Information Literacy For Higher Education Research Articles

The impact of cultural capital on searching as strategic exploration in incoming first-year students

Information literacy is important for students' academic and professional development as they begin to engage with the world as adults in college. However, students' information literacy may be influenced by the different forms of capital they possess, such as economic, social, and, potentially, their cultural capital. Cultural capital is a concept developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu which addresses the capital individuals possess within a society that exists beyond economic and social spheres. Much research exists exploring cultural capital and its impact on the educational outcomes of students, but it has yet to be explored in depth regarding libraries and, specifically, information literacy. This study addresses that research gap by analyzing the relationship between students' information literacy and their acquired cultural capital before they start their first semester of post-secondary education. The study explores multiple forms of cultural capital, including students' hobbies and activities, educational backgrounds, and the involvement of their parents in their education. Analysis of the distributed survey examined cultural capital through assessing students' reading habits and parental involvement as well as its influence on students' information literacy skills, specifically those related to the “Searching as Strategic Exploration” frame of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

Aligning information literacy terminology to STEM disciplinary language used in the scientific method

Incorporation of information literacy into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum can be a challenge for academic librarians, in part due to different terminology than used by disciplinary faculty colleagues. Aligning terminology used in information literacy frameworks with the scientific method can provide a means of demonstrating the role of information literacy in STEM research. This paper maps the knowledge practices of the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education with an example of the scientific method. The resulting map provides an alignment of the different terminologies being used and visualizes the role of research skills throughout the process of conducting scientific research.

Development and implementation of the MobILcaps application for the teaching and development of information literacy in Higher Education

This paper aims at develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the MobIlCaps mobile application. On the basis of cognitive, constructivist and connectivist theories, it has been developed on an instructional design model, based on the user experience. In the context of mobile teaching in higher education, an innovative application is proposed for the self-learning of information literacy by students of Social Sciences. With the collaboration of both teachers and students, the application was developed, following the ADDIE model, through the phases of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. The last phase provided the improvement proposals for the optimization of the final version of the tool, a progressive open access website. The application is organized into six capsules that follow the framework of ACRL (2015): learn, search, evaluate, create, research and disseminate. It includes multimedia resources in the form of microcontents that highlight readability, organization and visualization as characteristics. The app focuses on the user and is a relevant instrument to facilitate teaching The different analyses, followed by proposals for improvement and revisions, led to the achievement of a very useful application for students, teachers and library

Using Curriculum Mapping to Understand Information Literacy in Political Science Curricula

abstract: This study presents curriculum mapping of noncore course offerings in political science curricula by an early-career librarian. It combines syllabi study and curriculum mapping methods to analyze the language of student learning objectives (SLOs) from course syllabi and to integrate SLOs with threshold concepts from the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and the AAC&U Information Literacy VALUE Rubric. The methods produce two sample sets: one of core concept representation and the other of additional observances for syllabi improvements. Results analyze the frequency and percentage distributions of threshold concepts in SLOs. The author outlines strategies for engaging faculty in information literacy and suggests how librarians and faculty might inform information literacy teaching in the department.

Gaps in Information Literacy Preparedness Between Students at Community Colleges and Four-Year Institutions

ABSTRACT Using cross-institutional survey data from 407 first-year college students, differences in information literacy preparation and academic library experiences between community college students and students at four-year institutions are examined. Results show that first-year community college students are more likely to be novice library users, having had fewer interactions with their high school library or librarian before coming to college. By the end of their first year of college, students at four-year institutions are more likely to be familiar with the concepts of ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016), suggesting that greater emphasis needs to be given to these concepts at community colleges so that their students are on equal footing with their peers at four-year institutions. Implications for community college faculty are presented, as well as recommendations for greater integration of discipline-specific, scaffolded information literacy instruction throughout community college programs of study.

B-learning protocols for information literacy in Higher Education

The present study arises from the achievements accomplished by a transdisciplinary research team involved in a project focusing on essential protocols for virtual education. Employing a mixed-methodological approach, integrated across different phases of the study, it is suggested that skills training, digital literacy, and learning autonomy should be priority factors in teaching undergraduate Engineering programs. Furthermore, by contrasting current findings with previous studies, the need to drive curricular changes through virtual learning in a B-learning format is reaffirmed. In the same context, the influence of a curricular innovation protocol centered on literacy skills, digital literacy, autonomy, and critical thinking was explored, following the guidelines for the training of engineers established by the Federal Council of Deans of Engineering of Argentina.

What role can affect and emotion play in academic and research information literacy practices?

While significant progress has been made in broadening information literacy’s (IL’s) scope, its conception of the user and their relationship to information remains painfully limited. This is particularly evident when the affective or emotional factors of information seeking behaviour are considered. Thus far, IL’s models and discourses have failed to acknowledge emotion’s fundamentally disruptive nature and have either ignored, repressed, or misrepresented users’ emotions. This has resulted in a deeply limited and inaccurate conception of the user’s information needs, and this has a particularly harmful impact on marginalised users and users engaging with affectively fraught information. This article seeks to address this oversight, initially by outlining the origins of IL’s repression of emotion and then examining the consequences of this repression in the standardised IL models; specifically in Carol C. Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process and the ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Subsequently, this essay will examine several critical models of librarianship and IL—including Holocaust librarianship and Indigenous conceptions of relationality—in order to illuminate models of IL that adopt a relational perspective that enables an engagement with the affective elements of the user’s information needs. Finally, this essay will suggest that these relational perspectives facilitate the adoption of an ethics of care that helps address the insufficiencies inherent to our current conceptions of IL.

Framework for communicating library training at a South African university

This article combines social constructivist and transformative paradigms to propose a framework for communicating library training to first-year students. Although performance indicators for literacy are universal, there are explicit attempts to move away from a universal approach to information literacy, as exemplified in the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. This article addresses the fragmentation of teaching and learning practices in a single case study of University of the Free State libraries. Data were collected using two methods: an integrated literature review; and document analysis. Literature and documentary evidence were found to justify a call for developing an underpinning theory for planning purposes. Furthermore, it was found that synthesized concepts from models, ideas and frameworks can inform new pedagogical approaches. This article proposes the Authority Pedagogy Socialization framework for communicating library training to first-year students and concludes with several recommendations.

Community College STEM Faculty and the ACRL Framework: A Pilot Study

This study explores the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) community college faculty’s perspectives on the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework). Previous studies of the Framework implementation have primarily focused on the librarians’ perspectives and efforts. This pilot project seeks to bridge the gap in the study of STEM faculty’s views regarding the Framework in a community college setting. STEM faculty were asked to rate the importance of information literacy knowledge practices based on the Framework in the spring semester of 2021. The paper discusses STEM faculty’s ratings of the knowledge practices from each frame. These preliminary findings can be used by STEM librarians and STEM faculty, as well as administrators in charge of STEM programs or curricula at community colleges, for (re)designing information literacy instruction, integrating information literacy in programs, or assessing information literacy learning outcomes that utilize frames from the Framework.

Dungeons and dragons and digital writing: A case study of worldbuilding

Collaborative worldbuilding is an ideal digital writing project for promoting critical thinking about contemporary issues, developing and applying disciplinary expertise writing transfer, and building digital literacies. In the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic where the student experience was characterised by isolation, collaborative worldbuilding also offered a powerful means of building solidarity and community. This paper presents a case study of using collaborative worldbuilding for gaming to achieve key digital writing learning outcomes. The case study shows how this innovative pedagogical approach can be mapped to two key frameworks for information and digital literacies: the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens and the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education of the Association of College and Research Libraries. The case study also illustrates how a MediaWiki installation can be used for worldbuilding and as a means of critically introducing students to Wikipedia itself. Qualitative feedback from the students shows that the class achieved its key learning outcomes. More importantly, student engagement during the class and their feedback ascertains that collaborative worldbuilding is a powerful means of building connections and empathy between students in the context of isolation, amid a global pandemic.

What’s art got to do with politics? Show me the evidence

Faculty expect students to integrate appropriate sources for their assignments with a research component and rely on collaborations with library subject specialists to support student needs. Teaching students to build their information literacy skills by using the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education contributes to increasing their proficiency for college-level research. Aspects important to this endeavor are learning about academic literature, choosing topics and learning background information, and finding and evaluating sources. Students learn how to construct their own academic authority, how to insert themselves into the ongoing scholarly conversation, and that searching can be nonlinear and iterative. Collaboration with course faculty encourages students who tend to shy away from the library. Avoiding the library is not uncommon for students, who then struggle alone with elements of their assignment that require research help. Hence the classroom visibility of subject specialist work builds student awareness of the library and prompts them to be proactive when doing library research.

Metacognitive awareness for IL learning and growth: The development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT)

This article describes the development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a metacognitive self-assessment for use with undergraduate researchers. It was developed as a teaching and learning tool with the intent to help students recognize and engage the metacognitive domain as a step toward developing personal agency and self-regulation as lifelong, metaliterate learners. Throughout the scale development, three studies were conducted with nine expert reviewers and 44 community college students to consider content and face validity and 542 community college students as part of an item-reduction and construct validation effort. The resulting scale is most appropriately construed through a bifactor model and is made up of 57 items comprising a strong information literacy general factor and six specific factors modestly aligning with each of the threshold concepts outlined in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. As a part of the ongoing development of this instrument, work is needed to more fully assess reliability and validity.

Research issues of the top 100 cited articles on information literacy in higher education published from 2011 to 2020: A systematic review and co-citation network analysis

Information literacy is a core research topic in the field of library and information science. The developmental context of this field can be examined through a long-term retrospective analysis of relevant literature. This study explored the research trends and potential research issues in the top 100 most frequently cited articles on information literacy in higher education published from 2011 to 2020. In addition to a systematic review, this study employed bibliometric methods, including co-citation network analysis, to identify four main research streams in the field of information literacy in higher education: (a) the relationships among students’ information literacy beliefs, competencies, attitudes and behaviour; (b) teachers’, librarians’ and students’ perspectives on information literacy; (c) the relationship between students’ information literacy and epistemic beliefs; and (d) the web search behaviour of digital natives. Accordingly, potential directions for future research and practitioner notes related to information literacy in higher education are proposed herein as a reference for researchers, teachers and policymakers. Implications for practice or policy: For administrators of higher educational institutions, understanding the challenges of new digital technologies and providing training to develop information literacy skills are crucial. For teachers, designing teaching materials and pedagogy based on the latest information literacy standards and framework is useful. Collaboration with professionals from different disciplines is also useful for teachers to integrate information literacy into subject learning activities to cultivate the information literacy competencies of students.

Christian Worldview as a Critical Information Literacy Lens: A Synthesis of the CCCU Commitments and the ACRL Framework

The work of numerous authors discussing the integration of Christian faith and practice in higher education has been presented in the scholarly conversation to date. Simultaneously, literature abounds regarding the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, its application by academic librarians and teaching faculty in the classroom, and how this framework is being utilized by scholars espousing critical information theories to analyze information. This article proposes an intersectional approach to these distinct scholarly discussions and attempts to answer the question: How can Christian educators equip students to navigate the information ecosystem of a fallen world with a Christ-centered perspective? Reasons for undertaking this work are evidenced by the three commitments articulated by the Council for Christian College & Universities (CCCU) to which the organization’s 185+ member institutions adhere; additionally, the ways in which educators can achieve this goal are founded in the guiding document on higher education information literacy concepts, the ACRL Framework.

Word (and/or/not) play

When searching for information in a catalog or database, a library user takes an active role by choosing search terms, selecting filters, and using advanced features. This process is rarely straightforward; depending on their needs and the availability of resources, a user may not find relevant results on the first try. When this happens, users must modify their search terms and strategies, observe the new results, and adapt accordingly. Successful searchers, therefore, are those who experiment, explore... and play. This article will put the concepts of play and playfulness in context with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, particularly its sixth pillar, Searching as Strategic Exploration. This juxtaposition will identify whether and how play, playfulness, and playful research are appropriate approaches for achieving the flexibility and creativity called for in the Framework. Recommendations follow for applying play in practical library settings such as reference and instruction.

The Role of Policies on Teaching Information Literacy in Higher Education: A Comparative Study in Italy and Thailand

The context of Europe and the ASEAN countries highlights a parallel growth of the concept of information literacy and the diversity of policies to solve information literacy issues. The comparative study aims to understand the influence of policies for the teaching of information literacy in universities in Italy and Thailand and was based on a theoretical framework built by international literature. The data was collected from the analysis of literature and web documentation in Italy and Thailand. The comparative analysis shows that the concept of information literacy has had a similar growth but the influence of policies for teaching information literacy in higher education is different in Italy and Thailand and still in continuous development. The results show that one element of success is the integration of information literacy into the higher education curriculum.

Intentional librarian-student interactions during COVID-19

As part of a research study to examine first-year college students’ preparation for college-level research, students at six U.S. institutions of higher education were surveyed in the spring semester of 2021. The pandemic continued to affect the delivery of information literacy (IL) instruction and library services across the United States throughout the 2020–2021 academic year. When students completed this survey in April and May of 2021, the majority of instructional services were offered in synchronous and asynchronous remote formats. The students' engagement with librarians and librarian-created instructional resources were captured via the survey and analysed to determine whether students were able to leverage these interactions and materials despite the remote contexts. Students who did not interact with an academic librarian were less likely to use library resources, had more problems accessing information, and felt more overwhelmed by the quantity of resources and services offered by the library. Results show that intentional student-librarian interactions are a bridge to the acquisition and development of knowledge practices and dispositions of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. The findings suggest considerations for moving forward when it comes to communicating with students and delivering IL support in academic libraries around the world as countries emerge from pandemic conditions.

Advancing data literacy: Mapping business data literacy competencies to the ACRL framework

The relationship between data literacy and business librarianship continues to grow in relevance as the conversation intensifies in higher education and the business world. Establishing shared vocabularies and mappings to foundational library professional documents is essential to moving the discourse forward. This article presents a mapping between seven baseline business data literacy competencies and the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

Scientometric analysis and visualisation of global information literacy from higher education perspective

Information literacy in higher education and academic research has proliferated. From 1991 to 2020, a total of 9,400 research publications on information literacy and higher education were produced steadily, as indexed in Web of Science (WoS) on 10 June 2021. This study shows the scientometric visualisation of information literacy and research in higher education using quantifiable characteristics from the publication’s dataset. The results disclose that the publication growth rate (16.84%) is highly significant for a synergistic response. Due to the productivity of authors, total of 470 papers were produced on an average per year from 1991 to 2020. Several academic publishers have allowed immediate access to their preprints and also allowed open access. The research output on Information Literacy has been published in more than 1256 journals. The results shows that most of the publications were in the domain of educational research and Library and Information Science. However, closely associated terms are health literacy, education, information literacy, higher education, and so on. Academic pivots are mainly located in Germany, USA, Australia, India, and Canada. The University of California, USA; The State University System of Florida, USA; and The University of London, UK are outstanding productive institutions. The G20 countries together produced 90% of the world’s research output on information literacy and higher education and also identified encouraging trends in collaborative research in several countries. Thus, the CI (3.757), DC (0.862), and CC (0.584) values are very substantial. Lastly, the geographic range of collaborating authors thereby visualized their linkages through co-occurrences. It analysed the influence of publications to show the most dominant contributions of global research on information literacy and higher education.

Looking at information with the sociological eye: Introducing the sociology companion document

In January 2022, the ACRL Board of Directors approved the Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Sociology. A product of the ACRL Anthropology and Sociology Section’s Instruction and Information Literacy Committee, this document employs the sociological eye to frame knowledge production and use. In doing so, the Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Sociology—which, moving forward, will be referred to as the companion document—invites us to explore how inequities are reproduced (and challenged) through information processes often cast as neutral. The companion document therefore provides tools for educators to incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) and social justice into their information literacy pedagogy.