METHODS

1
Using SurveyMonkey for an Attitude Adjustment A
Comparison of Faculty, Graduate Student, and
Librarian Opinions On Library Instruction Cory
Craig Physical Sciences Engineering Library,
University of California, Davis
ABSTRACT
This poster presents results from a project that
used the online survey tool SurveyMonkey to
determine the attitudes toward library
instruction by 3 different groups chemistry
faculty at the University of California, Davis
chemistry graduate students at the University of
California, Davis and chemistry librarians at 7
different University of California campuses.
Survey questions were used to determine which
library resources (databases, catalogs, online
and print handbooks, etc.) should be the target
of library instruction activities, and also what
type of instructional activities (drop-in
classes, seminar classes, classes for lab groups,
library instruction incorporated into graduate
and undergraduate classes) faculty, graduate
students, and librarians feel are most useful.
Results provide a comparison of attitudes and
priorities of these different groups, and can be
used to design library instruction activities
most appropriate to a chemistry departments
needs.
INTRODUCTION
Information literacy, simply stated, is the
ability to find, evaluate and use needed
information. While it can be simply defined,
teaching information literacy skills to college
students in a wide range of disciplines and
institutions is a much more difficult endeavor.
The most widely known national effort, ACRLs
Information Literacy Competency Standards for
Higher Education1, produced a comprehensive and
thorough treatise. However, the breadth of this
document, combined with its focus on detailed
outcomes, makes it difficult to implement for
most academic librarians charged with meeting the
instructional needs of several academic
departments through outreach, development of web
resources, and library instruction. ACRLs
Information Literacy Standards for Science and
Technology2, while more focused on sciences and
engineering, has many of the same difficulties.
The current focus on developing
subject-specific information literacy guidelines
is likely to alleviate many of these problems, if
these guidelines take the approach of identifying
resources and skills specific to a given
discipline. This approach can result in
information literacy guidelines that are
immediately useful to academic librarians, which
may also get faculty buy-in as well. An example
is the recently available draft of Information
Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates the
elements of information literacy3 which
identifies the information literacy skills and
knowledge that chemistry undergraduates should
have by the completion of their degrees.
While faculty are assumed to share librarians
assessment of the need for information literacy
skills, this assumption has yet to be tested.
This poster presents results from an online
survey that presents a series of statements
listing subject-specific information skills in
chemistry asks faculty and graduate students if
they agree these skills are important and asks
faculty and graduates to rank methods currently
used to teach these skills. Librarian opinions
were also obtained for comparison.
METHODS

• The final survey statement (9) asked respondents
  to rank various methods libraries use to teach
  students about finding chemical information as
  either Very Useful, Moderately Useful, or Not
  Useful. A summarized version the
  statement/teaching methods is given in the
  Results section, full text is given below.
• If you feel the library or librarians should play
  a role in teaching students about using chemical
  information, please indicate which options below
  would be most effective for graduate and
  undergraduate students.
• Faculty/lecturers/TA's should request library
  instruction sessions when relevant to courses
  they teach
• Faculty/lecturers/TA's should have librarian
  review, or assist in developing, library-related
  assignments when relevant to courses they teach
• Chemistry librarian should bring wireless laptop
  and hold regular office hours in the chemistry
  department
• Chemistry librarian should work with faculty to
  include links to library resources on course web
  pages when appropriate
• Students should make appointments with the
  chemistry librarian for consultation on
  significant research projects/needs
• Students should use the Chemistry Subject Guide
  (a web page listing library resources for
  chemistry) to identify appropriate resources
• Students should be responsible for obtaining
  assistance from library reference desk when
  needed
• Students should use library how to web pages
  (how to find books and articles, etc)
• Students should take advantage of drop-in
  classes at the library to learn about library
  resources
• Library should develop more web instruction for
  students (web pages that show students how to use
  databases and find information)
• Library should hold drop-in seminars
  specifically for chemistry (or physical sciences)
  students
• Library should develop for credit library
  courses or seminars
• Demographics, Response Rate, Sample Size

• Chemistry faculty and chemistry graduate students
  at the University of California, Davis (UC
  Davis), and chemistry librarians at 7 University
  of California (UC) campuses were surveyed to
  determine their opinions on how chemistry
  graduate and undergraduate students should learn
  subject-specific information literacy skills.
• Survey Administration
• The survey was administered via the online survey
  tool SurveyMonkey during April 2007. Faculty,
  graduate students, and librarians were sent
  emails asking them to complete the survey. As an
  incentive to increase the response rate, faculty
  and graduate students who submitted completed
  surveys were given the option of participating in
  a random drawing for one of two 25 gift
  certificates to the UC Davis bookstore.
• Survey Questions
• The survey consisted of 9 statements. The first
  8 statements (given in Results section) list
  information literacy skills and resources
  specific to chemistry. The resources included
  are available at all UC campuses. If survey
  respondents agreed with a statement, they were
  asked to indicate how both undergraduate and
  graduate chemistry students should learn these
  skills. Survey respondents were also given the
  option of disagreeing with the statement or
  indicating lack of familiarity with the resource.
  Each of the first eight survey statements ended
  with the phase Students should learn this/these
  skills (choose all that apply). Response
  options for statements 1-8 are shown below
• Students should learn these skills
  (choose all that apply)
• On their own
• From faculty/lecturer or teaching assistant
• Library/librarian should teach
• Other method
• Agree students should learn, not sure how
• Disagree students need to learn, or not a
  priority
• Not familiar with this resource
• Survey respondents were free to check all options
  that applied. The not familiar with this
  resource option was included only for statements
  which refer to library resources. Survey
  respondents were also able to enter comments, and
  explain what they meant by other method at 3
  different places on the survey.

2
RESULTS
How should chemistry students learn information
literacy skills?
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
GRADUATE STUDENTS
1. SCIFINDER SCHOLAR Graduate and
undergraduate students should learn to use the
SciFinder Scholar database to find chemistry
literature. This includes searching by topic
author substance and reaction limiting search
results (by topic author year document type
language etc) and using library catalogs or
UC-eLinks to obtain print or online copies of
desired articles/literature. Students should
learn these skills from
2. CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS Graduate and
undergraduate students should understand the
organization and content of Chemical Abstracts
(the print version of SciFinder Scholar) and be
able to use it to find chemistry literature.
Students should learn these skills from
3. OTHER ARTICLE DATABASES Graduate and
undergraduate students should learn to use other
article databases (Web of Science/Science
Citation Index PubMed etc.) as needed to find
chemistry literature. This includes searching
for literature by topic and author limiting
search results and using UC-eLinks to obtain
print or online copies of desired
articles/literature. Students should learn these
skills from

• PROPERTIES, SPECTRA, SAFETY INFO
• Graduate and undergraduate students should learn
  how to use basic print and online resources
  (handbooks critical tables etc.) to find property
  data spectra and safety information as needed for
  coursework to conduct laboratory experiments
  and to confirm laboratory results. Examples of
  these resources include CRC Handbook of
  Chemistry Physics NIST Chemistry WebBook print
  and online spectra and Material Safety Data
  Sheets (MSDS). 4
• Students should learn these skills from

• CROSSFIRE (Beilstein Gmelin Databases)
• Graduate and undergraduate students should learn
  how to use CrossFire (Beilstein Gmelin
  databases) to locate property data and references
  (by structure name and other chemical
  identifiers) when needed data are not available
  in basic resources.
• Students should learn these skills from

6. LIBRARY SKILLS Graduate and
undergraduate students should understand the
organization of the library and know how to use
library tools (catalogs databases library web
pages subject guides etc.) and library services
(reference desk interlibrary loan consultation
with chemistry librarian etc.) to obtain desired
references and information. Students should
learn these skills from

• UNDERSTAND CITATIONS CITE APPROPRIATELY
• Graduate and undergraduate students should be
  able to interpret citations from the scientific
  literature understand the reasons for citing the
  literature in their own writing and demonstrate
  the ability to cite in appropriate situations
  using correct formatting. 4
• Students should learn these skills from

3
RESULTS contd
GRADUATE STUDENTS
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

• SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION PEER REVIEW
• Graduate and undergraduate students should
  understand the general nature of the peer review
  process and be aware of the different methods for
  presenting research (articles posters oral
  presentations at scientific conferences etc). 4
• Students should learn these skills from

What methods should be used to teach information
literacy skills?
9. TEACHING OPTIONS If you feel the
library or librarians should play a role in
teaching students about using chemical
information, please indicate which options would
be most effective for graduate and undergraduate
students.
DISCUSSION
Teaching Options Agreement and differences in
ranking for teaching options (statement 9) are
summarized in the chart below (right). In areas
where librarian opinion differs from those of
faculty and graduate students, it may be useful
to examine library services to determine which
teaching options are working well, and if changes
can be made to better meet department needs. The
teaching option faculty requested library
instruction is ranked first by both faculty and
librarians, suggesting this is a highly useful
service. However, varying needs, experience, and
expectations can explain differences between user
groups, any may not indicate the need for
changes. For example the teaching option
appointments with librarian for consultation is
ranked highest by graduate students (the most
frequent users of this service) librarians also
rank this high while faculty (very infrequent
users) rank this option noticeably lower. This
survey presents opinions on library instruction
from UC Davis chemistry faculty and graduate
students and UC chemistry librarians. Results
for other institutions and subject areas may
differ. Repeating this survey process at other
institutions can be a way to efficiently analyze
how well a library is meeting departmental needs
for library instruction. The process can also
provide a means of obtaining faculty and graduate
student opinion on subject-specific information
literacy skills, the importance of these skills
in relation to other teaching objectives, and how
information literacy skills might be incorporated
into the curriculum.
All respondent groups (faculty, graduate
students, librarians) indicate general agreement
that faculty and librarians should share teaching
responsibilities for subject-specific chemistry
resources (survey statements 1, 3-5). Notably,
all three groups also express some uncertainty
about the best way to teach SciFinder Scholar
(chemical literature index) to both undergrads
and grad students. This may indicate that
respondents recognize the importance of
developing literature searching skills in
students, but are not sure how to introduce this
type of instruction into the curriculum. This
may soon become a larger issue as ACS
accreditation of chemistry programs, may soon
require instruction on the effective retrieval
and use of the chemical literature.5 All
respondent groups expect both undergraduates and
graduate students (to a much greater degree) to
learn some information literacy skills on their
own. Librarians have a role in this
self-directed learning though the development and
maintenance of library web pages, subject guides,
and online teaching/how-to guides. Because
research groups (faculty, graduate students,
post-docs) share knowledge widely among
themselves library outreach to this user group
can be extremely beneficial. Additional areas
of agreement and disagreement for survey
statements 6-8 are summarized below. Library
Skills All groups agree librarians should
have majority of responsibility for
teachingLibrarians also expected both
undergrads and grad students to pick up these
skills on their own Grad Students expected
graduate students to pick up these skills on
their own Understand Citations Cite
Appropriately Librarians Grad Students
agree faculty and librarians should share
responsibility for teaching Faculty -indicate
faculty should have majority of responsibility
for teaching -also expected both undergrads
and grad students to pick up these skills on
their own Scientific Communication Peer
Review Faculty Grad Students agree
-faculty should have majority of responsibility
for teaching -grad students (and to a lesser
degree undergrads) are also expected pick up
these skills on their own Librarians
indicated faculty and librarians should share
responsibility for teaching

• REFERENCES
• ALA, Association of College and Research
  Libraries (ACRL). Information Literacy
  Competency Standards for Higher Education. 2000.
  http//www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standa
  rds.pdf
• 2. ALA, Association of College and Research
  Libraries (ACRL). Information Literacy Standards
  for Science and Engineering/Technology.
  Accessed May 2007 http//www.ala.org/ala/acrl/
  acrlstandards/infolitscitech.htm
• 3. SLA Chemistry Division, Ad Hoc Committee on
  Information Literacy. Information Competencies
  for Chemistry Undergraduates the elements of
  information literacy, January 2007.
  http//units.sla.org/division/dche/il/cheminfolit
  .pdf
• 4. Survey statements 4, 7, and 8 were partly
  based on guidelines developed in SLA Chemistry
  Division, Ad Hoc Committee on Information
  Literacy. Information Competencies for Chemistry
  Undergraduates the elements of information
  literacy, January 2007. http//units.sla.org/div
  ision/dche/il/cheminfolit.pdf
• ACS committee on Professional Training (CPT).
  Undergraduate Professional Education in
  Chemistry guidelines and evaluation procedures
  2/27/07 Draft. February 2007.
  http//acswebcontent.acs.org/education/cpt/acs_dr
  aftguidelines.pdf

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Survey was funded by a grant
from Librarians Association of the University of
California, Davis. Work with the SLA Chemistry
Division Ad Hoc Committee for Information
Literacy enhanced the development of this survey.
CONTACT Cory Craig cjcraig_at_ucdavis.edu Physi
cal Sciences Engineering Library One Shields
Ave Davis, CA 95616