Developing Information Literacy Competencies in Your Students

1. Developing Information Literacy Competencies in Your Students Cara Bradley cara.bradley@uregina.ca Charles Phelps charles.phelps@uregina.ca Archer Library University of Regina

2. Would you like your students to . . . • Become critical thinkers? • Develop more efficient information-seeking and retrieval habits? • Evaluate information systematically? • Learn how to help themselves learn? • Graduate as enthusiastic, capable, life-long learners? Then you have come to the right place!

3. Information literacy (Librarians)Research education (Professors) • Information literacy (or information competency) is a set of abilities requiring individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” • Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, all learning environments, and to all levels of education.

4. Information literacy—more than just information technology skills Tool literacy - The ability to use print and electronic resources including software and online resources. Resource literacy - The ability to understand the form, format, location and methods for accessing information resources. Social-structural literacy - Knowledge of how information is socially situated and produced. It includes understanding the scholarly publishing process. Research literacy - The ability to understand and use information technology tools to carry out research, including the use of discipline-related software and online resources. Publishing literacy - The ability to produce a text or multimedia report of research results. - Shapiro, Jeremy J. and Shelley K. Hughes. “Information Literacy as a Liberal Art.” Educom Review (March/April, 1996)

5. Standards • The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has identified “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” to help librarians and instructors identify and address key needs • http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html

6. Issue #1—Size and Scope • There is no correlation between the topic the student chooses and a) the length of the assignment and b) the size/scope of research available on the topic. • i.e. I want to write a 5 page paper about Ancient Greece.

7. Standard #1: The student determines the nature and extent of the information needed. IL student • brainstorms for key terms • identifies appropriate types of resources • understands instructor’s requirements for sources • II student • types entire thesis statement into Google • can’t differentiate between search engine results and database/catalog results (scholarly sources) • far too many or far too few citations—unable to match information need with scope of project at hand

8. Issue #2—Volume of information “A weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a life-time in seventeenth-century England.”(Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety (1989)) - By 2020 the available body of information will double every 73 days.”(Patricia Senn Breivik, Student Learning in the Information Age (1998)) - Half of the pages on the World Wide Web disappear every month, and yet the Web continues to double in size every year.(Kelly Russell, “Libraries and Digital Preservation: Who Is Providing Electronic Access for Tomorrow?” (pp. 1-30) in Charles F. Thomas, ed., Libraries, the Internet, and Scholarship: Tools and Trends Converging (2002))

9. Standard #2: The student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently. IL student • asks for assistance if unsure about appropriateness of a resource • understands how to apply general search techniques to a range of resources • refines search if results not adequate • II student • jumps around library web site (and only if unsuccessful with Google search) • prints first five full-text sources without evaluation • will not consult print sources

10. Issue #3—Evaluating Information • 83% of Internet sites contain commercial information / 6% contain scientific or educational content • 3% of web content is Canadian • OCLC Web Characterization Project • Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web (Nature, 1999) • Most extensive examples of quality evaluation are on health sites

11. Standard #3: The student evaluates information critically and incorporates selected information into their knowledge base and value system IL student • critically reviews information collected • thinks of new avenues to pursue if additional information is required • thinks about how information relates to self/assignment/class • II student • writes paper without understanding or forming opinion about the material collected • might speak to instructor if having difficulties in hopes of being told which resources to use

12. Issue #4—Using information effectively

13. “Unlike books, which must be read, understood, and synthesized, the Web too often consists of beautiful graphics and short summaries. When strung together to form a research paper, these summaries are bound to appear fragmented and superficial, more of a random montage than a sustainable argument.” • David Rothenberg, “How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers,” Chronicle of Higher Education (August 15, 1997): A44.

14. Standard #4: The student uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose. IL student • makes an outline • Reads, absorbs and thinks at a deeper level • proof-reads and seeks peer-review, input • learns something from the process/topic • II student • turns in first draft • skims multiple sources without deeper reflection/understanding • ultimately finds the whole assignment frustrating

15. Issue #5—Ethical and legal use of information • 53% of university undergrads surveyed said that they had cheated in ways that range from "copying a few sentences from the Internet without footnotes, to turning in a paper that someone else wrote.” And this is only those who admitted it! • Christensen-Hughes, J. M., & McCabe, D. L. (2006). Academic misconduct within higher education in Canada. The Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 36(2), 1-21.

16. Standard #5: The student understands many of the issues surrounding the use of and access to information and does so legally and ethically IL student • keeps track of located information • correctly cites sources • obtains permission for materials when needed • II student • plagiarizes without realizing it • fabricates source information because original sources are lost • incorrect/incomplete citations

17. Do you think that students have adequate information literacy skills?

18. “Most undergraduates come to college having mastered only the most basic tools for research. They can use a dictionary. They can conduct a search in Google that yields results (5 million, in fact!). They may even be able to run an online search by author or title and then find the book on the shelf. But that’s about it—and that’s not nearly enough.” • Todd Gilman, “Show Your Librarian Some Love,” Chronicle of Higher Education,” October 3, 2006

19. The literature indicates faculty are increasingly noticing problems/deficits . . . Example: • 419 journalism faculty across the U.S. were asked to read the ACRL standards and then asked if their students are information literate. Here’s what they said: • 3.8% --all students meet ACRL information literacy criteria • 42.2%--some of their students meet the ACRL information literacy criteria • 23.4%--few of their students meet the ACRL information literacy criteria • Singh, A. B. “A Report on Faculty Perceptions of Students’ Information Literacy Competencies in Journalism and Mass Communication Programs: The ACEJMC Survey.” College & Research Librariesv. 66 no. 4 (July 2005)p. 294-310

20. What are some signs that your students are lacking information literacy skills? • Too few/too many items on bibliography • Irrelevant items on bibliography • Choose only items that have words from the topic in their title • Include only items available online • Do not include items from peer-reviewed journal literature • Do a test—conduct a basic keyword search in the major database and see if they have only included the first few full-text items • Plagiarism • Incorrect or incomplete citations

21. Perhaps the U of R Library can help . . . • U of R Library Vision statement states (in part): “We will measure our achievements and satisfaction by the degree to which we are successful in creating independent, effective information seekers and users.”

22. Part 2: Practical Tips for Engendering Students’ Information Competency

23. Commonly Observed Information Dysfunctionalities

24. Procrastination • Expected problems: Not enough time to digest and evaluate sources, try different search strategies, develop new sources from the first group, etc. • Precludes obtaining materials via Interlibrary Loan. • Precludes placing holds or recalls on library-owned materials.

25. Students use only what pops up on their computer screen. “If it’s not online, forget it.”

26. Students think of gathering sources as a quick, slap-dash effort. • They view it as just a matter of banging a few keywords into their computer and using the first items that appear. • They have no concept of the time and effort required for an adequate literature search.

27. “Students who have grown up in a world of computers, cellphones, and ATM’s expect information to be immediately available and presented in a USA Today format—short and devoid of detail.”Barefoot, Betsy. “Bridging the Chasm: First-Year Students and the Library.” Chronicle of Higher Education 20 Jan. 2006: B16.

28. Students search ineffectively… • in the wrong databases or only in Google, • using ineffective keywords (over-specified, under-specified, without enough variants, etc.), • without knowing the syntax of the search interface, • using ineffective search strategies.

29. Students choose topics for which few or no sources can be found. • Topics are often over-specified. • Deadly when combined with procrastination.

30. Students are baffled by peer-reviewed journal articles. • They don’t know how to approach articles meant to be read by specialists. • They don’t know the difference between review articles and articles reporting original research (and how to search specifically for review articles).

31. The instructor forbids using “Internet sources”… …but students don’t realize that online peer-reviewed journals and other such materials are not “Internet sources.”

32. Students find a reference, but don’t know how to obtain the item. Often, they think they must pay to access an item that is available to them free.

33. Suggested Remedies

34. Ask your subject librarian to give a presentation to the class. • Each department/faculty has a librarian. • Students will learn of resources available to them and how to use them. • A librarian can give advice specific to an assignment, as well as general advice. • Students will see the “face of the Library”, and know a contact for help. • Librarians are happy to do this.

35. Explain the information structure of your discipline. For example, the role of books, journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports, government reports, preprints, etc.

36. Require that students use different search procedures.For example… • database keyword searches, • citation searching and related records searching (using Web of Science), • bibliographies in books and articles. Have students annotate their bibliographies, telling how they found each source.

37. Require different kinds of sources.For example … • At least x number of articles, y number of books, z number of other types of sources. • At least λ number of sources published before (say) 1950.

38. Require that students submit a preliminary bibliography long before the assignment is due.

39. Before giving an assignment, let the subject librarian see it. • The librarian can prepare for student questions. • Important when specific resources (databases, encyclopaedias, etc.) are required (to prevent mis-identification, etc.).

40. A new tool! • The U of R Library and the SIAST Library have developed an online tutorial to enhance online literacy, and help faculty assess and cultivate students’ information literacy. Check it out on the library web site! Funding for this project is provided by a TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) grant.

41. Contact us! • Email • IM (Instant Messaging) • In-person • Phone

42. And finally…Encourage students to use an under-utilized resource:The Librarian.