Charge
The Graduate Student Information Literacy Needs Assessment Working Group (GSILNA WG) was created in late 2006. Its charge was to explore graduate student information literacy needs and make recommendations and/or implement ways to meet those needs as appropriate.
Members
Melody Allison
Chair, Biology Library, mmalliso@uiuc.edu
Lori Carroll
Library & Information Science Library, llcarrol@uiuc.edu
Merinda Hensley
Central Reference Library, mhensle1@uiuc.edu
Lisa Hinchliffe
Administration/Services Office & Undergraduate Library, ljanicke@uiuc.edu
Jim Kelly
Law Library, jpkelly@law.uiuc.edu
Mary Stuart
History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library, m-stuart@uiuc.edu
Allison Sutton
Education & Social Science Library, asutton@uiuc.edu
Background
In the spring of 2006 a group of librarians interested in graduate studies information literacy needs assessment met. Points of opportunities for interaction with graduate students were identified, such as graduate orientations, oral comprehension exams, and dissertation process. The scope of graduate studies was discussed, such as professional programs (M.S. L.I.S., law degree) and academic programs (PhD, M. Law), with implications to be considered for obtaining data and analyzing results. Sources of data considered were graduate students, graduate students faculty, Graduate College, director of graduate studies, professional programs, campus staff, library support staff, expectations of RAs/TAs, and undergraduates’ thoughts about graduate school. Interviews, focus groups, faculty, and faculty syllabi were broached as tools to retrieve data. Out of this interest GSILNA WG evolved.
Groundwork
The work of the group began with conversation on direction of the group’s work and possible strategies to accomplish the charge. It was determined that an environmental scan was needed to build strategy decisions. Information literacy standards and guidelines from the American Library Association’s (ALA) Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) were identified and acquired. A literature search was done to ascertain what graduate student information literacy assessments had been accomplished at other institutions, the methodologies that were used, and results of these assessments. Over two dozen articles about academic information literacy needs and assessment were identified and bibliography created in RefShare (RefWorks) for group use. These articles were divided among the group members, each member reporting and leading discussion on their articles. Selected findings and ideas of interest from the literature along with thoughts that culminated from this exploration were summarized in Points of Interest from WG Bibliography Articles.
Deliberations
The working group felt that it is essential to get input from both graduate students as well as from the teaching faculty and staff. Getting both perspectives – the views and experiences of students who do assignments and research, as well as the views and experiences of the faculty who create the expectations and standards that measure the assignments and research – is necessary to get a comprehensive assessment of information literacy for our graduate students. What skills do graduate students have? What skills do they lack? What have graduate students been expected to do that they did not know how to do? What knowledge does faculty need and expect? What information seeking behavior do faculty observe or would like to see? What do faculty identify as things that they need us to tell graduate students? The working group also felt that survey questions should provide opportunity to tell us what tools the students utilize for to do their assignments and research (e.g., social networking, gaming, podcasts, etc.), and not to define / confine answers to what we think they should use and / or are available as per our own experience.
Questionnaires, focus groups, interviews, observation, student consulting groups, student assignments, and faculty syllabi were explored as avenues to obtaining data that identified information literacy needs of our graduate students. Project SAILS: Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (developed at Kent State University) is one such standardized test of information literacy skills which is based on ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. See https://www.projectsails.org/ Drawback – requires fee, currently $3.00 per student up to $2000, and is multiple choice questions only. Ferguson, Neely, and Sullivan’s A Baseline Information Literacy Assessment of Biology Students is an excellent example of an assessment based on Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Standards (see GSILNA WG Bibliography) to base our study methodology. Getting the needed data will provide a foundation to begin the work of developing specific recommendations for graduate information literacy.
Recommendations
The GSILNA WG makes the following recommendations for the next phase of this study:
- Survey graduate students, and graduate faculty and staff for needed data
- Use 1:1 interviews, student assignments, and faculty syllabi for data collection
- Base surveys’ questions and results appraisal on related ACRL / ARL information literacy standards and guidelines
- Use sample of convenience
- Get U of I Institutional Review Board approval (IRB) in event group wishes to publish investigational results
Appendix
GSILNA Working Group Forum
Utilized for Working Group files and tools, including lists of ACRL/ARL standards and guidelines (Login Required).
GSILNA Working Group Bibliography
GSILNA Working Group Points of Interest