Student, Librarian, and Instructor Perceptions of Information Literacy Instruction and Skills in a First Year Experience Program: A Case Study

Abstract

As more and more academic librarians have adopted the practice of teaching information literacy in first year experience programs, there has been a growing number of studies assessing this practice. However, few studies have compared the views and assessments of students, librarians, and instructors. Through survey methods, this case study was conducted to understand student, librarian, and instructor perceptions of information literacy instruction and students' information literacy skills in two different types of courses at the Catholic University of America. The results indicate that notable differences are associated with the respondent's role as well as the course involvement of the respondent. Students who were involved in a course with consistent inclusion of a substantive information literacy-related assignment tended to rate the effectiveness, importance, and impacts of information literacy instruction, and their own information literacy skills, higher than those in a course with an inconsistent level of engagement with information literacy. Students' assignment grades were positively correlated with their self-ratings of information literacy skills in both courses. In addition, students rated their own information literacy skills higher and rated the importance and impacts of information literacy instruction lower than librarians or instructors did. Implications and recommendations are also addressed.