Library and Information Science Commons^™

Using Fun To Teach Rigorous Content, Mary Francis

Communications in Information Literacy

This paper will offer a position on the place of fun within education and learning. It will place fun as an important component of learning. The intent is not to espouse the belief that it is the duty of teachers and instructors to entertain students. Unlike a movie or TV show that provides passive entertainment, fun in this context relates to actions and techniques that aid students in learning new material. So rather than fun being associated with ease, fun is associated with rigor. In drawing together research on the successful impact of fun in education, this paper hopes to …

Student Use Of Library Research Guides Following Library Instruction, Mardi Mahaffy

Communications in Information Literacy

Librarians often provide students who attend one-shot library instruction sessions with research guides they can refer to once class is over. These guides, whether in paper or electronic form, serve to remind the students of key points and resources addressed during the session. It is unclear, though, if and how students refer to these guides once leaving the classroom. This article reports on the results of two focus groups made up of students who attended a basic library instruction session as part of a survey art course. The students shared how they used a paper and electronic research guide, delivered …

Teaching Matters: Reshaping The Role Of Information Literacy Instructional Services, Patrick P. Ragains

Communications in Information Literacy

This column provides an overview of emerging trends in information literacy instruction.

Information Evaluation Instruction: A Three Term Project With A First Year Experience Course, Steve Borrelli, Corey M. Johnson

Communications in Information Literacy

In response to the recognition that work world success is dependent on locating and effectively utilizing information, the academy has acknowledged the need to produce information literate graduates. There needs to be more focus on how to develop the most effective collaborative programs with teaching faculty and benchmark the progress toward research skill mastery. This paper outlines a multiple term collaborative effort targeting student evaluation skill development. Librarians taught hybrid (mostly online with some in-person interaction) lessons to groups of lower undergraduates enrolled in a first year experience seminar. A pre-test/post-test assessment package revealed that students' strongest area of proficiency …

Adapting And Using Instruction Proficiencies To Encourage Reflection, Goal Setting And Professional Development, Uta Hussong-Christian

Communications in Information Literacy

Librarians at Oregon State University undertook a teaching competency project to lay the foundation for practices that improve teaching by adapting the core teaching proficiencies in the ACRL Standards for Proficiencies for Instruction Librarians and Coordinators. This article describes one model for locally adapting those proficiencies, the Oregon State University Libraries (OSUL) Framework for Teaching Excellence. This framework promotes reflection on, goal setting for, and professional development around teaching. The project team utilized a survey to determine the proficiency categories most valued by OSUL instruction librarians. The development and inclusion of context material for each proficiency category included in the …

Information Literacy Instruction For An Honors Program First-Year Orientation: Lessons Learned Over 15 Years Of A Sustainable Partnership, Anna Marie Johnson

Communications in Information Literacy

The information literacy literature contains many articles highlighting new instruction initiatives but few articles documenting sustainable ones. This article examines the literature on library partnerships in general and Honors Programs specifically and reports on the evolution of an ongoing fifteen year partnership between the University of Louisville Honors Program and the Ekstrom Library. It then discusses the development of this partnership and the changes in the information literacy program engendered by this partnership. It ends by defining some of the elements that made the partnership sustainable, ones that could potentially be transferred to other such partnerships.

"Turn Your Cell Phones On": Mobile Phone Polling As A Tool For Teaching Information Literacy, Andy Burkhardt, Sarah Faye Cohen

Communications in Information Literacy

While mobile technologies are ubiquitous among students and increasingly used in many aspects of libraries, they have yet to gain traction in information literacy instruction. Librarians at Champlain College piloted mobile phone polling in a first-year classroom as a less expensive and more versatile alternative to clickers. By utilizing a technology that virtually all students have in their pockets librarians found that it increased engagement from previous iterations of the session. In addition, by asking poll questions about students' experiences, librarians were able to facilitate in-depth inquiry into information literacy topics. Ultimately, from direct experience in over 30 different classes, …

Information Outlook, January/February 2013, Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, 2013

Volume 17, Issue 1

Cuny's Critical Thinking Skills Initiative: Redesigning Workforce Education Through Information Literacy Learning, Irene Gashurov, Ann Matsuuchi

Publications and Research

In the wake of the recent financial upheaval, there is a feeling in academia that colleges should pay more attention to what employers are saying; and the common concern of employers is that many new hires are coming out of college unprepared.

In job situations that demand approaching problems from a variety of perspectives, using innovative approaches to find solutions, and communicating effectively, employers said these recent graduates were coming up short. They called on educators “to teach [students] the analytical skills, the critical thinking skills and the communication skills that are necessary for almost every job in today’s economy.”

Searching Mindfully: Are Libraries Up To The Challenge Of Competing With Google Books?, Amrita Dhawan

Publications and Research

Traditional research tools used by libraries, such as encyclopedias and catalogs (OPACs) were created in an age of print and information scarcity. They have not kept up with changes in the information world which assume an abundance of online information in different formats and interdisciplinary topics which attempt to solve ‘real world’ messy problems and not traditional theoretical questions. The traditional tools rest on an unwieldy and somewhat outdated collaboration between OCLC, LOC, private aggregators, librarians and faculty. The search results they deliver offer excessive information with very little guidance on how to systematically sift through them. This makes the …

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letter - February 2013, George Washington University, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letters

No abstract provided.

Learning From Recent British Information Literacy Models: A Report To Acrl's Information Literacy Competency Standards For Higher Education Task Force, Justine Martin

Library Services Publications

Information literacy is a fluid concept, shaped by our experiences, and changes in our information rich society. Guidelines articulating information literacy need modification to reflect the current form of this evolving concept. This report highlights the work of four groups in the United Kingdom to create innovative guidelines to assist practitioners in the promotion and teaching of information literacy.

Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival, Karen Rowell, The University Of Southern Mississippi, The University Of Southern Mississippi's School Of Library And Information Science

Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival Programs

The program for the forty-sixth annual Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival held on the campus of The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2013.

Partnering With Public Library Services: A Town And Gown Affair, Sarah Cisse

Collaborative Librarianship

This article describes the collaborative effort between academic reference and Public Library Services (PLS) in developing and sustaining a resume resources program at a joint-use library. The resume resources workshops are a part of the summer workshop series, Adult Computer Camp, organized by the PLS department at the Alvin Sherman Library (ASL) of Nova Southeastern University (NSU). The summer workshop series offers an innovative variety of workshops to the public featuring online and computer resources. These workshops have been a successful collaboration between these two departments at the ASL, a joint-use or “town and gown” library

Learning By Doing: Performance Assessment Of Information Literacy Across The First-Year Curriculum, Stefanie R. Bluemle, Amanda Y. Makula, Margaret W. Rogal

Library and Information Science: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

In the 2011-2012 school year, the instruction librarians at Augustana College, Illinois, changed their assessment approach in the college’s required first-year sequence to focus on higher-level information literacy concepts. The librarians replaced a quantitative assessment instrument with performance assessments, which they integrated into their first-year library sessions. Although the sequence is taught by many faculty with diverse assignments, these new assessments could be applied organically across sections yet provide generalizable results. This case study describes that assessment project and its initial findings, analyzes the project’s implications, and suggests how other college libraries might adopt similar qualitative assessments.

Concept/Context: Information Literacy And Assessment In The First Year, Stefanie R. Bluemle, Amanda Y. Makula, Margaret W. Rogal

Library and Information Science: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

At Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, where the academic calendar consists of trimesters, all first-year students enroll in a year-long sequence of three "Liberal Studies First Year" (LSFY) courses, which are taught by faculty from a variety of disciplines. LSFY emphasizes core competencies in reading, writing, oral communication, and information literacy.

Since 2011, the Augustana librarians have been using performance-based assessment to evaluate their work with LSFY classes. This qualitative approach, which encourages real-life application of skills, has proven well-suited to an information literacy program in which concepts carry more weight than the mechanics of searching. Each term, the …

The Joy Of (Performance) Assessment, Amanda Y. Makula, Stefanie R. Bluemle, Margaret W. Rogal

Library and Information Science: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

How can librarians assess student learning in a way that is organic to the assignment and instruction session, yet gives results that are comparable across classes?

Performance Assessment is a qualitative method of assessment in which students demonstrate learning by completing specific tasks related to targeted learning outcomes. Performance Assessment encourages real-life application of skills and is well-suited to an information literacy program in which concepts carry more weight than the mechanics of searching.

The Augustana College instruction librarians use performance assessment to evaluate their work with a three-term sequence of required first-year general education classes (”Liberal Studies First Year” …

The New Acrl Information Literacy Competency Standards: Revising Reception, Benjamin R. Harris

Library Faculty Research

The publication of educational standards inspires a variety of responses, from wholesale acceptance and deployment to criticism and blame. The author of this paper contends that the revision of the ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education must be accompanied by a critical, conscious, and conscientious reception by librarians and information literacy advocates.

Training Students At Small & Medium Sized Colleges In Information Literacy (Chapter Excerpt), D. Russell Bailey, Julie Decesare

Library Faculty and Staff papers

No abstract provided.

Still Desperately Seeking Citations: Undergraduate Research In The Age Of Web-Scale Discovery., Lisa Rose-Wiles, Melissa M. Hofmann

Praxis Publications

Web-scale discovery services promise fast, easy searching from a single Google-like box, pleasing users and making library resources more discoverable. Some librarians embrace the concept of giving users what they have come to expect from Google, while others are concerned that this will “dumb down” searching and undermine information literacy. In this paper we explore the potential impact of web-scale discovery tools on information literacy, focusing particularly on undergraduate research skills. We review the existing literature and present findings and experiences from two mid-sized academic libraries that have adopted EBSCO Discovery Service as their library home page portal.

Progressive Trends In Electronic Resources Management In Libraries, Jennifer A. W. Wright (Joe), Contributor, Nihar K. Patra, Editor, Bharat Kumar, Editor, Ashis K. Pani, Editor

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Book Gallery

As physical collections go digital, the organizational procedures, budgets, and usage patterns of libraries must evolve to meet this change by identifying the various issues that are essential in understanding the management of e-resources.

Progressive Trends in Electronic Resource Management in Libraries provides relevant theoretical and practical details from an international perspective on the current e-resources landscape. Through a detailed discussion of the specific aspects of e-resources management, this book is a useful source for library science faculty and students, academic librarians, research scholars, and IT professionals aiming to improve their understanding of the theoretical details, history, selection, acquisition, fair …

Health Sciences Information Literacy In Cms Environments: Learning From Our Peers, Tierney Lyons, Stefanie Warlick

Libraries

With academic institutions’ adoption of Course/Learning Management Systems (CMS), librarians are increasingly providing content through this delivery method. This study aims to identify practical information for librarians considering CMS content development or re-evaluation of online offerings.

High-Impact Educational Practices: An Exploration Of The Role Of Information Literacy, Catherine Fraser Riehle, Sharon A. Weiner

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

There is an expectation that college students graduate with competency in information literacy. Ideally, institutions of higher education integrate these competencies throughout their curricula in a progressive manner. High-impact educational practices contribute to student success. The purpose of this article is to examine recent literature about five of the high-impact educational practices (capstone experiences, learning communities, service learning and community-based learning, undergraduate research, and writing-intensive courses) to understand the extent to which they include the integration of information literacy competencies. The article includes recommendations for practice and research in the areas of assessment, pedagogy, and program planning.

The Truth Is Out: How Students Really Search, Marta Deyrup, Beth Bloom

Library Publications

No abstract provided.

Refreshing Information Literacy: Learning From Recent British Information Literacy Models, Justine Martin

Library Services Publications

Models play an important role in helping practitioners implement and promote information literacy. Over time models can lose relevance with the advances in technology, society, and learning theory. Practitioners and scholars often call for adaptations or transformations of these frameworks to articulate the learning needs in information literacy development. This study analyzes four recently published models from the United Kingdom. The initial findings were presented in a report for an ACRL taskforce reviewing the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. This article presents complementary, yet distinct findings from the same dataset that focus on reoccurring themes for information literacy …

Mind The Gap: Fostering Scholarship-Into-Practice For Advanced Practice Nursing Students Through Embedded Librarianship, Brenda H. Sheingold, Thomas Harrod

Nursing Faculty Publications

In recent years, librarianship has been increasingly recognized as a critical component of inter-professional healthcare education. This manuscript describes how innovative coordination between libraries and university healthcare programs can remove the barriers to scholarship for graduate students who enroll in distance education (DE) programs. The authors examined the perceived impact of librarian embedment for DE nursing students graduating with master’s degrees from George Washington University in 2013. Librarians were embedded in the first course in which they were enrolled in 2010 to support the mastery of scientific research skills. Analysis indicated that students strongly agreed that contact with embedded librarians …

More Than A Search Engine: Undergraduate Perspectives On Library Instruction, Kristine Vick

Theses and Graduate Projects

Historically, libraries have been repositories of knowledge for scholars. Overtime, libraries have evolved into media centers that include digital access points, instructional spaces, and comfortable gathering places. As school libraries transition to accommodate the 2lst century learner, are educators meeting the needs of the college and career bound students they serve? The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insight into the information literacy instruction that occurs in high school libraries. Specifically, how effective this instruction was in preparing students for college. This research was conducted with five undergraduates attending college in a variefy of public and private institutions. …

Google Vs. The Library: Student Preferences And Perceptions When Doing Research Using Google And A Federated Search Tool, Helen Georgas

Publications and Research

Federated searching was once touted as the library world’s answer to Google, but ten years since federated searching technology’s inception, how does it actually compare? This study focuses on undergraduate student preferences and perceptions when doing research using both Google and a federated search tool. Students were asked about their preferences using each search tool and the perceived relevance of the sources they found using each search tool. Students were also asked to self-assess their online searching skills. The findings show that students believe they possess strong searching skills, are able to find relevant sources using both search tools, but …

Information Sources In Relation To Information Quality, Information-Seeking, And Uncertainty In The Context Of Healthcare Reform, Jennifer L. Bevan

Communication Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This exploratory study examines information-seeking about the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e. healthcare reform) in relation to the potential barriers of uncertainty,uncertainty discrepancy, and low health self-efficacy. Adult United States participants completed an anonymous online survey about their perceptions and understanding of healthcare reform. Results confirmed recent literature, suggesting a complex relationship between information-seeking and uncertainty. Specifically, for this sample, significant positive relationships were observed between information-seeking about healthcare reform and uncertainty, uncertainty discrepancy, health self-efficacy. Further, uncertainty discrepancy was the potential barrier that accounted for the most variance in predicting information-seeking.Implications of these findings for improving …

Finding Library Solutions In Adjacent Industries, Lori Bowen Ayre

Collaborative Librarianship

No abstract provided.