University library outreach for transition

McCabe, K. (2026, May 18). Using university library outreach to demystify the transition from high school to higher education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/using-university-library-outreach-demystify-transition-high-school-higher-education (I think this was sponsored by University of Northern British Columbia, which is why it's open access, but it's still a useful example of information literacy)
Photo by Sheila Webber: Solomon's seal plants, Sheffield Botanical Gardens, May 2026

#LILAC24 Widening participation, information literacy and the transition to university: reflections and initial findings from Lancaster University’s Library Schools Engagement Project

Pam McKinney live blogging from the second day of the LILAC Information Literacy Conference taking place at Leeds Beckett University. Paul Newnhan (@newnham_p), Faculty Librarian for Lancaster University Library and Clare Shaikh, Library schools engagement officer presented their research project that aimed to develop a programme of support related to the extended project qualification and engage with 6th-form college students and university students from widening participation backgrounds.  The project is ongoing, this is a report from the initial research findings from the first year of the project. The project was sponsored by the widening participation advisory group that supports people from underrepresented groups to apply for and succeed at university. £44,500 of funding was given for this pilot project which funded a full-time engagement officer post. They also received support from the library senior management. The library has a history of working with local schools and colleges and ran study events for 6th form students. Information literacy development, progression, widening participation and employability are the key themes addressed by the project. Equipping students with skills to support their transition to university helps reduce the dropout rate. The journal paper I wrote with Sharon Wagg on her dissertation research on information literacy outreach was cited as a key influence (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1300584)

They engaged with 3 distinct groups of participants: 6th form college students doing the EPQ qualification; 6th form college staff, and university student employed as library ambassadors. Library research days were used by students to research their EPQs. Outreach visits took place in colleges where university staff supported EPQs in colleges.  In addition, lesson plans and online teaching were developed.

Data was collected through pre- and post-intervention surveys using questions developed from a widening participation question bank. observations took place at the events and outreach/study days focusing on how students interacted with information and the library. There were also focus groups with students and interviews with staff.

Lancaster University information literacy framework was used as a model for the analysis of the data relating to information literacy. There were varying levels of understanding and knowledge about the academic information landscape, but they did develop an understanding over the course of the project and developed familiarity with the language of academic information. Teachers understood this academic language and helped embed this learning. All agreed that refining a topic and developing a research question is difficult for students, and it is tricky to define a topic question at the right size and shape.  This causes students to leave the EPQ programme. This is the first piece of schoolwork that children do that requires this kind of devising of a research question. Many students were familiar with natural language search, but none had experienced searching a library catalogue. Teaching these skills was very well received by students and they recognised the value of the information they found through the library';s One-search. 
Teachers also recognised the value of this teaching, for helping students prepare and make better use of their time. The open access filter of One Search was also seen to be useful as it facilitated access to quality information. that was not behind a paywall. Encouraging students to adopt a more structured approach to their searching was seen to be positive. Students learnt how to manage and organise their material, and developed a range of strategies based on recommendations they were introduced to at study days.  College students used a range of evaluative strategies, that they were introduced to at school and at the study days. These were favourably commented on by the students.
College students find writing up their EPQ challenging and understanding the difference between being descriptive and being analytical. Using reference tables can help students organise their material and engage critically with it. Students developed understanding that work needed to be written and refined and written again, as part of an iterative process of development. There was a good understanding of ethics, referencing and plagiarism from staff, but some students really struggled to understand it. Some students used online tools to help manage references, but it was identified as a key activity that the library could support further development of referencing practices.

The EPQ involves students choosing a topic, then research and undertake the project and present it to a non-specialist audience.  It aims to develop critical, reflective and independent learners.  Students said they struggled with time management and working independently, but could recognise the value of the EPQ to their personal development. The peer support element of the project facilitated knowledge exchange between current university students and college students.

The programme aimed to develop confidence in academic study with college students, and develop a sense of belonging at university.  The peer supporters also developed their employability, they spoke about their passion for the subject and the value of picking a subject that you are really interested in.  They were keen to share their expertise with the college students.  There were some very positive interactions between 6th-form students and university students, but a bit more training in this area has been identified as something to work on for the future. 6th-form students were impressed with the library building, and were surprised by the different learning environments in the library.  The project helped de-mystify the academic library. The EPQ helped students develop confidence, and the outreach activities helped students develop academic confidence. Recommendations have been produced for the project going forwards

New articles: Indigenous IL; Artists; Community representation; Clinical judgement in nursing; 1st gen students; Australian librarians; Toffler

The latest issue of open access journal Journal of Information Literacy contains the following articles and also some book reviews. Go to https://journals.cilip.org.uk/jil/issue/view/46
- Information as a relation: Defining Indigenous information literacy by Sandra Littletree, Nicola Andrews, Jessie Loyer
- Emerging artists in transition: What role does information play in negotiating success and failure? by Maud Cooper
- An information literacy lens on community representation for participatory budgeting in Brazil by Peter Cruickshank, Bruce Ryan
- Engaging with practice: Information literacy instruction as a part of developing reflective thinking and clinical judgement in nursing studies by Margrethe Bakstad Søvik, Kari Røykenes
- Insights on first-generation students’ development of social capital for the rigours of college-level research by Leslin H. Charles
- Artificial intelligence literacy in libraries: Experiences and critical impressions from a learning circle by Karolina Andersdotter
- Giving voice to regional Australian academic librarians: Perceptions of information literacy and information literacy instruction by Annette Goodwin, Waseem Afzal
- Information literacy: Did Alvin Toffler beat Paul Zurkowski to it? by Andrew Shenton
Image created by Sheila Webber with Midjourney AI - the prompt was the string of words in the subject line

Transition and information literacy

As we leave behind 2021 and move to 2022, here are some articles on transition:
- Bent, M. (2008). Perceptions of Information Literacy in the Transition to Higher Education. National Teaching Fellowship Project Report. Newcastle University. https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk/55850 open access (research carried out in the UK as part of a National Teaching Fellowship. The aim was "to investigate the conflicts and congruencies between staff and student perceptions of information literacy in the transition to higher education, particularly in Chemistry and English" and data was gathered through interviews, focus groups, survey and also workshops developing findings with professionals. It includes some discussion of Threshold Concepts and information literacy - well before ACRL addressed this connection).
- Hicks, A. (2020). Negotiating change: Transition as a central concept for information literacy. Journal of Information Science. (early online publication - open access) https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0165551520949159
- Salisbury, F. & Karasmanis, S. (2011) Are they Ready? Exploring Student Information Literacy Skills in the Transition from Secondary to Tertiary Education. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 42(1), 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048623.2011.10722203 (reports on a results of questionnaire/test of 1029 first year health science students: one of the most useful recommendations identifies the value of inderstanding more about the existing skill/knowledge of the students, so you can develop a programme that builds on this).
- Varlejs, J. & Stec, E. (2014). Factors Affecting Students' Information Literacy as They Transition from High School to College. School Library Research, 17. Open access at https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1022549 (interesting study in which they assessed information literacy through a few different means in a first year university course, then identified the schools the students had previously attended, and interviewed librarians in schools where students had either scored very well or poorly. They identify a number of factors that appear to influence the information literacy of new university students, but in particular identify an aspect that wasn't talked about (i.e. the administration and culture of the schools) as being an important hidden factor)
Photo by Sheila Webber: the wreath at number 31, December 2021

Recent articles: tutorials, curriculum mapping; AR game; conspiracy theories; transition; design for serendipity; COVID response

The latest issue of the Journal of Academic Librarianship (Volume 47 issue 1) includes (priced publication - though note a couple of articles, marked below, are open access) : 

- Redesigning an online information literacy tutorial for first-year undergraduate instruction by Kimberly Y. Franklin, Kendall Faulkner, Tiffanie Ford-Baxter, Sheree Fu (open access)
- Practicing information literacy: Practicum students negotiating information practice in workplace settings by Sara Sharun
- Using curriculum mapping to scaffold and equitably distribute information literacy instruction for graduate professional studies programs by Ladislava Khailova
- Comparative analysis of academic scientists, social scientists and humanists' scholarly information seeking habits by Alia Arshad, Kanwal Ameen
- Scaffolded research assignment analysis for a required first year course by Jennifer Saulnier, Corey M. Johnson, Kathleen Whalen
- Help first-year college students to learn their library through an augmented reality game by Yingqi Tang
- A call to action for librarians: Countering conspiracy theories in the age of QAnon by Stephanie Beene, Katie Greer
- The higher education environment driving academic library strategy: A political, economic, social and technological (PEST) analysis by John Cox (open access)
- Successes, challenges, and next steps in implementing outcome-based assessment: The case of Istanbul Bilgi University Library by Fatma Didin Sonmez, Sami Cuhadar, Mustafa Kerem Kahvecioglu
- Improv(is)ing research: Instructional design for serendipity in archival exploration by Jason Ezell, Lucy
- Uncovering the information literacy skills of first-generation and provisionally admitted students by Stephanie J. Graves, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders
- Transitioning to college: Impact of high school librarians by Lesley S.J. Farmer, Skyler Phamle (open access)
- University libraries response to COVID-19 pandemic: A developing country perspective by Muhammad Rafiq, Syeda Hina Batool, Amna Farzand Ali, Midrar Ullah 

Go to https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/vol/47/issue/1

Photo by Sheila Webber: vivid winter sky, January 2021

Transition to university; information literacy skills through gamification and peer-learning. #lilac19

Sharon Perera and Andrew Sinclair presented on a moodle based resource “independent learners toolkit” that was developed to support students, and particularly BAME students, transition to university at Greenwich University. The resource features engaging interactive games to build awareness of university life, viewing the university as a socio cultural system of practices (Lloyd 2013) that attempts to bring out the tacit ways of knowing. The resource can be used with groups of learners to facilitate discussion of the issues they are all facing, and make it obvious that  everyone is in the same situation. They carried out an evaluation of the resource and gave a pre and post intervention questionnaire,which revealed that students became more confident about their knowledge of the skills they thought they needed at university. Students found it helpful, they liked the self discovery aspect, and thought it taught the things they were expected to already know, but didn’t. The resource is available for free use on the Greenwich University website.

New articles: transition, transfer students

Reference Services Review volume 45 issue 2 2017 (priced publication) includes:
- Thinking critically about information by Eleanor Mitchell , Sarah Barbara Watstein
- Getting Out the Truth: The Role of Libraries in the Fight against Fake News by Oliver Batchelor
- Exploring Motivation: Integrating the ARCS Model with Instruction by Krista M. Reynolds , Lindsay Michelle Roberts , Janet Hauck
- Using Information Literacy to Support Teaching Practicum Students by Sara Maurice Whitver
- Digital Research Notebook: A Simple Tool for Reflective Learning by Julia A Glassman, Douglas M Worsham
- Ready-to-Go Assessment: The Implementation and Design of a General Assessment Tool by Cara Berg
- Teaching Research Skills Through Embedded Librarianship by Nadine Hoffman , Susan Beatty , Patrick Feng , Jennifer Lee
- Adult Transitional Theory and Transfer Shock in Higher Education: Practices from the Literature by Tammy Ivins , Kimberly Copenhaver , Alyssa Koclanes
- International Students and Information Literacy: A Systematic Review by Meggan Houlihan , Claire Walker Wiley , Amanda B. Click
- Information Literacy Needs of Community College Students in Transition: a Literature Review by Elizabeth Nelson
- Are transfer students lagging behind in information literacy? by Min Tong , Carrie Moran
- Understanding the Transfer Student Experience Using Design Thinking by Linda Whang , Christine Tawatao , John Danneker , Jackie Belanger , Stephen Edward Weber , Linda Garcia , Amelia Klaus
- Agoge: An Information Literacy Game for Transfer Students by Andrew Kearns , Breanne A. Kirsch , Virginia Cononie

Contents page at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/rsr/45/2
Photo by Sheila Webber: white lilac, April 2017

Project Information Literacy

In December 2013 The US Project Information Literacy published a research report about first-year university students and information literacy. It is based on interviews with 35  first year students (from 6 institutions), a survey of school and university students (all in the USA) and analysis of library resources."In this study, we investigate the challenges today's freshmen face, and the information-seeking strategies they develop, use, and adapt as they make the transition from high school to college and begin to complete college research assignments."
Head, A. (2013) Learning the Ropes: How Freshmen Conduct Course Research Once They Enter College. Project Information Literacy. 
http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_2013_FreshmenStudy_FullReport.pdf
The main website is at http://projectinfolit.org
There is also a related video: Major Findings: PIL's Freshmen Study. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWNGZUa952A&feature=youtu.be
Photo by Sheila Webber: Crows in trees, Gothenburg, January 2014

Tranforming Information Literacy Knowledge and Skills across Practices #ecil2013

Tranforming Information Literacy Knowledge and Skills across Practices Camilla Moring at the European Conference on Information Literacy. She espoused a socio-cultural approach to IL. She questioned the idea of transfer as moving skills/knowledge from one part of life to another, as the skills/knowledge was tied to the specific practice context in which they were developed. Her ideas were informed by a research study that was looking at transition from school to university in Denmark. This aimed to improve general academic study competencies at school, as preparation for university. The competencies (divided into subject and general competencies) did not explicitly include IL, but some items in the competencies could be identified as parts of IL. Ability to seek and evaluate information was listed as a general competence whereas one could argue it is a subject competence.
In a pilot study, 8 students were interviewed at school, 4 of whom were able to go on to university (and were interviewed again), and the teachers were also interviewed, as well as documentation being examined.
Moring went on to define transfer as "the use of knowledge and skills learned in one context to qualify actions in another" - undepinning this are ideas such as - that there are general principles which can be used in both contexts. However, Moring put forward the idea of transfer of practice, which took account of social and symbolic elements that were associated with practice.
She presented a triangle of meaning (discourses, narratives etc. of the situation and practice), materials (transport, access, distribution) and competence (requiring transformation, recontextualisation and adapation). So with the example of the students: meaning for them when still at school was learning to use subject related methods, competence was related to subject knowledge and methods, and the materials were articles and a variety of other things. However, when they went to university, students were confused about meaning, and the competences they felt they needed were related to things such as "structure and write assignments", but they were struggling to fit their existing knowledge in this new situation. Also the materials they were using were more limited in university.
This all has implications for how (or indeed, whether) this practice can travel across contexts.

Helping citizens develop their own information literacy curriculum for lifelong learning #ub13

Tomorrow (2nd July) Bill Johnston and I are presenting at the CILIP Umbrella conference #ub13 in Manchester, UK, on Helping citizens develop their own information literacy curriculum for lifelong learning. The abstract reads "Sheila and Bill will outline a framework to enable citizens to self-audit their changing information literacy needs through life, so they can identify strategies for meeting those
needs. In particular they will highlight lifestage transitions. They will indicate implications for people who support these citizens, including possibilities in using tools such as MOOCs."
I am aiming to be doing some blogging from the conference as well (just on Tuesday, I'm just going for the one day: I've still got blogging catching-up to do, including from my own presentations at the i3 and ELEL conferences!).

Helping citizens develop their own information literacy curriculum for lifelong learning from Sheila Webber

Exploring literacy, identity and learning lives in educational transitions #elel2013

Another day, another conference and I am now at the Everyday Language, Everyday Literacies Conference #elel2013taking place in Sheffield, UK. Øystein Gilje started the day with a keynote talk on Exploring  literacy, identity and learning lives in educational transitions. It drew on the Local literacies and community spaces project, which is centred on the Grorud valley, Norway. His focus (and the focus of the project) was learner identity: “learning lives”. I haven't been able to locate the website for this project yet, but I'll add that when I do. The Grorud Valley is a new conurbation on the outskirts of Oslo, which people from various parts of the world and from Norway (including Oslo's inner city) have migrated to.
Whilst close to Oslo, it is also close to the countryside. It is a place which is identified as having social and cultural clashes, "another place", with a problematic identity. Gilje identified Oslo itself as a divided city. However, the Grorud valley has become a particular focus for discussion on immigration and disquiet about change. The researchers looked at how the Grorud Valley was presented in local and national media.
A key question was how young people dealt with educational transitions, e.g. moving into schools in teh valley, and moving out of the valley into e.g. university. Gilje described some existing  initiatives that had been set up in the region e.g. to prepare young immigrant learners for school.
The Learning Lives project looked at cohorts 5-6yrs, 15-16 and 18-19, with 20 informants (and their families) in each cohort, between October 2010 and December 2011. This timespan included the 2011 massacre of young people and the Oslo city centre bomb, and the speaker talked a little about the impact of that on him as a researcher.
Researchers followed the participants in the Grorud Valley and through their transitions. So they were looking at how the young people constructed their learner identities across contexts, including looking at the sites of knowldege and the Valley as a social place. This included asking parents to reflect on their child as learner. The team of four researchers were also concerned with the choices the young people had to make as learners. There are limited choices between primary/secondary and upper secondary education, and a lot more between upper secondary and tertiary education. The first cohort (5-6 years) is when the children go from kindergarten to school.
The speaker followed 24 children from 3 kindergarten and (at the upper age level) followed 12 media students and 12 skincare students (to vocational education), 6 apprentices in garage, and a colleague followed 12 students into academic programmes. Data was collected through observation, interviews, questionnaire and artifacts created with the participants (e.g.drawings, maps, scrapbooks) which stimulated reflection. Analysing the data was a complex procedure and the speaker talked a little about how it was coded, with some aspects being routinely coded e.g. place, type of practice.
The speaker showed a couple of video clips, firstly "Martin", who wanted to be a film maker, talking about how and why he had remixed in a video. The context was a media class "which allowed him to perform a learner identity, bringing in identity as a rap artist" and allowed the students to draw on their knowledge from outside the classroom, and also learn about Ibsen (as Hedda Gabler was a key cultural element in the video). The speaker compared this with a clip of a 5-6 year old using a computer programme to learn to spell the word "fox", then following classmates' practice in clapping and hanging up her headphones (which was a signal in class for students to move to the next task). This is a learner identity where learners are being managed tightly, and fulfilling expected roles as learners, in contrast to the example of creating a video in the media class.
The speaker finished by identifying the varying learning contexts, the current and developing identity, and in particular the "timescale" element. On a matrix with matrices of past/present and macro/micro he identified a phylogenetic (wider environmental/cultural) level, sociogenetic (roughly specific socio-cultural context) level, microgenetic (specific literacy event) and ontogenetic (personal level). Within this matrix they are seeking to gain insights into learning identities at different times, in different learning events, to form a picture of a learning life. I'm blogging this quickly, so as usual I cannot guarantee that I captured teh speaker's intentions accurately.

New issue of JIL: ethical practice, healthcare, transition, international support and more

The open-access Journal of information literacy volume 7 issue 1 has been published. The articles are:
- Information literacy and embedded librarianship in an online graduate programme by Swapna Kumar, Mary E Edwards
- Information literacy as a facilitator of ethical practice in the professions by Marc Forster
- Developing an evidence-based practice healthcare lens for the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model by Michelle Dalton
- Information literacy in the programmatic university accreditation standards of select professions in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia by Cara Bradley
- Reinventing classroom space to re-energise information literacy instruction by Suzanne Julian
- Welsh Information Literacy Project: Phase III update by Síona Murray
- A multilingual information literacy resources tool by Forest Woody Horton
- RIDLs: a collaborative approach to information literacy by Stéphane Goldstein
- Delivering information literacy support internationally: a report of a visit to the University of Nottingham's overseas campuses by Jenny Coombs
- Information literacy skills in Year 14 school leaving pupils - are they ready for third level study? by Christine Marie McKeever
(Plus there are conference reports and book reviews)
http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL
Photo by Sheila Webber: meadowflowers, Lund Botanic Gardens, May 2013

New articles: Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning

There is a new issue of the open access journal Library and Information Research,(volume 37, no 114) focusing on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning. It includes:
- Information literacy in adult returners to Higher Education: student experiences in a university pre-entry course in a UK university by Tony Anderson, Bill Johnston, Alexandra McDonald
- The learning continuum: economical best practices for implementing and achieving a community’s information literacy goals by Shiva Darbandi, Carolyn Waite, Rose Medlock
- Welsh Information Literacy Project by Andrew Eynon
- Dundee College’s Literacy Information Skills Project by Abigail Gourlay Mawhirt
- BILI: Building Information Literacy in Ireland by Amy Connolly, Lorraine Curran, Áine Lynch, Sile O’Shea
- What information competencies matter in today’s workplace? by Alison J. Head, Michele Van Hoeck, Jordan Eschler, Sean Fullerton
- iKnow: Information skills in the 21st Century workplace by Katharine Reedy, Elizabeth Mallett, Natasha Soma
http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/issue/view/65
Photo by Sheila Webber: Copper beech, Lund University, May 2013

New articles in: International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education

This open access journal has a new issue, including:
- Yager, Z., Salisbury, F., and Kirkman, L. (2013) "Assessment of information literacy skills among first year students." The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(1). 59-71. The authors are from La Trobe University, Australia "The development of research and information literacy skills in first year students is essential, but challenging. Approaches to developing these skills that are embedded within subject design, and use a blended approach between online and face-to-face delivery are considered best practice in this area. However research has yet to identify the most appropriate form of assessment of these skills. We used constructive alignment to embed research skills in a first year subject. Students were assessed on their research skills using a diagnostic online quiz in week one, and then in week six, their application of their skills in their assignment was assessed using a rubric. We created a matched sample of the results on these two forms of assessment that included 227 students. Our main aim was to determine whether there was a relationship between quiz and rubric scores, and to assess the practical relevance of the quiz in terms of identifying students who might be in need of additional support. We found a small, but significant, positive correlation between quiz and rubric results and conclude that both the quiz and the rubric are useful forms of assessment, and that there are benefits to using both within an embedded curriculum."

The following aren't specifically about information literacy, but caught my eye.
- Willis, E., Abery, E. and Leiman, T. (2013). "Interrogating education of the heart." The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(1). 21-32. (Developing alternative assessments for health students, focusing on creative responses to the lived experience of patients etc.)
- Bone, E., and Reid, R. (2013). "First course at university: Assessing the impact of student age, nationality and learning style." The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(1). 95 - 107. (In fact they were looking at students' approach to learning, rather than learning style, and found that students with a surface approach to learning were still getting good marks: they note this as a stimulus to changing how they teach "... the general finding that most students were using reproducing strategies in MGC [the module] suggests that learning activities within the course may not encourage independent learning." (p105).
Go to https://fyhejournal.com/issue/view/7/showToc

Also there is a new issue of open-access journal Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, including:
- Murtagh, P., Morris, K., and Thorpe, P. (2013) "'A fish in water’ - Supporting transition to Higher Education and Initial Teacher Training." Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 8(1). (Describes and evaluates a pre-entry module for part time trainee teachers: it doesn't mention IL as such, but problems with citation and synthesis are mentioned).
- Cunningham, S. (2013) "Teaching a diverse student body – a proposed tool for lecturers to self-evaluate their approach to inclusive teaching." Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 8(1). (Includes "a Self Reflective Tool which ... is mapped with the UK Professional Standards for teaching and supporting learning dimensions and encourages consideration of the context, preparation, evaluation, strategies for promoting learning and affective and sensory elements of learning.")
Go to:  http://www.pestlhe.org.uk/index.php/pestlhe/issue/view/23
Photo by Sheila Webber: budding bluebells, April 2013

Supporting information literacy of students in transition to higher education in Zimbabwe

Josiline Phiri (a Law Librarian at the University of Zimbabwe) has written an interesting short article in the Chat Literacy online community: Supporting information literacy and research skills of students for a successful transition from secondary to higher education. She "contacted some local schools and talked with the information literacy teachers and librarians" and she adds her own thoughts on this issue. She looks particularly at the access to electronic resources (e.g. the lack of availability of local resources) http://community.eldis.org/.5b8b28d6
Photo by Sheila Webber: Balloons, London Marathon start, Blackheath, last Sunday.

Library Instruction and Academic Success

Bowles-Terry, M. (2012) "Library Instruction and Academic Success: A Mixed-Methods Assessment of a Library Instruction Program." Evidence based library and information practice, 7 (1). "This study examines the connection between student academic success and information literacy instruction. ... Focus groups with 15 graduating seniors, all of whom had attended at least one library instruction session, discussed student experiences and preferences regarding library instruction. An analysis of 4,489 academic transcripts of graduating seniors identified differences in grade point average (GPA) between students with different levels of library instruction. ... Students value library instruction for orientation purposes as beginning students, and specialized, discipline-specific library instruction in upper-level courses. There is a statistically significant difference in GPA between graduating seniors who had library instruction in upper-level courses (defined in this study as post-freshman-level) and those who did not." (This item isn't brand new, but I noticed it because of an ACRL-related tweet, afraid I can't remember who from)
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/12373
Photo by Sheila Webber: Lost item series: soft toy: Thessaloniki: April 2013

Extending the academic library: social responsibility, information literacy and schools #lilac13

Next up for me at the LILAC conference #lilac13 in Manchester, UK, is Extending the academic library: social responsibility, information literacy and school, from Carol Hollier (University of Nottingham: she was the presenter), Annike Dase (Nottingham Academy) and  Neil Smyth. As it says in the abstract "University of Nottingham librarians created a pilot for an information literacy service targeting schools in the local community. The project’s aim was to transform a piecemeal array of school visits to our libraries into a consistent service delivered by librarians in collaboration with local schools, university faculties, and the Widening Participation Office."
A particular stimulus was the more competitive environment, with students having to pay more for their education in the UK etc., but it did also fit in with university aims to widen and promote access to its resources within the local community.

They already had visits to the library from schools, but it was very ad hoc and piecemeal. It also tended to be the more privileged schools. The librarians decided to have a more systematic programme, with an explicit agenda of widening participation. There was a lot of consultation, involving librarians and also some other staff such as academics and widening participation staff. They went beyond the university as well, to get an insight into what is going on in secondary schools.

There is a lot of variation between English schools, from schools where the qualified librarian is doing excellent things with full support from the school, to ones where there are "lunch ladies" minding the library. Whereas for IT skills and literacy there is careful progression through the primary and secondary schools, there is no such progression for IL.

The "Step into University Libraries" visits for local schools focus on library locations, because there are lots of places that books can be, and on finding a book in the catalogue. A bit more than half the time, visitors ask for an academic to be there (to e.g. give a talk in their subject area) as well as having a librarian there. The aim is for school students to go away with a positive experience, feeling they would be able to find a book. Then there are optional items for students, e.g. tailored to A level students or at pre-16 students.

Success factors have emerged as: that "visits and activities need to be timely and curriculum related"; and that they need to work closely with school leaders. One of the suggestions from the audience was also working with primary schools, which is also an interesting idea!

Supporting workplace information literacy at university #lilac13

My final session of the first day at the LILAC conference #lilac13 in Manchester, UK, is: Is it possible to support workplace information literacy already at university? An opinion paper, from Christina Brage and Kajsa Gustafsson Åman, both from Linköping University Library. The talk is based on a survey carried out last year. Their goal was to gain an understanding of the graduate's information world. They were looking at what type of information and information tools the alumni used, and whether the IL training at university had been useful in the workplace.
The survey instrument was an online questionnaire, to alumni of 10 programmes, with 12 questions including free-text options. They analysed all responses together, then by programme and by question.
90% had particiapted in IL training: 63% had found it useful in their studies, 38% useful for work outside university (sometimes because they were using the same sources). 48% were using research databases, 35% using scientific journals (mostly lawyers and physicians). 92% solved information problems through discussion with colleagues, 90% learning from experience, 88% by using relevant literature. 67% were using books, 64% news articles and 63% professional webpages. Teachers were high users of these last 3 categories (perhaps not having access to the databases).

As a result the presenters identified a need to have more emphasis on certain aspects in the information literacy curriculum, such as how to restructure information, how to monitor social media, use open access journals and use alerting feeds. They have made a LibGuide aimed at people outside the university, and also are designing an information literacy contribution to a "goodbye" course being organised by one of the programmes.

Video: College Research: What I Wish I Had Known

Evelyn Barker, Instruction and Information Literacy Librarian, at the University of Texas at Arlington, interviewed students to ask them for their advice to people aiming to study at university as regards what "would have better prepared them for college research." She published the resultant video on Youtube in December, entitled College Research: What I Wish I Had Known. The students come up with a lot of sensible advice about managing time, using resources etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzYIXWMhahk

Info Skills website at UEL #delila

Another report from the Developing Educators Learning and Information Literacies for Accreditation (DELILA) project dissemination day in London, UK.
Ella Mitchell and Cathy Walsh (University of East London) gave an Introduction to InfoSkills. They talked about a resource they developed at their university, Info Skills: the website is at http://infoskills.uelconnect.org.uk/. An inspiration was UEL's Get that job website http://employability.uelconnect.org.uk/.
Info Skills is aimed at level one learners. The focus is information skills and academic integrity. To give an impact, they have included student voices, as videos, talking about why they thought it had been important to use the library or not plagiarise. Academics have also contributed. They used Captivate to create tutorials etc.
They were presenting at the DELILA seminar because the Info Skills website was open to everyone to use, and some individual resources are available (e.g. videos on Youtube, see http://www.youtube.com/user/UELconnect). Spinoff benefits have included that pre-entry students (in further education) and international students have found the site useful, so it aids transition into higher education. The initiative has fitted in with skills initiatives within the university, and the speakers also felt that the site could help "address the expectations gap for academic staff" (helping academics understand teh support that the students needed).
The website has four key sections "What information do you need", "What are the best tools and ways of searching" "How do you decide what to use" and "What are the rules on naming your sources". If you look at the website you can see they have used a good deal of carefully selected graphics (e.g. of other students), to draw people in.
One of the resources the speakers mentioned was an academic talking about using Wikipedia http://infoskills.uelconnect.org.uk/pages/videos/97/using_wikipedia.html
The speakers also talked about the planning and development process. They are aiming to improve the mobile aspect of the site (e.g. so quizzes work on phones).
Photo by Sheila Webber: A busy bee at the station this morning