Innovative Information Literacy Support for Academic Students – We Got their Backs
Heidi Janina Troberg, Pia-Maria Niemitalo
University of Vaasa, Finland
Demand for Change
The information specialists in Tritonia Academic Library, a joint library in a multilingual environment, are used to finding new and innovative ways to support students in the field of information literacy (IL). Our information specialists have given hands on tutorials, lessons on request, and one credit courses in IL for both first-year students and bachelor degree students for the past 15 years. Some courses are developed or held together with the teaching staff. The ever-changing scientific landscape demands a change in how we support the students’ IL (Lokse et al., 2017). As our IL teachers have the possibility for only one lecture of two hours per IL course, the risk of overloading students with information is imminent (Lokse et al., 2017). To keep the lectures quite light, our library offers as much IL support as possible in various other ways.
IL Services Close at Hand
Since the pandemic, students seem to prefer receiving library services online (Baker & Ellis, 2021). Therefore, IL questions and support takes place in channels preferred by the students. Our library has a live chat service for students, researchers, and staff. We feel that a chatbot does not empower students to evaluate, use, and create information effectively. Other ways of getting IL support is to use the Ask the library form or send us e-mail. Questions from both the form and e-mail go to a ticket system managed by information specialists. For these online library services to be successful, it is important to keep up with the evolving technology and to maintain and develop the information specialists’ knowledge and expertise through relevant training (Laaro, 2021).
We also offer a weekly drop-in thesis workshop together with the university’s study psychologist. The workshop aims to solve the students’ thesis-related problems regarding IL issues, time management, and writer’s blocks. Students also give and get peer support. Before the pandemic, the workshops were on campus, but now the workshops are held online.
In addition, students can get personal IL guidance by booking an appointment with an information specialist through the Book, a tutorial service. The service helps students with issues, such as finding suitable information resources, upgrading their search strategies, and creating literature reviews. These appointments are generally held online. The library gives open online sessions on subjects including e-books, reference and data management, and open science.
At Tritonia, we acknowledge that we have an important role in giving our university students sound IL support when they need it so that they can thrive in their academic studies and also later in their work life. Offering different kinds of easily accessible IL support services favors not only the students but the whole university. IL support does not have to be that complicated, but it needs professional and flexible information specialists.
References
Atkinson, J. (2021). The times they are a-changin’: But how fundamentally and how rapidly? Academic library services post-pandemic. In D. Baker & L. Ellis (Eds.), Libraries, Digital Information, and COVID: Practical Applications and Approaches to Challenge and Change (pp. 303–315). Cambridge: Elsevier.
Laaro, M. D. (2021). Library services amidst covid-19 pandemic: Adjusting to the new normal. Emperor International Journal of Library and Information Technology Research, 1(3), 24–27.
Lokse, M., Lag, T., Solberg, M., Andreassen, H. N., & Stenersen, M. (2017). Teaching Information Literacy in Higher Education: Effective Teaching and Active Learning. Cambridge: Elsevier.
Transfer Students, Transferring Skills: Continuing Library Information Literacy Among Students From College to University Environments
Andrew Denis Beman-Cavallaro
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA
Published research regarding the differences in the impact of services, resources, methods, and tools between the college and university library environment in the United States is, overall, lacking. The methods for transferring knowledge of information literacy practices between smaller, often two-year, college institutions and the progression through the remaining four-year environment of the university brings shifts in approaches to information literacy instruction. Additionally, the expansive changes brought by the 2020 global biological crisis formed the basis for the vast expansion of remote and asynchronous instructional methods. I aim to present examples of the differences and similarities between the styles utilized in different higher education environments for the purposes of expanding knowledge regarding practices suitable for students developing information literacy skills in higher education between academic environments serving different purposes. Kennette and McIntosh (2022) promote an analytical approach to the means of assessing the effects of library information literacy instruction. Assessment is critical in both the college and university environments, simultaneously the discussion regards academia as a whole with the subtleties between two- and four-year academic institutions. Shi, Peng, and Sun (2022) promote a multi-pronged approach in the methodology of deploying a heuristic space, yet the work does not differentiate with depth the variety of methods deployed between teaching and research institutions. Anders (2021) takes the approach of focusing solely on graduate students and leaves the issue of undergraduate two-year students, separate from the conversation entirely, while the scholarly conversation regarding information literacy surrounding university library research begins with first-year undergraduates, a view Valenza, et al. (2022), promote. Finally, Bennedbaek and George (2021) take the steps needed when seeking common ground between similar sized colleges and universities, though this approach does not cover consistency and longer-term planning when creating information literacy instruction between institutions of vastly different scales. Though the research grapples with aspects of the information literacy via library instruction across multiple institutional models there lacks a common thread illustrating the differences between types of academic institutions and the pathways available to support students in the transfer from college to university learning spaces. Though the community college environment is arguable a rather uniquely North American institution, planning for the successful deployment of library information literacy instruction between varying academic spaces, online, in-person, and synchronously and asynchronously is of benefit to scholars and teachers across geographies and disciplines. I have been both a college library director and a university faculty research librarian and seeing the scope and scale between two institutions serving different roles, but often with the same students continuing from one school to another, the need for collaboration and deployment of impactful information literacy strategies is critical. I propose to present on the differences between such institutions, the lack of representation in the research literature regarding the nuances between two- and four-year schools, and the means through which teaching and research schools promote, deploy, and evaluate the means of successfully enacting impactful information literacy instruction through library services.
References
Anders, K. (2021). Information literacy and instruction: Building a multi-format graduate student information literacy program. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 59(3/4), 156–. https://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.59.3/4.7712
Bennedbaek, D., Clark, S., & George, D. (2021). The impact of librarian-student contact on students’ information literacy competence in small colleges and universities. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 28(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2020.1830907
Kennette, L. N., & McIntosh, E. A. (2022). Your information literacy practices (YILP): A new measure of information literacy. Partnership, 17(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v17i2.6680
Shi, Y., Peng, F., & Sun, F. (2022). A blended learning model based on smart learning environment to improve college students’ information literacy. IEEE Access, 10, 89485–89498. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3201105
Valenza, J. K., Dalal, H., Mohamad, G., Boyer, B., Berg, C., Charles, L. H., Bushby, R., Dempsey, M., Dalrymple, J., & Dziedzic-Elliott, E. (2022). First years’ information literacy backpacks: What’s already packed or not packed? The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 48(4), 102566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102566
How Do Instruction Librarians Continue Learning New Concepts and Skills throughout their Careers? Stories and Best Practices From North American Instruction Librarians
Hannah Gascho Rempel1, Jane Marie Nichols2
1Rempel Oregon State University Corvallis, USA; 2Oregon State University Corvallis, USA
Introduction & Literature Review
Instruction librarians are at the forefront of introducing learners to new concepts and skills such as evaluation strategies, searching techniques, and trends in scholarly communication. But how do instruction librarians themselves learn new concepts and skills? Especially if they have been a professional for a significant amount of time and have experienced multiple changes in the profession. We conducted a study to learn how mid-career and experienced instruction librarians seek out and learn new professional information, how they find curiosity sparks to keep them engaged in their work, and how they choose to incorporate new ideas or professional competencies into their instructional practice.
Mid-career professional development has been characterized by stage-like models depicting growth, stability, and sometimes frustration (Maskit, 2011). These stages have been explored in K-12 teachers, and we wanted to determine how well these stages describe the experiences of mid-career and experienced instruction librarians. We were especially interested in these librarians because many workplaces have multiple generations of workers and must find ways to encourage growth in an age-diverse environment. However, much of the literature and professional development opportunities focus on supporting newer librarians (for example, Flatley and Weber, 2004). We enthusiastically agree that newer librarians should receive significant and thoughtful supports, but we were curious to explore the unique challenges mid-career and experienced librarians face based on their accumulated experiences as well as how they sustain their engagement with new ideas.
Objectives, Methodology and Outcomes
Our objectives were to learn:
• how mid-career and experienced instruction librarians seek out and learn new professional information,
• how they find inspiration to keep them engaged in their work,
• how they choose to incorporate new ideas or professional competencies into their instructional practice.
In an online survey and follow up interviews, we asked mid-career and experienced instruction librarians from North America to share their experiences about how they engage with and incorporate new professional ideas into their instructional practice. Recognizing the systemic changes brought about by the global pandemic, we asked participants to reflect on how these changes impact their learning preferences, what inspires their curiosity, for their self-evaluation of where they are now situated in the career cycle stage, and what they think are currently the most pressing issues in librarianship. We used convenience sampling to recruit up to twenty library workers who conduct instructional activities in an academic setting and who have worked for at least 10 years--regardless of full or part-time employment. To extend our participant pool, we used snowball sampling. Participants were asked to respond to an online survey consisting of nine multiple choice and short answer questions and were invited to participate in an hour-long virtual interview to expand on their survey responses.
We discuss how our findings and analysis, along with our suggestions, can inform institutional training efforts and retention strategies. We will also discuss how we can use these findings at the individual level to inform how we adapt to professional changes in rejuvenating and productive ways.
References
Flatley, R. K., & Weber, M. A. (2004). Perspectives on... Professional development opportunities for new academic librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(6), 488–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2004.06.011
Maskit, D. (2011). Teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes during various stages of professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(5), 851–860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.01.009
Information Literacy Workshops from On-Site to Online – Lessons Learned
Riikka Sinisalo, Marja Talikka
LUT Academic Library, LUT University, Lahti, Finland
This best practice case presents the development of information literacy workshops embedded in a bachelor’s thesis course when moving the teaching to an online environment. On-site information literacy (IL) lecture on the principles of information searching, presentation of the most important databases and hands-on information search training given by an academic librarian had been part of the on-site course curriculum in LUT University since the early 2010s. When the Covid pandemic restrictions started in March 2020, IL teaching had to be moved to an online environment. To find the best IL e-learning methods, iterative student feedback evaluation for continuous development was utilized.
The Two Phased Development Process
To develop the online IL workshops, a new model was implemented in the autumn of 2020. In this model, students (n=35) got a preliminary assignment based on online learning material. The assignment consisted of an essay where students described their information search process for their thesis and reported the results. In the online workshops librarians then gave them feedback and pointers based on the essays, moving on to demonstrations using the University Library’s search portal and the Scopus database. After the demonstrations, students performed searches in smaller groups and reported their results at the end of the workshop.
Webropol questionnaire was used to collect feedback from the students to find out about their satisfaction with the workshop. According to grounded theory-based analysis, the result was twofold. In their open answers, some students appreciated the group work, while others considered it not being as beneficial as the rest of the workshop. In addition, comments were made on the scheduling and heaviness of the session with back-to-back demonstrations.
In the following revisions, the preliminary assignment was split into four narrower questions covering the scope of the essay. In the workshop, the group work was replaced by two independent search sessions, giving students an opportunity to both have a little breather and to do searches based on their thesis topic. Other parts of the workshop remained the same. Lastly, feedback was collected.
Conclusion
Like other flipped and online classroom initiatives report (Fisher et al., 2017, Yap and Manabat, 2021), students appeared to benefit from getting acquainted with the learning material in advance and from using class time for active learning activities. According to citation analyses of preliminary assignments, students had learned the skill to find scientific documents on their topics by reading the online learning material (Talikka et al., 2022). Students considered independent searching for information on their thesis topic very useful, and group work did not appear to support it sufficiently. The overall satisfaction with the renewed workshop was good.
References
Fisher, R., Ross, B., LaFerriere, R. & Maritz, A. (2017). Flipped learning, flipped satisfaction, getting the balance right. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 5(2), 114–127. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.5.2.9.
Talikka, M., Naukkarinen, J., Mielonen, K. & Eskelinen, H. (2022) Guided process to enhance undergraduate engineering students’ thesis work. In 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Uppsala, Sweden (pp. 1–6). https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE56618.2022.9962441
Yap, J. M., & Manabat, A. R. (2021). Are we in-sync? Students’ virtual instructional experience and perceived information literacy skills in time of pandemic. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 25(4), 169–184.
|
