Information Literacy Commons^™

Creating A Campus-Wide Information Literacy Agenda, Patricia A. Iannuzzi, Chris Heavey

Library Faculty Presentations

Information literacy stands beside critical thinking and oral and written communication as fundamental proficiencies required for academic, professional, and personal success. These lifelong learning abilities overlap and intersect in many ways and far beyond library communities. Higher education associations, regional and disciplinary accreditation bodies, and even employers are demanding evidence that students graduate with these skills. Yet colleges and universities struggle with articulating the desired learning outcome in specific ways that align with assessment practices and the collection of evidence of student achievement. Engaging faculty in rethinking curriculum beyond their courses, and even beyond their major, to create a coherent …

Career Information Literacy For Students’ Interview Success, Amanda Cox, Lateka Grays

Library Faculty Presentations

Cross Campus Relationship Building

• Seek unique opportunities

• Cross-promotion opportunities

• Problem Solving

• Appreciation by leadership

Flip This Class: Using A Flipped Classroom Approach To Teach Information Literacy, Nancy E. Fawley

Library Faculty Presentations

What is a flipped classroom?

• Pedagogical model that reverses lecture and homework
• Students view or listen to lecture material on their own time, while class time is spent reviewing and applying what they learned
• Combines synchronous and asynchronous learning
• Students are not passive participants in the classroom
• Focus is on “just-in-time” instruction
• Promotes better student-teacher (or librarian) interaction

Collaborative K‐12 Outreach: K‐12 Stem And Beyond, Susan Wainscott, Fred Rauber, Xan Goodman, Samantha Godbey

American Association for the Advancement of Science Pacific Conference

Libraries' Rebel STEM Objectives

• Build personal connections with students and teachers
• Galvanize students’ interest in STEM
• Teach information literacy skills

Using An Information Literacy Rubric To Evaluate Student Annotated Bibliographies, Erin E. Rinto

Scholarship Colloquium

Results of a study of student annotated bibliographies from English 102 students.

Information Literacy Skills Assessment And Curriculum Analysis In Teacher Education Programs: Establishing A Conceptual Framework, Samantha Godbey, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Scholarship Colloquium

The iSkills assessment is an hour-long, web-based simulation developed by ETS to measure ICT literacy skills of students from grades 10 through adulthood. In this study, the authors will compare the assessment scores of students majoring in teacher education (with junior-year status) at an urban commuter campus (UNLV) and a traditional residential campus (BYU). Controlling for demographic factors and GPA, the authors will focus on curricular elements in the respective teacher education programs that may contribute to the college students' test scores. Surveys and follow-up focus groups will focus on the relative value of information literacy as a skill set …

Serving Those Who Serve: Outreach And Instruction For Student Cadets And Veterans, Nancy E. Fawley, Nikki Kyrsak

Library Faculty Research

Student cadets and veterans new to college have unique academic needs, and the abrupt switch from civilian to Corps life for new students at a military university can be challenging. Likewise, transitioning from military life to civilian life as a veteran student can be overwhelming. The libraries at Norwich University and The University of Alabama are supporting programs to assist new students in the transition from civilian to Corps life and from military to civilian life, respectively. While these students are at different stages of their military careers, cadets and veterans have common attributes that inform library support and instruction, …

At The Nexus Of Scholarly Communication And Information Literacy, Marianne A. Buehler, Anne E. Zald

Library Faculty Research

Introduction

Graduate students embarking upon a new phase in their educational careers may not realize the range of expectations, particularly the cocurricular or extracurricular expectation to participate in the scholarly communication process. Unforeseen faculty expectations may include a requirement to publish or copublish an article in order to pass a graduate course or to engage in grant-funded research that will result in conference presentations or publications. Learning about the publication process provides a key transitional experience between the independent intellectual endeavor of conducting research for course assignments and the social dynamics of being a professional researcher or scholar, interacting with …

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 …

Information Literacy Opportunities Within The Discovery Tool Environment, Nancy E. Fawley, Nikki Krysak

Library Faculty Research

Discovery tools such as Primo, EBSCO Discovery Service, Summon, and WorldCat Local aim to make scholarly research more intuitive for students in part because of their single interface for searching across multiple platforms, including the library, fee-based databases, and unique digital collections. Discovery tools are in sync with the way many undergraduates look for information because they offer a more “Google-like” experience in contrast with previous methods of research that required first knowing which database to use, then searching each one differently according to its specifications. However, broad searches across multiple formats with different systems of controlled vocabulary force instructors …

Crowdsourcing Course Design: Tapping The Collective Intelligence Of Campus Stakeholders, Patrick Griffis, Steven Hoover

Scholarship Colloquium

Background

• UNLV General Education Reform

– led to First Year Experience Course in College of Business

• Course taught by advisors in College Of Business

• Collaboration between Librarians and BUS103

• Libraries hosted Faculty Institute for First Year Seminars

– Collaborative course design with business instructors, civic engagement and student success professionals, technology specialists, and librarians

Fortifying The Pipeline: An Exploratory Study Of High School Factors Impacting The Information Literacy Of First-Year College Students, Jennifer L. Fabbi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Information literacy—the ability "to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (American Library Association [ALA], 1989, para. 3)—has been widely and increasingly cited as an essential competency for college success, for the workplace, and for life (Bruce, 1997; Eisenberg, 2008; Fitzgerald, 2004; Johnston & Webber, 2003; National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise, 2007; Obama, 2009; Rader, 2002). Information literacy best practice and standards state that students optimally develop this skill set through immersion in the research process—often and over time—and this proposition is also supported in …

Bridging The Gap: Transitioning Information Literacy Skills For Student Success, Jennifer L. Fabbi, David Forgues

Library Faculty Presentations

Context: UNLV, University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes, Inquiry & Critical Thinking, Information Literacy, iSkills Assessment

Soothing Citation Irritation: Approaches To Teaching Students About Bibliographies And References, Priscilla Finley, Susie Skarl

Library Faculty Presentations

When we work with classes, we are often asked to “cover” MLA or APA style – what they hear from us does not meet their needs.

We have two approaches to share today: one takes a metacognitive tack that encourages students to make an individual plan to address what they find frustrating, and the other is a rubric that an instructor can use to clarify the expectations and to emphasize what elements of citation conventions are most important when they are grading.

Bridging The Information Literacy Gap: First-Year Students Reflect For Success, Jennifer L. Fabbi, Dan Gianoutsos, David Forgues

Library Faculty Presentations

UNLV Context

• Fall 2011: 22,138 undergraduate students; 72% were fulltime; 5135 freshmen with a 76.4% first-yr retention rate (2010 to 2011); 40.6% six-year graduation rate

• Budget-induced movement to large-enrollment classes – Program eliminations and consolidations underway

• General Education Reform developments – Articulation of University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes, especially Inquiry and Critical Thinking – New general education requirements extending vertically throughout the curriculum

• Focus on enhancing the first-year experience for incoming students

Addressing Academic Integrity: Perspectives From Virginia Commonwealth University In Qatar, Nancy E. Fawley

Library Faculty Research

Understanding the cultural aspects that affect a student’s ability to appropriately use resources is important in developing outreach and instruction in multicultural settings. Differences in educational philosophies, students’ previous scholastic training and cultural differences in individual motivation are all factors that may affect a freshman’s ability to understand an American university’s idea of academic integrity and can inadvertently cause problems where independent work and critical thinking are required. At Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU Qatar), a branch campus of the American university in the Middle East, a special class on academic integrity and ethical behavior was integrated into the …

Libraries Atwitter: Trends In Academic Library Tweeting, Darcy C. Del Bosque, Sam A. Leif, Susie Skarl

Library Faculty Research

Purpose – This paper aims to present an overview of how libraries are using Twitter in an academic setting.

Design/methodology/approach – This study analyzed the current state of 296 Twitter accounts from a random sample of academic libraries. A total of 19 different criteria were explored, with an emphasis on the following three categories: layout and design, content and number of tweets, and account followers.

Findings – Only 34 per cent of libraries in the study had a Twitter account and characteristics varied widely among libraries, however it is evident that it is possible to successfully communicate with patrons via …

Notes From The Field: 10 Short Lessons On One-Shot Instruction, Megan Oakleaf, Steven Hoover, Beth S. Woodard, Jennifer Corbin, Randy Hensley, Diana K. Wakimoto, Christopher V, Hollister, Debra Gilchrist, Michelle Millet, Patricia A. Iannuzzi

Library Faculty Research

Librarians teach. It might not be what we planned to do when we entered the profession, or it may have been our secret hope all along. Either way, we teach. We teach users of all types, including students, faculty, and our co-workers. We teach in multiple venues including classrooms, reference desks, face-to-face, and online. While the variety of teaching audiences and environments are endless, one teaching scenario remains quintessential: the one-shot library instruction session. No one knows better than librarians the limitations of this format, yet it remains central to our teaching efforts.

Why Not Just Google It? An Assessment Of Information Literacy Skills In A Biomedical Science Curriculum, Karl Kingsley, Gillian M. Galbraith, M. Herring, Eva Stowers, Tanis Stewart, Karla V. Kingsley

Library Faculty Research

Background: Few issues in higher education are as fundamental as the ability to search for, evaluate, and synthesize information. The need to develop information literacy, the process of finding, retrieving, organizing, and evaluating the ever-expanding collection of online information, has precipitated the need for training in skill-based competencies in higher education, as well as medical and dental education.

Methods: The current study evaluated the information literacy skills of first-year dental students, consisting of two, consecutive dental student cohorts (n = 160). An assignment designed to evaluate information literacy skills was conducted. In addition, a survey of student online search engine …

Why Would They Try? Motivation And Motivating In Low-Stakes Information Skills Testing, Jeanne M. Brown, Carrie A. Gaxiola

Library Faculty Research

In 2008 the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) University Libraries piloted the Educational Testing Service’s standardised test of information, communication, and technology (ICT) skills (iSkills) in spring and autumn 2008. In the course of administering the test we explored motivational strategies, a critical component in low-stakes, low-personal-consequences testing. Motivational strategies included providing feedback on test performance, highlighting the value of the test for the individual student, and appealing to the student’s willingness to improve the overall performance of the institution. We addressed ways to motivate students in order to enhance their level of participation in and performance …

Research-Based Learning From The Start: Developing Undergraduate Researchers, Anne E. Zald, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Presentations

This presentation will:

- Describe the Faculty Institute for Research-Based Learning in High Impact Classes at UNLV –Goals and curriculum –Examples of impact to date

- Rough assessment of need to intentionally integrate research skills into curriculum at your institutions

- Action plan focusing on potential collaborators at your institutions

Mapping Information Literacy Outcomes And Other Intellectual Skills Into Students' Educational Experiences, Patricia A. Iannuzzi, L Dee Fink

Library Faculty Presentations

The 2007 report, College Learning for the New Global Century, outlines a cluster of intellectual and practical skills that are critical components of a liberal education: inquiry and analysis; critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; quantitative literacy; information literacy; and teamwork and problem solving. The learning outcomes associated with information literacy relate to and incorporate many of the learning outcomes in all of these skill clusters. Participants in this session will address how these information literacy and related learning outcomes can be mapped into student learning experiences at three levels: in an individual course, in an academic sequence …

Cooking Up Concept Maps, Abigail Hawkins, Jennifer L. Fabbi, P. S. Mcmillen

Library Faculty Research

Concept maps allow students to visually work through an idea for potentially useful search terms.

A common roadblock students experience in the research process is identifying central concepts in their research questions and devising useful ways to reframe search terms. Concept mapping is one instructional strategy that can be used to help students better identify the central concepts in their research questions and expand on other ways these concepts are articulated in the literature.

Unconventional Avenues To Integrating Information Literacy Into The Curriculum, P. S. Mcmillen, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Presentations

Library instruction programs continue to seek meaningful ways to infuse information literacy into both general education and discipline-specific course sequences. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), targeted conversations with College of Education faculty helped librarians identify a strategic and unique point of entry with a multicultural twist.

Buy Low, Sell High, Get In Now: Low-Stakes/Low-Investment Information Literacy Initiatives Pay Off Big, David Wilson, Jeremy Donald, Steven Hoover

Library Faculty Presentations

Become familiar with the concept of low stakes/low investment information literacy initiatives in order to communicate their potential value to faculty members, other librarians, and administrators. Recognize how collaboration between your library and other entities on campus can reinforce information literacy initiatives in order to draw upon the strengths and shared values of existing programs. Learn about successful initiatives in order to generate ideas that would be useful for your institution.

New Avenues For Integrating Information Literacy Into The Curriculum, Abigail Hawkins Gonzales, P. S. Mcmillen, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Library Faculty Research

A generally understood mission of library instruction programs is to promote information literacy (IL) and critical thinking across the curriculum. The majority of programmatic IL collaborations with higher education core curricula are found in introductory composition or communication courses. Other more unconventional avenues offer potentially more effective ways to teach students the basic IL concepts and skills. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), conversations with College of Education faculty helped librarians identify a strategic and unique point of entry for IL instruction. Using the ADDIE model as a conceptual framework, librarians and an instructional designer met with the …

Cultivating The Librarian Within: Effectively Lntegrating Library Lnstruction Into Freshman Composition, Jesse Ulmer, Nancy E. Fawley

Library Faculty Research

It has become common practice for library instruction to be included in lower-level college composition courses. Students are typically required to visit the library once or twice a semester to receive instruction on how to find books and journal articles for an upcoming writing assignment that incorporates formal research. But does this current model of instruction truly address course outcomes that seek to produce students who are information literate, critical thinkers and life-long learners? Faculty who teach such courses are often reluctant to surrender precious class time to a librarian, but this paper argues that the merging of bibliographic instruction …

Talkin' 'Bout My Generation: Exploring Age-Related Resources, Susie Skarl, Sidney Lowe

Library Faculty Research

In the past few years, as technology has radically changed how we find and use information resources, library staff have begun to notice significant generational differences in the information-seeking behavior of library patrons. These frequent observations at the reference desk and in library instruction classes planted the first small seeds of our interest in this topic. Internet sites and online articles about generational differences are plentiful and focus on a wide range of subjects, such as learning styles, social behaviors, moral values, technological skills, marketing, communication, and workplace performance.