Information Literacy Sessions Research Articles

Image thieves: A study of university library research guides on image use and citation

Librarians are frequently consulted on various topics, a central one being the proper citation of sources. Information literacy sessions, taught by librarians, are usually taught in less than an hour and may not cover the use of visual resources. To support teaching and research, outside the classroom, librarians develop research guides to provide scholarly resources and guidance on how to properly cite them. Often, the use of visual resources and proper citation for them are absent from research guides dealing with citation styles. This paper presents a study of research guides on image use and citation by determining which U.S. libraries in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) currently maintain guides on the legalities of citing copyrighted works, provide citation guidance, as well as examples.

Assessment of Library Service Quality at University of The Bahamas Libraries

The 21st-century learner has changed the way that libraries are being used. Academic libraries must demonstrate their value to university governing boards, therefore, libraries must understand current user perceptions to be prepared for the future. Continuous assessment of library collections, space, and services provides data needed to understand and demonstrate the impact of libraries in academia. University of The Bahamas Libraries administered the web-based LibQUAL+® survey twice, first in 2008 and 10 years later in 2018, to assess users’ perceptions and to measure service quality. The survey designed by the Association of Research Libraries and Texas A&M University has been used globally by libraries to gain insight from their user communities. In the survey findings, library users highlighted a need for more computers, printers, and updated equipment, along with more current books and journals. The survey results also revealed that University Libraries had helpful staff who provided efficient service. Users perceived that the libraries’ information literacy sessions helped them gain skills allowing them to become more efficient in their academic pursuits. With the opening of two new library buildings during this period, the onsite use of resources increased significantly for both the Harry C. Moore Library and UB North Campus Library. Overall, the general satisfaction level of users increased in 2018.

Journal Club: An Innovative Teaching Practice to Foster Peer Connection and Enhance Information Literacy Skills

This project aimed to better understand the impact and student experience of an innovative teaching strategy focused on information literacy (IL) for first-year undergraduate nursing students. Information literacy (IL) involves the development of a set of abilities essential for higher education learners, such as the ability to identify, critically evaluate, understand, and apply scholarly literature (ACRL 2013), yet studies often demonstrate that these IL skills are lacking and need further development (Bury 2016; Saunders 2012). Traditional methods of addressing this need center around stand-alone librarian-led IL sessions, which cannot provide the time or space needed to develop critical reading and reflection practices. Within our context of nursing, this is a common challenge; one study found that 40% of second-year nursing students have difficulty reading journal articles (Chaudoir et al. 2016), despite IL being an essential skill for nursing practice (Mitchell and Pereira-Edwards 2022). In an attempt to address learner needs, a course instructor and librarian teamed up. Journal clubs, used in practice settings to maintain currency and promote EBP behavior (Wilson et al. 2015), have been used successfully in other health education contexts (Steenbeek et al. 2009; Szucs et al. 2017; Thompson 2006). This application is referred to as evidence-based practice (EBP) and is an essential component of nursing practice. Having activities for undergraduate nursing students that instill EBP aims to ensure that it will be incorporated into practice after graduation (Mitchell and Pereira-Edwards 2022). Instead of the traditional librarian-led IL sessions, a first-year nursing course was redesigned to utilize a guided journal club approach to enhance the ability to seek, read, and interpret journal literature. Journal club activities took place over eight weeks, alternating guided activities with brief IL lessons, and culminated in a group journal club assignment. Students were placed in small groups based on an area of practice they wanted to learn more about. Activities were scaffolded starting with introducing a research database and basic literature searching strategies. As students progressed through the term’s journal club activities, they were asked to find articles related aligned with course topics and their area of practice, critique and present their articles to their group members, and then apply their interpretations. A survey was used to measure the impact of journal club on student IL self-efficacy, as measured through the validated Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES) developed by Kurbanoglu et al. (2006). Initial findings support journal club as an effective modality to enhance students’ self-efficacy in specific areas of IL. Additionally, other valuable outcomes of this strategy were discovered. For example, students reported becoming more comfortable collaborating with peers and anecdotal reports showed students developed friendships with peers. This scaffolded journal club approach to discipline-specific IL learning would translate well to other contexts, particularly those that require a significant grounding in reading and understanding disciplinary research. The journal club activities are available at: https://tinyurl.com/JournalClubPosterISSOTL2022, or by contacting the authors. Click here to read the corresponding ISSOTL blog post.

Information Literacy Training in Teaching Ethical and Plagiarism-Avoidance Skills among First-Year Students at a Private Tertiary Institution

There is an expectation that students in higher education be in possession of certain information or research skills. Information literacy equips students with skills to ethically handle and use information, thereby respecting the ideas of others. First-year students at the private higher education institution under discussion lack information literacy skills necessary to handle unethical use of information in their academic activities, despite information literacy sessions being available to them. The problem seems to be less a wilful disregard for the rules than compounded by inexperience and a lack of in-depth understanding of the application of information literacy skills. This article reports on the findings of a master’s study undertaken to investigate the role the information literacy training offered at the institution plays in inculcating ethical use of information skills and plagiarism-avoidance techniques among first-year students. The study adopted a qualitative approach using questionnaires and interviews where 188 first-year students were purposively selected through a census. The findings revealed that information literacy plays a significant role in raising awareness of ethical use of information issues and plagiarism. It trains students in the efficient and effective access and use of sources and sensitises them concerning upholding academic integrity. Although the training has been effective in sensitising students about the importance of academic integrity, it has, however, not been effective in curbing plagiarism as cases of plagiarism are still high. The study recommends the development of a formal information literacy programme that will teach plagiarism-avoidance techniques and impart and instil ethical use of information skills.

Beyond Session Counting: A Program Development Model for Information Literacy in a Liberal Arts College

ABSTRACT Academic librarians have long struggled to evaluate, report, promote and grow library services in order to effect positive changes in curricula. Metrics reported to faculty and administration generally include how many information literacy sessions are taught, how many students were present, and what subject areas were taught. However, merely counting information literacy sessions does not convey goals, opportunity, or progress. The Information Literacy Program Development Model (ILPDM) described in this article demonstrates how academic librarians at a small, liberal arts college moved beyond counting the number of information literacy sessions as a measure of value by clearly defining what a successful information literacy program should look like, and by demonstrating the impact, strengths, and limitations of a developing information literacy program. The model further allows librarians to track progress and identify opportunities for information literacy in each department and program across campus, and provides focal points for goal setting, outreach, and assessment. The model is adapted from the software industry’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM), later known as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), which tracks the evolution of complex processes along a continuum of five development levels.

Scaffolded Information Literacy Curriculum

The one-shot library instruction model emphasizes skill training, which fits well into the transactional structure of higher education. Therefore, one-shots often perpetuate the status quo by focusing on individual skills rather than systemic barriers to information literacy. Slow librarianship radically counters these neoliberal values. This article provides a concrete model for how slow librarianship can empower librarians to develop a scaffolded series of information literacy sessions. The author explores how, rather than just a series of one-shots, these collaborative sessions provide space for librarians to journey with students by creating lesson plans which challenge racism and other biases.

Interrogating representations of transgressive women: Using critical information literacy and comic books in the Shakespeare classroom

How can instructors and librarians collaborate to provide the interpretive scaffolds for students to critically engage with visual primary materials? The authors, an English faculty member and a faculty instruction librarian at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester (UNH Manchester), used graphic fiction as the textual basis of information literacy (IL) instruction, encouraging students to interpret primary and secondary sources using visual literacy heuristics and critical inquiry skills. Their student-centered, inquiry-based IL session for a Capstone Shakespearean Adaptations course focused on critical thinking and research question design. Using woodcuts from primary historical texts and images from contemporary graphic fiction adaptations of Macbeth, the instructors decentralized the classroom, empowering students to ask probing questions about illustrations of witches in early modern English source materials. Students used their questions to explore interpretations of visual depictions of powerful women in historical primary texts and contemporary graphic adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Guided by the instructors, students decoded images using the metadiscourse of graphic fiction; generated questions to inform their own inquiry into the topic; applied their IL skills to new texts; and interrogated the biases of received narratives about women who transgress societal norms and expectations, both in the early modern period and in the contemporary world.

Personalised learning paths for information literacy using Canvas MasteryPaths

This project report describes using MasteryPaths in the Canvas Virtual Learning Environment as a method of helping improve the information literacy (IL) competence for undergraduate science students studying in their first year at university. The MasteryPaths incorporated a series of formative quiz assessments on referencing and finding and evaluating information, which depending on the students’ initial score directed them to further enrichment or support materials. Four degree courses (Biology, Forensics, Biomedicine and Sport) each included the MasteryPaths in a first-year module in 2020/21, which were available in Canvas following face-to-face IL sessions. Focus groups were conducted with students, and interviews were carried out with two module leaders to explore perceptions of the MasteryPaths design and effectiveness for IL skills. The article provides insight into how online, self-paced, IL formative quiz assessments can be developed in a way to motivate and engage students in their learning.

Tech Tools in Pandemic-Transformed Information Literacy Instruction

Inspired by pandemic-transformed instruction, this paper examines the digital accessibility of five tech tools used in information literacy sessions, specifically for students who use assistive technologies such as screen readers. The tools are Kahoot!, Mentimeter, Padlet, Jamboard, and Poll Everywhere. First, we provide an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and digital accessibility definitions, descriptions of screen reading assistive technology, and the current use of tech tools in information literacy instruction for student engagement. Second, we examine accessibility testing assessments of the five tech tools selected for this paper. Our data show that the tools had severe, significant, and minor levels of digital accessibility problems, and while there were some shared issues, most problems were unique to the individual tools. We explore the implications of tech tools’ unique environments as well as the importance of best practices and shared vocabularies. We also argue that digital accessibility benefits all users. Finally, we provide recommendations for teaching librarians to collaborate with campus offices to assess and advance the use of accessible tech tools in information literacy instruction, thereby enhancing an equitable learning environment for all students.

It's All Improv to Me

Inspired by a workshop on incorporating improvisational techniques into classroom pedagogy, the in-class game Research Roulette was conceived as a way to incorporate improv and physical movement, with the specific goal of bringing a playful element into information literacy sessions. What shifts when the stated goal in a library workshop is to have fun and explore, instead of the prescriptive set of instructions of a more traditional bibliographic instruction? What happens when we move on from games and invite actual play? For students whose primary goal in a classroom or educational setting is to complete the work and do well, incorporating a playful element can be destabilizing. This article will explore the ways in which play, critical pedagogy, and information literacy intersect in the library classroom environment.

Academic integrity among medical students and postgraduate trainees in the teaching hospitals of South Punjab Pakistan.

This study investigated the topic of the academic integrity among medical students and postgraduate trainees in the teaching hospitals of South Punjab, Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 318 medical students and postgraduate trainees of teaching hospitals. The results found that medical students of pre-clinical years engaged in unethical behaviour, that is, exam cheating and plagiarism to cope with internal and external evaluation and the range of subjects needed to be studied. For postgraduate trainees, results showed trainees unintentionally engaged in the practice of plagiarism due to lack of understanding about what constitutes plagiarism, coupled with externally perceived pressures associated with expectations of research publication, promotions and tenured positions. To address these concerns, it is recommended that information literacy sessions for undergraduate and postgraduate medical students on plagiarism prevention and ethical practice be designed and facilitated by medical librarians in collaboration of faculty members.

The development and use of online information literacy activities to engage first year health students during the COVID-19 pandemic

The article discusses the development of online tutorials to support the Academic Librarians’ information literacy instruction during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. The content and development of the activities are presented in relation to information literacy (IL) standards. At the University of Northampton, the first-year students each receive two IL sessions from an Academic Librarian that support their information skills development. The first session focuses on identifying an information need and how to search for relevant information. The second session supports students to understand the referencing process and how to use information ethically. The IL sessions are based on the principles of Active Blended Learning and focus on providing interactive and engaging workshops for students. The activities were designed to support the students on health programmes who began their studies in April 2020 and the students who were receiving their final IL session. The reflections on the IL sessions highlight lessons learnt during the online delivery.

MeSH and text-word search strategies: precision, recall, and their implications for library instruction.

Objective:This study compared the recall and precision of MeSH-term versus text-word searching to better understand psychosocial MeSH terms and to provide guidance on whether to include both strategies in an information literacy session or how much time should be spent on teaching each search strategy.Methods:Using the relevant recall method, a total of 3,162 resources were considered and evaluated to form a gold standard set of 1,521 relevant resources. We compared resources discussing psychosocial aspects of children and adolescents living with type 1 diabetes using two search strategies: text-word strategy versus MeSH-term strategy. The frequency of MeSH terms, the MeSH hierarchy, and elements of each search strategy were also examined.Results:Using the 1,521 relevant articles, we found that the text-word search strategy had 54% recall, while the MeSH-term strategy had 75% recall. Also, the precision of the text-word strategy was 34.4%, while the precision of the MeSH-term strategy was 47.7%. Therefore, the MeSH-term search strategy yielded both greater recall and greater precision. The MeSH strategy was also more complicated in design and usage than the text-word strategy.Conclusions:This study demonstrates the effectiveness of text-word and MeSH search strategies on precision and recall. The combination of text-word and MeSH strategies is recommended to achieve the most comprehensive results. These results support the idea that MeSH or a similar controlled vocabulary should be taught to experienced and knowledgeable students and practitioners who require a myriad of resources for their literature searches.

Feminized Flexibility, One-Shot, and Library Professionalism: Oxymoron or Opportunity?

What perceived role do one-shot information literacy sessions play in the professional status of librarianship? In what way is this perception resulting from and contributing to the feminization of instructional labor? How will criticizing and/or changing one-shots disrupt or perpetuate gender and other forms of inequity? All these questions demand historical, theoretical, intersectional, and practical examination to inform equitable instructional models and pedagogies in academic librarianship. In this article, the author discusses one-shots’ impact on academic library instruction as feminized labor by theorizing manifestations and perceptions of flexibility. By reimagining professionalism with a feminist and intersectional lens, the author concludes that destigmatizing gender stereotypes in imposed flexibility and embracing practices of autonomous flexibility in one-shots are key for library instructors and administrators to advance both workplace and student equity.

Lessons learned from teaching: Reinventing the librarian in credit-bearing courses

Delaware Valley University is a private university located about one hour north of Philadelphia in bucolic Bucks County. The librarians at its Krauskopf Memorial Library have faculty status, which allows us to serve on faculty committees and teach credit-bearing courses. Despite this, librarians have only taught the first-year experience course, which is otherwise taught primarily by staff. This course is heavily scripted and not owned by the faculty, unlike other courses. It does not offer opportunity for course development or for building relationships with teaching faculty, both of which are important for instruction librarians. Most of our instruction librarians only have experience teaching one-shot information literacy sessions and are rarely embedded into a course. Much of the literature on semester-long library classes focuses on information literacy skills. These courses are designed by librarians as an antidote to the one-shot. But what if the information literacy was incorporated into course development? Could students learn research skills in a way that supported the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and inspired students’ interests?

Teaching and assessing students of information literacy in a single session—The case of the University of the West Indies Mona library

Assessing the performance of information literacy (IL) students can be a daunting task for librarians globally. Most IL sessions are taught in 1 to 2 hours where any meaningful assessments are difficult to achieve. This research demonstrated how this feat was achieved in an active learning environment through the use of Google Forms. This mixed method study shows how this was effectively achieved to test both lower and higher order skills in a 2 hour session to one hundred and seventy-two foundation writing course students.The research tested a rarely examined feature of Google Forms which is the tool’s effectiveness in enabling comprehensive assessment, facilitating active learning, and identifying instructional errors in an IL instruction session. The findings show that Google Forms can be used to teach and administer a quiz using both multiple-choice as well as open-ended questions to assess both low and higher order learning skills in IL. Students were able to actively respond to questions while they were being taught, the data gathered and analyzed and used to inform future library instruction. It also showed that Google Forms are useful not simply to administer multiple-choice quizzes at the end of teaching but can be used in executing real-time assessment and support active learning. Because Google Forms support the easy creation of charts and downloading/exporting of statistics, results of assessments can be shared among librarians, faculty, and students to motivate and encourage digital pedagogy. It allows for greater collaboration with faculty in the cooperative teaching of students in single sessions where there is usually difficulty in having dialogue with faculty once a session ends. This case study is based on a limited number of students; thus, the findings of this research may not be generalized but the methodology and some skills in teaching the concepts encountered by librarians may be replicated.

Experiences of information literacy and mobile technologies amongst undergraduates in times of COVID. A qualitative approach

Purpose The purpose of this article is to analyse the social science students' perceptions of information literacy (IL) and the use of mobile technologies (MTs) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approach Exploratory focus group methodology involving 18 Information Science and Education undergraduates.Findings Students believe that, above all, an information literate person must know how to search for information. Being able to recognise acceptable levels of IL and MT competencies/skills enabled them to detect the scant contribution of the university to IL and the poor support from the library. They routinely use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the classroom for assignments, presentations, searching and administrative tasks. Conversely, they consider their teachers' competency in the use of mobile devices for academic tasks could be improved. The increase in these shortcomings during the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed students to discover most teachers' attitudinal and technical limitations. Students' suggestions mostly point to improving platforms, teaching methods, teacher motivation and teachers/librarians interaction.Research limitations/implications Research is limited to several IL/MT-related concepts, one university and two degrees. It could be applied in other contexts, larger samples and other stakeholders such as librarians and teachers.Practical implications Need for more IL and TM instruction for students/teachers and greater interaction amongst them and with the library. The authors suggest promoting interdisciplinary seminars on the importance of IL and awareness sessions on ICT for learning.Originality/value This case study addresses students' critical/exceptional experience triggered by the pandemic.

Are We in-Sync? Students’ Virtual Instructional Experience and Perceived Information Literacy Skills in Time of Pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought a drastic change in the current educational system. While distance learning and online instruction is not really a new concept in the field of education (Kurzman, 2013), it has been intensified with the aim of minimizing physical interactions without jeopardizing the quality of knowledge transfer. The emergence of technology has also implicated changes in the information-seeking behavior of students over time (Oliveira & Greenidge, 2020). Online library orientations and virtual one-shot information literacy (IL) sessions have been in place to supplement virtual classroom instructions by teachers (Lierman & Santiago, 2019). The Nazarbayev University (NU) Library through its Reference Office took action and managed to implement creative ways to conduct online sessions. This paper documented NU students’ virtual library experiences with subject librarians during the pandemic as perceived by students. The 10-item workshop evaluation revealed that students felt very satisfied with the content, coverage, and organization of library sessions. They also highly agreed that the conduct of library sessions was practical, clear, and has an avenue for interaction and development of their IL skills. In a follow-up study with workshop evaluation respondents, a stratified sample size of 101 was determined to identify the current IL skills of students. Students were given the opportunity to conduct a self-assessment of their IL skills. With a 31.68% response rate, the eight-item IL skillset affirmed that students personally believed they were moderate users in searching and evaluating information sources. This paper also determined the frequency of follow-up sessions requested by the students even after attending the online library orientations and IL sessions. Data included in this research was gathered between August 17 to November 27, 2020. To investigate further, an analysis of the reference queries received during the Fall 2020 semester using Reference Analytics was conducted.

ORCID ID Source of Scholarly Identity: A Pakistani Librarians Awareness

The Open Researcher & Contributor ID (ORCID) ID is a unique author identification for the bibliographical record maintaining source. This is a thematic paper based on qualitative methodology deep sight reviewed different papers about the ORCID ID. Its role in scholarly communication and the publishing industry. The research findings show the awareness of Pakistani scholars about the ORCID and found 5020 ORCID ID account holders which seem very low awareness about the ORCID ID. Libraries and Librarian roles are also discussed about the promotion awareness of author identification sources. This study is helpful to librarians to include ORCID ID in their respective information literacy sessions. Pakistani researcher can secure their profile and avoid duplication of ID’s. This is the first study about the ORCID ID in the Pakistani context it will help to know Pakistani authors, researchers, scholars to known about one of the most emerging author identification tools having 12.1 million author/researcher records.

COVID-19 working from home (WFH): Library services and librarian experiences

COVID-19 has changed the library services serving style. The main purpose of this paper is to present the librarians who are working from home, share which type of library service librarians provide to library users and how they are connected with library users. Working from home (WFH) which type of problem and difficulty are faced during the providing of this pandemic crisis. An online administrative survey has been designed and disseminated to 60 librarians. N = 38 (63.38%) responses were received from all over Pakistan. Results are shown that librarians are actively providing library services during the lockdown. The librarians provide document delivery, reference and information literacy sessions besides the other services. Librarian connects via e-mail, WhatsApp and social media. Librarian also faces problem during WFH, i.e., internet speed and power failure are the major problems. Librarian also disseminates public health awareness to library users.