information literacy and designing national guidelines margarete bower chemistry library
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INFORMATION LITERACY AND DESIGNING NATIONAL GUIDELINES
Margarete BowerChemistry Library
What is Information Literacy?
Middle States Commission on Higher Education
In Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education (2006)
A set of skills that “relate to a student’s competency in acquiring and processing information in the search for understanding . . .” (p.42) regardless of the methods by which the information is sought.
Association of College and Research Libraries
In Introduction to Information Literacy on the ACRL Information Literacy web site (updated March 20, 2007)
“Information literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.”
These skills include the ability to:
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
Information Literacy Competency Standards (ACRL, 2000)
Why now?
Changing information environment
Accrediting agencies
Accountability to funding organizations
Middle States Commission on Higher Education
http://www.msche.org
Accrediting unit of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (PA, NY, NJ, MD, DE, DC, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands)
Publications Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education (2006)
http://www.msche.org/publications/CHX06060320124919.pdf Developing Research & Communication Skills: Guidelines for Information
Literacy in the Curriculum (link to executive summary of handbook) http://www.msche.org/publications/devskill050208135642.pdf
Association of College & Research Libraries(ACRL)
A division of the American Libraries Association (ALA) ACRL web site http://www.ala.org/acrl Information Literacy web site
Under Issues and Advocacyhttp://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/informationliteracy.htm
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000) Under Standards and Guidelines
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standards.pdf
http://www.ala.org/ilcomstan.html
Standards Toolkit On the Information Literacy web site http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/infolitstandards/
standardstoolkit.htm
Subject Specific Guidelines
American Chemical Society
ABET (accrediting agency for engineering programs)
American Society for Engineering Education
Special Libraries Association, Chemistry Division
ACRL Science and Technology Section
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Committee on Professional Training (CPT)
Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry: Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures Draft version of revised document (Feb. 2, 2007)
http://acswebcontent.acs.org/education/cpt/acs_draftguidelines.pdf
Chemical Information Retrieval
A topical supplement to the ACS CPT Guidelines from Spring 2003 http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education\cpt\ts_cheminfo.html
or http://preview.tinyurl.com/23yt2v
Lists information skills a student graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry should have.
Special Libraries Association (SLA)Chemistry Division Ad Hoc Committee on Information Literacy
Chemistry Division web site
http://units.sla.org/division/dche/
Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates: The Elements of Information Literacy
http://units.sla.org/division/dche/il/cheminfolit.pdf
ACRL Science and Technology Section (STS)
STS web site Under About ACRL and Sections on the ACRL web site
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/aboutacrl/acrlsections/sciencetech/sts.htm
Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technologyhttp://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/infolitscitech.htm
Information Literacy as a Liberal Art: Enlightenment Proposals for a New Curriculum
Shapiro, J. J., Hughes, S. K. in Educom Review, v. 31, no. 2, March/April 1996.
The information literacy curriculum includes:
Tool literacy - The ability to use print and electronic resources including software.
Resource literacy - The ability to understand the form, format, location and access methods of information resources.
Social-structural literacy - Knowledge of how information is socially situated and produced. It includes understanding the scholarly publishing process.
Research literacy - The ability to understand and use information technology tools to carry out research, including discipline-related software.
Publishing literacy - The ability to produce a text or multimedia report of research results.
(As summarized on the ACRL Information Literacy for Faculty and Administrators web page)
Assessment Classes and individuals
Pre- and post-tests Self-assessment Assignments Online quizzes and exercises Portfolios
Project SAILS Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills
https://www.projectsails.org/
Project SAILS
Developed at Kent State University
Knowledge test that focuses on information literacy skills
Based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education
Multiple choice questions
Web-based test
Measures skills of groups of students
Accounts for the relative difficulty of the questions
Results are reported by major and class level
Benchmarking data for comparison to other institutions
Currently testing discipline specific modules for biology, communication studies, education, and history
University of Pittsburgh has used the test with groups of communications and engineering students
Designing Information Literacy Classes
Chemistry Organic chemistry laboratory class
Engineering Information Skills for Engineers
Organic Chemistry Laboratory Class
Second semester of the organic chemistry sequence
Mostly second year students, not all chemistry majors
One week each semester plus some summer classes
Approximately 350-400 students and 40-50 classes per year
Assignment has changed over the years to make use of new information resources Chemical Abstracts in print Science Citation Index/ Web of Knowledge Beilstein
Helps to fill the American Chemical Society requirement for instruction in information retrieval and database searching
Instruction and assignment must meet the needs of chemistry majors and be appropriate for students who will not take more chemistry courses
Mix of broader information and literature concepts and more detailed instruction in a specific chemistry database
Cooperation between the Chemistry Library and department in dividing the instruction responsibilities
Librarian meets with the professor and teaching assistant to determine the goals of the instruction session Different types of scientific literature and articles Parts of a scientific journal article Peer review Difference between the library catalog and an
indexing/abstracting database Awareness of Chemical Abstracts/SciFinder Scholar Instruction in use of Beilstein with hands-on experience Assignment to practice the skills used in class Students should come to the library
Designing the assignment Use the most common search methods
Structure drawing Exact search and substructure search Reaction search
Should relate to topics covered in the laboratory course Choose a molecule and reaction they will study in another
laboratory class Read a Beilstein record correctly Interpret a citation to the literature correctly Use the library catalog and e-journal list to determine if the library
owns an article located by a Beilstein search
On class day: Teaching assistant talks about the scientific literature, types of
journal articles, and peer review in the pre-laboratory lecture Each laboratory section comes to the library for 45 minutes
during their laboratory period Librarian covers:
Indexing databases and catalogs Importance of Chemical Abstracts/SciFinder Scholar Choosing an appropriate database Instruction in use of Beilstein
Students receive assignment to be completed later
Assessment Completed assignments are reviewed to identify areas of
difficulty Changes can be made to wording of the assignment questions
or areas of emphasis in the instruction sessions Assignment is used for several semesters and then reviewed for
a change in topic
Information Skills for Engineers (ISfE)
Developed by Kate Thomes, ULS Engineering Librarian
Cooperated with two faculty in the Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering Departments of the School of Engineering
Assistance from the offices of Instructional Development and Measurement and E
Based on national standards for information literacy ACRL – Association of College and Research Libraries Middle States criteria ABET
Goals
Identify and teach a set of skills needed by professional engineers for finding and using information
Develop training materials and delivery mechanisms to teach these skills
Assess students’ progress as a result of the training
Use the assessment to modify and improve future training
Training developed for two classes
Foundations of Chemical Engineering Second year undergraduate students 51-63 students
Bioengineering Intramural Internship Third year undergraduate students 20-32 students Working with faculty in research labs
Librarian created a set of Objectives for Information Skills for Engineers based on ACRL, ABET, and Middle States
Upon graduation from the School of Engineering students will be able to: Determine the nature and extent of information needed for a
project Access information effectively and efficiently Evaluate and understand the information Use information ethically Use research to create new knowledge (This higher level skill was
not addressed directly in this pilot program.)
3-5 specific examples were added under each category
Fall 2005
Instruction presented by librarians in the classroom
Fall 2006
Instruction presented in a series of modules created using BlackBoard software
Seven modules focused on topics for engineering research and information sources
Librarian made a presentation in the Chem Eng class before each of two lab report assignments
Librarian made one presentation in the Bio Eng class to introduce the modules
Modules for Information Skills for Engineers
Search Tools for Engineering Information
Suggested Library Research Process
Research Databases for Engineering Information
PittCat: The ULS Online Catalog
Types of Engineering Information
Critical Evaluation of Information
Ethical Use of Information
Assessment
Initial Survey Pre-test before the first instruction session 65 items based on the SAILS survey, but including items specific
to engineering
Post-test Survey was repeated at the end of the course to assess
students’ progress in the selected information skills
BlackBoard modules included self-tests for students Faculty or librarian had to provide feedback
Assessment results did show improvement in student scores ChemE Pre-test Mean: 48.3
Post-test Mean: 52.51 BioE Pre-test Mean: 51.06
Post-test Mean: 54.28
Number of students scoring >80% also increased ChemE: 22% to 65% BioE: 38% to 75%
Questions were added to get feedback from students about the BlaclBoard modules
Future developments
Revise the module quizzes so they don’t need faculty effort to grade them
Revise the modules to be more interactive and challenging
Present additional skills and information through modules
Analyze the pre- and post-test results to reduce the number of items in the test