Following the arc of learning: Using syllabi to target instruction in a professional graduate program

This study examines a corpus of syllabi to target program-specific information literacy needs. Examining a graduate program in Urban Planning, the study first identifies specific information literacy needs for the program, focusing on student data use, student tasks including locating, identifying and analyzing existing data sets. Based on these needs, the study then analyzes all courses in the curriculum, identifying places in the curriculum that strongly feature student data use and identifying patterns among those courses. What emerges is the ‘Arc of Learning’, a sloped trajectory that takes students from dependent beginners to independent pre-professionals. By following this arc, librarians can better make the case for library instruction in the curriculum. This study additionally provides a framework for such a study.