The Perfect Storm: Examining User Experience and Conducting a Usability Test to Investigate a Disruptive Academic Library Web Site Redevelopment

Abstract

The researchers conducted a task-based usability test of the effectiveness of online research beginning on the library Web site homepage. The participants included five university faculty members, six graduate students, and six undergraduate students. All participants reported feeling satisfied with their overall research experience, though most were unable to effectively complete all the research tasks of the test. The researchers identified weaknesses in the approach and process of many participants, and overall usability issues of the library discovery tool and other library Web site pages and research interfaces. Findings indicate the need to strategically incorporate self-service information literacy and research skills help into the library Web site, and to implement navigation and design changes to the library homepage, discovery tool interface, online catalog, and across all the library's Web services.     

Using collaborative teaching and inquiry project-based learning to help primary school students develop information literacy and information skills

Information literacy and information technology (IT) skills have become increasingly important in today's knowledge society. Many studies have shown that students from primary school to postgraduate lack crucial information literacy and IT skills, hence there is a need for an effective pedagogical approach that will develop these skills. This study investigated the effect of combining a collaborative teaching approach with inquiry project-based learning (PjBL) on the development of primary students' information literacy and IT skills. Students in a Hong Kong primary school completed two inquiry-based group projects. A collaborative teaching approach involving three teachers in different subject areas (general studies, Chinese, and IT) and the school librarian was adopted in guiding students through the two projects. Results indicate that this program had a positive impact of on the development of different dimensions of the students' information literacy and IT skills.     

Wiki Technology Enhanced Group Project to Promote Active Learning in a Neuroscience Course for First-Year Medical Students: An Exploratory Study

A wiki group project was integrated into a neuroscience course for first-year medical students. The project was developed as a self-directed, collaborative learning task to help medical students review course content and make clinically important connections. The goals of the project were to enhance students’ understanding of key concepts in neuroscience, promote active learning, and reinforce their information literacy skills. The objective of the exploratory study was to provide a formative evaluation of the wiki group project and to examine how wiki technology was utilized to enhance active and collaborative learning of first-year medical students in the course and to reinforce information literacy skills.     

Assessing Information Literacy Instruction in the Basic Communication Course

Information literacy is becoming a key component of general education programs nationwide. As a critical part of most general education programs, the basic communication course is on the frontlines of the charge to teach information literacy skills to first-year students. Thus, the information literacy skills of basic course students should be assessed to track the effectiveness of instruction and pedagogical practices. The present study used a pretest/posttest design with experimental and control groups to assess the effectiveness of information literacy instruction in the basic course. As predicted, students in the experimental group outperformed students in the control group on the information literacy measure. Results of the present study have implications for basic course directors and instructors, general education curriculum specialists, and librarians.     

Assessing the impact of a study skills programme on the academic development of nursing diploma students at Northumbria University, UK

Background: The Government's nursing recruitment campaign has widened access for those wishing to enter the profession, resulting in some students entering university with clinical experience but little experience of academic writing or using libraries. For these students, the library and study advice staff have an important role to play in helping them acquire appropriate information literacy and study skills. Objective: To evaluate the impact of workshops supplementing online instruction in study skills on students’ study and writing skills, and level of information literacy. Methods: A small group of pre‐registration nursing students identified as needing support with information literacy and study skills participated in focus groups to identify areas of concern, and were offered four remedial workshops. A follow‐up focus group explored whether the students’ needs had been addressed. Further evaluation of the workshops’ impact was completed by diagnostic testing within the University's information literacy programme, Skills Plus. Outcomes: The results showed that all students who attended at least one workshop improved their academic grade in their next assignment. Qualitative data indicated that the students’ confidence level and information literacy, including referencing skills, had improved. Conclusion: Evaluating the impact of this intervention has provided the evidence to demonstrate the value of this additional support.     

Information Literacy and Global Readiness: Library Involvement Can Make a World of Difference

The need for information literacy continues to increase as colleges and universities begin to globalize their curricula and include global readiness in institutional missions. This article reports pretest and posttest data collected during a librarian–faculty collaboration to determine the effect of information literacy instruction on students participating in an anthropology class focused on global understanding. The results suggest emphasis on teaching specific skills can produce an increase in students’ information literacy levels. Also, emerging global curricula may provide an avenue for librarians to pursue the promotion of information literacy. Changes in students’ information literacy skills, successful teaching strategies, and their connection to global readiness are discussed.     

What do freshmen really know about research? Assess before you teach

The paper describes an effort to assess the information literacy skills of first year college students. An instrument was developed and information was gathered on students' experience and comfort in conducting library research as well as their perceived competence with specific information literacy skills. In addition, students completed a skills test to assess specific knowledge and skills relating to information literacy. Entering freshmen generally self-reported their skills to be less than “excellent.” This finding was supported by the results of the skills test. Strengths and weaknesses in information literacy skills are reported as well as implications for librarians who assess and teach these skills to students.     

How high-school students find and evaluate scientific information: A basis for information literacy skills development

This study examined the relationship between curricula in secondary-level science classrooms, which support development of information literacy skills, and actual student skills. A vast body of research reflects deep concern with the level of information literacy skill development among secondary and post-secondary students. But even when educational curricula mandate skill development, many students are unable to demonstrate sophisticated information searching and critical evaluation skills. The findings of this study, which we based on analyzing information seeking tasks and conducting interviews with students in three biology classes in a large urban high school, demonstrated a similar lack of skills. Pressure on teachers to “teach to examinations”—that is, to focus on substantive content rather than on information literacy skills and information literacy skills deficits among teachers themselves—is a possible explanation for these results. The study is of particular interest to teachers of the curriculum applicable in the study context, but the broader implications of repeated indications of gaps in students' information literacy skills are a significant indicator that schools must assume a larger responsibility for information literacy instruction. Leaving skill development to the post-secondary environment will not ensure that citizens are sufficiently skilled to participate fully in 21st century life, in workplaces or in their personal life contexts.     

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.     

Addressing below proficient information literacy skills: Evaluating the efficacy of an evidence-based educational intervention

Over the course of three years, an educational intervention was developed to teach information literacy (IL) skills, change perceptions of IL, and to recalibrate self views of the abilities of first year college students who demonstrate below proficient information literacy skills. The intervention is a modular workshop designed around the three-step analyze, search, evaluate (ASE) model of information literacy, which is easy to remember, easy to adapt to multiple instructional situations, and can provide a foundation for building information literacy skills. Summative evaluation of the intervention demonstrates that students who attend the workshop see an increase in skills and awareness of information literacy as a skill set. Increases in skills, however, were not sufficient to move participants into the proficient range. While workshop participants were able to reassess preworkshop skills, skills gained in the workshop did not result in recalibrated self-views of ability. Like the development of skills, the recalibration of self-assessments may require multiple exposures to information literacy instruction.     

Integrating evidence-based practice and information literacy skills in teaching physical and occupational therapy students

Background: To ensure that physical and occupational therapy graduates develop evidence‐based practice (EBP) competencies, their academic training must promote EBP skills, such as posing a clinical question and retrieving relevant literature, and the information literacy skills needed to practice these EBP skills. Objective: This article describes the collaborative process and outcome of integrating EBP and information literacy early in a professional physical therapy and occupational therapy programme. Methods: The liaison librarian and a faculty member designed an instructional activity that included a lecture, workshop and assignment that integrated EBP skills and information literacy skills in the first year of the programme. The assignment was designed to assess students’ ability to conduct a search independently. Results: The lecture and workshop were successful in their objectives, as 101 of the 104 students received at least 8 out of 10 points on the search assignment. Conclusions: The teaching activities developed for the students in this course appear to have achieved the goal of teaching students the EBP research cycle so that they might begin to emulate it. The collaboration between the faculty member and the librarian was integral to the success of this endeavour. Future work will include the evaluation of students’ long‐term retention of information literacy objectives.     

基于文献调研的国内外研究生信息素养教育实践进展

[目的/意义]运用文献调研方法,对2000年以来国内外研究生信息素养教学实践研究论文进行归纳梳理,探讨教学模式及教学内容变化新趋势,为国内同行开展研究生信息素养教育提供参考。[方法/过程]分别以Web of Science平台的SCI-E及SSCI数据库和中国知网的中国学术期刊网络出版总库为研究对象,收集国内外自2000年以来发表的有关研究生信息素养教育的期刊论文,通过分析研究生信息素养教学模式与教学内容,总结新环境下研究生信息素养教育的主要研究成果。[结果/结论]近年来嵌入式信息素养教育得到进一步应用与推广,基于学习项目或研究任务的信息素养教育、基于同伴培训的信息素养教育及"翻转课堂"的应用具有借鉴意义,而文献综述与写作技能、科技查新、数据素养等可以作为信息素养教育的拓展。研究生信息素养教育应以课程教学为主,开展更广泛的合作,尤其是引入写作、出版方面的专家;重视与专业课程结合,培养专业技能及信息能力;仍要重视研究生检索技能的培养并需要系统的信息素养评价工具或评价体系来测试研究生信息素养能力及评估信息素养教育效果。     

Bringing Information Literacy into the Social Sphere: A Case Study Using Social Software to Teach Information Literacy at WFU

This article presents an approach to teaching information literacy in an academic course from a socio-technical perspective. It includes an overview of the course framework, a review of course contents, and an analysis of student responses provided through pre- and post-course surveys. The premise of the course design was that students bring a set of technical and information skills to class that address specific but not generalized information literacy goals. By designing a course to engage students from this perspective, the instructors hoped to find a new method for approaching information literacy instruction.     

LibGuides and Web-Based Library Guides in Comparison: Is There a Pedagogical Advantage?

This study investigates whether the platform used to deliver a tutorial matters in online information literacy instruction and assesses the overall quality of an information literacy tutorial assignment given to an undergraduate survey class. The study asks whether there is any pedagogical advantage between information literacy tutorials created in the LibGuides library guide creation software and tutorials created as Web pages. This research question is relevant to current studies of online information literacy tutorials, particularly given the increasingly dominant but under-researched position of LibGuides in the academic library world for delivering guides and tutorials. Two separate groups of students completed LibGuides and Web page versions of the same information literacy tutorial assignment in a university undergraduate communication course. Survey results of these 89 students indicated that both the LibGuides and Web page platforms deliver online instruction content effectively and achieve learning objectives almost equally well. Results also indicated content areas within the assignment that could be strengthened.     

Promoting and Teaching Information Literacy on the Internet: Surveying the Web Sites of 264 Academic Libraries in North America

A survey was conducted between July and November 2012 to determine how academic libraries in the United States and Canada marketed and delivered information literacy on the Web. A random sample of 264 institutions was taken from Peterson's Four-Year Colleges 2012, and the authors checked each Web site of the academic libraries of the institutions in the sample for instruction-related activities. Only 65 percent of the libraries in the sample advertised library instruction as a service on the Web, while 64 percent of the libraries boasted research guides and tutorials. Sixteen percent of the libraries provided direct links to ACRL's Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, and 24 percent made an effort to explain and define the term “information literacy” to their users. The authors hope the findings can help determine how academic libraries are currently using the Internet to increase information literacy on the Web and set a new platform for better strategies for advocating information literacy.     

Utilizing WebQuests for Information Literacy Instruction in Distance Education

ABSTRACT

The increasing use of problem-based learning in higher education affords librarians new avenues for promoting the development of information literacy skills among students. Information literacy instruction supports problem-based learning activities by providing students with skills to locate relevant resources for developing solutions to these exercises. The author created three WebQuests (together with tutorials) aimed at promoting faculty-librarian partnerships to deliver information literacy instruction through a problem-based learning approach in the context of course work in a distance learning environment. These problem-based learning WebQuests can be adapted to various disciplines as well as to traditional learning environments. Lastly, these WebQuests promote the development of information literacy skills in students as well as increase their exposure to problem-based learning. doi:10.1300/J106v14n03_03     

Advancing nursing students' transition to scholarship: embedding a librarian into the Advanced Nursing Research course

Background:Nursing students often prioritize learning clinical skills rather than research skills, possibly inhibiting their growth as scholars. Supporting nursing students'' learning of information literacy skills has been shown to impact nurses'' involvement with research after graduation. This suggests a need for developing innovative information literacy teaching strategies that can enable nursing students to better understand the process of research and how to apply research to practice.Case Presentation:This article describes the implementation of the embedded librarian project at the course level at the University of Memphis. A librarian was integrated into the Advanced Nursing Research course, a semester-long course for graduate nursing students, for the fall 2020 semester. This case shares the embedded librarian project''s implementation and evaluation strategies.Conclusions:The embedded librarian project aided students'' acquisition of information literacy skills at the University of Memphis. Students reported that the embedded librarian project helped them complete assignments for their research course. Using an embedded librarian service within the graduate nursing curricula model may enhance scholarship among future nurses.