Instructional Collaborations

Librarians at USC possess subject expertise in many disciplines in addition to Library & Information Science.
As faculty, librarians at USC provide reference services, conduct collection development, teach, and publish, among many other responsibilities.

Supporting our USC students and instructors is our number one priority.
Therefore, we always seek out instructional collaborations with schools and individual instructors across campus.

Information literacy is the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.

Instructional collaborations offered:

Instruction Request Form
About our Course-integrated information literacy sessions
Assignment design and consultations
Tutorials and research guides
Workshops
Experiential and active learning & custom-designed lesson plans

The USC Libraries Teaching & Learning Department:
Who we are & what we do

Our Mission:

The mission of the USC Libraries Teaching & Learning Department is to lead and provide structural support for teaching excellence in information literacy and other scholarly literacies within the libraries and throughout the USC curriculum. We are dedicated to fostering innovative, experiential, and sustainable library instruction throughout the disciplines, prioritizing equitable and accessible learning experiences, and a collaborative, respectful, and fun learning environment.

The department serves as a teaching resource for instructors looking to incorporate engaging, innovative, and intrinsically motivating practices into their teaching.

At the USC Libraries, we use the Association of College & Research Libraries‘ Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education as well as discipline-specific standards as guiding documents for our instructional collaborations.

Our ongoing commitment to excellence in teaching and learning informs all that we do and is core to both our department’s mission as well as the USC Libraries Definition of Excellence in Teaching more broadly.

Our Areas of Expertise:

MICHAELA ULLMANN, Head, Instruction & Assessment

Michaela came to USC Libraries in 2006 holding an M.A. from University of Bonn in Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology with an emphasis on Mesoamerican Cultures. She earned an MLIS from San Jose State in 2013. Michaela joined the libraries first as the Feuchtwanger Curator, and later as Exile Studies Librarian, overseeing the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library. In 2013, she took on the role of Instruction Coordinator for Special Collections. As of February 2023, she transitioned into the role of Head, Instruction & Assessment.
Michaela has published in the area of Exile Studies as well as Primary Source Literacy Instruction (see selected publications). She is also on the faculty of the California Rare Book School at UCLA where she teaches a regular class on Critical Special Collections Pedagogy. Her personal research areas are the Memorial Culture of the Guatemalan Genocide, and German-speaking exiles in South America.

Contact Michaela for questions about:

Collaborations between USC Libraries and other USC schools & for integrating Library Instruction more thoroughly throughout the USC curriculum.
Research support /Information Literacy Instruction for USC schools & instructors.
Strategic Assessment of Information Literacy Instruction within USC Schools
Liaison for the USC Writing Program
Primary Source Literacy Instruction
Experiential Learning

Contact: ullmann@usc.edu
Selected publications by Michaela Ullmann

KEVIN KLIPFEL, Teaching & Learning Librarian

Kevin Klipfel is the Teaching & Learning Librarian at the USC Libraries with expertise in critical thinking; DIY approaches to information literacy; learner-centered instructional pedagogy; and the science and psychology of learning. His book Thinking Critically About What Matters: A Punk Rock Guide, was published by the American Library Association in May 2026, and his critical thinking zines are widely taught at USC and beyond. You can read more information about Kevin’s research areas and his role at USC, including potential areas of collaboration with faculty on his Research Fundamentals curriculum, zine-making workshops, and assignment design support more generally, below.

My primary areas of expertise are in critical thinking, DIY approaches to information literacy, learner-centered instructional pedagogy, and the psychology of learning.

My book “Thinking Critically About What Matters: A Punk Rock Guide,” published by ALA Editions on May 7, 2026, "deftly synthesizes the critical thinking mindset of thinking for yourself with the DIY punk rock ethos of doing things for yourself" laying out an original perspective on critical thinking, defined as the values-based decision-making process of (i) making up our own minds about what matters in life and (ii) making choices in the real world based on our own authentically chosen values. With a refreshingly irreverent attitude toward hierarchical authority and other cultural conventions, this guide investigates philosophical perspectives from divergent traditions that share a common theme of liberating a person from their own self-centering biases and limited point of view when interpreting the information that comprises reality."

I am particularly interested in the nature of sound decision-making in individuals, groups, and organization; how we use and evaluate information to construct our beliefs and values; and critical thinking as a process of thinking for oneself about how to make authentic, values-aligned choices.

My recent work also focuses on DIY approaches to democratizing information so that citizens have the necessary information they need to make informed decisions about the world. My original critical thinking zines "Thinking Critically about Media Bias" and "The Critical Thinker Must Rebel: A DIY Approach to Values Based Decision-Making" have been widely distributed and are frequently assigned as required reading in courses at USC and beyond. I strongly prefer that you do not share these zines digitally but all are welcome to reach out to me for PDFs of these zines that you can print and distribute freely to students, libraries, bookstores, or anyone you think might be interested. USC faculty interested in student workshops around these zines can reach out to me directly.

I am also a regular instructor for the USC Dornsife Prison Education Project, where I teach a course on "Thinking Critically About What Matters" to currently incarcerated individuals. The Prison Education Project's belief in education as a fundamental human right embodies the critical thinking ethos core to librarianship of democratizing information, in action. You can read a bit more about my work in the article "A USC Librarian Brings Philosophy - and Punk Rock Librarianship - to L.A. Correctional Facilities.

I have previously published multiple articles on an approach to learner-centered instructional pedagogy I called "Authentic Engagement"; the cognitive science of information literacy learning; and my book Learner-Centered Pedagogy: Principles in Practice (co-authored with Dani Cook) was published by ALA Editions in 2017.

Responsibilities

As the Teaching & Learning Librarian at USC Libraries, I am excited to work with students and faculty in a variety of ways to incorporate critical thinking and information literacy skills into the curriculum and beyond. USC faculty and students are welcome to reach out to me about any of these issues.

I frequently work and collaborate with USC faculty across the curriculum on incorporating lessons from my "Research Fundamentals" information literacy curriculum into their courses, either through my own facilitation of custom course-embedded workshops on these core information literacy skills, or by working with faculty to incorporate these research fundamentals into their courses themselves. These Research Fundamentals lessons offer a systematic learner-centered approach to teach transferrable conceptual building blocks required to think critically about information use, its organization, and application. Each handout breaks down a specific Research Fundamental information literacy skill in a short 1-pager handout (front and back), so learners can easily retain and immediately apply the information presented to their coursework and beyond.
I frequently work with USC faculty who assign my "Thinking Critically about Media Bias" zine to their students as a required course reading and facilitate custom workshops in their courses around these issues. These workshops typically incorporate library research skills and hands-on information literacy learning as part of the session. USC Faculty who have collaborated with me on these workshops have written that the zine "Makes an incredibly compelling case for critical thinking;" that the zine workshop was "Useful not just academically, but morally and should be taught/given for all first years in a class and or orientation as it helps build useful frameworks of thinking"; and that it was "so inspiring - connecting research to real life! Making ourselves freer through research!”
I frequently work with USC faculty who assign my "The Critical Thinker Must Rebel: A DIY Approach to Values Based Decision-Making" on zine-making workshops for students where students learn to make their own zines based on potential "Examined Life" zine topics outlined in my zine. Students typically make custom zines exploring their identity, their culturally constructed beliefs and values, and the role that information plays in determining their beliefs, values, and decision-making.
I often work with faculty who are interested in incorporating zine-making into their own courses, but who would like to create zine-making assignments for students that are customized to their own course content. I am available for instructional design consultations on these issues to help USC faculty create these zine-making assignments and offer course-embedded workshops on zine-making in their classes. These workshops and assignments invite students to directly participate in a creative act in line with a long tradition of DIY information culture where information is democratically available, and unique ideas, marginalized voices, and alternative perspectives from the dominant cultural mainstream can make themselves heard, directly, with no professional gatekeepers blocking their way. My How to Make a Zine guide provides more information about the zine making process and a FAQ for faculty about why you might consider having students make zines in your course.
I am also available for individual instructional design consultations and curriculum, syllabus, and assignment design support for USC faculty more generally, especially around issues related to critical thinking, information literacy, "Low-Tech" pedagogy, and the science and psychology of learning.