Information Literacy Commons^™

Fully Embedded: An Esl-Library Partnership, Barbara Bonous-Smit

Publications and Research

Slides from a presentation at the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), January 15, 2015 at Baruch College, CUNY, Vertical Campus

Research has proven the importance of developing academic and information literacy skills of ELLs (English language learners) in basic reading and writing courses in order to promote student engagement and perseverance. A recent innovation and effective approach in academic library instruction, embedded librarians provide personal, targeted assistance to the class as a whole and to individual students. Hence, there is more sustained learning. In this session, the author will discuss the close partnership and collaboration between a fully embedded …

Using Rubrics To Assess Authentic Learning Products From One-Shot, Course-Integrated Library Instruction, Jennifer Stout, Laura Gariepy

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Librarians face numerous challenges when designing effective, sustainable assessment methods for student learning outcomes in one-shot, course-integrated library instruction sessions. In this presentation, we will share how librarians at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) use a rubric to assess students’ authentic learning products from one-shot instruction sessions for a research and writing course required for all undergraduate students. We will share how rubric-based assessment enhances student learning and explain how we use this type of assessment to demonstrate our information literacy program’s effectiveness.

University 200: Inquiry and the Craft of Argument is a sophomore-level writing and research course required for all …

The Proof Is In The Worksheets: Assessing Information Literacy Outcomes From Library Instruction In An Evolved Fye Program, Robin Johns Grant

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In the past, Middle Georgia State College’s assessment of library instruction mainly consisted of post-instruction evaluations in which students answered questions about the class’s usefulness and gave comments. However, we wanted to be able to tie our library instruction sessions to learning outcomes based on ACRL Information Literacy Standards—not just student impressions of the class. For three years, the college had been conducting two library instruction sessions for each section of our new First Year Experience class, and we were using a standardized instruction outline and worksheet for each of those classes already. The FYE program, therefore, was the ideal …

What Do Students Learn From Participation In An Undergraduate Research Journal? Results Of An Assessment, Sharon A. Weiner

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Like an increasing number of academic libraries, Purdue University Libraries provides publishing support services to the Purdue community. In 2009, Purdue University Press had recently been moved into the Libraries, and there was enthusiasm about exploring new relationships which could combine the publishing skills of the Press with use of Purdue e-Pubs, the institutional repository platform that also featured powerful publishing features. Publishing an undergraduate research journal was particularly appealing because it connected the scholarly communication program of the Libraries with strategic goals around information literacy. There is evidence that undergraduate students benefit from engaging in research experiences, and writing …

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.

Assessing Hands-On Learning In Special Collections: A Pilot Study, Sarah M. Horowitz, Stefanie R. Bluemle, Ellen Hay, Mark Salisbury

Library and Information Science: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

This Assessment in Action project addressed the effect of using original primary materials on first-year students’ information literacy (IL) and critical thinking skills. IL and critical thinking are among Augustana College’s college-wide student learning outcomes. More than 25% of Augustana first-years use Special Collections each year, yet we had little data on how this affected student learning. The study evaluated a worksheet given as a pre- and post-test around class visits to work in Special Collections, and papers by students who did and did not visit Special Collections with class.

Information Literacy Instruction And Assessment : A Collaborate Design, Carlos Arguelles

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Great Expectations: Results From A Faculty Survey Of Students' Information Literacy Proficiency, Brian Jackson, Margy Macmillan, Michelle Sinotte

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

In the fall of 2012, our library surveyed teaching faculty to gauge their expectations around students’ use of information. We asked instructors what they thought was important for students to know in each year of study, how proficient they felt students were in performing tasks associated with research, how they expected students to acquire that proficiency, and how they assessed students’ skills. The survey also polled faculty on the types of resources they felt were important for each year of study. The results of the study are informing the development of the library’s strategic plan and the inclusion of information …

Measuring New Media Literacies: Towards The Development Of A Comprehensive Assessment Tool, Ioana Literat

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study assesses the psychometric properties of a newly tested self-report assessment tool for media literacy, based on the twelve new media literacy skills (NMLs) developed by Jenkins et al. (2006). The sample (N=327) consisted of normal volunteers who completed a comprehensive online survey that measured their NML skills, media exposure, digital participation, and civic engagement. A factor analysis performed on the survey items yielded 10 NMLs that emerged as significant subscales. A series of multivariate analyses of variance indicate a strong relationship between these NMLs and respondents’ exposure to new media forms, their participation in Web 2.0 …

Beyond Search: Information Literacy, Special Collections, And The First Year, Stefanie R. Bluemle, Sarah M. Horowitz

Library and Information Science: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

Recent research in information literacy (IL) suggests librarians should shift the emphasis of IL instruction toward higher-level concepts rather than search mechanics. This session describes how the Augustana library drew upon the results of local assessments and national research to re-imagine its first-year learning outcomes so as to focus on higher-level skills and recognize the importance of special collections in teaching IL in the college’s required first-year sequence. We address transforming IL pedagogy throughout the library as well as designing special collections as a hands-on learning laboratory.

Library Instruction For First Year Students, Amrita Dhawan, Ching-Jung Chen

Publications and Research

Purpose

Design/methodology/approach

Purposeful And Repeated Use Of Standardized Assessment Of Information Literacy: A Case Study At A U.S. Private Liberal-Arts University, Carolyn J. Radcliff, Kevin Ross

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Chapman University is a private medium-sized liberal arts university located in Orange, California. With aspirations of national prominence, Chapman University is poised to enter the national stage in the United States and the university library will play an important role in this endeavor. One way that the library has demonstrated this commitment has been to create a scaffolded information literacy program that encourages lifelong-learning and provides instruction to our undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.

A crucial element of any highly effective information literacy program is a diversified approach to assessment. The Leatherby Libraries sought out new ways to assess our …

Scaling Up: Hybrid Instruction, Ilana R. Barnes, Mary Dugan

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

A major strategic initiative of Purdue University is to meet head-on the critical issues facing students on today's campus. Student learning, and retention and completion rates are among the top concerns. To meet these challenges, Purdue is adopting a university-wide core curriculum including an information literacy requirement, which is a mainstay to lifelong learning. Additionally, to address student success issues Purdue has created "Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation" (IMPACT). IMPACT has been a successful collaborative effort of several Purdue departments to engage students more fully in their own learning. Since its inception, library faculty have taken a leadership role …

Increasing Our Reach While Preserving Quality: Creating And Using Information Literacy Assessments And Rubrics For Non-Librarians, Angela Rice, Rory Patterson, Jeremy Roden

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Rubric: An Assessment Odyssey., Elisa Slater Acosta, Susan Archambault

Librarian Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

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 …

Assessment Of Library Instruction On Undergraduate Student Success In A Documents-Based Research Course: The Benefits Of Librarian, Archivist, And Faculty Collaboration, Paul Victor Jr., Justin Otto, Charles Mutschler

Collaborative Librarianship

This article discusses a successful collaboration between multiple subject specialist librarians, the University Archivist and a faculty member teaching an undergraduate course in documents-based social science research. This collaborative partnership allowed for each subject specialist to expose students to specific information literacy skills they needed to be successful in their class. The authors used pre- and postassessments to gauge student comfort level in conducting library research, as well as a rubric to assess the annotated bibliography of a student’s final research paper. The data from these assessment tools are analyzed and the results discussed. The data indicates that students benefited …

Teaching Tools For Real Life Skills: Information Literacy For The Workplace, Alessia Zanin-Yost, Betsy Clementson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

See presentation description.

Collection Of Online Learning Objects For Research Success (Colors) Pilot Project, Andrea Falcone, Stephanie Wiegand

University Libraries Publications

The availability of library-related videos is growing; yet it is difficult to justify the impact of such time-consuming projects. In order to investigate the impact of such projects and a possible solution, the researchers asked students to create videos that appeal to their peers. The following research questions were posed:

• Will creation of media projects enable students to learn core research concepts and skills?
• Will a series of peer-created media engage students and help them acclimate to researching in an academic library?

By asking students to create videos, the researchers were able to observe how users interact with and perceive …

Bridging The Gap Through Collaboration:, Rebecca Arliss, Carlos Arguelles, Rodolfo Hernandez

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Academic Libraries And The Credit-Bearing Class: A Practical Approach, Margaret G. Burke

Communications in Information Literacy

Academic librarians are expanding their teaching roles and increasing numbers are involved in teaching information literacy by means of the credit-bearing class. Librarians at the Axinn Library at Hofstra University have been teaching credit-bearing classes since 2001. While doing research on the subject, the author found that the literature contained very little practical information concerning this important responsibility for academic librarians. In order to answer some questions that arose from Axinn librarians' experiences with credit-bearing classes, a survey was conducted using the Association of College and Research Libraries' Information Literacy Instruction's Discussion List as the study group. Among the topics …

Expect (And Collect) A Response From Everyone In The Classroom, Karen Bronshteyn

Communications in Information Literacy

A positive and descriptive book review of Derek Bruff's 2009 book Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments.

More Than Evaluation: Student Nurses And Their Ability To Assess Online Health Resources And Verbalize Findings, Stephanie Wiegand

University Libraries Publications

Purpose The Internet poses both a frontier that represents the possibility for vast exploration and an open space that leaves patients wandering through unreliable information. The purpose of this study was to determine the abilities of first-year (Junior-standing) nursing students to choose, evaluate and then explain their findings in relation to health information on the Web.

Setting/Subjects 108 first-year nursing students in Foundations I at the University of Northern Colorado.

Methodology Content analysis of written papers.

Results Evaluation comprised of three cohorts (consisting of 36 students each) of first-year nursing students in Foundations I in their assessment of 216 websites. …

Research Practices Survey Project 2006-07, Carolyn Sandford, Jo Beld, Nancy Millinchamp, Ann Zawistoski, Gould Library Reference And Instruction Department

Staff and Faculty Work

The Gould library has taken a lead role in a MITC / NITLE grant to create a web-based assessment tool to measure the information literacy of incoming students, before they've had any college library instruction. This grant-funded project was originally called the First Year Information Literacy in the Liberal Arts Assessment (FYILLAA), and has since become a nationally administered survey called the Research Practices Survey.

The first full implementation of the survey happened in late summer and early fall 2005. Five of the schools, Carleton, University of Chicago, Grinnell, Macalester, and St. Olaf, had high enough response rates to allow …

Utilizing Focus Groups To Evaluate An Information Literacy Program In A General Biology Course, Betsy S. Hopkins

Faculty Publications

The Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University (BYU) recently implemented a number of information literacy strategies to help students in Biology 100, a large general education class, find resources for their term assignment. The library's services for Biology 100 students were evaluated using focus groups composed of both teaching assistants and students. This paper will describe the class and the assignment, discuss the impact the class had on library staff, detail the efforts of the staff to meet the needs of Biology 100 students, and present results of focus groups used to evaluate the library's outreach and teaching …

Discipline-Based Information Literacy: Experience, Themes And Recommendations, Carolyn Sanford, Mary Savina

Staff and Faculty Work

In 2000 Carleton received a three-year Mellon grant to integrate information literacy into the curriculum, focusing on the 5 discipline majors: Classical Languages, Economics, English, Geology and History.

Carolyn from Library and Mary from Geology presented their experience, themes and recommendations at Minnesota Library Association October 7, 2004.

Mellon Information Literacy Initiative Grant Report (2000-2003), Gould Library Reference And Instruction Department

Staff and Faculty Work

In 2000 Carleton received a three-year Mellon grant. We wanted to integrate information literacy into the curriculum, focusing on the discipline major. Our call for participants resulted in five departments agreeing to participate. The departments are Classical Languages (including Hebrew), Economics, English, Geology, and History. The initiative offered the library and the departments a wonderful opportunity to focus on information literacy within these disciplines.

Using The Acrl Information Literacy Competency Standards For Higher Education To Assess A University Library Instruction Program, Jeanne R. Davidson, P. S. Mcmillen, Laurel S. Maughan

Library Faculty Research

The Reference and Instruction Department at Oregon State University (OSU) was charged with creating a vision and goals for its instruction program. This article describes how we used the recently published ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education as a framework for an initial self-study of our instructional practice and for promoting the concept of information literacy at our institution. The process of assessing our current practice led to discussions with library and campus faculty about the value of information literacy and to a clearer articulation of our instructional mission.