Information Literacy Learning Research Articles

Recognizing the Value of Threshold Concepts: Application of a Conceptual Tool to Professional Students Learning to Be Researchers

ABSTRACTThreshold concepts, as theorized by Meyer and Land, are key understandings, ways of thinking, and subjectivities that are necessary for newcomers to learn in order to participate successfully in a given field of study or practice. Every discipline and profession has threshold concepts, but often they are so integral to veterans’ participation in their field that they remain implicit until an effort is made to articulate tacit understandings into explicit learning outcomes for newcomers. Library and information science uses threshold concepts as a framework for educating all types of students in information literacy competencies expected of novice researchers. This report demonstrates how threshold concepts were articulated and implemented into a summer research scholars program for veterinary students. This article uses a typology of transformative learning outcomes as a guide to articulate threshold concepts specific for researchers in veterinary science. Through examining the context of a summer research scholars program for veterinary students, these concepts were further elucidated and considered in the implementation of information literacy learning opportunities for this program.

Inquiry Based Learning Models, Information Literacy, and Student Engagement: A literature review

This paper explores the research literature relevant to the increasingly popular field of Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) practices in K-12 academic environments. IBL is constructivist and student-centered (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Condliffe, Visher, Bangser, Drohojowska & Saco 2016; Duffy & Raymer, 2010; Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Caspari, 2015), leveraging student motivation and engagement through its grounding in authentic, relevant study (Deci & Ryan, 2016; Saunders-Stewart, Gyles, Shore & Bracewell, 2015). Recent research shows positive academic and achievement gains for students engaged in IBL work and the practice is growing.

The Role of Information Literacy in Higher Education: An Initiative at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco.

This paper, part of which was presented at the 12th annual AMICAL conference at the American University in Bulgaria held in Blagoevgrad, on 29 May 2015, reports on a doctoral research project which explores the meaning and role of information literacy in higher education and lifelong learning. It also highlights an information literacy initiative at a Moroccan university, namely Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, and how its academic library strives to promote it. Living in an age of information tsunami and technological advancement, issues of information access, evaluation, retrieval and effective use, have become significantly critical in our societies. Directing the attention to the issue of information literacy and framing the best practices on how they can be best blended into the learning process of students are of paramount importance. Like other libraries across the globe, Mohammed VI Library at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco has realized the importance of information literacy and has worked in various ways to address this issue. This paper will describe the university strategy of teaching Information Literacy to graduate and undergraduate students in a number of ways. Recommendations to improve and support this initiative, including incorporating information literacy and skills across the university's curriculum, and fostering more effective partnerships between the Al Akhawayn university library and the teaching faculty, will be also discussed in this paper.

Informationskompetence som medlæring. Konstruktivistiske og handlingsorienterede læringsforståelser mellem uddannelseslæring og informationssøgning.

In this article we investigate different understandings of learning underlying the interpretation of students’ and researchers’ moves between learning in the university domain and learning processes, usually associated with information literacy, the latter including information managing activities like information seeking. We show that mainstream concepts like information need, “Anomalous State of Knowledge”, information seeking or topic inherit their learning theoretic background from a cognitive constructivist view on learning, dominating the understanding (and implementation) of learning in the domain of higher education. In order to construct a coherent understanding of disciplinary learning and information managing activities, cognitive constructivist assumptions on learning and the nature of information in learning processes are implicitly transferred to the domain of information literacy as well, establishing fields like generic or disciplinary information literacy. The application of cognitive constructivist assumptions on information literacy learning produces, in our opinion, an inadequate characterization of information related activities in the context of higher education, ignoring their unconscious, purely activity based character. In order to link information literacy as emergent, incidental learning to the typically formal and conscious contexts of disciplinary learning we propose a Critical Psychology framework, conceptualizing individual learning as a primarily activity based concept. This move makes the students’ and researchers’ shifts between the two domains understandable and allows reconstructing those movements as instantiations of coherent learning activities.

Library Strategic Planning for Middle States Accreditation: A 10-Year Road to Success

ABSTRACTAcademic libraries face periodic accreditation review, usually on a 10-year cycle in the United States. Being successful at accreditation is a milestone achievement and it takes careful and strategic planning for action items leading up to the review visit. This paper reviews the key activities undertaken by an academic library in a small sized college as it prepared for accreditation visit by Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Focus areas of activities include librarians’ collaboration with teaching faculty, information literacy and student learning outcomes, and library program review. A few recommendations are suggested.

Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning: Policy Issues, the Workplace, Health and Public Libraries

Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning: Policy Issues, the Workplace, Health and Public Libraries

Digital citizenship through game design in Minecraft

Purpose– This study aims to describe a library project exploring innovative options for embedding information literacy skills in the elementary school library by utilizing Minecraft, a virtual world three-dimensional (3D) building game environment.Design/methodology/approach– The small-scale descriptive study, with a follow-up survey, focuses on a group of fifth-grade students in an after-school technology club facilitated by the school librarian. The students designed and built a 3D virtual world library game for younger students to help them learn digital citizenship and information literacy.Findings– Analysis of observations, interviews and videos indicated that students were highly engaged in learning information literacy elements throughout all stages of the project from design, building, implementation and testing of younger students.Research limitations/implications– Although the small number of students enrolled in the club is a limitation, the feedback provided strong evidence of motivation for learning through gamification. Further research could assess learning outcomes with the curriculum, specifically for digital citizenship and information literacy.Practical implications– Embedding information literacy into a 3D world allows students to learn computer code, mathematics, game design, and fosters collaboration while demonstrating digital citizenship.Social implications– Game design requires teamwork, a real-life skill essential for students entering the work force.Originality/value– Few articles share student-designed solutions of critical information literacy needs. This study exemplifies constructivist learning in a gaming environment.

Impacting Information Literacy Learning in First-Year Seminars: A Rubric-Based Evaluation

The authors conducted a rubric assessment of information literacy (IL) skills in research papers across five undergraduate first-year seminar programs to explore the question “What impact does librarian intervention in first-year courses have on IL performance in student work?” Statistical results indicate that students in courses with greater levels of strategic faculty-librarian collaboration performed significantly better in IL outcomes than those in courses with low collaboration. Intensive librarian course support was not necessary to achieve significant learning gains; these tended to occur when librarians provided initial input into syllabus and assignment design, followed by one or two assignment-focused IL workshops.

The Information-Seeking Habits of In-Service Educators

Research on information literacy and educators has focused on preservice educators and learning information literacy skills. Little research exists on in-service educators and their information literacy skills. Purposes of this study were to identify information sources that in-service educators used; to determine relationships between information sources used and in-service educators’ professional position, age groups, experience, and information format preference; and to determine relationships between in-service educators’ information-seeking habits and prior library instruction. Results of this study indicated statistically significant relationships between information-seeking habits and prior library instruction. Other statistically significant in relationships were indicated between information-seeking habits and the age groups and current professional positions of sample population.

Learning information literacy through drawing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore drawing as an instructional method to teach information literacy. Design/methodology/approach – The authors describe their work using Collaborative Speed Drawing with students in a collection of information literacy workshops for students enrolled in English 100 (first-year composition). Examples of student drawings from the workshops are examined to demonstrate the benefits and problems of this teaching method. Findings – Drawing is an excellent low-tech teaching method that helps students demonstrate their competence (or ignorance) of information literacy concepts. This method enables librarians to clarify, reinforce, challenge or change the pictures in student’s heads that underpin their understandings of library instruction and information literacy. Practical implications – This article provides ideas on how to use drawing in information literacy sessions or credit courses. Many of the ideas shared can be copied, enhanced or tailored to meet the needs of diverse lessons and students taking face-to-face instruction sessions. Originality/value – This is the first paper in library literature that focuses on and promotes drawing as a teaching method. In doing so, it challenges the high-tech instruction imperative and invites librarians to explicitly consider the images behind the words and concepts used in information literacy and library instruction sessions.

Repurposing Zotero for sustainable assessment and scalable modified embedding

Purpose – This paper aims to describe a new application of Zotero, a citation management system, for embedded librarianship and assessment. It explores student reception of this approach and maps Zotero’s capacities to represent citations to learning outcomes and information literacy frames that instruction librarians assess. Design/methodology/approach – The librarian worked with a course using Zotero group libraries for collaborative work, used Zotero to communicate with students and assess their information literacy skills and surveyed the students to determine their perception of librarian participation via Zotero. Findings – Using Zotero’s features made it possible to formatively and summatively assess student work quickly, and students were receptive to librarian participation via Zotero. Practical implications – This suggests that librarians facing difficulty embedding in online courses or those seeking to assess student work may wish to explore Zotero as a sustainable solution to both challenges. Originality/value – This paper posits a solution to common challenges for online embedded librarianship and suggests a new technique for assessing student information literacy in a context that supports information literacy.

A Development of Blended Information Literacy Learning Web for Thai High School Students

Students nowadays have to communicate with a ton of the information, since the rapid development of internet technology. Thus for, information-related skill plays an important role in students success. Blended Learning is recently used in many information literacy programs around the world, including in Thailand. Most of researcher try to integrate information literacy model into high school programs, so the aim of this research was to develop a blended learning website for high school embedded information literacy course. The blended learning website was designed from literature reviews and experts interview, then evaluated by 5 experts. A usability testing was conducted with high school student by using 1-on-1, small group and field testing method, subjects were selected from tenth-grade students at Kasetsart University Laboratory School Center of Educational Research and Development. The data were collected and analysed using content analysis and descriptive statistics. The result indicated that there was a significant difference in mean scores between pre-test and post-test.

Critical connections: personal learning environments and information literacy

Personal learning environments (PLEs) and critical information literacies (CILs) are two concepts that have been presented as responses to the challenges of the rich and complex information landscape. While both approaches support learners’ critical engagement with new information environments, each was developed within a different field. This paper connects and contrasts PLEs and CILs in order to explore the design of pedagogical responses to the information environment. Through a careful examination of PLE and CIL literature, the paper demonstrates that information literacy education intersects with the concepts and goals of PLEs. As such, the authors suggest that PLE scholarship informed by CIL scholarship, and vice versa, will yield a deeper understanding of modern learning contexts as well as a more holistic and responsive learner framework. The example of the research assignment will be used to demonstrate the viability of this approach. With these propositions, the authors invite educators, librarians and information technologists to engage in a dialogue about these concepts and the potential for pedagogical change.Keywords: personal learning environments; information literacy; information landscape; self-directed learningCitation: Research in Learning Technology 2015, 23: 21193 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v23.21193

Building a Peer-Learning Service for Students in an Academic Library

Academic libraries are well lauded for offering supportive spaces for students’ self-directed study, and significant resources are dedicated to librarian instruction in the classroom. What many academic libraries lack, however, is a middle ground, a routine way for students to help one another using best practices in peer-to-peer learning theory. A new, nonauthoritative, supplemental service by students and for students began at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, in fall 2012 with a cohort of “peer research consultants.” Students learn information literacy skills with a well-trained peer, untethered from the hierarchy inherent in formal instruction environments. This paper describes the program design, training, and conclusions after two academic years in operation and argues the value of peer tutoring in libraries.

Library Instruction and Themed Composition Courses: An Investigation of Factors that Impact Student Learning

Many academic libraries partner with English composition in order to teach first year students skills related to academic research and writing. Due to the partnership between information literacy and first-year writing programs, it is important to evaluate how these programs can best support one another. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of two factors on student information literacy skill development: library instruction and section theme—defined here as class sections of the English 102 (ENG 102) program developed around a central topic selected by the instructor. A random sample of annotated bibliographies from 95 sections of ENG 102 were scored with two information literacy rubrics in order to find out if scores differed between sections based on the variables of library instruction and theme. The results of this study indicate that sections of the ENG 102 program that attended an information literacy instruction session scored significantly higher on the annotated bibliography assignment than sections that did not attend. We also found that themed sections of ENG 102 scored marginally higher on the annotated bibliography than non-themed sections of ENG 102. Implications for further research are discussed, including the potential impact of theme-based writing on information literacy learning.

Information literacy learning as epistemological process

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to discuss the reasons for an approach to teaching information literacy (IL) as an epistemological process of discovery, in which emphasis is shifted away from short-term mastery of library skills and re-centered on higher-order intellectual concerns. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on evaluation of personal experience, readings within and outside the field of teaching librarianship and research into the ways students interact with information. Findings – An open approach to working with undergraduate students offers a fruitful way forward for teaching librarians and IL learners, both of whom stand constantly on the edge of an unpredictable information universe. Originality/value – Learner-oriented approaches to teaching IL are quite common, but relatively few studies have considered, in any depth, the possibility for a truly open model for IL learning that approaches the world of information as unified but not monolithic. This study draws on a variety of perspectives from outside librarianship to present a different vision for the future of information interaction and its facilitation by teaching librarians.

Evidence-based instruction integration: a syllabus analysis project

Purpose – The purpose of this research paper was to establish a replicable method of gathering and analyzing data using course syllabi to enable instruction librarians to strategically embed information literacy instruction within a disciplinary curriculum. Design/methodology/approach – A set of syllabi from the School of Business was evaluated for information literacy learning outcomes and library use requirements using a set of rubric-based content analysis questions. The questions were normed prior to coding to ensure reliability, and interrater reliability was established using two measures: the per cent agreement method and Krippendorff’s alpha. Findings – The results revealed strategic opportunities for scalable, curriculum-integrated instruction in the School of Business: a group of 28 courses that could be targeted for in-depth instruction, and eight courses whose outcomes could be met through more tailored instruction focused on information access skills. Originality/value – The reported research study provides a method for evaluating holistic information literacy outcomes in course syllabi, an improvement on prior syllabus analysis projects. Additionally, the reliability of the data means that the study design may be replicated in a variety of institutional contexts.

Developing a new approach to information literacy learning design

This article reports on the development of a new model for information literacy (IL) learning design created as part of Innovative Technologies for Engaging Classrooms (iTEC), a European project focused on redesigning teaching and learning. Findings from this project, along with a review of previous studies of IL models, demonstrate why a new approach is needed. The resulting model, InFlow, has been designed to encourage students to engage with information in a variety of ways as they map, explore, ask, make, reflect, imagine, show and collaborate. The rationale behind the development of this model raises fundamental questions about current teaching practices in relation to IL, such as the need to encourage collaborative working; the role of students as producers of information as well as consumers; and the privileging of particular types of information sources and outputs. This article describes the process by which this model was developed, based on approaches used in iTEC, and explains how it responds to criticisms of existing models. A short case study of the use of InFlow in a UK university library demonstrates how the model can work in practice to create IL programmes for students of the 21st century.

Teaching and learning of information literacy in some selected institutions of higher learning in KwaZulu-Natal and Malawi

Information literacy (IL) is a set of abilities that enable individuals to recognise when information is needed and to subsequently locate, evaluate, and utilise the required information. It enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of information sources, and also to become producers of information in their own right and thereby more active participants in society. Information literacy is the basis of lifelong learning. It is common across all disciplines, all learning environments, and all levels of education. This study, which was conducted among academic and library staff and students at the University of Zululand (Unizul) and the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in KwaZulu-Natal (SA) and Mzuzu University (Mzuni) in Malawi, reports on the offering and teaching of IL in these institutions of higher learning. The findings reveal that IL is offered and taught as a module at Unizul and as a course at Mzuni by their respective Departments of Library and Information Science, though not across all the faculties. At DUT, IL is only offered and taught by the library during the Library Orientation programme, campus wide. Problems encountered in the teaching and learning of IL include inadequate time, lack of computer skills, inadequate venues and equipment for teaching and students' practicals, and lack of cooperation. The study recommends that the module or course of IL should be incorporated into the university curricula of all three institutions, and the DUT should introduce a dedicated module or course in information literacy and embed it into the students' course materials. The three universities should also advertise to academic staff, students and decision makers the importance of having modules or courses in IL.

Bridges to the Future: Teaching Information Literacy Across Standards, Institutions, and the Workforce

Teaching information literacy skills to prepare young adults for the demands of a technologically modern workforce requires collaboration between schools and libraries. Identifying opportunities to build bridges that enable smooth transitions for information literacy learning across content areas, standards, and institutions requires collaboration among librarians. Perspectives and discoveries of four librarians (secondary school, two-year technical college, and an undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degree granting university) engaged in collaboration are examined. Collaboration resulted in a common framework for teaching information literacy skills designed with the goal of developing academic and workforce competencies including accessing, sorting, evaluating, and incorporating reliable information into daily lives.