A Profile of Information Literacy Programs in the First Year of College:

Initial Findings from a National Survey

Debbie Malone, DeSales UniversityCindy Kilgo & Jennifer Keup, University of South Carolina

Ryan Padgett, Northern Kentucky UniversityColleen Boff, Bowling Green State University

Many years ago I once heard the former president of the Urban League, Vernon Jordan, say in a speech in Columbia, S.C. “if you ain’t in the room, you ain’t part of the action”! Ladies and gentlemen, it is my thesis that you aren’t as much in this larger room I am calling the “first-year experience reform movement” as I think you should be and this concerns me greatly.

John Gardner in a keynote address at the 2003 ACRL National Conference in Charlotte

Results of that challenge

• Hardesty, L. (2007). The role of the library in the first college year (Monograph No. 45). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition.

• Boff & Johnson. (2002). The library and first-year experience courses. Reference Services Review, 30(4). 277-287.

“The more we teach information literacy the more our faculty want us to teach it to first year students because they see the positive impact it has upon preparing students for advanced work--thus, the reason it has become the key learning outcome for our FYE course”

Quote from survey participant

Literature Context

- Assessment

- Collaboration

- Pedagogy

Assessment

• Conducted mostly in English courses, first-year seminars, and orientation programs

• Variety of instruments used:

– The Information Literacy Test

http://www.madisonassessment.com/assessment-testing/ information-literacy-test/

– The Library Anxiety Scale

– iSkills

– Institution specific pre/post tests

• Assessing/grading student bibliographies etc.

Collaborating with FYS

• Information literacy is not always a requiredcomponent

• Library tours

• Some librarians teach seminars

• Librarians participate in design of assignments

• Librarians may provide one or multiple instruction sessions

• Often includes a combination of online modules and face-to-face sessions

Librarians Collaborating with English Composition Instructors

• Librarians act as consultants on assignment design

• Librarians team teach the course

• Librarians train teaching assistants

• Librarians grade assignments

• Librarians teach one-shot information literacy sessions

• Librarians teach multiple information literacy sessions in each course section

• Librarians provide one-one-one research help

• Academic learning centers

• First year science laboratory courses

• Student Services

• First-Year Engineering courses

• Computer Science departments

• High risk student programs

• School librarians

Collaboration beyond FYS & Eng. Comp

A wide variety of Pedagogies are in use

• Interactive Online tutorials

• Problem based learning

• Multiple active learning strategies

• Librarians embedded in courses (online & f to f)

• Clickers (audience response systems)

• Gaming

National Survey of Information Literacy Programs in the First Year

• Methodology for administration

– Administration: Sept. 14 – Nov. 4, 2011

– Invitation sent to 3,684 instructional librarians in 4 waves• Instructional section of ACRL member database

– 510 responses (13.8% response rate)

• 91.2% of respondents (n = 465) reported integrating information literacy in the first year

Survey Characteristics

Percentage of First-Year Students who Participate in Some Form of Formalized IL

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Percent of FY Students

Required?

Is the information literacy course/module/ component required for all first-year students?

Yes – 47.5%

No – 50.5%

Don’t know – 2.0 %

Discrete Information Literacy Course, Module, or Component Number Percentage

One-on-one appointments with librarians outside of class 352 75.7

Within an English course 336 72.3

Orientation session 314 67.5

Tutorials 278 59.8

Within a first-year seminar 276 59.4

Course management systems 209 44.9

Drop-in workshops sponsored by the library 176 37.8

Videos 152 32.7

Within another type of first-year course 138 29.7

Workshops as part of other campus units 108 23.2

Learning Community 92 19.8

Within an independent information literacy course 87 18.7

Other 52 11.2

Podcasts 20 4.3

Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGS) 19 4.1

Primary Information Literacy Course, Module, or Component Number Percentage

Within an English course 143 32.1

Within a first-year seminar 136 30.6

Within another type of first-year course 52 11.7

Orientation session 41 9.2

Other 24 5.4

Within an independent information literacy course 16 3.6

Tutorials 13 2.9

Course management systems 6 1.4

Workshops as part of other campus units 6 1.4

Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGS) 2 0.5

Learning Community 2 0.5

Videos 2 0.5

Drop-in workshops sponsored by the library 1 0.2

One-on-one appointments with librarians outside of class 1 0.2

Podcasts 0 0.0

Instruction and Pedagogy

Primary Person(s) Responsible for Development of IL

Librarian(s) - 88.4%

Non-librarian faculty - 10.5%

Program/course coordinator - 9.2%

Other - 3.7%

Academic affairs professional - 1.9%

Graduate student - 0.9%

Student affairs professional - 0.0%

Undergraduate student - 0.0%

Primary Person(s) who Instructs/Delivers IL

Librarian(s) - 88.0%

Non-librarian faculty - 9.9%

Other - 5.6%

Graduate student - 4.1%

Program/course coordinator - 2.8%

Academic affairs professional - 1.1%

Undergraduate peer leaders - 0.4%

Student affairs professional - 0.2%

Undergraduate student - 0.2%

How the IL Component is Taught

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Face-to-face, one-shot session

Within a formal

classroom setting

Librarian designed

assignment

Blended (part classroom, part online)

Series of face-to-face

sessions

Other Online only Blogs Wikis

Pe

rce

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ge

Information Literacy Course/Module/Component Taught

Primary Instructional Methods

Instructional Methods Percentage

Active learning exercises 61.7

Lecture 45.2

Orientation session(s) 31.6

Library designed research assignment 28.6

Tutorials 18.3

Small group work 17.8

Course Content and Outcomes

Most Important Skills and Topics

Important Skills and Topics Percentage

Article searching 55.7

Evaluating sources 44.3

Search strategies (Boolean operators, key words, etc.) 34.4

Differences between scholarly and popular sources 31.2

Catalog searching 30.3

Topic exploration 15.9

Critical thinking 14.6

Citing sources 13.5

How do students demonstrate to their instructor their knowledge of IL competencies?

56.6

40.4

34.2

22.8 22.6 21.9

4.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Research paper Annotated bibliography

Student presentation

Pre-test/post-test Other Quizzes None

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Demonstrate Knowledge of IL

How do students demonstrate to their instructor their knowledge of IL competencies?

56.6

40.4

34.2

22.8 22.6 21.9

4.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Research paper Annotated bibliography

Student presentation

Pre-test/post-test Other Quizzes None

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Demonstrate Knowledge of IL

How do students demonstrate to their instructor their knowledge of IL competencies - OTHER

- Multiple responses across items

- Faculty determine competencies

- Worksheets and game

- In class assignment

- Reflective essay

- Clicker quiz

- Passing a tutorial

- Website evaluation exercise

Primary Learning Outcomes59.8

50.8

31.629.2

26.5

15.3 14.0

7.1

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Efficiently access

information

Evaluate information and sources critically

Demonstrate familiarity with library services and the layout of the library

Differentiate between scholarly, popular,

primary, and secondary

sources

Use information effectively to accomplish a

specific purpose

Use information ethically and

legally

Determine the extent of the information

need

We do not have established

learning outcomes in

place

Pe

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ges

Primary Learning Outcomes

How is the IL Evaluated and AssessedStudent evaluations of library session(s) 37.4

Observation of student behavior or track anecdotal observations 32.9

Librarian analysis of assignments and/or bibliographies 28.2

Librarian survey of participating faculty members at the end of the course 24.3

Pretest/posttest design 20.0

Quiz/test 19.6

Student reflection on his/her own learning 18.9

End of course evaluations 18.5

Rubric 17.4

Other 14.8

Student evaluations of instructor 14.6

No evaluation or assessment is conducted 11.2

Standardized test (such as SAILS or iSkills) 6.7

Implications

and

Discussion

If 91.2 % of our participants integrate information literacy into some portion of their 1st

year curriculum, what are the other 7.7% (39 institutions) doing?

This merits further investigation.

Primary Information Literacy Course, Module, or Component Number Percentage

Within an English course 143 32.1

Within a first-year seminar 136 30.6

Within another type of first-year course 52 11.7

Orientation session 41 9.2

Other 24 5.4

Within an independent information literacy course 16 3.6

Tutorials 13 2.9

Course management systems 6 1.4

Workshops as part of other campus units 6 1.4

Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGS) 2 0.5

Learning Community 2 0.5

Videos 2 0.5

Drop-in workshops sponsored by the library 1 0.2

One-on-one appointments with librarians outside of class 1 0.2

Podcasts 0 0.0

Primary Instructional Methods

Instructional Methods Percentage

Active learning exercises 61.7

Lecture 45.2

Orientation session(s) 31.6

Library designed research assignment 28.6

Tutorials 18.3

Small group work 17.8

Most Important Skills and Topics

Important Skills and Topics Percentage

Article searching 55.7

Evaluating sources 44.3

Search strategies (Boolean operators, key words, etc.) 34.4

Differences between scholarly and popular sources 31.2

Catalog searching 30.3

Topic exploration 15.9

Critical thinking 14.6

Citing sources 13.5

Encouraging findings

• Librarians are planning (88%) and delivering (88.4%) IL component

• Face to face delivery most often (55%)

• Active learning exercises are being used most frequently (61.7%)

Encouraging findings cont.

• Evaluating sources is taught frequently (44.3%) and is also a frequently stated learning outcome (50.8%).

• Accessing and Evaluating most frequent Learning Outcomes addressed

Findings that make us pause

• The IL component is required of all first-year students at only 47.5% of the institutions

• Topic exploration (15.9%)

• Citing sources (13.5%)

Questions? Comments?

Primary presentation contact:

Debbie Malone

Library Director

DeSales University

Debbie.malone@desales.edu