Information Literacy John Jay College

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Information Literacy _at_ John Jay College

• Kathy Killoran, Information Literacy Librarian
• Tim Stevens, Chair, English Department

March 19, 2004
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Information Literacy defined

• American Library Association
• Information Literacy is the set of skills needed
  to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education
• Information literacy is an intellectual framework
  for identifying, finding, understanding,
  evaluating and using information.

Faculty may think of as the Research Process.
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Information Literacy Goes far beyond library
introduction and basic search skills
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ACRL Standards

• Information Literacy Competency Standards for
  Higher Education (on web)
• Association of College Research Libraries
• 6 broad standards
• 3-7 performance indicators for each standard
• 2-7 identified outcomes for each performance
  indicator
• Middle States embraces these standards

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ACRL IL Standards Responsibility

• Determine the nature extent of info needed
  (Faculty, reinforced by Librarians)
• Effectively accesses info sources (Librarians)
• Critically evaluates info sources
  (Librarian Faculty)
• Critically evaluates info content (Faculty)
• Use info to accomplish a purpose (Faculty)
• Use info legally, ethically (Faculty primarily,
  Librarians reinforce)

ACRL IL competencies, Middle States
responsibilities
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Information Literacy Movement in CUNY

• Middle States
• Developing Research Communication Skills (2003)
  
• University Faculty Senate Committee
• Computer information technology literacy
• Competencies for students faculty, 2001
• Council of Chief Librarians
• White Paper, 2001
• Prof. Lucinda Zoe, Hostos,
• Chancellors Office - VP Mirrer
• Mandate to each campus Provost, 2002
• Gen ED Project

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What Middles States Wants

• Institutional IL plan detailing ..
• Strategy for how information literacy will be
  integrated into the curriculum
• Especially into the general education
  requirements
• Demonstrable competencies building in
  complexity (learning goals objectives)
• Outcomes assessment throughout
• At the program-level
• Especially important in the senior year

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Information Literacy Standards

• Association of College Research Libraries
• Information Literacy Competency Standards for
  Higher Education (available on Web)
• Middle states embraces these competencies!!

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Middle States identifies 2 models of IL plans

• Separate or Compartmentalized Model
• Stand-alone course
• Unlikely that a single course can satisfy all of
  an institutions IL goals
• Skills should be addressed reinforced at
  various levels of sophistication throughout 4 yrs
• Integrated or Distributed Model
• Various courses address a core set of IL skills
• May be blended into lower upper-level courses.
• Places IL into the context of the disciplines

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Different IL models used in CUNY

• Credit bearing course so far not required
  course Queens (1 credit), LaGuardia (3
  credits), Baruch (8 3 credit courses)
• Workshop approach series of 5 workshops - 2
  information literacy workshops required before a
  course-integrated library instruction course
  taught Hostos
• IL integrated into curriculum new Lehman model
  IL is targeted at certain courses
• ENG 110-120 sequence
• LEH 300-level core courses
• Faculty in other disciplines encouraged to
  re-engineer their courses to emphasize
  information literacy.

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IL Plan - Institution specific

• Multiple strategies can and probably should be
  employed!
• Many campuses are using pilot programs to try out
  their IL strategies

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Challenges in Designing IL Program

• Large of students at CUNY institutions
• Creating strategies that will be scalable to
  reach all students
• Administrative support philosophically and
  monetarily, faculty development, ongoing!
• Library cannot do it alone College-wide issue
• Fostering change
• Faculty buy in willingness to change what they
  do to incorporate some of these concepts, etc.

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John Jays Evolution - small inroads

• Taskforce on Information Literacy formed
• (2002) response to VP Mirrer,
• Associate Provost, Faculty Librarians
• IL Librarian position funded by student
  technology fee
• IL Librarian member of College Curriculum
  Committee
• Additional support by Provost (team teaching) for
  courses incorporating critical thinking,
  intensive writing, information literacy
• New course proposal form question on what
  information literacy skills will be
  learned/practiced in the course.

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John Jay IL Draft Plan

• Add instructional material to librarys Web page
  have section for curricula aids, tutorials,
  handouts,etc.
• Survey ENG 101 students self assessment
• Develop module on evaluating information for SPE
  113 classes
• Pilot project 2 sections, using online
  tutorials, Blackboard
• Revise ENG sequence to be information
  literacy-rich
• Students will practice research skills throughout
  these courses.
• Employ active learning techniques

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English 101 Student Survey

• Surveyed about 1,700 students
• Received over 1,000 responses
• Interim results 625 responses

First place students look for info Internet
Search Engine 64 Ask instructor 11 Textbook
7 Library catalog 6 Ask a librarian 5
How to narrow a Web search Add another
appropriate search term 36 Enclose search
phrase in quotes 5 Inappropriate response 53
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Writing Ability
Rate writing ability Not confident 6 Somewhat
confident 68 Very confident 26
Writing Essays Not confident 5 Somewhat
confident 54 Very confident 42
Writing Research Paper Not confident 7 Somew
hat confident 59 Very confident 35
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Citing Sources
When and How to Cite (same results) Not
confident 18 Somewhat confident 64 Very
confident 18
How many papers that included a bibliography in
last year? None 10 1 13 2-3 40 4 or
more 37
Amount of pages in longest paper 1-2
pages 5 3-5 pages 46 6-10 pages 32 over
10 pages 16
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Role librarians can play in an integrated model

• IL plan development
• Curriculum development
• Faculty development
• Workshop teacher/facilitator
• Partner/Team teachers
• Develop support materials for faculty
• Design/Develop online tutorials
• Design/Develop exercises assignments

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Assessment

• Standardized instruments being developed
• Project SAILS Standardized Assessment of
  Information Literacy Skills beta-test
• Developed _at_ Kent State Lehman will use
• Allow for comparisons with like institutions
• Also looking to develop discipline specific
  assessments,
• Information Competency Assessment Project -Bay
  Area (Ca) CCs
• Tied into the ACRL standards
• Assessment at varying times of the undergraduate
  experience! Freshman level upper level

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Other assessment strategies

• Research journals
• Annotated bibliographies
• Quality of sources in bibliographies of papers,
  etc.
• IL questions and tasks incorporated into course
  exams
• Exercises reinforcing learned experiences
• Student receives a grade on the expected IL
  outcomes, incorporated into course grade
• Rubrics
• Many more Im sure

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Questions?
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Traditional model Library Instruction

• Course Integrated some courses targeted
• One class session
• Wide variation in student abilities
• Too much material
• No common skill set
• No time for active learning exercises
• Usually geared for a specific assignment
• Librarian taught varying quality
• Conflict in goals between instructor and
  librarian
• Not all students reached, some reached multiple
  times

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Information literacy

• Not really a new concept
• Stronger need for this in todays society
• Information overload / information anxiety /
  information smog
• Students today
• tech savvy
• read less (print/pleasure)
• write less (pen and paper)
• communicate more/differently
• We do a lot of IL already not measured as such