Information Literacy Commons^™

Getting To Work: Information Literacy Instruction, Career Courses, And Digitally Proficient Students, Alexandra Hamlett

Publications and Research

This article discusses how following graduation, students often enter the job market unprepared to find, evaluate, and use information in the digital environment effectively. Essentially, there is a disparity between the skills students attain in college coursework, including information literacy (IL) skills, and those required in the workplace, which impacts graduates’ success as new members of the labour market. The article highlights how collaboration between a librarian and an instructor of a career centered course influenced instructional design for IL instruction in their courses. Librarians and instructors will benefit from practical examples from Guttman Community College’s innovative IL Program and …

The Many Faces Of Instruction: An Exploration Of Academic Librarians’ Teaching Personas, Elena S. Azadbakht

Communications in Information Literacy

While several studies explore whether librarians think of themselves as teachers, how librarians construct their teacher identities has received less attention in the literature. This project used semi-structured interviews with eighteen academic librarians in the United States to gain a sense of their teaching personas and how these have developed and evolved over time. The participants valued authenticity but were also able to quickly adapt their personas to different contexts. Librarians wish to be seen as friendly experts and develop their values-based teaching personas slowly over the course of their careers. The results of this study can help shape professional …

Investigation Of The Validity Evidence Of The Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (Ilses) Among Undergraduate Students, Max Sommer, Angela M. Kohnen, Albert D. Ritzhaupt, John Hampton

Communications in Information Literacy

The purpose of this research was to provide validity evidence for the Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES), a widely used instrument that was constructed in 2006. The researchers were interested in investigating the validity of this instrument due to the evolution of the information environment that has taken place since the scale’s original development, mostly as a result of the prominence of the Internet. Data were collected from N = 253 undergraduate students participating in a broader information literacy research study. Data were subjected to descriptive analyses, internal consistency reliability, and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). After evaluating three different …

The Library Language Game: Information Literacy Through The Lens Of Wittgenstein's Language Games, Kathleen A. Langan

Communications in Information Literacy

Labeling information is a precarious and risky enterprise. Catalogers have the task of fitting unique concepts within established and rigid language frameworks while also minimizing personal bias. The way information literacy librarians interact with labeled information also influences how users interact with information. Labeling moves beyond the role of categorizing, it also contributes to meaning making and knowledge building. Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations serves as a philosophical footing to illustrate how the labeling of things, in this case information, shapes the way we give things meaning. Critical librarianship and philosophy of information theory add to the discussion by considering how personal …

Beyond The Checklist Approach: A Librarian-Faculty Collaboration To Teach The Beam Method Of Source Evaluation, Jenny Mills, Rachael Flynn, Nicole Fox, Dana Shaw, Claire Walker Wiley

Communications in Information Literacy

Evaluating information is an essential skill, valued across disciplines. While librarians and instructors share the responsibility to teach this skill, they need a common framework in order to collaborate to design assignments that give students multiple opportunities to learn. Librarians and First Year Seminar faculty at Belmont University collaborated to design a unit of instruction on source evaluation using the BEAM method. BEAM requires students to apply a use-based approach to evaluation, to read and engage with sources more closely, and to think about how they might use a source for a specific purpose. Structured annotated bibliographies that included BEAM …

“This Is Just What We Do”: Phd Students On Becoming Scholars In A Community Of Practice, Linds Roberts

Communications in Information Literacy

Increasingly librarians are interested in how the Community of Practice (CoP) framework can provide a more complete picture of how information literacy practices are influenced by situated and social learning. Doctoral students are socialized into the practices of the academy and gradually take on the identity and work of a scholar in their field. As an illustration of the CoP framework among doctoral students, the author shares data from a qualitative study with a small group of early-career education PhD students who are developing their information literacy skills within their disciplinary and social contexts, using the CoP as a source …

Information Literacy Competency Of Researchers In Social Sciences: An Assessment From Diverse Perspectives, Rajesh Singh Dr., Shailendra Kumar Prof.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information literacy (IL) provides essential proficiency for academics and research in the networked digital information landscape. The present study is an empirical assessment of information literacy competency (ILC) levels of researchers in social sciences from varied frames of reference i.e. gender, age groups, periods of research, subjects and universities. The data collected from 520 researchers were processed and analyzed using various techniques of descriptive and inferential statistics to identify IL competent and incompetent researchers on different variables. The descriptive statistics included frequency distribution, percentage distribution, etc. and was aided by computing mean, standard deviation, and range. Inferential statistics consisted of …

Information Literacy Session Attendance And Library Website Visit Frequency: Impacts On Awareness Of Libguides Among Undergraduate And Graduate Health Professions Students At An Urban Campus, John Carey, Ajatshatru Pathak, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

Public, large, non-residential four-year and master’s college with separate Health Professions Library (HPL) serving 1,300+ health professions students. The Hunter College Libraries offer over 180 LibGuides via the “Research Guides” link on library’s home page. HPL librarians teach one-shot and other information literacy (IL) sessions for students.

To Be Or Not To Be…Humorous: Personalize And Perform Humor Mindfully, Julie Artman

Library Books and Book Chapters

"This chapter will address some of the pitfalls (and positive results) of using humor as part of your teaching method. We will explore the acting techniques of personalization and improvisation; and mindful tools to prepare mentally with attention, awareness, and intentionality. Key takeaways from mindfulness and the craft of acting will embolden you to discover how to personalize your own sense of humor, and demonstrate authenticity, caring, and trust--critical factors for student acceptance and engagement--within the learning environment. You will not only survive the instruction session; you will also feel enlivened and more attuned to your teaching purpose during the …

How Social Work Librarians Connect Social Justice To Information Literacy., Stephen Maher, Carin Graves, Sarah C. Johnson

Publications and Research

In this paper we, as members of the ACRL EBSS Social Work Committee,1 share our experience of developing a companion document to the ACRL Framework.2 Our overarching goal of this project is to clearly demonstrate the overlap between the ACRL Framework and social work’s educational competencies professional ethics. Over the course of this two-year project, we developed a fuller understanding of how social justice—and its corresponding concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion—exist in both professions.

Information Literacy In A Post-Truth Era, Catherine Baird, Jonathan Howell

University Libraries Scholarship and Creative Works

The founders of American democracy believed it could not survive without an “informed citizenry”. What does an informed citizenry look like in today’s world? And what role do we have as educators and students to support it?

First, we look at the significant challenges to institutional and media legitimacy that emerged in the second half of the 20th century, which rightfully called attention to the ways longstanding Western knowledge practices excluded marginalized communities and silenced important histories. We ask about the status of norms and mores in the aftermath of this challenge, in an era often called “post-truth.”

Second, we …

Scalable And Sustainable: Building A Flexible Library Instruction Team To Handle Whatever The Future May Hold, Crystal Goldman, Amanda Roth, Timothy Chu, Dominique Turnbow

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

While academic librarians constantly work to address the changing needs of higher education, SARS-CoV-2 illustrates how quickly priorities and needs may shift. During the 2020 spring term, the halting of in-person instruction meant many libraries had to use stop-gap measures to provide basic levels of instruction service. No one would claim that this was an ideal way to transition to online instruction, but it became necessary in these unprecedented times. A large number of webinars and online trainings were offered to help librarians make this transition, and many understandably emphasized a “good enough” or “do the best you can” approach. …

Navigating The Online Tutorial Frontier: From Design To Deployment & Beyond, Samantha Harlow, Rachel Olsen, Natalie Haber, Renae Watson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

As we all have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, online teaching is a vital part of creating an open future of learning environments in higher education. Asynchronous online information literacy tutorials can engage and support online and face-to-face library users, and the planning and design process can take many forms. Librarians do not have to be instructional designers, have funding, or be accessibility experts to create engaging, online research tutorials. In this session, a panel of academic and online learning librarians from across the country will discuss creating tutorials with a variety of tools, budgets, and timelines. H5P, LibWizard, Articulate, …

Leveling Up: Differentiating Library Research And Apa Instruction For Online Students Into Different Levels And Modes, Josette M. Kubicki

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Over two and a half years, the Department of Teaching and Leading liaison librarian has evolved her virtual instruction to graduate online students by scaffolding it into different levels. What started as advocating for an optional one-shot webinar for groups of students in their asynchronous Master of Education program’s seminal course has organically grown into three different library instruction levels throughout the program: introductory (level 1), intermediate (level 2), and advanced (level 3), and a few levels for APA instruction. These days, all students start on the same level playing field by undertaking level 1 library instruction and level 1 …

Where Does Information Literacy Fit? Mapping The Core, Greg Hardin, Carol Hargis, Brea Henson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

This session covers a flexible, easy-to-adapt curriculum mapping method used by the University of North Texas Libraries to complete a core curriculum map. The University of North Texas is a large four-year public, Tier-1 research university with HSI status. The UNT Libraries provides a wide range of student- and faculty-centered initiatives that are integral to the UNT community.

We mapped Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) on course syllabi to the AAC&U Information Literacy VALUE Rubric and the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We identified key phrases and verbs from the two threshold documents, reviewed a sample of English …

Is “Just Googling It” Good Enough For First-Year Students?, Maureen Richards

Publications and Research

This study analyzes citations by first-year students to determine what content they were citing and whether it was available through the open web or the library. Examining the role of these two places as content providers for academic work fills a gap in the literature. Most of the cited works were available through the library and the open web. As the line between content providers continues to blur, these results can help academic libraries prioritize what to teach students about information literacy, where to focus collection development efforts and how to promote the discovery of library resources.

Research Mentor Program At Unh Manchester: Peer Learning Partnerships, Carolyn White Gamtso, Annie Donahue, Kimberly Donovan

Faculty Publications

At the University of New Hampshire at Manchester (UNH Manchester), the librarians, the Center for Academic Enrichment (CAE) professional staff, and the First-Year Writing Program faculty established a rich collaboration for supporting undergraduate students throughout the research process. This effort was realized by adapting a highly effective peer-tutoring program, integrating basic information literacy instruction skills into the tutor training curriculum, and incorporating the peer tutors within library instruction classes and activities. This chapter focuses on the current iteration of the Research Mentor Program, describes recent changes to the mentors’ information literacy training, and examines valuable lessons learned throughout the program’s …

Information Rich Engineering Design (I-Red) Workshop, Margaret Phillips, Michael Fosmire, Dave Zwicky

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Wikipedia And Scholarpedia: A Comparative Case Study And Its Implications To Information Literacy, Junli Diao, Stefka Tzanova, Anthony Bishop

Publications and Research

The free online Wikipedia receives increasing attention from academic librarians; however, its counterpart Scholarpedia seems to be neglected. This case study selected two articles bearing the same title Intentionality from Scholarpedia and Wikipedia and brought them under scrutiny of their microstructure and macrostructure. Both microstructure and macrostructure analysis indicated that the addressed readership of the two encyclopedic articles is understandably different in terms of readability and content. The comparative case study concluded with empirical implications that both online, free encyclopedias provide academic librarians with pedagogical instruments to help students engage in authentic knowledge construction.

Data Literacy In Undergraduate Education: Faculty Perspectives And Pedagogical Approaches, Theresa G. Burress, Emily Zoe Mann, Susan Montgomery, Rachel Walton

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Integrating Online Discussions Into Engineering Curriculum To Endorse Interdisciplinary Viewpoints, Promote Authentic Learning, And Improve Information Literacy, Lisa Bosman, Kurt Paterson, Margaret Phillips

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Engineering is very much an applied discipline where math and science concepts, skills, and tools can be used to design products or processes with new and/or increased value. Research suggests active learning is an effective method for teaching and learning in the engineering classroom. Moreover, students continue to express increased satisfaction when taught using this experiential pedagogical approach. One approach to active learning gaining traction in the engineering classroom is the use of online discussions. The purpose of this paper is to offer a structured approach for engineering educators to develop online discussion prompts aimed to prepare engineering students for …

Integrating The Entrepreneurial Mindset Into The Engineering Classroom, Lisa Bosman, Margaret Phillips

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

CONTRIBUTION: This paper highlights one approach to fostering the entrepreneurial mindset in the engineering classroom. BACKGROUND: Entrepreneurship and innovation are currently trending topics in engineering education and will continue developing for the foreseeable future. INTENDED OUTCOMES: The guiding research question is: How can an entrepreneurial mindset focused learning experience improve student self-regulation, seeing value, and lifelong learning through metacognitive reflections? APPLICATION DESIGN: The study is implemented within a five-week module focused on developing the entrepreneurial mindset as part of a required course on supply chain management technology. The supporting pedagogical interventions include authentic learning, information literacy, a mix of low …

Assessing Undergraduate And Post Graduate Students’ Information Literacy Skills: Scenario And Requirements In Pakistan, Muhammad Safdar, Haroon Idrees Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study was conducted to assess information literacy (IL) skills of post graduate (PG) and undergraduate (UG) students, of one of the premier universities at the national level of Pakistan. It was also intended to explore the students’ opinion about the need of information literacy program and related contents. Quantitative research approach was employed to conduct the study and survey method using structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from 400 respondents using convenient sampling technique. Results of the study revealed that majority of the respondents lacked information literacy skills. However, the major part of the respondents considered the …

The Evolving Information Needs And Behaviors Of Undergraduates, Brianna Limas

School of Information Student Research Journal

Undergraduates comprise a highly complex information community, composed of many identities and with a range of interests and skills. Emerging technologies continue to play a critical role in undergraduates’ information behaviors. While prior literature has focused on the academic information needs of students, emerging technologies have brought to light the considerable role of their everyday life information behaviors. This paper seeks to explore the information needs and behaviors of undergraduates, in particular the current and incoming graduating classes. With increased focus on meeting everyday life information needs and continued appreciation and understanding of the versatility of emerging technologies in the …

Rapid Shifts In Educators’ Perceptions Of Data Literacy Priorities, Kristin Fontichiaro, Melissa P. Johnston

Journal of Media Literacy Education

To meet the challenges of a data-driven society, high school students need new arrays of literacy skills. In the United States, school librarians, who work across disciplines, are well-positioned to help students improve their data practice, but they first need new domain knowledge. This article presents findings from an evaluating survey and session evaluation data from a virtual data literacy conference, which were part of a federally-funded project to develop data literacy skills among high school librarians and educators. Findings indicated a noticeable shift in participant perceptions of the need and urgency for data literacy instruction across content areas and …

Designing A Collaborative Learning Experience Around The Framework, Samantha Godbey, Xan Y. Goodman

Library Faculty Research

In late 2015, we presented a three-hour workshop on the nascent ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education at the European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL) in Tallinn, Estonia,1 after which we were approached about preparing a more in-depth learning experience on the Framework for a group of international librarians. These librarians were part of the AMICAL Consortium, a consortium of twenty-nine liberal arts institutions in Europe, Asia, and Africa. At this point, we had already led several active learning–filled workshops on the Framework, including the one at ECIL. We were also working on a coedited book on the …

Professional Development For Research-Writing Instructors: A Collaborative Approach, Kaitlin Clinnin, Melissa Bowles-Terry

English Faculty Research

Writing programs and academic libraries are frequent collaborators based on shared concerns about writing and research. However, in these collaborative relationships librarians often share their expertise with writing program administrators and individual instructors without developing the information literacy expertise of the majority of writing program instructors. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the library instruction program and the writing program recognized that by facilitating collaborative professional development, they could together provide enhanced support for instructors teaching research-based writing courses. The authors present a case study of their local professional development institute that developed writing instructors’ information literacy confidence and …

Learn The Terms: A Visual Glossary, 2020 Edition, Gayle Schaub, Vinicius Lima, Jessica Jerue, Claire Mooney

Open Teaching Tools

Understanding a discipline requires a fundamental understanding of its concepts, theories, and terminology. Critical to academic success, these are often assumed to be widely understood by students.

The students of Graphic Design V, fall 2020, created a poster to help students understand one of the ACRL Framework’s concepts, searching as strategic exploration. The bold, eye-catching informational poster, used both in and outside of the Library, promotes learning through an innovative design created by students for students.

Assessing The Potential For Critical Thinking Instruction In Information Literacy Online Learning Objects Using Best Practices, Mandi Goodsett

Communications in Information Literacy

Critical thinking, while often used as a mere buzzword, is clearly relevant to the mission and expertise of librarians who teach. Even in online information literacy instruction, critical thinking remains an important goal. This study attempts to determine the ways and extent to which online information literacy learning objects follow best practices for teaching and assessing critical thinking. In this study, the researcher evaluated a sample of information literacy online learning objects in the Association of College and Research Libraries repository of peer-reviewed instruction materials, PRIMO, using a literature-based rubric. The resulting analysis provides evidence of the extent to which …

Not A Blank Slate: Information Literacy Misconceptions In First-Year Experience Courses, Michelle Keba, Elizabeth Fairall

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy is the primary instructional focus of many librarians. With the development of a core set of information literacy threshold concepts, librarians often strive to impart these concepts to undergraduate students during their years of study. However, when students come to school, they are not blank slates. They arrive with preconceived ideas or misconceptions which can impede this process. In this article, the authors report on the results of focus groups held with first-year students at a private, liberal arts university. During the focus groups, participants were asked to share their perceptions of the misconceptions identified by Hinchliffe et …