A Bibliography of Sources related to IL’s impact
by Tina Weyland, Kirsten Hostetler & Tina Hovekamp
An overview of IL assessment efforts:
This review and report is intended to provide Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) leaders and the academic community with 1) a clear view of the current state of the literature on value of libraries within an institutional context, 2) suggestions for immediate “Next Steps” in the demonstration of academic library value, and 3) a “Research Agenda” for articulating academic library value.
Information Literacy Assessment Tools:
In an article that appeared in the November 2010, issue of C&RL News, Jennifer Jarson provided links to several [assessment tools].…The goal of this article is to build on the assessment links Jarson provided. Her stated goal was to “guide readers to important resources for understanding information literacy and to provide tools for readers to advocate for information literacy’s place in higher education curricula.” In addition to the information on resources and tools, Jarson provided links to universities whose assessment tools were available for review on their Web sites. For this article, selected Web sites have been accessed and evaluated further. A handful of additional information resources have been profiled, including new Web sites that offer a variety of assessment tool formats.
List of sources addressing the effects of Information Literacy efforts:
The article focuses on the challenge for academic library administrators to contribute to student retention. It says that academic administrators are struggling hard to understand the factors affecting students’ retention on academic institutions. Accordingly, students’ decision to leave the college before graduation is influenced by a member of the faculty, another student or an advisor. Furthermore, academic libraries could potentially have an impact on student retention if a strong linkage between libraries and student retention can be made. The research found that libraries contribute to student retention. The plans on how libraries can create an impact on student retention are discussed.
Library instruction seems to make the most difference to student success when it is repeated at different levels in the university curriculum, especially when it is offered in upper-level courses. Instruction librarians should differentiate between lower-division and upper-division learning objectives for students in order to create a more cohesive and non-repetitive information literacy curriculum.
The University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library has offered a fifteen-week two-hour credit course since 1998. In a longitudinal study covering twelve years, the library analyzed the progression and graduation rates of over fifteen thousand students. Students who took the class during their undergraduate career were found to graduate at much higher rates than students who never took the class. The library examined students’ high school GPAs and aptitude test scores but were unable to account for the increase through any difference in pre-collegiate achievement.
Daugherty, Russo (2011). An assessment of the lasting effects of a stand-alone information literacy course: The students’ perspective. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37 (4), 319-326.
The authors wished to measure the degree to which a library information literacy course establishes a foundation for life-long learning. A web-based survey was administered to 2147 currently-matriculating Louisiana State University students who had taken the one-credit information literacy course, Library and Information Science (LIS) 1001 (Research Methods and Materials). Though the response rate was relatively low, the survey revealed clear evidence that students continue to use the materials and skills taught in the course throughout their college careers for both course work and personal research.
What impact does the academic library have on student persistence? This study explores the relationship between traditional library input and output measures of staff, collections, use, and services with fall-to-fall retention and six-year graduation rates at Association of Research Libraries member libraries. When controlling for race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, a linear regression finds that a change in the ratio of library professional staff to students predicts a statistically significant positive relationship with both retention and graduation rates.
Fain, Margaret. (2011). Assessing information literacy skills development in first year students: A multi-year study. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 37(2), 109-119.
Assessment data from 5 years of a pretest/posttest with first-year students was analyzed using McNemar’s test. The results show that revisiting previous assessment data can identify significant changes in information literacy skill development.
Gross, Latham (2013). Addressing below proficient information literacy skills: Evaluating the efficacy of an evidence-based educational intervention, Library & Information Science Research, 35(3), 181-190.
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.
Haddow, G. (2013). Academic library use and student retention: A quantitative analysis. Library & Information Science Research, 35(2), 127-136.
A key component of Vincent Tinto’s model of retention is the importance of student integration in the academic institution. Library use can be regarded as a form of integration within such institutions. A quantitative approach was applied to demonstrate how institutional data can be combined to examine library use and retention at a single institution.
Hernon, P., Dugan, R.E. (2002). Developing an assessment plan for measuring student learning outcomes. In An Action Plan for Outcomes Assessment in Your Library (pp. 29-42). Chicago, IL: ALA.
This article summarizes best practices on how to establish an assessment program in an academic library using ACRL standards and the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University as a case study.
Hsieh, Ma Lei, Dawson, Patricia H., Carlin, Michael T. (2013). What five minutes in the classroom can do to uncover the basic information literacy skills of your college students: A multiyear assessment study. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 8(3), 34-57.
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/post-test design at a single institution… 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 post-tests for spring 2012.
Hufford, J.R. (2013). A Review of the literature on assessment in academic and research libraries, 2005 to August 2011. Libraries and the Academy, 13(1), 5-35.
A review of the literature following a 2005 report from Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Important findings include: research/citation workshops at the University of Albany resulted in significantly improved understandings of the research process and reductions in plagiarism; semester-long collaborations between the library and biology departments at Indiana University showed student improvements in information literacy skills; further testing at IU showed a significant discrepancy between students’ options, self-assessments, and graded tests.
The authors report the results of a study which used citation analysis of students’ term papers to determine the effectiveness of a library instruction session. The research was conducted during the 2004-2005 school year. In each semester, two sections of the same class received a library instruction session, while the third section of the class did not. Bibliographies of the students’ term papers were then examined to determine if the numbers and types of sources cited differed between the two groups. Library instruction was determined to be effective, in that students receiving library instruction were significantly more likely to cite journal articles and other scholarly resources than those students not receiving the library instruction.
Julien, H., & Boon, S. (2004). Assessing instructional outcomes in Canadian academic libraries. Library & Information Science Research, 26(2), 121-139.
This article reports on a three-year study of information literacy instruction in Canadian academic libraries, focusing on the outcomes of instruction in terms of tests of information literacy skills and interviews with students that explored their experiences of information literacy instruction. Particular emphasis is given to investigating instructional effectiveness and assessing learning outcomes with respect to identifying those institutional and pedagogical factors that promote successful outcomes. Outcomes of instruction include positive cognitive, behavioral, and affective results. Further discussion explores how instruction contributed to students’ overall educational success and which factors characterize “success” in achieving those outcomes from the viewpoints of instructional librarians and from the perspectives of clients (i.e., students). These data provide a basis on which to advance instruction toward identifiable, positive outcomes for students in postsecondary institutions. An emphasis on such outcomes is essential if librarians are to justify devoting institutional resources to instructional activities.
This study examines the relationship between formal library instruction and undergraduate student performance and persistence in higher education. Researchers analyzed two years of academic and demographic data collected from first-time freshmen at Middle Tennessee State University in an attempt to quantify the effect of librarian-led one-shot classroom instruction on students’ grade point averages and their likelihood of returning to school for the sophomore year.
Survey of 59 student respondents who participated in an outcomes-based one-shot instruction session. Researchers wanted to know if demographic information influenced student responses. No significant relationship was found between participants rating of their search experience and individual characteristics. There was a demonstrated relationship between student experience with the campus library and the formulation of search queries and the number of search queries employed. “These findings suggest the importance of students’ exposure to the library – both in terms of the library as a place and as a resource. The question of how to provide this exposure, when students seldom seek it, remains a major challenge for academic librarians.”
A series of surveys distributed to graduating seniors over the course of five years. The resounding conclusion from these surveys was that “students’ perceptions about their ability to gain access to information and conduct research exceeded their actual ability to do so.”
Mery, Yvonne, Newby, Jill, & Peng, Ke (2012). Performance-based assessment in an online course: Comparing different types of information literacy instruction. Libraries & the Academy, 12(3), 283-298.
This study investigates whether the type of instruction (a single face-to-face librarian-led instruction, instructor-led instruction, or an online IL course–the Online Research Lab) has an impact on student information literacy gains in a Freshman English Composition program. A performance-based assessment was carried out by analyzing bibliographies in a required controversy paper. Descriptive, correlation, and regression analysis showed that the type of instruction did impact the quality of the bibliographies. Students in the online IL course had higher quality bibliographies than those students who received a one-session face-to-face instruction.
Needham, G., Nurse, R., Parker, J., Scantlebury, N., & Dick, S. (2013). Can an excellent distance learning library service support student retention and how can we find out? Open Learning, 28(2), 135-140.
This paper outlines the efforts of staff at The Open University Library to embed their services and resources into the learning experience of their distance learners, and to aspire to find ways of demonstrating their contribution to student retention and achievement. While there is huge potential in the amount and range of data available, the challenge is to identify an appropriate model that allows The Open University Library to demonstrate how Library Services impacts on student retention, attainment and achievement.
Using data from the 2003 National Survey of Student Engagement, researchers found that participation in information and library-related activities (e.g., using the library website to find academic resources, asking librarians for help, etc.) were positively correlated with student engagement in other areas that the researchers labeled as “active and collaborative learning” (e.g., working with other students on class projects, working with other students outside of class, etc.), “student-faculty interactions” (e.g., discussing grades or assignments with faculty, talking about career plans with faculty, etc.), and “academic challenges” (e.g., working harder than students thought they could to meet an instructor’s standards, preparing two or more drafts of a paper before turning it in, etc.)
A study on four groups of first-year students, each group receiving a different type of information literacy instruction. Results showed that online tutorials were just as effective as face-to-face instruction and could be used in larger-scale orientation sessions to avoid tapping limited library resources.
The article discusses some opportunities which show how institutional initiatives can be leveraged for improving library impact on student persistence and retention in the U.S. The Naugatuck Valley Community College (NVCC) in Connecticut has imposed a mandatory library instruction sessions which gave its library staff the opportunity to assess the information literacy of new students. Improvement in student retention was identified by the Arizona Board of Regents as an important metric for state funding, with an objective to improve freshmenretention and increasing the six-year graduation rates.
Samson, Sue (2010). Information literacy learning outcomes and student success. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36 (3), 202-210.
Information literacy learning outcomes of randomly selected first-year and capstone students were analyzed using an assessment instrument based on the ACRL competency standards. Statistically significant differences between student populations in the selective and relative use of information inform the library instruction program and apply to research and teaching libraries.
Seeber, K.P. (2013). Using assessment results to reinforce campus partnerships. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 20, 352-365.
In response to calls for accountability, academic libraries have increased their assessment efforts. Although the University Library at Colorado State University–Pueblo has been engaged in student learning outcome assessment for several years, it has recently expanded its system of evaluation to share the results of information literacy assessments with teaching faculty. This was done in an effort to demonstrate the value of library instruction to the faculty of a small, regional campus. Several benefits have been realized as a result of this move, including stronger partnerships with course instructors and other departments engaged in academic support.
Sheret, L., & Steele, J.A. (2013). Information literacy assessment: Keep it simple, keep it going. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 52(3), 208-215.
Survey of IL skills at Western State Colorado University showed a noticeable positive effect on student learning outcomes who received embedded instruction from librarians and revealed a cumulative benefit from exposing students to IL skills in any format in a variety of classes form year-to-year.
Soria, K.M., Fransen, J., & Nackerud, S. (2013). Library use and undergraduate student outcomes: New evidence for students’ retention and academic success. Libraries and the Academy, 13(2), 147-164.
Pre- and post-term assessments given following successful collaboration between faculty and librarian in developing assignments that promoted IL skills. Post-term assessment revealed that students’ self-rating of their own confidence levels increased from an average of “3” on 5-point Likert scale to “4,” with the biggest increase in confidence related to dealing with government and primary source materials. The increase in confidence in these types of sources correlated with the types of sources used in the students’ bibliographies.
Victor, P., Otto, J., & Mutschler, C. (2013). Assessment of library instruction on undergraduate student success in a documents-based research course: The benefits of librarian, archivist, and faculty collaboration. Collaborative Librarianship, 5(3), 154-176.
An examination of data in the 2011 fall term at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities showed significant differences in cumulative GPA between first-year students who used at least one library service compared to students who didn’t use any, as well as a significant association between library usage and students’ first to second semester retention…Four particular types of library resources were significantly and positively associated with students’ academic achievement: using the library workstations….accessing online databases, accessing electronic journals, and checking out books. Only two library activities were associated with students’ retention: enrollment in the Intro to Library Research Part 2 workshop and use of online databases.
This dissertation assessed the effect of the instruction on IL skills and library usage behavior of Latino community college students; found that “instructional efforts of the library are influencing student learning outcomes.”
Wang, Rui (2006). The lasting impact of a library credit course. portal: Libraries and the Academy 6(1), 79-92.
This study found that there were statistically significant differences in citation use and grades between students who took a library credit course and students who did not. The results of independent samples t-tests indicated that the student group that took a library credit course cited more scholarly resources, produced fewer incomplete citations, and received higher grades for its papers and courses. The data included 836 citations produced by 120 student papers and the students’ grades for their papers and courses in the fall of 2004. Additionally, the survey results revealed that the students’ acquisition of bibliographic research and citation skills was directly attributable to the library credit course, whereas their counterparts tended to rely on informal sources. The evidence supports the lasting impact of a library credit course on student learning.
Academic libraries devote considerable human resources in delivering library instruction programs. This study attempts to determine if these instructional efforts have any measurable effect on student performance in terms of overall grades. Library workshop attendance and graduation GPA of over 8,000 students was analyzed at Hong Kong Baptist University. It was found that, if more than one or two library workshops were offered to students within the course of their program, there was a higher tendency of workshop attendance having a positive impact on final GPA. The results indicate that library instruction has a direct correlation with student performance, but only if a certain minimum amount of instruction is provided.
Other unpublished resources:
Below is a link to impact numbers from the University of Central Missouri (enrollment is about 12,000 Undergraduate and Graduate students). The data come from an IL course , LIS 1600, and a Freshman Seminar course, AE 1400. The IL course is a GenEd offering serving around 1500 students (mainly freshmen) per calendar year. As the data in the table show, students who take LIS 1600 are an average of 6.5% more likely to be retained for one year and 4.6% more likely to graduate in four years.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqOsmbAZsESLdDlqdGd0NUlmXzdJRllLN2w4MGtiOEE&usp=sharing
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