New Information Literacy Study

This in from Primary Research Group...

College libraries in a North American sample experienced a dramatic upsurge in the number of information literacy classes or presentations given in 2007, according to a new report from Primary Research Group.

Primary Research Group’s new report – College Information Literacy Efforts Benchmarks (ISBN# 1-57440-099-1) is a North American survey presenting data on the information literacy efforts of colleges from the United States and Canada.

Some of the key findings of the 175-page report were that:

• A mean of 9.64 instructors gave formal classroom instruction or presentations in information literacy in the last year for which statistics are available, with a median of 4 and maximum of 325. U.S. respondents had
almost 3 times as many instructors giving sessions than did Canadian colleges.

• Business, psychology, sociology, nursing, education, and English were commonly listed as one of the top three academic departments that had requested the most library instructional presentations or classes in the past
year.

• Librarians in the survey estimated that 23.5% of their students that had not taken any formal information literacy training knew a few essentials of Boolean searching. In our prompt, we indicated that Boolean searching
basics included the use of quotation marks, “or” and “and.” Private colleges reported that 32.5% of their students fell into this category; public colleges, 18.3%.

• Regarding use of the library catalog, nearly 45% said their student body was competent, while 42% said they had basic knowledge at best. Just 9% considered them very unskilled, and nearly 4% reported they were highly
proficient. Canadian libraries were 3 times more likely than U.S. ones to consider their students highly proficient in the use of the online catalog.

• Just over 13% of survey participants administered a test to assess student skills in Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet software.

• Almost 17% administered a test to incoming freshmen or transfer students on their understanding of plagiarism. Almost 27% of research universities gave such a test. Nearly 21% of colleges with over 10,000 FTE students also gave this test, nearly twice the rate of mid-sized schools.

• Almost 70% of the sample used student evaluation forms to assess the performance of information literacy or other library science instructors. Student evaluation forms were more popular with public colleges than private,
and most popular with research universities, 80% of whom reported using such forms.

• 63% of survey participants offer presentations or brief classes to new students during new student orientation. Such classes were more commonly offered by Canadian libraries, research universities, and colleges with fewer than 1,000 FTE students. 71% of libraries at which librarians held faculty status conducted such orientation sessions, while less than 60% of participants whose librarians did not hold faculty status offered the sessions.

• Barely 5.4% of the sample required a 1 or 2 credit information literacy course for graduation, and just 3.6% required a 3 or more credit course. However, over 23% of the sample required information literacy training
integrated into basic writing or composition courses.

• Just over a third of the sample believed that the English department, or equivalent department with similar responsibilities, seemed to try but could do better in terms of carrying out its information literacy responsibilities. Just 23% believed that the department was doing well enough, while 22% believed information literacy was a high priority for them and that the department made time for them. Just 8% believed the English department to be laggard, and 12% believed their collaboration to be an excellent one.

• Nearly 48% of the colleges sampled offered interactive tutorials in information literacy topics to students. Just a third of bachelors-granting colleges offered such tutorials, while 6 out of 10 research universities did so.

• The vast majority of the sample, nearly 84%, reported that the library was not really involved with computer technology training on campus.

• Nearly 73% of the libraries in the sample had one or more instructional labs or learning centers designed for information literacy instruction in which much of their formal literacy instruction took place.

• Half of the libraries in the sample reported making tutorial links and other resources available through course management systems such as Blackboard and WebCT.

The report is based on detailed benchmarking data from more than 110 North American colleges; data is broken out by type and size of college for easier benchmarking.

For a table of contents, sample pages, and other information, visit our website at http://www.primaryresearch.com.

More YouTube Videos in LILO!

Members of the University of Hawai'i Information Literacy Committee have been hard at work producing videos to explain different things in LILO.

Margot Hanson (UH-West O'ahu) and Tara Severns (Windward CC) teamed up to produce "What is Common Knowledge?" a 1:24 video that shows what doesn't need to be cited in research papers, because it's...uhmmmm...common?

Also, Tara created:

• a 2:16 video on How to Create a Project in LILO; and
  


• a 1:09 video titled "My LILO Journal: Email IT!"

Have fun!

"RIB" your LILO Librarian!

LILO users may now send their research journals directly to their campus librarian for review and comment before sending the journal on to their instructors!

We call this feature "RIB" - as in "run it by" your librarian. Once you've loaded your research journal, a prompt will appear that will explain the RIB feature a bit more fully. The campus librarian's email is automatically inserted into the mailer program and you can send along comments or questions about your journal.

Librarians can provide a great deal of assistance when it comes to finding and evaluating information sources. We're also experts at citing sources and directing users to reference books and Web sites that show how to build citations.

Let us know what you think by using the "Contact Us" button at the top of every LILO page!

"Your Librarian" now live on LILO!

LILO Librarians are available to help you at any time in LILO.

Once you create a project and select the campus where you are taking the course, LILO displays the photo and contact information of that campus' librarian. Follow the hyperlink for contact information.

Also remember that 24/7 live chat is always available if you need it.

Check this space periodically to find out when new LILO enhancements are live.

New LILO updates and enhancements

Aloha students, faculty, and staff!

Fall 2007 marks the third anniversary of the arrival of Learning Information Literacy Online (LILO) at UH!

With each new semester, LILO developers have released new content and improved interactivity. We've also made the content tighter and leaner. We've added a number of new examples throughout to clarify the content. We believe in using a variety of formats to present this material to users so you will now see YouTube and Flash video clips. In some cases, video is much more effective than written text!

The nature of the Web (for good and for bad) is that content, formatting, and design can be changed quickly "on-the-fly." If you are a frequent user of LILO, you may notice slight changes in the look and feel of LILO from day to day as we find typos to correct or sections of text that need work. Updates like these are published daily to LILO.

Rest assured that we will not make major structural changes (such as adding new modules, changing the order of modules or navigation) during a semester. changes like these will be uploaded prior to the beginning of a new semester.

Please check LILO at the beginning of each semester for any major changes to the program.

We thank UH Faculty for suggestions on improving LILO, and we want to incorporate those changes regularly so users can immediately benefit from them. Please keep them coming!

We appreciate your continued support of LILO!

The LILOWEB Development Team

YouTube comes to LILO!

The Fall 2007 version of LILO now includes relevant and interesting YouTube videos which explain concepts of Information Literacy, identity theft, when to use scholarly versus popular journals in research papers, and many other topics.

Did you Know...? (2.0)

is a fascinating look at technology and the future of our planet. Check it out, along with other videos on LILO.

UH Librarian Superpowers II

A few weeks ago, a colleague at Windward Community College challenged librarians in the system:

"Ok, UH Librarians, what are YOUR superpowers?"

Back at ya...

KapCC CC's Kevin Roddy:

Superpowers
* Highly developed "BS" meter that easily detects lies and deceptions on Web pages
* Troubleshoots multiple lines of PHP and SQL code in his head while eating chocolate and strong coffee
* Knows the exact title of every book he's ever touched with a blue cover

Secret Weapon
* LinkaGoGo!

Vulnerability
* Felis domesticus