Impact? What Three Years of Research Tell Us about Library Instruction (original) (raw)
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The Reference Librarian, 2005
While there is much discussion today about information literacy, proper implementation of it within university campuses is still a struggle, often due to the fact that librarians and teaching faculty have different "cultures" that create different priorities. Librarians focus more on process and faculty more on content, though the two are not mutually exclusive. Past attempts by librarians to collaborate with faculty to produce information literate students have had limited success. A bolder plan-to imbed information literacy credit courses within existing departments-shows promise to avoid cultural conflict while creating a proper climate for collaboration.
Teaching literacy: Methodologies for studying and improving library instruction
Teaching literacy: Methodologies for studying and improving library instruction, 2012
Objective – The aim of this paper is to evaluate teaching effectiveness in one-shot information literacy (IL) instruction sessions. The authors used multiple methods, including plus/delta forms, peer evaluations, and instructor feedback surveys, in an effort to improve student learning, individual teaching skill, and the overall IL program at the American University in Cairo. Methods – Researchers implemented three main evaluation tools to gather data in this study. Librarians collected both quantitative and qualitative data using student plus/delta surveys, peer evaluation, and faculty feedback in order to draw overall conclusions about the effectiveness of one-shot IL sessions. By designing a multi-method study, and gathering information from students, faculty, and instruction librarians, results represented the perspectives of multiple stakeholders. Results – The data collected using the three evaluation tools provided insight into the needs and perspectives of three stakeholder groups. Individual instructors benefit from the opportunity to improve teaching through informed reflection, and are eager for feedback. Faculty members want their students to have more hands-on experience, but are pleased overall with instruction. Students need less lecturing and more authentic learning opportunities to engage with new knowledge. Conclusion – Including evaluation techniques in overall information literacy assessment plans is valuable, as instruction librarians gain opportunities for self-reflection and improvement, and administrators gather information about teaching skill levels. The authors gathered useful data that informed administrative decision making related to the IL program at the American University in Cairo. The findings discussed in this paper, both practical and theoretical, can help other college and university librarians think critically about their own IL programs, and influence how library instruction sessions might be evaluated and improved.
Library Instruction in a New Culture of Teaching and Learning
2012
The goal of academic libraries’ instructional programs is to teach research skills, technologies for information management, critical thinking, evaluation of sources, legal and ethical uses of information, and an understanding of the broad range of available information resources. As more information becomes available electronically and learning takes place beyond the physical walls of the classroom, we are presented with opportunities to expand not only the types of instructional services we offer, but the contexts within which we frame those services.
Changing the Scope of Library Instruction in the Digital Age
Advances in Library and Information Science
With the ubiquitous digital ecosystem providing information to faculty and students in real time via a myriad of channels, does an academic research library continue to provide real value to faculty's research and teaching as well as students' learning? Or, has the academic research library become irrelevant to twenty-first century scholarship? Describing a variation on information literacy and research skills development approaches, this chapter makes a case for embedding good information practice into a library's products and self-service tools rather than investing in standalone instruction. Close alignment with institutional priorities, the application of user-centric product and service design principles, and a commitment to innovation in information management practices and platforms are cornerstones of this strategy in a graduate business school library. Loosely based on Harvard Business School's case method, this chapter details two frameworks used by HBS'...
College & Research Libraries, 2021
Michael Stopel and a team of editors have crafted a unique celebration of faculty-librarian collaborations that highlights the relevance of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education to all disciplines. This publication is a product of an AMICAL workshop developed to encourage faculty-librarian collaborations in the development of courses that integrated the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy. AMICAL is a consortium of 29 higher education institutions located in 22 countries across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Southern Asia. They are accredited by American Agencies and are members of the Association of American International Colleges and Universities (AAICU). Workshop participants committed to codesigning their instruction and teaching the course the following year. The book offers a thoughtful selection of these codesigned instruction sessions that demonstrate the value and impact of librarian-faculty collaborations in information lite...
1991
Noting that information retrieval in the library is a task that is ubiquitous and easily overlooked in colleges, this paper discusses the importance of possessing effective library research skills. The speaker recounts his experiences with conducting library research as a doctoral student and describes how this problem eventually evolved into a library skills course offered at Fordham University (New York). The course, "Advanced Library Methods," was a free, non-credit experimental course targeted specifically for first-year students interested in social science. Seven students participated in this course, and all indicated that they found the course to be valuable. It is noted that Fordham plans to expand and institutionalize this course in 1992. Concluding the paper are a table listing the seven students' self-reported problems in the library, an annotated list of major sources of access to the social science literature, and instructions for searching the literature. (12 references) (MAB)