Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Collaborative Approach To Teaching Information Literacy In First-Year Agriculture Courses, Jason Keinsley, Beth Reeder, Lauren Robinson, Melinda Borie

Lauren E. Robinson

We will discuss our redesign of the information literacy component of the first-year general agriculture course at the University of Kentucky. More specifically, we will share how we are customizing content to meet individual instructor needs by team teaching, providing more active learning opportunities, and adapting our pedagogical toolkit. Challenges include varying numbers of sessions requested per course section, location disparities, and time constraints.

Developing Professional Skills In Stem Students: Data Information Literacy, Lisa Zilinski, Megan R. Sapp Nelson, Amy S. Van Epps

Lisa Zilinski

Undergraduate STEM students are increasingly expected to have some data use skills upon graduation, whether they pursue post-graduate education or move into industry. This project was an initial foray into the application of data information literacy competencies to training undergraduate students to identify markers of data and information quality. The data consumer training appeared within two courses to help students evaluate data objects, including databases and datasets available on the Internet. The application of the Data Credibility Checklist provides a foundation for developing data reuse competencies. Based upon the initial presentation of the content, it became obvious that students need …

Thinking Critically About Data Consumption: Creating The Data Credibility Checklist, Lisa Zilinski, Megan R. Sapp Nelson

Lisa Zilinski

As STEM areas increasingly rely on pre-existing data, either to validate or extend the scientific body of knowledge, students who have baseline knowledge of how to find, evaluate, and access data will have an advantage. Accordingly, undergraduate STEM curricula is increasingly focused on research-based group projects that develop professional skills, building the professional portfolio needed for early career scientists, technologists, and engineers. This project works to develop new tools to implement basic data skills within the undergraduate disciplinary curricula. The first step in this process was to identify the competencies that are likely to be needed by those seeking data …

Show Me The Article!: Helping Students Understand The Library's Role In Accessing Scholarly Information, Todd J. Wiebe

Todd J Wiebe

A fundamental concept that students need to understand about performing research at the college/university level is that, contrary to what they may believe or have been accustomed to thinking, the entire sum of human knowledge is not openly accessible to anyone for free via the Internet. Often times, students need to "see it to believe it" –or, more importantly, grasp it–by experiencing first-hand how the library and free web intersect. We should not assume that the divide between what is available freely on the Internet and the content provided by, and only accessible via campus libraries is automatically or commonly …

Taking Active Learning To The Next Level: Increasing Student Engagement By Blending Face-To-Face Instruction And Digital Learning Objects, Lindsey Mclean, Elisa Slater Acosta

Elisa Slater Acosta

Cuban Research On Information Literacy: An Analysis Of Published Literature, Carlos Luis González-Valiente

Carlos Luis González-Valiente

Objective: perform a bibliometric characterization of Cuban research on information literacy (INFOLIT) based on the literature published from 2000 to 2013. Methods: substantiation was provided for conceptual notions about INFOLIT in the field of library and information sciences, and some interesting research antecedents were explored. Sixty-seven papers identified by the Ibero-America-Cuba INFOLIT Wiki-Repository were examined with the bibliometric indicators yearly productivity, authors, journals and term co-occurrence analysis, as well as type of documents cited, and most commonly cited journals and authors. Bibliometric maps and graphs were used to present the results obtained. Results: the topic has expanded since 2007. The …

I Felt Like Such A Freshman’: Integrating First-Year Student Identities Through Collaborative Reflective Learning, Paula Dempsey, Heather Jagman

Heather Jagman

This poster reports on qualitative analysis of 97 first-year student essays generated from an information literacy exercise designed collaboratively by four academic support units at DePaul University in Fall 2013. Working as an ACRL Assessment in Action team, the Library, Writing Center, Office for Academic Advising, and Center for Students with Disabilities integrated a library experience into an academic skills unit led by peer mentors. First-year students were asked to consider a topic of personal or academic interest, use the library discovery tool to identify an item, physically find the item in the library, check it out, and reflect on …

Do We Speak The Same Language? A Study Of Faculty Perceptions Of Information Literacy, Jonathan Cope, Jesús E. Sanabria

Publications and Research

The authors analyze twenty in-depth interviews with faculty members about how they perceive information literacy (IL) to examine two key factors: how disciplinary background influences conceptions of IL among faculty members in academic departments and how the instructors’ perception of information literacy differs from that of professionals in library and information science. The investigators analyzed these interviews by utilizing a phenomenological method. The faculty members were interviewed at a four-year college, the College of Staten Island, and at a community college, the Bronx Community College, both part of the City University of New York.

Technology Telling Stories: Library Instruction Perspectives From An Information Literacy Librarian And An Archivist, Beth Fuchs, Jaime Marie Burton

Library Presentations

Connecting with today’s undergraduates requires more than just a demonstration of technology, tasks, and procedures – it also requires capturing their imaginations, emotions, and feelings. Telling stories with technology connects real world, tangible experiences with abstract ideas and research methods, therefore getting students to care about what they are researching and invest in not just the topic, but in cultivating their own habits of mind.

Redefining The Nexus: The Convergence Of Information Literacy, Scholarly Communication And Data Literacy, David Scherer, Lisa Zilinski

Lisa Zilinski

The March 2013, ARCL Committee on Research and the Scholarly Environment White Paper, “Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy”, discussed the intersection of two initiatives and the evolving environment in academic libraries, as well as explored the “economics of the distribution of scholarship, digital literacies, and our changing roles.” However, in technical libraries, scholarly communication and information literacy initiatives are converging with data literacy initiatives. Until recently, as highlighted in Common Ground at the Nexus of Information Literacy & Scholarly Communication, the conversations surrounding scholarly communication, information literacy, and data literacy have taken place in disparate and siloed environments …

Same Song, Different Verse: Developing Research Skills With Low Stakes Assignments, Amy E. Stewart-Mailhiot

Communications in Information Literacy

The research component of college writing and composition courses is often only practiced as part of high stakes assignments. This paper proposes a collaborative approach to helping students develop foundational research skills that builds on the success of the low stakes writing movement. Using Elbow's 1997 article "High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding to Writing" as a framework, the low stakes research model centers around providing students multiple opportunities to practice research skills in a manner that alleviates library research anxiety and increases research quality. Key to the success of this model is a collaborative relationship between …

Potential Ramifications Of Common Core State Standards Adoption On Information Literacy, Jacob Paul Eubanks

Communications in Information Literacy

In the United States, the decline in jobs for high school educated workers and the proliferation of jobs for post-secondary educated workers is driving the development of the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core State Standards theoretically shift K-12 pedagogy towards ability development of critical and extended thinking skills, preparing high school graduates for college and career readiness. This literature review explores the reasoning behind the shift to the Common Core State Standards and asks questions regarding the potential ramifications their adoption might have on post-secondary information literacy instruction.

Faculty Power: A Renewable Energy Source For Teaching Information Literacy, Elisa Slater Acosta, Susan Gardner Archambault

Susan Gardner Archambault

Faculty Power: A Renewable Energy Source For Teaching Information Literacy, Elisa Slater Acosta, Susan Gardner Archambault

Elisa Slater Acosta

Using Exploratory Image Searching To Invite Inquiry Into The Student Research Experience, Beth Fuchs

Library Presentations

From the student perspective, progress in the research process is made by moving directly from choosing a topic to collecting sources. Developing a focus and identifying interesting questions are often seen as time-wasters and left out of the process entirely, particularly in the case of novice researchers, and yet, research tells us that these are the areas where students tend to struggle the most. How can we introduce students to the idea that before they can find answers, they need to ask questions? This session will introduce the idea of using image searching as a method for helping students who …

Executive Mba Students' Information Skills And Knowledge, Todd Quinn, Lora Leligdon

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This study explores Executive MBA students information seeking skills and knowledge in academic and workplace environments in order to improve on library instruction. Our research consisted of a survey and 12 qualitative interviews, sampled from two University of New Mexico EMBA cohorts. The themes that emerged included: EMBA's specific skills and knowledge of their own industry's information, difficulty in finding new information, several barriers, and lack of transferability. By discussing adult learning theory and focusing on transferability, we can help students acknowledge and transfer their information skills and knowledge between academics and work.'

Building A Sustainable Life Science Information Literacy Program Using The Train-The-Trainer Model, Patricia J. Hartman, Renae Newhouse, Valerie E. Perry

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

The train-the-trainer model has great potential for expanding information literacy programs without placing undue burden on already overextended librarians; it is surprisingly underused in academic libraries. At the University of Kentucky, we employed this model to create a new information literacy program in an introductory biology lab. We trained biology teaching assistants (TAs), each of whom was responsible for teaching two lab sections, to teach scientific database searching and Endnote Online to undergraduates. Over the first two semesters, we taught or co-taught 78 sessions of BIO 155 (nearly 2,200 attendees), with the librarian only in attendance at TA training and …

I Felt Like Such A Freshman: Creating Library Insiders, Heather Jagman, Lisa Davidson, Lauri Dietz, Jodi Falk, Antonieta Fitzpatrick

Heather Jagman

Independent learning activities, when coupled with reflection, are effective in providing an orientation to the library in particular and “academic life” in general. After participating in a self-guided library activity and reflecting on the process, students in DePaul’s First Year Experience program are able to articulate how the library can contribute to their success as academic learners.

Determining Return On Investment: The Importance And Development Of Statistics Collection For Information Literacy Training At Cput Libraries, Janine Lockhart, Deborah Becker

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Academic libraries are increasingly required to prove their value as university management is demanding evidence of return on investment. The Information Literacy (IL) programme at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Libraries has undergone a process of development over many years from the initial random training sessions to the development and approval of a certified short course.

With these developments came the need for more relevant and detailed statistics. In a parallel process, the recording of the statistics for IL and other training done by library staff have therefore also evolved over the past few years.

This paper outlines the …

Long Term Evaluation Of Information Literacy Programme, Tina Hohmann

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

The Technische Universität München library was the first university library in Germany to be certified by TÜV with respect to its ISO 9001:2001 quality management. One of the main objectives of our quality management policy is to measure customer satisfaction not only in the short-term, but also over longer periods of time, in order to constantly develop and improve our services.

To this end, TUM library management have decided to conduct a long term evaluation of its information literacy (IL) programme. We regularly ask course participants for feedback immediately after the events and evaluate these yearly. Additionally, we have started …

Librarians Matter! Impact On First-Year Information Literacy Skills At 5 Colleges, M. Sara Lowe, Char Booth, Sean M. Stone, Natalie Tagge, Alexandra Chappell, Gale Burrow

Library Staff Publications and Research

This poster reports results of an assessment of student writing from the first-year seminar/experience programs at five separate undergraduate colleges. Papers (n=416) were coded by level of librarian involvement in the class, and then scored using an Information Literacy rubric. Results indicate that students in courses with higher librarian involvement demonstrate better IL skills (that are statistically significant) than those in courses with low involvement.

Library Survey Report – 2014, Joshua D. Lambert, Tracy L. Stout, Lynn Cline, Cheryl Gudmundson Jones, Gloria Galanes, Shaley Moore, Taylor Herrick

MSU Libraries Reports

This report on the Missouri State University Libraries was based upon surveys and focus sessions. The initial survey was conducted in fall, 2011 with focus sessions in spring, 2012 and a report in summer, 2012. The intended cycle was to conduct a survey every other year, and in the subsequent investigations focus on specific questions of interest to the Libraries. Subsequently in fall of 2013 the Survey Group (Cline, Herrick, Jones, Lambert, and Stout) conducted a second survey focusing on students and library spaces, and on faculty and perceptions about student use patterns and information literacy or readiness and about …

Is Their Foundation Solid Enough To Build On: An Investigation Into The Information-Seeking Skills And Self-Efficacy Levels Of New Nursing Students, Kimberly Whalen, Patricia Mileham

Kimberly J. Whalen

Researchers at a mid-sized, Midwest, faith-based university used a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group pretest posttest design to gather data from newly enrolled nursing students in a baccalaureate, masters and doctorate in nursing practice program. Literature regarding confidence levels, self-efficacy and information literacy skills was reviewed. Specific tools to assess confidence and self-efficacy of information literacy skills were explored. The 28-item Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES) developed in 2006 by Serap Kurbanoglu was used in fall 2012, spring 2013 and fall 2013 to gather data from over 200 newly enrolled nursing students. Analysis of self-reported information literacy skills and self-efficacy levels …

Artists, Archives, And Academics: Civic Studio At Gvsu, Gayle Schaub

Gayle Schaub

Information Literacy In The New Core Curriculum, Elisa Slater Acosta

Elisa Slater Acosta

Information Portals: A New Tool For Teaching Information Literacy Skills, Debra Kolah, Michael Fosmire

Michael Fosmire

Librarians at Rice and Purdue Universities created novel assignments to teach students important information literacy skills. The assignments required the students to use a third-party web site, PageFlakes and NetVibes, respectively, to create a dynamically updated portal to information they needed for their research and class projects. The use of off-the-shelf web 2.0 technology to enable students to discover the latest information in their subject areas of interest provides an engaging, hands-on environment with immediate feedback on the quality of their searching. The authors provide a basic introduction to the use of the 'portal' web site. Then, the results of …

Assessing Engineering Students' Information Literacy Skills: An Alpha Version Of A Multiple-Choice Instrument, Ruth Eh Wertz, Meagan Ross, Senay Purzer, Michael Fosmire, Monica Cardella

Michael Fosmire

Information literacy is crucial component of developing life-long learning skills. However, few standard and easily gradable assessment tools exist to assess the information literacy competencies of learners. In this paper, we discuss the development of a multiple choice instrument designed to measure these competencies in an efficient and expedient manner, and we present results of data collected from 366 first-year engineering students. The instrument requires students to first read a technical memo and, based on the memo‟s arguments, answer eight multiple choice and two open-ended response questions. The mean score on the multiple choice portion was only 3.46 out of …

Lifelong Learning And Information Literacy Skills And The First Year Engineering Undergraduate: Report Of A Self-Assessment, Meagan Ross, Michael Fosmire, Ruth Eh Wertz, Monica Cardella, Senay Purzer

Michael Fosmire

ABET accreditation requires engineering students to attain ‘a recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in lifelong learning.” (Outcome 3.i) However, there are few standard tools that attempt to assess the skills and techniques students need in order to achieve those outcomes. Focusing on the problem articulation and information literacy skills embedded in lifelong learning competencies, the authors constructed a standardized assessment to measure student self-perceptions of how often they employ those skills. The criteria for these competencies were based on the Information Search Process of Carol Kuhlthau, engineering design process characteristics, and the authors’ own analysis …

Re-Thinking Information Literacy Training With Desire2learn Learning Environment And Scorm, Eric A. Kowalik

Eric A. Kowalik

Preaching What We Practice: Educating Stakeholders About Research Data Management At Purdue University, Lisa Zilinski

Lisa Zilinski

Over the past few years, an increasing number of academic libraries have been adding or supplementing research data management support and services to their offerings. In an effort to support different stakeholders (e.g. students, library faculty and librarians, and disciplinary faculty), Purdue Libraries faculty and staff have developed several different tools and resources specifically designed for librarians and liaisons in supporting research data management. These resources and tools have been developed through innovative partnerships and include the Data Information Literacy (DIL) Project, a partnership between faculty and librarians across multiple institutions; the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR), created through a …