Information Literacy Standards Research Articles

Information Literacy in Music History: Fostering Success in Teaching and Learning

ABSTRACTThe article describes the collaborative process between the authors in adapting course assignments in undergraduate music history courses to demonstrate actual learning of content and information literacy skills. Although the inclusion of the information literacy standards is an important step in developing critical thinking skills, other factors impede students to perform well such as lack of knowledge on how to structure a research paper or not understanding how to properly cite the information. By monitoring student performance, the faculty and instruction librarian can make changes to improve student learning and the acquisition of critical thinking skills.

Graduate Students May Need Information Literacy Instruction as Much as Undergraduates

A Review of:
 Conway, Kate. (2011). How prepared are students for postgraduate study? A comparison of the information literacy skills of commencing undergraduate and postgraduate studies students at Curtin University. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 42(2), 121-135.
 
 Abstract
 
 Objective – To determine whether there is a difference in the information literacy skills of postgraduate and undergraduate students beginning an information studies program, and to examine the influence of demographic characteristics on information literacy skills.
 
 Design – Online, multiple choice questionnaire to test basic information literacy skills.
 
 Setting – Information studies program at a large university in Western Australia.
 
 Subjects – 64 information studies students who responded to an email invitation to participate in an online questionnaire, a 44% response rate. Of those responding, 23 were undergraduates and 41 were postgraduates.
 
 Methods – Over the course of two semesters, an online survey was administered. In order to measure student performance against established standards, 25 test questions were aligned with the Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework (ANZIIL) (Bundy, 2004), an adapted version of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2000). In the first semester that the survey was administered, 9 demographic questions were asked and 11 in the second semester. Participants were invited to respond voluntarily to the questionnaire via email. Results were presented as descriptive statistics, comparing undergraduate and postgraduate student performance. The results were not tested for statistical significance and the author did not control for confounding variables.
 
 Main Results – Postgraduate respondents scored an average of 77% on the test questionnaire, while undergraduates scored an average of 69%. The 25% of respondents who had previous work experience in a library achieved average scores of 79%, in contrast to 69% among those who had not worked in a library. Average scores for undergraduates in the 20-30 age group were 81%, while those in the 30-40 age group averaged 65%. Among both undergraduate and postgraduate students, scores may indicate deficiencies in information literacy skills in several areas, including parsing citations, strategies for locating specific content, and defining an information need.
 
 Conclusion – The study concludes that postgraduate students’ information literacy skills may be marginally better than the skills of undergraduates. Age was found to be associated with higher performance among undergraduate students, and a variety of “basic” information literacy skills may elude many respondents. These findings might prompt librarians and instructors to look closely at gaps in information literacy knowledge among students at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level.

From Freshman to Graduate: Making the Case for Student-Centric Institutional Repositories

INTRODUCTION Institutional repositories provide an opportunity to enhance the undergraduate education experience by developing student-centric collections. This article highlights five IR collections focusing on undergraduate student work at a medium size university. LITERATURE REVIEW Students benefit when they actively participate in undergraduate research activities that are tied to high-impact educational practices. However, there are limited options for undergraduate students to publish and share their work. Academic librarians are well-positioned to develop a student-centric institutional repository supporting undergraduate student research while working at instilling better information literacy standards and practices. DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT Western Oregon University’s Hamersly Library developed an institutional repository with an initial collection development strategy around undergraduate student collections based on the university’s strong identity and emphasis on undergraduate education. While traditional academic publishing opportunities are represented, there is also space and encouragement for publication of other types of student created material including presentations and creative works. There is an emphasis on representing student work from all grade levels. By connecting the student scholarship collections to high-impact educational practices, the library can advocate and demonstrate additional types of value that resonate with faculty and university administrators. NEXT STEPS The library will explore student publishing opportunities that originate in existing classes and new courses taught by librarians. Library faculty will continue to educate university administration and faculty on scholarly communication initiatives and their concerns of plagiarism and quality of work.

Exploring the Revision of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards

The Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) information literacy standards are currently under revision. As a result, several new concepts have been introduced that will no doubt impact information literacy across the United States. What do librarians understand about the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2014) that is being developed for application in academia? How will the new Framework (2014), the revision to ACRL Standards (2000), impact the way librarians structure and teach their information literacy classes? This paper summarizes the revisions that have been made up until the last ACRL recommendations draft from June 2, 2014 and comments on librarian concerns with the revisions and their probable impact on the information literacy classroom.

Research Information Literacy: Addressing Original Researchers' Needs

Information literacy for faculty, doctoral students and other research-based graduate students, post-docs, and other original researchers is complex. There are fundamental differences between the processes of inquiry used by original researchers as compared to students or even faculty who are synthesizing information to find answers. Original research is different from information synthesis for discovery. Therefore, the information literacy processes to train and support those researchers are different. Analysis of the inquiry-oriented parts of the current and emerging information literacy Standards and Framework shows significant differences in the approach needed for teaching research information literacy. Promising instructional outcomes for information literacy training based around original research include gap analysis, theoretical and methodological discovery, and practical skills like funding search and analysis.

Psychology guides and information literacy

Purpose – This study aims to provide an understanding of current practice and informs the further development of guides as key instructional tools. To assess the existing landscape of research guides as instructional tools, researchers examined the instructional content and associated media formats of online psychology research guides. Design/methodology/approach – Researchers devised an instrument utilizing Standard Two of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL’s) Psychology Information Literacy Standards and inventoried the instructional content and associated media formats of a sample set of 36 psychology research guides. Findings – Although online research guides offer a platform for presenting instructional content in myriad formats, it was found that the sample set of psychology research guides rarely incorporated instructional content. Research limitations/implications – Psychology course guides were not part of the sample set; it is possible that guide authors approach the addition of instructional content in course guides differently than in general psychology subject guides. Practical implications – This paper provides an overview of how libraries are, or are not, using research guides as part of their instruction program. The researchers propose a framework for adding instructional content to psychology guides using Standard Two. Originality/value – Considering the ubiquity of online research guides on academic library Web sites, little research on the existing integration of instructional content into guides has been published. This study offers a snapshot of current guide practice and proposes a practical, systematic and unique model for aligning information literacy standards with guide content areas which has not been proposed elsewhere.

Applying the Framework for Information Literacy to the Developmental Education Classroom

Translating the new Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education (ACRL November 2014) into learning outcomes, instructional content, and assessments might appear to be an overwhelming task; however, in many cases the revision exemplifies how many librarians have been teaching information literacy in the digital information landscape. This article describes the collaboration between a librarian and an instructor to integrate information literacy into a developmental reading class before the revision of information literacy standards were available and provides an example of adapting the new Framework to library sessions that already reflect a transformation in information literacy instruction for developmental education.

Three Faces of Information Literacy in Legal Studies: Research Instruction and Law Student Information Literacy Standards in the American Common Law, British Common Law, and Turkish Civilian Legal Traditions†

Information Literacy (IL) has been defined by the ACRL as the ability to identify, access, evaluate, and apply information in an ethical manner. However, IL skills are not an ossified set of behaviors, and IL skills cannot evolve in an intellectual vacuum, without the content that allows for such skills to emerge from practice. As such, IL should be contextualized within the structures and modes of thought of particular disciplines. In response, a burgeoning IL in law movement has arisen, applying the standards of identification, accessing, evaluation, application, and ethical analyses to legal information and the research methods and tools unique to the practice of law. This article traces the development of this movement in three distinct jurisdictions: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Turkey.

The Evolution of Library Instruction Delivery in the Chemistry Curriculum Informed by Mixed Assessment Methods

As information continues to evolve over time, the information literacy expectations for chemistry students also change. This article examines transformations to an undergraduate chemistry course that focuses on chemical literature and information literacy and is co-taught by a chemistry professor and a chemistry librarian. This article also describes results from assessment of both content knowledge and student perception, and discusses how the assessment was used to inform changes to the course. This type of student assessment and evaluation has not previously been examined in the delivery of required undergraduate chemistry information courses. Since this course has used in person, online, and blended delivery methods, the article describes what students can learn from online modules, and where they need more intensive classroom instruction. Introduction Over the last twenty years, there has been a dramatic change in how students acquire the chemical information skills for research or to acquire a job. In the past, searching was the most critical skill. Searching remains important, but now students also need strong filtering skills as the world has moved from information scarcity to information overload. While students feel comfortable with technology, they still need to learn how to differentiate scholarly from popular articles and how to critically evaluate the research claims presented in scholarly articles. While many other chemistry courses offer chemistry information seeking skills, few have Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship | Summer 2014 | DOI:10.5062/F46H4FDD partnered a librarian with a chemistry faculty member to team teach a course, develop an assessment tool to measure learning gains, and understand student perception of the acquired skills. This paper outlines the evolution of such a course at James Madison University. James Madison University (JMU) is a comprehensive public institution with over 18,000 undergraduates in Harrisonburg, VA. The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, housed within the College of Science and Mathematics, awards B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Biophysical Chemistry and has a strong undergraduate research culture. No graduate degrees are offered in chemistry. The Department is an American Chemical Society (ACS) Certified Program and has graduated approximately thirty to forty majors each year for the past five years. The Literature and Seminar sequence, required for all students earning a B.S. in Chemistry, consists of two one credit courses (CHEM 481 and CHEM 482). There are no prerequisites for the courses, but students typically take CHEM 481 after completing the a year of General Chemistry (CHEM 131 and CHEM 132), a year of Organic Chemistry (CHEM 241 and 242), a semester of Inorganic Chemistry (CHEM 270), the Special General Chemistry Laboratory I and II (CHEM 135L and CHEM 136L) and sophomore-level Integrated Inorganic/Organic Laboratory I and II (CHEM 287L and 288L.) Most students complete the Literature and Seminar courses during their junior year, but 10-20% of the students wait until the senior year. Table 1 shows the progression of courses leading up to the Literature and Seminar Sequence. Table 1: Chemistry major sequence of courses First Year Sophomore Year Junior (or Senior) Year Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Course CHEM 131 & 135L CHEM 132 & 136L CHEM 241 & 287L CHEM 242, 270 & 288L CHEM 481 CHEM 482 As an ACS Certified Program, the JMU chemistry department is committed to meeting the information literacy standards identified by the society. Chemical information literacy is a well-established domain within the ACS Division of Chemical Information (CINF) and the standards detail the specific skills that chemistry majors are Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship | Summer 2014 | DOI:10.5062/F46H4FDD expected to have (Chemical Information Skills, 2012.) To that end, in 2007 CINF and the Special Libraries Association Chemistry Division first issued “Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates,” a document enumerating skills expected of chemistry undergraduates related to finding, using, and communicating chemical and scientific literature (Craig and Maddox, eds, 2007.) These were updated again in 2011, moved to a wikibook format in 2012 and last revised in 2013. As the expectations of chemistry information literate students evolved, the Literature and Seminar sequence also changed to respond to these competencies. This article presents the evolution of the instructors and instructional delivery methods of the first semester of the Literature and Seminar course (CHEM 481.) These changes in chemical information literacy also address how assessment can be used to identify student strengths and skills to focus course instruction. It highlights the critical role of teamwork and communication between a librarian and chemistry faculty, the development of an assessment tool, and evolution of assignments to address student needs.

Designing games in the classroom: Learning benefits

Designing games in the classroom: Learning benefits

Information Literacy Articles in Science Pedagogy Journals

Objective – This study sought to determine the extent to which articles about information literacy-related topics have been published in science pedagogy journals. It also explored the nature of these references, in terms of authorship, Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) information literacy competency standards addressed, and degree of emphasis on information literacy topics. In addition to characterizing information literacy in the science pedagogy literature, the study presents a methodology that can be adopted by future efforts to explore representations of information literacy in the literature of additional academic disciplines. 
 
 Methods – The 2011 Journal Citation Reports® Science edition was used to identify the 15 journals with the highest impact factor in the “Education—Scientific Disciplines” subject category. Initially Web of Science was searched to identify occurrences of “information literacy” and related terms in the journals of interest during the 10 year period 2002-2011. This was supplemented by a title scan of the articles to ensure inclusion of relevant items that did not include library-centric terminology. Abstracts and, where necessary, full papers were reviewed to confirm relevance. Only articles were included: editorials, news items, letters, and resource reviews were excluded from the analysis. 
 
 Articles selected for inclusion were read in their entirety. Professional designations for each author were identified to characterize the authorship of this body of literature. Articles were also classified according to levels developed by O’Connor (2008), to indicate whether information literacy was a “Major Topic,” “Substantive Focus,” “Incidental Mention,” or “Not Explicitly Named.” Further analysis mapped each article to the ACRL information literacy competency standards (2000), to provide more detailed insight into which standards are most frequently addressed in this body of literature. 
 
 Results – Articles on information literacy-related topics appear only sporadically in science pedagogy journals, and that frequency varies depending on the specific subject area. Overall, librarians contribute a relatively small proportion of these articles, and are more likely to co-author with teaching faculty/graduate students than to publish alone or with other librarians. The degree of focus on information literacy topics (O’Connor level) varies depending on article authorship, with librarians more likely to treat information literacy as the “Major Focus” of their work. Additionally, the articles tend to cluster around ACRL information literacy standards two, three, and especially four, rather than addressing them equally. 
 
 Conclusions – The presence of some articles on information literacy-related topics in science pedagogy journals suggests that there is a willingness among these journals to publish work in this area. Despite this, relatively few librarians have pursued this publication option, choosing instead to publish articles on information literacy topics within the library and information studies (LIS) literature. As a result, librarians are missing out on the opportunity to share their published work in venues more likely to be seen and valued by subject faculty, and on the chance to familiarize science educators with information literacy topics. Future research should focus on: librarians’ rationale when selecting target publications for their information literacy writing; science educator interest in writing and reading about information literacy topics in their pedagogical journals; and the impact of articles about information literacy in these journals on subject faculty perceptions of the topic’s importance.
 
 The methods used in this research have implications for the study of information literacy in other academic disciplines, and demonstrate that the study of information literacy in the literature of academic disciplines can provide valuable insights into representations and characterizations of information literacy in diverse fields of study. A better understanding of how subject faculty think and write about information literacy in their scholarly literature could have a significant impact on how librarians approach and collaborate with faculty in all fields of study.

Science Information Literacy Tutorials and Pedagogy

This study aims at finding out which information literacy standards science and technology libraries have been trying to instruct through Web-based tutorials and the extent to which pedagogical elements are incorporated. The research results are expected to be helpful to the future designing of tutorials for information literacy instruction purpose.Cette étude a pour objectif d'identifier les normes de maîtrise de l'information utilisées par les bibliothèques de sciences et technologies dans le cadre de tutoriels en ligne et la mesure dans laquelle des éléments pédagogiques y sont intégrés. Les résultats devraient être utiles au développement de futurs tutoriels consacrés à la maîtrise de l'information.

What Five Minutes in the Classroom Can Do to Uncover the Basic Information Literacy Skills of Your College Students: A Multiyear Assessment Study

Objective – Librarians at Rider University attempted to discern the basic information literacy (IL) skills of students over a two year period (2009-2011). This study aims to explore the impact of one-session information literacy instruction on student acquisition of the information literacy skills of identifying information and accessing information using a pretest/posttest design at a single institution. The research questions include: Do different student populations (in different class years, Honors students, etc.) possess different levels of IL? Does the frequency of prior IL Instruction (ILI) make a difference? Do students improve their IL skills after the ILI?
 
 Methods – The librarians at Rider University developed the test instruments over two years and administered them to students attending the ILI sessions each semester. The test was given to students as they entered the classroom before the official start-time of the class, and the test was stopped five minutes into the class. A pretest with five questions was developed from the 1st ACRL IL Standards. A few demographic questions were added. This pretest was used in fall 2009. In spring 2010, a second pretest was developed with five questions on the 2nd ACRL IL Standards. Students of all class years who attended ILI sessions took the pretests. In 2010-2011, the pretest combining the 10 questions used in the previous year was administered to classes taking the required CMP-125 Research Writing and the BHP-150 Honors Seminar courses. An identical posttest was given to those classes that returned for a follow-up session. Only the scores from students taking both pretests and posttests were used to compare learning outcomes.
 
 Results – Participants’ basic levels of IL skills were relatively low. Their skills in identifying needed resources (ACRL IL Standards 1) were higher than those related to information access (ACRL IL Standards 2). Freshmen in the Honors Seminar outperformed all other Rider students. No differences were found in different class years or with varying frequencies of prior IL training. In 2010-2011, students improved significantly in a few IL concepts after the ILI, but overall gains were limited.
 
 Limitations – Many limitations are present in this study, including the challenge of developing ideal test questions and that the pretest was administered to a wide variety of classes. Also not all the IL concepts in the test were adequately addressed in these sessions. These factors would have affected the results. 
 
 Conclusions – The results defy a common assumption that students’ levels of IL proficiency correlate with their class years and the frequency of prior ILI in college. These findings fill a gap in the literature by supporting the anecdote that students do not retain or transfer their IL skills in the long term. The results raise an important question as to what can be done to help students more effectively learn and retain IL in college. The authors offer strategies to improve instruction and assessment, including experimenting with different pedagogies and creating different posttests for spring 2012.

Information literacy competency of post graduate students at Haryana Agricultural University and impact of instruction initiatives

PurposeSince the education of Master of Science students in the discipline of agriculture is catalectic without libraries, the present paper seeks to assess the information literacy competency (ILC) of post graduate (PG) students at Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India, along with the impact of instruction initiatives in this respect.Design/methodology/approachBased on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology, 2006, an instrument was developed with 79 scoring items in the first part of the questionnaire along with non‐scoring items in the second part. Broad headings of the questions asked are shown in detail. Validity and reliability of the instrument are also reported.FindingsInformation literacy competency of PG students has been found satisfactory along with significant difference between the first and second year students. Results of the paper distinguish between the first and second year students in the light of five information literacy (IL) standards along with other considerations. Various instruction initiatives were found to have a positive impact upon the ILC of PG students.Practical implicationsSince the study has been able to establish a positive relationship between instruction initiatives and ILC, such initiatives may be introduced in other academic institutions.Originality/valueNone of the earlier reported research instruments had used science and engineering/technology IL standards, especially upon PG students in agriculture. This study further paved the way for the development of such an nstrument along with assessing the ILC of PG students and impact of instruction initiatives in an agricultural university.

Innovation in the Academy: Creating an Online Information Literacy Course

This article describes the instructional design and development of an online, for-credit information literacy course for distance students at a large research university. The course was accepted for the university's Innovation Academy which is a new educational model where students blend on- and off-campus learning. Course development and sample assignments called “Literacy Labs” are described in detail, demonstrating how the course supports the American Library Association standards of information literacy, while acknowledging the role of students as content creators.

Connectivism and Information Literacy: Moving From Learning Theory to Pedagogical Practice

Connectivism is an emerging learning theory positing that knowledge comprises networked relationships and that learning comprises the ability to successfully navigate through these networks. Successful pedagogical strategies involve the instructor helping students to identify, navigate, and evaluate information from their learning networks. Many principles of connectivism align with the information literacy standards of the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Librarian educators should consider connectivism learning theory when implementing pedagogical strategies in the network domains of students.

Teaching Information Literacy Skills to Senior Undergraduate Engineering Students

Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology establish a set of abilities for students to recognize their information needs, access information effectively and efficiently, evaluate information critically, and use information in a legal and ethical way. The Standards aim to help students accomplish academic goals in their studies and build lifelong learning skills, and they are also well-aligned with the CEAB graduate attributes. Moreover, it is important that students acquire these skills before completing their undergraduate degrees since, upon entering the workforce, they will need to investigate problems and communicate complex ideas with colleagues and clients in both written and oral format, and they will not have the same support available as when they are in university. The authors, an engineering librarian and instructor, collaborated in the Fall 2012 semester to offer two information literacy training sessions within a final-year electrical and computer engineering course. This paper presents the topics and pedagogies used in this training and discusses the challenges that the authors encountered. Recommendations on integrating information literacy training into engineering curriculum are also provided.

Faculty Knowledge of Information Literacy Standards Has an Impact in the Classroom

Objective – To discover how faculty perceives information literacy and examine whether professors in different disciplines view and approach information literacy differently. Particularly, the study seeks to address the following questions:
 
 • “How do faculty members define or understand information literacy? Are they familiar with existing standards such as [those from the Association of College and Research Libraries] ACRL? Does the development of a local definition of information literacy impact faculty understanding?
 • How important do instructors believe information literacy to be for their students? How do they address information literacy, or expect it to be addressed within the curriculum?
 • Are there disciplinary differences in faculty attitudes toward and approaches to information literacy?” (p. 227)
 
 Design – Survey, i.e., an online questionnaire followed by interviews.
 
 Setting – Colleges and universities in the United States.
 
 Subjects – 834 faculty members in anthropology, the natural sciences, computer science, English literature, psychology, and political science from a sample of 50 American colleges and universities with undergraduate degree programs. 
 
 Methods – An email, containing a link to a brief online survey, was sent to 834 professors from academic institutions across the United States. Three faculty members from each department in six different disciplines from each institution were contacted. The survey contained a mix of closed and open-ended questions and could be completed in less than 10 minutes. Respondents were asked to supply their contact information if they agreed to be phoned for a follow-up interview. The interview consisted of six questions that were posed to all participants, with some changes depending on the answers given.
 
 Main Results – Regardless of discipline, the majority of faculty members who responded to the survey thought that information literacy competencies were important for their students to master. The majority also rated their students as only “somewhat strong” in “identifying scholarly materials, identifying reliable/authoritative information, finding relevant information, citing sources properly, synthesizing information, and searching databases” (p. 229). Professors’ answers differed within different disciplines when it came to showing their own knowledge of information literacy standards, such as those of ACRL, and assessing the abilities of their students. For example, biology students’ web searching skills were rated higher than students in English literature and anthropology. When faculty were asked their opinions about who should be responsible for information literacy instruction, there was no straight answer. Many professors agreed that it is the responsibility of both faculty and librarians. Those faculty members who were knowledgeable about information literacy standards were also among the ones who included information literacy instruction in their courses and thought it was important for their students to learn.
 
 Conclusion – According to the author, the study results show that possibilities continue to exist for librarians to be part of information literacy endeavours, but it is still up to the librarians to start and maintain conversations with faculty on this topic. Because faculty members have not yet found systematic methods for integrating information literacy into the curriculum, they might be open to librarians’ suggestions and ideas on this topic. “Perhaps the most important finding of this study is that knowledge of and familiarity with information literacy standards is more closely associated with whether faculty address information literacy in their courses than any other variable including disciplinary area” (p. 232). Therefore, it is the librarian’s responsibility to engage in discussions with faculty about information literacy.

Secondary teachers and information literacy (IL): Teacher understanding and perceptions of IL in the classroom

Secondary teachers have the opportunity and the curriculum mandates to teach information literacy skills, yet students enter post-secondary studies with low information literacy proficiency. In many cases, teachers present the only opportunity for students to develop information literacy proficiency. With semi-structured interviews, this study explored eight secondary teachers' perceptions of information literacy and their experiences with IL as educational professionals. Confusion around the phrase information literacy was a dominant theme as participants were unfamiliar with the term and were inconsistent in defining the scope of what it might mean. Although there are references to information literacy skills in the core curriculum and support documents, participants varied in their instruction and understanding of this skill set. Participants unanimously agreed that information literacy skills, as explained using the Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education (ACRL, 2000), were important for their students. However, the extent of IL skills required varied by student. Pursuing post-secondary studies warranted advanced IL, and these students were more likely to be taught higher-level skills. IL skill development was also assumed to be the responsibility of the student, and passive acquisition was anticipated. Assumptions regarding student need and ability informed instruction. These results suggest that the current curricular mandates are insufficient to ensure IL is incorporated into instruction and that teachers are ill-prepared to instruct IL effectively.

Information Literacy and the Google Generation: Teaching Research Skills to Sixth-Formers

AbstractThere is a perception in the legal information profession that levels of information literacy among law students and trainee solicitors are lower than they should be. In this article Ian Hunter considers if this starts at sixth form level and discusses the Google generation stereotype. Training sessions given to sixth-form students by the author are described and the students' levels of information literacy are considered against various information literacy standards. The suitability of these standards for sixth form students is assessed and suggestions for future information literacy training at school, HE and trainee solicitor level are discussed.