Information Literacy Competencies, Standard One

The next few posts by Rachel Jorgensen, Information Literacy Librarian, will focus on explicating the five information literacy concepts as defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries, a subdivision of the American Library Association.
Each competency is comprised of the main standard that is further defined by “performance indicators” and “outcomes.” In this way, ACRL has fully defined and developed each standard and provided benchmarks for teaching, learning and assessment.
Standard One: The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed.
Standard one has four performance indicators:

1. ”…defines and articulates the need for information.”
2. ”…identifies a variety of types and formats of potential sources for information.”
3. ”…considers the costs and benefits of acquiring the needed information.”
4. ”…reevaluates the nature and extent of the information need.”

Outcomes for this standard include:

• The ability to create a thesis statement.
• Develops lists of keywords for research.
• Understands the difference between types of materials, such as primary vs secondary, scholarly vs popular.
• Able to communicate research criteria, research plan and can modify this plan and criteria in response to outside factors.

On a practical level, this is one of the easier standards to teach, as the skills are concrete (creating a subject statement, devising a list of keywords from that subject statement, brainstorming a list of possible resources, organizing the resources by type and associating type of resource to research tool, such as the library catalog, article database, etc).

However, this activity of differentiating and defining can be the first and last hurdle for students – many do not get past this point and end up using whatever they can find. Because of this it becomes difficult to move students towards the more abstract information literacy skills, such as understanding the legal and ethical use of information.

In order to make sure students can clear this first hurdle, the Information Literacy Program focuses on providing learning opportunities for students, as they enter UDC as Freshman, as well as students at higher class levels. The program does this by providing instruction sessions for classes, working with the Freshman Orientation program, providing one-on-one assistance to students and offering workshops that target particular research-oriented and critical thinking skills.

Despite its age, the ACRL ‘s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education is the primary document for the field of Information Literacy – it guides information literacy programming and curriculum in most academic libraries and is the foundation for other documents, such as the Middle State Commission on Higher Education’s Guidelines for Institutional Improvement, which includes a publication on “Developing Research & Communication Skills: Guidelines for Information Literacy in the Curriculum.”

For more information contact Rachel Jorgensen, Information L iteracy Librarian @ 274-6116.

What This All Comes Down To

[Special weekly post from Rachel Jorgensen, Digital & Information Literacy Librarian, University of the District of Columbia]

The other day I got a call from a student who I helped with a research paper. She wanted to tell me about the grade she had gotten -- an A. She was excited to tell me that her professor had lauded her on the resources she used and how she had used images to illustrate the narrative of her topic.

Of course, I was grateful to know that I had been a part of her achievement and excited for her -- she had finally experienced creating a solid and interesting piece of scholarly work and had been recognized for it. I could tell that this had strengthened and encouraged her.

After she said goodbye and I hung up, I sat there and thought about what the conversation had meant to me. I realized that at the end of the day what I care about the most are the students of UDC. I say this with the knowledge that many of our students come to UDC with limitations to their body of knowledge and deficits in skill sets.  

From my vantage point on the reference desk, as well as providing instruction to individual classes, I observe that many students lack the type of reading, writing and critical thinking skills that are necessary for them to not only be successful college students, but also successful in their lives more generally. 

They lack basic reading, writing and critical thinking skills, which, quite often, obscures their intelligence. However, I also know these things to be true: they are curious and not afraid to ask for help; they are opinionated; they persevere and are tenacious.

As I look back on this semester, my first at UDC, I am resolved to continue to help students, not only by providing them with the resources and learning opportunities that they need in order to excel, but also by challenging them to move beyond their current abilities. Hopefully, by doing so they will begin to express in themselves what I understand them to be -- intelligent, tenacious, challenging people.

Tools For Students and Professors

[Special weekly post from Rachel Jorgensen, Digital & Information Literacy Librarian, University of the District of Columbia]

I think the largest obstacle for students in using appropriate resources is their ignorance -- many students have no idea that the UDC library buys and provides access to a large number of resources. One of the reasons for this is the lack of process modeling within the classroom -- many  students are told to use books, articles, etc., but they are not told where these materials are located, nor how to access them. It is never safe to assume that students know how to use the library or its resources.

A large portion of my day is spent teaching students how to find and access these things. While it is rewarding to help students in this way, it is also a waste of time -- both for me and the student. I say this because finding and retrieving are the simplest tasks when using the library and I'd much rather spend my time helping students gain more complex skills, such as assessment and critiquing.

This problem of identifying and retrieving could be alleviated to a great extent within the classroom. Namely, students should be explicitly told to use UDC library materials. However, this requires professors and other teaching staff to have a clear understanding of what the library offers and how it is organized. Too often I
encounter students who are completely confused because they've been told by their professor to find scholarly articles in Aladin. The students quickly find out that this is impossible, because Aladin is a library catalog, not an article database. (If you regularly teach classes and you don't know how these two
things differ please contact me -- I'd be happy to give you an orientation of library resources!)

One of the things that I can do to help students and instructors alike is to create research guides, such as the ones found on the LRD's research guide website. I think these are an efficient and effective means by which to help students (and instructors) identify and access appropriate materials. If you would like a research guide made you can submit a request using the Information Literacy Request Form. (The link to this form can also be found on the library's website.)

Over the past year many other changes have been made to the LRD website -- the intent of this was to make accessing library materials easier. Above is an illustration of the library's website and the main access points for the catalog, article databases and electronic materials. Become acquainted with these resources -- gain an understanding of how they differ -- and then tell your students about them!

The Professor and Me

[Special weekly post from Rachel Jorgensen, Digital & Information Literacy Librarian, University of the District of Columbia]

The posts of the past few weeks have focused on how information literacy is defined and what services the Information Literacy Program offers. This weeks post will focus on the relationship of the librarian and the professor and its importance in providing valuable learning opportunities for students.

As in any relationship, the one between teaching faculty and librarians is a bit lop-sided. It is my opinion to that academic librarians think a lot about faculty, but that faculty don't think much about librarians. To be blunt, librarians are quite often put into the position of helping students understand research assignments that have unclear instructions and/or learning outcomes and librarians are the ones that students are sent to when they ask their professor "what should I use for this paper?"

I had the good fortune of being graduated from a strong school system that taught me basic critical thinking skills and gave me a strong foundation in writing and reading. When I went on to college, I had the foundation necessary to do the type of thinking that is required at the college level -- I could write a decent sentence and read a complex text. Additionally, the library at the time had two ways for me to access scholarly materials: a card catalog and print journal indexes. Compared to today, I had it easy.

This is not the case for students at UDC.

Most students who come to UDC do not have the basic critical thinking, writing and reading skills necessary to do college-level work. Additionally, they do not understand the process by which one would go about completing a research project -- many of them have never been in a library before. Many students become confused and frustrated. Many of them give up.

The lack of basic skills is compounded by the technological knowledge that is required of them. There is a misconception that today's high school graduate is "computer literate." This may be so when it comes to playing a computer game, downloading a movie or browsing Facebook. It is not true, however, when it comes to the use of the library catalog and article databases.

And, let's not forget that many of our students are older, "non-traditional" students who do not have basic computer skills -- many of them have never used a word processing program, let alone a web-based library catalog.

This lack of skill makes it very hard for students to concentrate on the process of learning and gaining knowledge.

What I Need From Faculty

Simply put -- students must learn processes and knowledge. Research assignments, particularly for CCDC students, Freshmen and Sophomores, must be organized in such a way that the students learn how to do research.

If a professor were to ask me how a research assignment should be designed and presented to the students, this is what I would say:

• Have a clearly explicated research assignment, preferably presented independently of the syllabus, which includes:
  
  • Paper style / formatting guidelines
  • Required page number or word count totals
  • Minimun number of resources
  • Guidelines on devising an appropriate subject / thesis statement
• Set deadlines for a subjet or thesis statement, working bibliography, rough draft and final draft.
• Suggest the appropriate types of library resources, including reference resources and article databases.

Additionally, professors cannot assume that students have the technical skills that will be required of them in order to format research papers using a word processor. Particularly for classes geared towards Freshmen and Sophomores, learing opportunities in technical skills should be integrated.

In all of these areas I can be of assistance. Do you need a video tutorial on how to format a hanging indentation? Do you want a web guide that provides students access to the appropriate resources? Do you think your students need a hands-on instruction session in using the library? Would you like help devising an assignment that clearly explicates the research process? I can help with all of that.

And one last little librarian pet peeve: I am not a babysitter.* When a professor schedules a library instruction session, he or she is required to show up, as well as the students! Having the professor interact with students while they are learning about scholarly resources is an important, teachable moment.

*I undertand that there may be occasional times, due to extenuating circumstances, that the professor cannot attend. Communication, as always, is the key in making sure my alter ego of grumpy librarian does not appear.

In Closing

The relationships between faculty and librarians can be a fruitful one, but it is a relationship that is often not inculcated in the collegial world. The students, per usual, are the ones who get left out of the cold because of this. What faculty and librarians share, hopefully, is a desire for their students to be effective: critical, pro-active thinkers.

Further Reading
Kraat, Susan B., ed. Relationships Between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information Press, 2005.

Information Literacy -- Introducing Zotero

Part 3 of our Information Literacy Series by Michael Fitzgerald, Electronic Services Librarian

Those of us reading these words live in a world where information is plentiful. Whatever your search is, finding something isn’t such a challenge. The many subscription resources available to you at UDC will give thousands and thousands of results. Finding the right thing can be more difficult and the next question is what to do once you have found something you want to use. Sometimes it can feel like a full-time job just keeping track of all the information you need for the many projects you are working on each semester.

There are tools that can help with this. Zotero is a free plug-in for the Firefox browser (no others at this point, but Firefox is free too!). It does three important things. It helps you collect different kinds of citations from a variety of sources all in one place; it lets you organize and annotate those citations; and it works with your word processor to create references and bibliographies, all formatted according to the style you choose. There’s much more it can do, but those are just the top three.

Wherever you find it — whether in the library catalog, one of our many subscription databases, or on Amazon, YouTube, or somewhere else — the information can be collected and stored in Zotero and will be ready for you to use later in papers and projects so you can cite your sources appropriately. Notecards were a good idea, but they are so last century. Zotero does all that and much more.

The award-winning Zotero software was developed by the Center for New Media and History at George Mason University, one of our partners in the Washington Research Library Consortium.
There’s more information available, including video tutorials on using Zotero. As part of its information literacy services, the UDC Learning Resources Division offers instruction on Zotero. If you are interested in a session, please fill out our online form. We look forward to helping you move forward with this cutting-edge tool.

Subscribing to the Center for Academic Technology Blog Using Outlook

This tutorial will show you how to subscribe to the Center for Academic Technology blog [cat-udc.blogspot.com] using Microsoft Outlook. We will employ a technology called RSS [Really Simple Syndication]. This will send new blog posts (usually 3 per week) to your inbox, just like email.
You can view a PDF version of this document here: http://scr.bi/cntPhg

Select the RSS Feeds option in Outlook

Select the option "RSS Feeds"

Option 1: Right Click on the RSS FEEDS option

A 'right-click' is when you click the 'other' mouse button, or the one on the 'right'. Then click on the option "Add a New RSS Feed..."

Option 2: Use the Menu Bar to Select the Option

Once you select RSS Feeds, go to the menu bar under FILE, select FOLDER, then "Add a New RSS Feed..."

Add the RSS Feed

Enter the following URL: http://cat-udc.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss. This points to the RSS feed for the blog.

The Perfunctory Warning Box

Click YES

Voilà! -- It's DONE

For more on RSS feeds and Microsoft Outlook, visit this link: http://bit.ly/ayms6d.
Once you access the blog, PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS!

Information Literacy and the Learning Resources Division

[Special weekly post from Rachel Jorgensen, Digital & Information Literacy Librarian, University of the District of Columbia]

As I wrote last week, information literacy skills provide a foundation on which students can build essential critical thinking skills and goal-oriented work procedures. This week's post will concentrate on the Information Literacy Program, a service provided by the Learning Resources Division.

Information literacy concepts are an inherent aspect of the services provided by an academic library. Our job, as such a library, is to provide students access to appropriate resources -- resources that support their academic endeavors. Providing instruction on how to use those resources was a natural out-growth of this and with the rise of technology-driven libraries, this instruction has become a crucial aspect of what academic librarians do.

However, library instruction cannot be the only means by which to provide learning opportunities in information literacy. Information literacy competencies cannot be fully taught through one-off instruction sessions. The intent of the Information Literacy Program is to integrate information literacy into the curriculum at UDC more generally, providing support to faculty and student work.

At its best, information literacy can be the unifying theme for a students' college experience: literacy is not something one uses in only one situation. At it's worse, information literacy programming is the hang nail on a sore thumb. Creating a program that is integrated seamlessly into the wider curriculum is not something that can be done over night -- nor do I have any interest in building a house made out of cards. Because of this, I am continually seeking out opportunities in which I can integrate information literacy seamlessly. Some services can be implemented very quickly, but others will take some time to implement successfully.

What Can the Information Literacy Program Do For You?

Library Instruction

Currently, the Program offers instruction sessions for individual classes. These sessions are tailored to the needs of the class, but usually include some instruction on differentiating sources, choosing appropriate sources and utilizing basic critical thinking skills.

Individual Student Consultations

Many students have already taken advantage of one-on-one consultations. For many students this type of instruction can be helpful, particularly if they are short on technological skills (such as the basic use of a computer or navigating websites) or have been out of school for a while. These types of one-on-one sessions are also helpful for novice researchers, or young students, who have not yet grasped that there is not one "right answer" out there that they have to find. By working with these students individually I am able to address their particular needs and their own particular areas of confusion.

Curricular Support

Assignments and research papers are a prime opportunity to integrate information literacy learning opportunities. I have created a series of worksheets that can be used by faculty and instructors. Links to these worksheets are available in writable PDF format on the Resources page. Additionally, I can work with a faculty member or instructor at the time class materials are being created and organized in order to build into the assignments and research projects methods by which students must use information literacy competencies, as well as explore the particular subject.

This type of integration is essential in that the students does not perceive there to be a difference between learning information literacy concepts and what is expected of them as students. Additionally, these types of assignments and projects provide to the Information Literacy Program a valuable assessment tool.

Campus-Wide Integration

Campus-wide integration entails having information literacy competencies embedded into curriculum across disciplines. It is, perhaps, the hardest type of information literacy programming to put into place, but it is possibly also the most effective – at its best, information literacy is a set of acquired processes utilized by the student in order to achieve knowledge acquisition.

Many colleges and universities have instituted such programs using a variety of modalities, including required information literacy courses, information literacy integration into writing intensive courses, as well as the inclusion of information literacy competencies into student learning objectives within general education programs.

What works at one college may not work at another, as each college has unique values, challenges and aspirations. The new General Education program at UDC, which has information literacy competencies embedded into Student Learning Objectives, is a fertile bed into which information literacy programming can be planted. Additionally, the First Year Experience program, with its first year orientation classes, is a prime opportunity for students to begin the acquisition of information literacy competencies.

Continuing Education Workshops

Everyone may need a refresher course at some point in time, or perhaps, a student has forgotten exactly how to find a scholarly article. Workshops are an important part of maintaining skill levels and introducing new ideas and processes to students and faculty, alike. During this fall semester, the LRD has presented workshops on Zotero, a free software program that lets anyone “collect, organize, cite, and share research resources.” In the next few weeks, the Information Literacy Program, in conjunction with the Academic Advising Center, will present two workshops on research paper writing and using appropriate internet resources for research.

In Closing

A solid information literacy program is multifaceted and adaptive and able to address the particular needs of the students it serves. It takes time to build and implement, along with a lot of patience and perseverance!

Further Reading

Winterman, Brian. Building Better Biology Undergraduates through Information Literacy Integration. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. 58 (Summer, 2009)

Bolton, Tamsin, Tina Pugliese and Jill Singleton-Jackson. Advancing the Promotion of Information Literacy Through Peer-Led Learning. Communications in Information Literacy. 3.1 , p. 20 – 30.

Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy: Curriculum & Pedagogy.

For more information contact Rachel Jorgensen, rjorgensen [at] udc [dot] edu.

Information Literacy at UDC

[Special weekly post from Rachel Jorgensen, Digital & Information Literacy  Librarian, University of the District of Columbia]

Once a week this space will be dedicated to providing information on the Information Literacy Program within the Learning Resources Division, as well as related services and topics.

Before we get going full-tilt on such a topic I thought it might be best to define what “information literacy” is in general, as well as what I mean by “information literacy” within the context of the Learning Resources Division and the University of the District of Columbia and why information literacy is important.

What Is It?

…information flows in all directions and does as it pleases, for better or for worse, serving no masters and obeying no party line. -- Walter Kim “Little Brother Is Watching.” New York Times Magazine, October 17, 2010, p. 18.


In essence, information literacy describes a set of skills that allow you

• to collect information
• critique that information
• use the information for a specific purpose.

Many institutions and organizations have created their own definition of information literacy, but these definitions, when compared, are very similar to each other. (See the Resources section below for links to information literacy documents.)

For most academic librarians (of which I am one) information literacy is a set of five competencies, as described by the Association of College and Research Libraries (a sub-division of the American Library Association.)

These competencies are:

• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

Why Is It Important?

I remember as an undergraduate having three basic types of resources to use when researching a paper: reference books, academic books and journal indexes and I had only three places to go to find these: the card catalog, the print index section and the reference desk.

By the time I graduated, the library’s catalog had been computerized (and searched using DOS commands), JSTOR had arrived and I found myself doing research using the computer, rather than hoofing through the shelves. In the short span of four years undergraduate life had changed drastically.

Today, students must deal with a plethora of information sources – websites, article databases, web-based library catalogs, on-line reference resources, in-print books, in-print articles, etc. They receive competing and contradictory direction: Don’t use web resources! Use web resources! Use nothing electronic!, etc.

Often, students are stymied by the amount of options available to them -- they cannot find the clear access point for what they need. (Except for Google and its nice, neat one search-box interface, which many library databases are attempting to emulate…but that’s a whole different discussion for another day.)

Students who are information literate are able to identify what information they need, how to access it and how to use it. They are efficient researchers and critical thinkers.

The worth of being information literate is not limited to college -- this type of competency is applicable to multiple aspects of life: personal finance…job skills…home ownership… In contemporary life information comes at us in a steady stream and having the ability to critique information, judging it for validity and accuracy, is an essential skill.

How Does One Become Literate?

There are many ways to become information literate and just like every other type of learning, repeated exposure to the fundamental concepts is the best way to internalize the skill. In my opinion, the best practice is to have the librarian and instructor work together to provide cohesive learning opportunities.

Generally speaking, teaching "information literacy" occurs when the the librarian is invited to provide instruction to a class and give a one-shot presentation during which the students learn about the library catalog, article databases and other resources.

In such sessions there is no time to teach even basic information literacy skills, let alone teach them how to effectively use library resources for basic tasks.

A different tactic would be to have the instructor and librarian work together to create a graduated research assignment in which students would be guided through the steps of defining a topic, finding back-ground information, conducting the research (finding appropriate books, articles, etc.), critiquing those materials for validity and usefulness and, finally, producing an end product – such as a paper or presentation.

I believe it is this type of structure that gives students the opportunity to truly learn the process of consideration, which is at the heart of information literacy.

This is only one example of how teaching to information literacy can be embedded within a curriculum. There are many other techniques that can be used -- a further discussion of these techniques will be the subject of some of my future posts.

Resources

Professional Standards and Guidelines

• Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Overview
• ACRL: Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Edcuation
• Institute of Museum and Library Services Museum, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education Guidelines for Institutional Improvement
• American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st-Century Learner

Next Post

In next week's post I will provide more information on the LRD Information Literacy program and how it relates to student learning and the curriculum.

Want More Information?

Feel free to contact me! rjorgensen[at]udc[dot]edu