by Ginnette Calvo
Interviewee
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Professor, University Library and Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
As part of the assignments during the 2018 Mortenson Center Associates Program, I had to interview a leader librarian, so I chose Lisa due to her passion for the profession, remarkable library career and contributions to Information Literacy.

MORTENSON CONFERENCE ROOM, MAY 29, 2018.
Ginnette Calvo (GC) / Lisa Hinchliffe (LH)
(GC): Why have you leaned towards information literacy?
(LH): I became interested in information literacy when I was getting my MLS in 1993-1994 and it has been my focus since then. I have always enjoyed teaching and am fascinated with how people learn. IL was a way to combine teaching and librarianship into a single area of focus.
(GC): What are you most passionate about this topic for you?
(LH): I love to help anyone learn. But, right now, I am particularly focused on helping librarians become more effective teachers and explore new practices to expand their teaching skills.
(GC): In Costa Rica we have the following situations related to information literacy:
- At the high school level, students are not prepared in these areas so they arrive at the University with many gaps which makes it difficult for them to carry out their research processes.
- The University of Costa Rica and the Information Literacy:
- +The University has information resources and trained personnel to provide information literacy.
- +The University library system provides a course in information literacy for new students, and also offers other courses that teach students and researchers the use of specialized databases and other information resources.
- ?It does not work like a program nor is it part of a curriculum plan. It’s not mandatory.
- ?There is no communication between the library system and the School of Library and Information Science to integrate information literacy in a more profitable way.
- ?There is a lack of support for undergraduate students in their research processes.
(GC): How are the above aspects handled in the United States?
(LH): What you describe as common in Costa Rica is essentially the situation in the US. There are some institutions that require information literacy courses but very few. It is relatively common that some sort of integration is expected of IL into the first-year writing program – but it is more based on librarians advocating and building partnerships with faculty than on anything that is mandatory.
(GC): What recommendations could you give me to improve the situations described above based on your experience?
(LH): First, I think the library must confirm that it is committed to dedicating resources to information literacy. I have seen many institutions where the campus starts to respond positively to the efforts by the librarians to advocate for IL but then the library does not allocate resources to support more librarians doing teaching. As such, I am now much more in favor of formal credit course in information literacy so that there are tuition revenues to cover the teaching costs. Next, I would work on the curriculum policy level and tie to accreditation. Finally, I would make sure that librarians are top quality in their teaching abilities.
(GC): What actions have you carried out at the University of Illinois to be successful in information literacy processes?
(LH): I look for opportunities to build partnerships and collaborative programs. Also, I encourage librarians to go to as much training on improving their teaching as possible.
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My sincere thanks to Lisa Hinchliffe (LH) for facilitating this interview.