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education—Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as a Process, Information has Value, Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation, and Searching as Strategic Exploration—Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts explores threshold concepts as an idea and the specifics of what the concepts contained in the Framework look like in disciplinary contexts. The chapters cover many disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and physical sciences, and a range of students, from first-year undergraduates to doctoral students.

Disciplinary Applications of Information Literacy Threshold Concepts provides a balance of theoretical and practical to help readers both conceptually and pragmatically with their work in supporting student learning, including chapters in which librarians have designed learning outcomes aligned with the frames of the Framework. These examples demonstrate different approaches to working with information literacy threshold concepts and how librarians are incorporating them within their disciplinary and institutional contexts. As Ray Land says in the Foreword, “This volume marks a significant new departure in the development of the threshold concepts analytic framework.”