july13_b.indd


C&RL News July/August 2013 354

It is a well-documented problem within higher education of how to convey infor-
mation literacy skills to students in a way 
that is not only effective but relevant to their 
lives.1 When librarians stand in front of the 
classroom and present the world of databases, 
books, and scholarly articles, half the class is 
already drifting off. The challenge is to get the 
students interested in learning more about the 
resources available to them so that they can 
apply them to their current academic work 
and beyond.

Harrison College, an Indiana-based for-
profit college, began requiring a two-credit, 
12-week course in information literacy in the 
fall of 2010. The course is taken early in a 
student’s college career, as it sets a foundation 
for research skills essential for success in up-
per level courses. The class exposes Harrison 
College students to library resources and 
databases, evaluation techniques, and citing 
sources.2 While a curriculum team prescribes 
much of the coursework, instructors add 
supplementary materials and chose how the 
information is presented to students.

The authors, both librarians, taught this 
course at the Harrison College Lafayette, In-
diana campus in its premier quarter, and in 
the quarters following, from 2010 to 2012; one 
the day class, the other the evening section. 
We had different class make ups because of 
the time the class met: the day section had 
mostly younger, traditional students recently 
graduated from high school, while the night 
section had a higher percentage of nontradi-
tional, adult students, many of which were 
working full-time. Despite the demographic 
differences, one commonality was a disinter-

est (and dislike) for the subject of research. It 
became our goal as instructors to make learn-
ing information literacy both useful and fun. 

After two quarters of instructing the in-
formation literacy course, we identified two 
key problems: one, student apathy toward 
research; two, topic selection. Poor topic 
choice stemmed directly from students’ lack 
of interest in the information literacy course 
and objectives. When selecting a topic in the 
first week of the course, participants chose 
subjects they thought would be easy—topics, 
such as “gout” or “domestic violence” that 
were too broad, and often of no personal 
interest to the student. The end result? Pas-
sionless final bibliographies and students who 
hated research. Student course evaluations 
were further proof that students were not 
enjoying class or understanding the course 
objectives. As we planned for another quarter 
of students, we decided to experiment with 
connecting information literacy concepts to 
a popular culture event in a conscious effort 
to make the class more engaging and excit-
ing for students. 

Piloting zombies
One of the concepts we teach in information 
literacy is how important access to informa-
tion is, but what if we no longer had access to 
information in the way we were accustomed? 
What if we were forced to think differently 
about what information means and types of 

Dawn Stahura and Erin Milanese

Teaching with zombies
Bringing information literacy back from the dead

Dawn Stahura is research and instruction librarian at 
Wellesley College, e-mail: dstahura@wellesley.edu, and 
Erin Milanese is librarian and instructional technologist 
at Goshen College, e-mail: erinm@goshen.edu
© 2013 Dawn Stahura and Erin Milanese



July/August 2013 355 C&RL News

resources that are critical for survival? What 
if the zombies came? 

Zombies have made a recent resurgence 
in American pop culture; sparked in part 
by remakes of the Dawn of the Dead movie 
franchise and the TV show The Walking 
Dead. Librarians have quickly become part 
of the phenomena. Zombies were featured 
in the McPherson College library orientation 
graphic novel Library of the Living Dead,3 

and the University of Florida library created 
a zombie apocalypse survival LibGuide as 
part of a campus-wide zombie outbreak 
game.4 Inspired by the success of these other 
zombie-loving librarians, and playing off 
our own love of the undead, we decided to 
rework the class into a “Z-Day” framework. 

The new information literacy course 
premise was that a zombie apocalypse had 
occurred, leaving the world in utter chaos and 
destruction. As instructors, we prepared for 
these changes to the class structure by gath-
ering supplementary materials and tweaking 
assignments and lessons slightly to work in 
the zombie theme. We added zombie images 
and clip art to assignment materials, and 
made videos using the Web tools Xtranormal 
and GoAnimate. Google sites and Wikispaces 
were developed to organize and present our 
materials.5 

When class began, our students became 
survivors of the zombie invasion, forced to 
take shelter where and when they could 
while trying to defend themselves from con-
stant attack. As Z-Day survivors, the President 
of the United States called upon our students 
to put together documentation in their areas 
of expertise that would enable the human 
race to survive. The documents, of course, 
were their final annotated bibliographies.

From the first class session, there was an 
excitement to the class that was never there 
before. Students were engaged in selecting 
their topics and willing to start looking for 
information immediately. Early in the quar-
ter, as a class, we narrowed the overarch-
ing class topic of Z-Day down to narrower 
topics that aligned with the specific degree 
programs of our students (primarily business 

and health sciences). Students chose one 
serious research topic related to the zombie 
apocalypse to study the remainder of the 
quarter. Topics were much improved over 
the previous quarters, and included choices 
such as “disaster planning and preparation,” 
“economic recovery after a disaster,” and 
“mob mentality and crowd control.” 

Subsequent class sessions centered on 
information literacy concepts like Internet 
searching, database discoveries, and resource 
evaluation, but were also plagued with zom-
bies. We watched video clips, fake newsreels, 
and read short articles on the probability 
that a zombie apocalypse could really hap-
pen. We played “Organ Trail,” a mock-up of 
the old DOS game, Oregon Trail. We took 
zombie survival tests all the while learning 
about research. 

At the end of the quarter, the final an-
notated bibliographies confirmed to us 
as instructors that the zombie theme had 
improved student research tremendously. 
In previous quarters, final bibliographies 
contained sources that touched the surface 
of student’s chosen topic; now, the projects 
demonstrated a thorough understanding of 
a topic, and annotations showed us students 
were actually reading and comprehending 
the materials discovered. Student creativity 
shone through as topics were tied in with the 
zombie theme. Many created supplementary 
materials like short animated videos to go 
along with their projects. And, most impor-
tantly, student bibliographies demonstrated 
a better understanding of course objectives. 

Challenges and lessons learned 
We ran into two major challenges with this 
class theme. Some students did not like the 
zombie premise, and we accommodated 
that by allowing students who had an issue 
with zombies to choose another approved 
topic. The second challenge was a handful of 
students did not understand that the zombie 
aspect of the class was the creative flair - not 
the actual research topic. This, of course, led 
to very challenging conversations on why one 
cannot find scholarly articles when searching 



C&RL News July/August 2013 356

“How to zombie-proof your home.” Working 
one-on-one with students who struggled, 
and reiterating concepts like keywords, syn-
onyms, and scholarly versus popular articles, 
helped these students understand how the 
zombie themed topics could be applied to 
research on real-life situations. 

Despite these drawbacks, overall we 
found the quality of work greatly improved 
over previous quarters in which there was no 
class theme and students researched any topic 
of their choosing. Along with this, students 
were more enthusiastic about coming to class. 
Both authors solicited anonymous feedback 
throughout the quarter. When asked specific 
questions about the use of the zombie topic, 
the answers reported were positive. One 
student wrote, “My instructor used every-
day topics to relate to the material we were 
covering in class. She used zombies as a 
way to make the class interesting. I actually 
looked forward to coming to class and doing 
the work! I mean, how many colleges offer 
courses on zombies!” 

Another student commented, “The struc-
ture of this course is very refreshing. The 
information is relayed in such a fun manner 
that I don’t even realize I am learning. Which 
is awesome.” For the most part, students 
really enjoyed all the in-class activities and 
liked having zombies in class with them. 
Despite the generational differences in the 
student population, the consensus in both 
sections of the course was that the zombie 
theme made research fun and not what 
students thought information literacy class 
would be: boring. 

With the help a zombie apocalypse, our 
students were able to learn some valuable 
searching skills while researching topics that 
were serious and meaningful. Our students, 
through hands-on in-class activities and 
required research assignments were able to 
fulfill the information literacy requirements 
set forth by Harrison College. As instructors 
and librarians this made us proud. We hope, 
like the fictitious legends of the undead, that 
our students go on walking toward the real 
flesh, that of lifelong learning.

Notes
1. For example, see Barbara P. Heuer, 

“Using Popular Media to Build Literacy,” New 
Directions for Adult and Continuing Educa-
tion, no. 115 (2007): 55-62; Amy Springer 
and Kathryn Yelinek, “Teaching with The 
Situation: Jersey Shore as a Popular Culture 
example in Information Literacy Classes,” 
C&RL News 72 (2011): 78-118. 

2. Harrison College 2012–13 Catalog, 
http://bit.ly/YWXgFD.

3. Matt Upson and C. Michael Hall, “Library 
of the Living Dead,” http://blogs.mcpherson.
edu/library/zombie-guide-to-the-library/.

4. Margeaux Johsnon, Amy Buhler, and 
Chris Hillman, “The Library is Undead: 
Information Seeking during the Zombie 
Apocalypse,” Journal of Library Innovation 
1(2010):29-43. The corresponding zombie 
survival LibGuide is available at http://guides.
uflib.ufl.edu/zombie 

5. View zombie themed materials used 
in the course at https://sites.google.com/site 
/lafayetteinf/ and http://inf1100.wikispaces.
com. 

(“How we brought...cont. from page 345)
participated in the events shared his enthu-
siasm with unrestrained fervor.

The success of this venture was due large-
ly to the presence of an author and cultural 
figure of the stature of George R. R. Martin. 
It is also a testament to the collaborations 
possible when an institution brings together 
author-donors, local artists and businesses, 
and the community. This exhibition created a 
narrative of the power of words, demonstrat-
ing how Martin’s often-cited influences as a 
young and avid reader led to his own creation 
of works that are now shaping literature and 
popular culture. We believe that our efforts to 
present that process of influence and impact 
extends to the library as well, and to the 
readers who entered to see the exhibition.

Note
1. http://deeperthanswords.library.tamu.

edu/events.html