Information Literacy Commons^™

Information Outlook, March/April 2013, Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, 2013

Volume 17, Issue 2

Ipedagogy For Adults, Jessica Alverson, Susan Shultz

Staff Publications - University Libraries

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The C. Y. Thompson Library For The 21st Century Task Force Report, Mark Balschweid, Larry Van Tassell, Jill Brown, Charlene Maxey-Harris, Nancy J. Busch, Vishal Singh, Jeanetta Drueke, Sue Voss, Tom Field

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: White Papers

The C. Y. Thompson (CYT) Library enjoys a location central to east campus. This creates an ideal setting for CYT to serve as a hub for activities of all kinds. And, based upon the feedback from online surveys and face-to-face focus groups, there is no shortage of interest and ideas for how CYT can become the premier gathering place on UNL’s east campus for users from all backgrounds. In spite of this, the primary question needing to be addressed is ‘what is C. Y. Thompson’? Is it a building? Is it a library? Is it something entirely different? The task …

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

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letters

No abstract provided.

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, …

Mapping Standards To Content: Creating Research Guides Using Acrl’S Psychology Information Literacy Standards, Annie Armstrong, Kimberly D. Pendell

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Although librarians have embraced online research guides (typically SpringShare’s LibGuides) as a mechanism for informing students of key resources across the disciplines, to what degree have they leveraged the full potential of these guides for delivering and supporting instruction? Guided by disciplinary information literacy standards, how could librarians create more instructionally robust guides which both promote and support the development of disciplinary research competencies?

Worked Examples In Teaching Queries For Searching Academic Databases, Mary Kickham-Samy

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The worked-example effect, an application of cognitive load theory, is a well-supported method of instruction for well-structured problems (Chandler and Sweller, 1991; Cooper and Sweller, 1987; Sweller and Cooper, 1985; Tuovinen & Sweller, 1999; Ward and Sweller, 1990). One limitation is expertise-reversal effect, where advanced students perform less well when exposed to worked examples than when exposed to traditional problem solving (Kalyuga, Ayres, Chandler, & Sweller, 2003; Kalyuga, Chandler, & Sweller, 1998; Kalyuga, Chandler, Tuovinen, & Sweller, 2001). A possible alternative to the worked-example approach is the fading example, designed to transition intermediate students to solving well-structured problems without assistance …

Crafting Assessment Questions: Creating The Tools To Assess Information Literacy Objectives For Art And Design: A Workshop, Rebecca Feind, Kathy Clarke

Faculty and Staff Publications

Now that information literacy standards for higher education have been created and are commonly incorporated within university curricula, assessing student mastery of the objectives is the next step in creating a measurable information literacy program. In addition to responding to institutional needs for data on student learning, assessment data is a valuable resource for updating instruction programs based on student knowledge and performance. While many librarians have vast amounts of anecdotal knowledge about what students know, being able to gather hard data on what students learn from online and in-person instruction can quantify the strengths and needs of your instruction …

Hidden Surveillance On Consumer Health Information Websites, Jacquelyn A. Burkell, Alexandre Fortier

FIMS Publications

Behavioural tracking presents a significant privacy risk to Canadians, particularly when their online behaviours reveal sensitive information that could be used to discriminate against them. This concern is particularly relevant in the context of online health information seeking, since searches can reveal details about health conditions and concerns that the individual may wish to keep private. The privacy threats are exacerbated because behavioural tracking mechanisms are large invisible to users, and many are unaware of the strategies and mechanisms available to track online behaviour. In this project, we seek to document the behavioural tracking practices of consumer health websites, and …

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 …

Information Literacy And Epistemological Inquiry, Patrick K. Morgan

Faculty Presentations

Information literacy is frequently invoked as leitmotiv in college-level library instruction, a fact which by no means implies a unanimous sense of its “meaning” among teaching librarians. Even a cursory perusal of the library literature demonstrates the importance of the concept, both as an educational paradigm and theoretic stimulus. Notably, despite rising acknowledgment that information literacy grows ever more vital for today’s students, little consideration of its place and purpose within other fields is found in academic publications outside information science. Likewise, information literacy instruction, while acknowledged in core curricula, is frequently marginalized in practice: cramped sessions within other …

Instruction And Focus Groups, John C. Hill

Blogging the Library

My internship focuses not only on reference librarianship, but also information literacy and instruction. Accordingly, I’ve been fortunate to sit in on some library instruction classes with Clint. I think that the image of a librarian as a reference resource is pretty well established in our cultural consciousness, at least here at Gettysburg College, but the image of librarian as teacher is perhaps not as prominent. At some colleges and universities, however, librarians are considered part of the faculty. [excerpt]

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

Himmelfarb Library Liaison Letters

No abstract provided.

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

Librarian Publications & Presentations

No abstract provided.

Information - Access: Denied, Riccardo M. Purita

SURGE

I have been privileged during my lifetime to always have the opportunity to learn about something if I wanted to. When I became interested in music and psychology—or even when I was learning how to apply for college—I googled it. The resources to obtain information have always been there for me: access to computers, the internet, books, journals. It is hard to imagine my life without a computer or access to books to learn about the world, and even harder to imagine if I did not know how to read or write. For this, I can thank my education and …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …