Library and Information Science Commons^™

Full-Time Faculty View Information Literacy As Important But Are Unlikely To Incorporate It Into Their Teaching, Eamon Tewell

Brooklyn Library Faculty Publications

A Review of: Bury, S. (2011). Faculty attitudes, perceptions and experiences of information literacy: A study across multiple disciplines at York University, Canada. Journal of Information Literacy, 5(1). Retrieved from http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/article/view/PRA-V5-I1-2011-1

Collaborating For Academic Success: A Tri-Institutional Information Literacy Program For High School Students, Eamon Tewell, Katelyn Angell

Brooklyn Library Faculty Publications

This article describes a nearly decade-long partnership between three institutions representing school, public, and academic settings in Westchester County, New York. The program, designed to improve the academic performance of local high school students, is unique due to the extensive contact students have with academic librarians during the school year, including two day-long orientations and individual consultation sessions. Using experiences as partners in this collaborative effort, interviews with six teachers and librarians, and the existing literature, this article identifies best practices and key factors for academic libraries that are considering or currently providing instructional and outreach activities to high schools.

Librarian Mentoring Of An Undergraduate Research Project, Pamela Hayes-Bohanan

Maxwell Library Faculty Publications

Bridgewater State University has a dynamic, highly visible, and increasingly successful Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) that supports students and their faculty mentors with developing research opportunities. Students working on undergraduate research projects have sought the help of librarians, but the librarians had never been directly involved as mentors. A librarian mentor and student library worker collaborated on a project to develop an online library guide, which is used by faculty and student researchers for discovering social justice resources, and found new paths to teaching and learning information literacy skills.

Research Skills Boot Camp: Preparing Law Students For Internships, Charlotte Gill, Priyanka Sharma, Yuyun W. Ishak

Research Collection Library

Legal Internship is an integral part of legal education and is the first brush that a law student has with the legal profession outside the comfortable environs of law school. Since the inception of the law school at Singapore Management University (SMU) in 2007, law students are required to complete a 10 week compulsory internship as an essential part of their legal training pedagogy. The internship is intended to acquaint students with the practical workings of the legal system and the realities of law practice in the private and public sectors. The consistent message that we have received from practitioners …

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” …

Assessing The Research Process Improves The Product: Results Of A Faculty-­Librarian Collaboration, Divonna M. Stebick, Janelle L. Wertzberger, Margaret E. Flora, Joseph W. Miller

Education Faculty Publications

When an education professor and a reference librarian sought to improve the quality of undergraduate student research, their partnership led to a new focus on assessing the research process in addition to the product. In this study, we reflect on our collaborative experience introducing information literacy as the foundation for undergraduate teacher education research. We examine the outcomes of this collaboration, focusing on the assessment of the process. Using a mixed methods approach, we found that direct instruction supporting effective research strategies positively impacted student projects. Our data also suggest that undergraduate students benefit from not only sound research strategies, …

Subversive Infusions: Integrating Information Literacy Across The Curriculum, Benjamin R. Harris

Library Faculty Research

Beginning in 2004, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) requires institutions seeking accreditation to develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to improve student learning. QEP topics may be focused on a single educational initiative or may combine several efforts in order to enhance and assess student learning. While some plans have focused on information literacy specifically, a fair number of the QEP proposals submitted to SACS between 2007-2011 have integrated information literacy learning outcomes as part of another topic. An analysis of the topics and outcomes proposed at 58 institutions offers librarians and information professionals an alternative perspective …

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.

The Googlepedia Generation Grows Up, Gretchen A. Hazard, Kathy E. Clarke

Libraries

No abstract provided.

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.

Innovating In A Virtual Classroom, Kathy E. Clarke, Jenne Klotz

Libraries

No abstract provided.

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.

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 …

The Academic Library: Cowpath Or Path To The Future?, Verlene J. Herrington

Publications and Research

This paper relates the traditional academic library to the expression, “don’t pave the cowpath”. Originating in the IT world, this expression means to not integrate technology into an established practice without assessing whether the process is still effective or still needed. Even though sustaining technologies have simplified information retrieval and library tasks, library organizational structure and processes remain pretty much unchanged. This article discusses the cowpath that academic libraries have followed for decades and the challenges disruptive technologies pose to the traditional model. It looks at how one academic library rejected tradition, got off the cowpath and created a different …

Building And Sustaining A Culture Of Assessment: Best Practices For Change Leadership, Meredith G. Farkas

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea of using Kotter's eight-step model for change leadership to create a culture of assessment that is embedded in the organizational culture of an academic library. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper that examines the potential application of a business change model to an academic library change context. Each step of Kotter's model is described within the context of building a culture of assessment, supported by examples and suggestions from the literature of libraries, higher education, organizational behavior and change leadership. Findings – While building a culture of …

Web Conferencing Software, Meredith G. Farkas

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Web conferencing software -- also known as webinar, videoconferencing, online meeting, and virtual classroom software -- is a web-­based technology that allows groups to synchronously communicate online. Most web conferencing software offers collaboration through text, voice and video chat, screen-­sharing, collaborative whiteboards, and file-­sharing. Tips and Trends, written by Instructional Technologies Committee members, introduces and discusses new, emerging, or even familiar technology which can be applied in the library instruction setting.

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 …

Making An Impact: Campus-Wide Collaboration For Course And Learning Space Transformation, Clarence Maybee, Tomalee Doan, Catherine Fraser Riehle

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

At Purdue University, the Libraries participate in a provost-initiated, campus-wide course redesign program called Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT). This initiative aims to bring active-learning to foundational courses traditionally taught through lectures. Purdue librarians recognized the IMPACT initiative as one way to enter the conversations blooming on our campus about the nature of learning, curriculum design, and how space design impacts potential learning. This article presents three perspectives: 1) the information literacy coordinator, 2) a libraries’ administrator with a gift for space planning, and 3) an in-the-trenches liaison to course redesign projects. Each discusses the IMPACT initiative from …

Learning To Use Information: Informed Learning In The Undergraduate Classroom, Clarence Maybee, Christine S. Bruce, Mandy Lupton, Kristen Rebmann

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

“Informed learning” is a pedagogy that focuses on learning subject content through engaging with academic or professional information practices. Adopting the position that more powerful learning is achieved where students are taught how to use information and subject content simultaneously, the research reported here investigated an informed learning lesson. Using phenomenographic methods, student’s experiences of the lesson were compared to what the teacher enacted in the classroom. Based on an analysis of student interviews using variation theory, three ways of experiencing the informed learning lesson emerged. Some students understood the lesson to be about learning to use information, i.e., researching …

Common Ground At The Nexus Of Information Literacy And Scholarly Communication, Stephanie Davis-Kahl, Merinda Kaye Hensley

IWU Authors Bookshelf

Common Ground at the Nexus of Information Literacy and Scholarly Communication presents concepts, experiments, collaborations, and strategies at the crossroads of the fields of scholarly communication and information literacy. The seventeen essays and interviews in this volume engage ideas and describe vital partnerships that enrich both information literacy and scholarly communication programs within institutions of higher education. Contributions address core scholarly communication topics such as open access, copyright, authors’ rights, the social and economic factors of publishing, and scholarly publishing through the lens of information literacy. This volume is appropriate for all university and college libraries and for library and …

Getting Graphic: The Issuu With E-Books, Information Literacy And Undergraduate Students, Heidi Blackburn, Kate Wise

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

This presentation features Graphic Novel Project, Goals of Graphic Novel Project, Student Learning Outcomes, Assessment, Legends of the Library Ninjas: A Quest for Knowledge, and How do I publish an e-book?

Queering The Catalog: Queer Theory And The Politics Of Correction, Emily Drabinski

Publications and Research

Critiques of hegemonic library classification structures and controlled vocabularies have a rich history in information studies. This project has pointed out the trouble with classification and cataloging decisions that are framed as objective and neutral but are always ideological and worked to correct bias in library structures. Viewing knowledge organization systems from a queer perspective, however, challenges the idea that classification and subject language can ever be finally corrected. Engaging queer theory and library classification and cataloging together requires new ways of thinking about how to be ethically and politically engaged on behalf of marginal knowledge formations and identities who …

Collaboration As An Essential Tool In Information Literacy Education 9-16: Context, Qualities And Implications, Samantha Godbey

Library Faculty Research

The proliferation of electronic content and the development of new technologies are causing fundamental changes to the processes of reading and research, leaving many librarians curious and concerned about the future of the profession. In the midst of this transitional period, contemporary school librarians continue to face the challenges of limited funding and high expectations. Education and library funding continues to be cut, yet school librarians are tasked with coordinating efforts to educate children in information literacy so that they are educated consumers of information. Information literacy, the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to …

Info Lit 2.0 Or Deja Vu?, Patricia A. Iannuzzi

Library Faculty Research

In 1999, ACRL convened a national task force to draft Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. ACRL has recently launched a revision to those standards. The original standards were influential because they helped advance a national need in higher education at the time: a shift to outcomes based learning. Thirteen years later, information literacy stands alongside oral and written communication, critical thinking and ethical reasoning as learning outcomes broadly acknowledged as needing to be integrated, with disciplinary content, into the curriculum. This author believes that, in contrast to the first process, the current recommendations for revision are focused on …

Developing And Applying An Information Literacy Rubric To Student Annotated Bibliographies, Erin E. Rinto

Library Faculty Research

Objective – This study demonstrates one method of developing and applying rubrics to student writing in order to gather evidence of how students utilize information literacy skills in the context of an authentic assessment activity. The process of creating a rubric, training scorers to use the rubric, collecting annotated bibliographies, applying the rubric to student work, and the results of the rubric assessment are described. Implications for information literacy instruction are also discussed.

Methods – The focus of this study was the English 102 (ENG 102) course, a required research-based writing course that partners the instructors with the university librarians …

The Postmodern Shift In Library Instruction, Terry Dwain Robertson

Faculty Publications

Fifty years ago, prior to the digital revolution, library instruction consisted of a knowledgeable librarian guiding students through the various classes of documents, with examples of recognized authorities. Each bibliographic tool was handcrafted by competent individuals, published by reputable publishers, and recommended by disciplinary practitioners. While working through these various tools was time consuming, and getting access to materials not held locally often proved slow, the student researcher could reasonably assume the sincerity and integrity of the sources. With the digital revolution, much has changed. Now, instead of bibliographic instruction, librarians engage in “information literacy”(IL) training. Rather than point students …

Critical Information Literacy And The Technology Of Control: The Case Of Armenia, John Carey, D. Aram Donabedian

Publications and Research

As direct providers of information literacy, librarians can help patrons analyze the social and economic forces involved in the creation and use of information. This chapter will discuss why critical information literacy and critical pedagogy are especially important in the Armenian context, with its unique historical, cultural, and geopolitical concerns. The authors will document how the Armenian government has used cutting-edge Internet controls to block online content or misdirect users. We will also examine how Armenians perceive the independence of their available media and explore current efforts by telecom, publishing, and governmental concerns to restrict Internet freedom. The authors suggest …

Information Behavior And Japanese Students: How Can An Understanding Of The Research Process Lead To Better Information Literacy?, Yusuke Ishimura

Research outputs 2013

Academic librarians are striving to better serve international students as this emerging population grows on university campuses. Past studies of international students generally focus on linguistic and cultural differences in relation to information literacy skills development. However, it is necessary to go beyond these factors to better serve the population. By using a framework based in information behavior research, the present study investigates the factors that mediate students' behavior and information literacy skills. Practical recommendations based on the findings of an in-depth qualitative study of students' research process are provided.