As an Information Literacy Librarian and a Rhetoric and Composition instructor, I integrated library resources into my courses to enhance students' research skills. This integration includes embedding a research guide into their online classes, incorporating discussion prompts, having students reflect on their research processes, and providing library tutorials. I collected students' writing to use as evidence which revealed that this approach significantly enhances students' research competencies, highlighting the effectiveness of combining traditional instruction with integrated, reflective, scaffolded support for solid information literacy retention. I will share these results and discuss strategies for enhancing library instruction to better meet students' needs.

Participants will:
1. discover the ways in which information literacy instruction can be scaffolded in order to improve the retention of information literacy skills by first-year writing students, by reviewing a multi-year research project using students’ writing and reflections.
2. be introduced to the importance of critical reflection on information literacy by first-year writing students in order to improve students ability to conduct research and retain those research skills.