Instructional Efforts: Information Literacy in College (Acknowledgments)
See also Curriculum Prototypes
Concern about information literacy is ongoing and pervasive in higher education today. Information literacy programs are either well-established, or on the way, or are being integrated into curriculum requirements. Librarians are commonly involved in these efforts since, foundationally, it is they who have worked collaboratively with classroom faculty over the years to integrate information literacy into curricula.
It would be foolhardy to attempt to summarize here the educational trends that are active, or in place. The literature describing these programs is extensive, and constantly growing.
College campuses have recognized that the onslaught of the Information Age has brought pressing needs to educational endeavors. One succinct expression of this is from Pennsylvania State University, where changes are being made
...in response to our community's demand for graduates who can work in teams, communicate electronically, solve open-ended problems, and think critically. Convinced that four years of passive lecture reception does not typically build these skills... We seek to improve instruction by offering well-structured active learning for individual students and teams, to extend group as well as individual learning beyond classroom hours with asynchronous conferencing, project collaboration, and coaching, and to increase students' ability to access and critically analyze the human and information resources available on the Internet.(1)
Increasingly, classroom faculty on their own are interweaving expectations about use of technology tools and electronic information resources into regular course curricula. "Early adapters" have been doing this for years, of course. What is, perhaps, new is that articles about information literacy are beginning to appear in a variety of discipline-related journals. Thus, the push to incorporate more focus on information skill building is emerging from the disciplines and professions themselves. A sampling --
Biology
Terry, Thomas M. "Weaving the Web Into Biology Teaching." Bioscience, vol. 49, no. 9, September 1999, p. 733+
Kiser, Karen M. "Integrating the Internet into Lesson Plans." Clinical Laboratory Science, vol. 12, no. 4, July/August 1999, p. 196+Business
Fornaciari, Charles J., and Maria F. Loffredo Roca. "The Age of Clutter: Conducting Effective Research Using the Internet." Journal of Management Education, vol. 23, no. 6, December 1999, p. 732+
Sterngold, Arthur H., and Janet M. Hurlbert, "Information Literacy and the Marketing Curriculum." Journal of Marketing Education, vol. 20, no. 3, Fall 1998, p. 244+Chemistry
Ricker, Alison Scott, and Robert Q. Thompson. "Teaching Chemical Information in a Liberal Arts Curriculum," Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 76, no. 11, November 1999, p. 1590+Communications
Nagelhout, Ed. "Pre-Professional Practices in the Technical writing Classroom." [Includes information literacy skills] Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 3, Summer 1999, p. 285+Criminal Justice
Chermak, Steven, and Alexander Weiss. "Activity-Based Learning of Statistics." [Includes information literacy skills] Journal of Criminal Justice Education, vol. 10, no. 2, Fall 1999, p. 361+Geography
Lemke, Karen A., and Michael E. Ritter. "Virtual Geographies and the Use of the Internet for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education." Journal of Geography in Higher Education, vol. 24, no. 1, March 2000, p. 87+Journalism
Oreskes, Michael. "Navigating a Minefield." American Journalism Review, vol. 21, no. 9, November 1999, p. 20+Music
Thompson, Keith P. "Internet Resources for General Music." Music Educators Journal, vol. 86, no. 3, November 1999, p. 30+Nursing
Pravikoff, Diane. "On the Information Highway, or Sitting on the Curb?" Journal of Nursing Education, vol. 39, no. 3, March 2000, p. 99+Verhey, Marilyn P. "Information Literacy in an Undergraduate Nursing Curriculum." Journal of Nursing Education, vol. 38, no. 6, September 1999, p. 252+
College Level Reference Services in the Online World
Reference librarians provide one-on-one assistance to students at
an individualized level and stay connected until the information problem
is solved. Academic librarians function to bridge whatever gap may occur
between what students know how to find on their own versus whatever resources
are needed. Information literacy efforts go a long ways toward making
students more independent in their research. But, they do not solve all
problems.
It is usually the case that students have on- and off-campus access to licensed fulltext databases of quality resources made available via their campus libraries. These resources are used heavily. But, it is widely acknowledged that students also use the general Internet in their research.
Recognizing that only about 6% of Web content is scholarly in nature, and that no search engine indexes more than about 30% of the Internet, librarians and educators have been concerned with trends that indicate that undergraduates rely more and more on Web resources. Studies show that problems created by poor search strategies are magnified on the Web, but there is considerable evidence that students accept the results of bad searches.
Reference relationships are changing. More and more, students are using their libraries in an online mode. Librarians have always known that there are those "teaching moments" when a student and a librarian interactively collaborate with question negotiation and access to appropriate resources. But, in the Web environments in which they search, students are not only left adrift without guidance, and are also missing out on the social interactions that traditionally have been associated with reference services provided by librarians.
In response to some of these concerns, librarians at University of Hawaii, University of Arizona, University of Texas, Oregon State University, and Carnegie Mellon University, in cooperation with OCLC, have submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop 24/7 online, real-time reference services for undergraduates in science, mathematics, and engineering.(2) The service will be provided via chatroom type software (LivePerson <http://www.liveperson.com>). Librarians at the libraries will cover four-hour, rolling shifts through the time zones. The proposal is to mount the service for 18 months; to develop question banks of frequently asked questions; and to analyze patron interactions and responses. Students do not heavily use email reference services that are widely offered by academic libraries. The thinking is that students will react positively to a live, interactive environment, available 24/7, with librarians who are familiar both with question negotiation and with resources to solve information problems.
The proposal indicates that the chat reference service will be available to all undergraduate students in the United States, not just to students at partner institutions. It will be very interesting to see whether this proposal is funded and to watch the project's development over time.
College Level Curricula using Electronic Resources -- The Web et al.
Until recently, many college-level Internet and other interactive assignments
framed electronic information awkwardly into linear models. College librarians
could talk for days on end about how many assignments they have seen that
required students to gather some information from the Internet, summarize
what's been found, and report back.
That is one valid avenue: using the Internet as an exploratory tool
Since so much content is available on the Internet, many instructors are using Web assignments to have students explore special resources (e.g., databases; specific Web sites) in the discipline or subject area.
But certainly another possibility is to see Internet technology tools as vehicles to learning experiences, as shown in the following chart:
| Technology tool |
What is learned technically
|
Instructional purpose (learning experiences) |
| Sending/receiving/managing electronic communications |
Consultation with peers. Student/faculty communication/learning. Question/comment
exchanges with mentors and experts. |
|
| forums & message boards | Electronic posting; use of Internet to retrieve messages. Use of Internet to follow discussion threads. |
Internet as a communications tool. Seeing threads of arguments develop;
critically considering arguments; learning from others; responding cogently. |
| Web search engines | How to do focused searching and evaluate what is found. Development of search skills, including problem analysis, choice of keywords, Boolean search statements, etc. |
Ability to independently investigate a topic from a variety of angles
and evaluate the quality of the materials found. Comparison with print
resources. |
| groupware | Using electronic resources for project work or work with a group; learning how to build on shared resources. |
Collaboration and teamwork. Apply independent research efforts to a
group effort. |
| electronic resources made available through a library | How to do focused searching in each and evaluate what is found (especially distinguishing popular from scholarly literature). Development of search skills, including problem analysis, choice of keywords, Boolean search statements, etc. |
How to query fulltext databases in response to research needs. Access
to quality resources. Comparison with print resources. Management of
information retrieved -- bookmarks; Web page construction; integration
of electronic resources (e.g., importing Internet resources into a Word
document) |
| basic Web reference tools (e.g., selection of those on Virtual Reference Desk) | How to optimally search a variety of resources, e.g., directories, sites with extensive resources. How to interact with data sets to retrieve needed information; how to transfer those data into a spreadsheet program. |
How to use standard Web-based resources and datasets to respond to specific information needs. Comparison with print resources. Preparation for workworld. |
Looked at from these different angles, you can begin to see how one can fit these pieces into an overall constructivist mode. As our use of the Internet grows in sophistication and richness, we will surely see many developments along these lines.
(1) Ann Deden, "Computers and Systemic Change in Higher Education," Communications of the ACM, vol. 41, no. 1, January 1998, p. 58+
(2) A PDF version of the proposal is available at <http://www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/24x7.pdf>The statement that only about 6% of the Web is scholarly is based on S. Lawrence and L. Giles study published in Nature ("Accessibility and Distribution of Information on the Web," vol. 400, pp. 107-109) and also available at <http://www.wwwmetrics.com/> That poorly structured search statements magnify search difficulties is discussed by J. Nims and L. Rich, "How Successfully Do Users Search the Web?" College and Research Libraries News, 1998, vol. 59, no. 3, pp. 155-158.
Acknowledgments Many thanks to the college librarians who talked with me, mulling over interpretations, and sharing ideas. These wonderful colleagues include Jo Anne Howell, Gavilan College Library; Victoria Welborn and Christy Hightower, Science Library at UCSC; Pam Baker and Janie Silveria, CSU MB Library; and my colleagues at Cabrillo College Library.
