Information literacy curriculum mapping in the health sciences

A scoping review

Abstract

Instructional medical librarians are uniquely positioned in a context governed by multiple instructional frameworks emerging from librarianship and the professions with which they liaise. Yet very little literature exists on medical librarians’ use of curriculum mapping to align their instruction with these frameworks. This review illuminates the current state of curriculum mapping in medical librarianship.

We searched five bibliographic databases for articles published between 2010 and August 2021 and centred on information literacy (IL) curriculum mapping within a health sciences university context. Studies were included based upon pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were extracted using an instrument developed primarily a priori, with some codes developed emergently in response to preliminary review of the data.

We included 127 studies focused on curriculum mapping, of which only 24 included structures which might be considered “curriculum maps”. Across all 127 studies included, The Association of College & Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Libraries for Higher Education was the most-used IL framework, though versions of evidence-based practice were used more often, with a great deal of diversity and incomplete reporting on how these frames informed instruction of discrete concepts and skills. Within the 24 articles containing figurative curriculum maps, the same diversity of concepts and incomplete reporting was present, with librarians mapping IL frameworks to classroom activities more often than learning outcomes or competencies.

Development of curricular maps aligning discrete IL concepts and skills with different disciplinary contexts is needed to provide instructors with a modular structure they might implement in their own contexts. To further the identification of best practices, future research should examine existing curricular maps made by librarians.