Assessing the Effectiveness of a Pre-Class Intervention in Establishing an Information Literacy Baseline

It is expected that undergraduates entering a BSN clinical program as juniors will possess basic information literacy skills. The reality is that skills vary widely, complicating efforts to provide more advanced, discipline-specific instruction. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-class intervention intended to establish an information literacy baseline in newly admitted nursing students. Setting/Participants: Nursing students in the first clinical semester of a BSN program at a large, southeastern, research university. Intervention: Before attending a library instruction class, students watch a short video and complete a worksheet which they bring to class. Outcome Measures: Worksheets were evaluated to determine if students were successful in articulating a more focused topic, listing all major concepts of the focused topic, listing relevant synonyms and/or related terms, and listing relevant subject headings. Two successive cohorts (n =99 and n=76) were included in the study

When Will We Use this in Real Life?: Problem-Based Learning and Its Use in Effective Information Literacy Instruction

Chances are that at some point in your career, you have heard a student ask, “When will we use this in real life?” For most instructors, those can be hard words to hear, especially after careful thought and planning has gone into developing a library session geared toward a class assignment or project. One way to decrease questions about real world applicability is to incorporate aspects of problem-based learning in library instruction. Problem-based learning (PBL) has been defined by Berkel and Schmidt as “an approach to professional education that stresses the use of real-life problems, encourages learners to discuss them, and makes the learning opportunity constructive and meaningful.” Library involvement can consist of supporting problem-based learning in the classroom or modeling real world problems in information literacy sessions. This session will provide background on the pedagogical approach of problem-based learning in the context of academic library instruction. Special emphasis will be placed on how this approach increases student engagement. The presenters will share experiences from information literacy instruction involving problem-based learning in the disciplines of business, pharmacy, and nursing. Recommendations and considerations will be provided for those interested in incorporating PBL concepts in library instruction including issues in student transfer of IL knowledge/skills from academia to the working world

Supporting Scholars in Training: A User Needs Survey of a Graduate Study Space

A separate study area reserved for faculty and graduate students was established at Auburn University’s Draughon Library in 2008, but, for many years, there was no formal effort to study the use of the space. In 2016, recognizing that the needs of these user groups differ in significant respects from those of undergraduates, the presenters developed a questionnaire to gather information on the faculty and graduate students using the area and the adequacy of the space to support their work practices. For two weeks in the summer and four weeks in the fall of 2016, users visiting the area were asked to complete a survey that asked about their departmental/college affiliation, how often they used the space and the length of time they spent there, the type of work they were doing, and whether anything was preventing them from accomplishing their goals. The questionnaire also invited users to provide additional feedback they had about the space. The presenters will share the results of their research, the steps they took to improve the study area based on the feedback they received, and the campus partnerships they forged to support the graduate “scholars in training” who are the primary users of this space. At the outset of the talk, audience members will be asked to lend their voices to the question of what elements are most important to library environments that aim to facilitate the academic work of graduate students

Three Heads Are Better Than One: Organizational Changes in Collection Management Leadership

Financial pressures, shrinking staff, shifting user expectations, and advances in format access and availability mean that organizational change seems to have become a constant in today’s academic library. The area of collection management has not been immune from change; the increasing emphasis on electronic formats, questions about access versus ownership, and the rise of open access have all required adjustment in managing collections. Even with all this change, most academic libraries have retained an organizational structure with a single person serving as a collection management coordinator or decision maker. This presentation details the shift in one academic library from a hierarchical model with a single collection manager overseeing all selectors to a collection management team composed of three peer selectors representing the major areas of humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The team is charged with coordinating the collection and liaison activities of all selectors as well as investigating new collections initiatives, serving as a bridge between reference and technical services, developing a culture of assessment in collection development, and working with the collections budget, the Libraries’s development office, and administration. Benefits realized, challenges encountered, and “lessons learned” from this team approach will be discussed and suggestions for implementation in other libraries will be proposed

Bridging the Skills Gap: A Boot Camp for Graduate Students

Graduate students have information literacy needs that are distinct from those of undergraduates and faculty. As they prepare for academic and professional careers, graduate students must acquire skills needed to conduct scholarly research; organize and work with information sources; and effectively communicate research findings. These competencies are often not addressed by the curricular content of their graduate programs. To help bridge this gap, library faculty at a public land grant university organized a one-day research skills boot camp. The boot camp’s workshops include sessions on locating scholarly sources, writing literature reviews, organizing citations, managing data, creating engaging presentations, and increasing scholarly impact. Student response to the weekend boot camp has been overwhelmingly positive, with 550 students attending six boot camps during 2019-2020. The presenters will share results from two studies they conducted to better understand the research needs of graduate students. The first study examines survey feedback from boot camp participants, and the second analyzes focus group interviews to gain additional insight about two subgroups of interest: international graduate students and non-traditional graduate students. Panel attendees interested in sponsoring a similar event will receive practical tips on event programming and registration, branding and promotion, and assessment. The presenters will also report on successful collaborations with campus partners focused on student success (e.g., graduate school, writing center, and teaching and learning center)

Scaling Up: Active Learning in Information Literacy Classes with More Than 50 Students

Active learning, the idea that students should be active participants in the learning process rather than passive recipients of information, is a concept often employed in information literacy instruction. Active learning is generally considered to increase student engagement and to produce more significant and sustained learning outcomes. However active learning strategies used in a class with a typical enrollment of 20 to 30 can be difficult to implement in classes with more than 50 students. This presentation will include a discussion of the challenges of active learning in larger classes as well as suggestions for incorporating active techniques. Discussion and suggestions are based on successful experience working with three subject-specific classes, one session for first year pharmacy students (n=148), one for first semester nursing students (n=81), and the last for fifth semester nursing students (n=95). The active learning techniques discussed all require some pre-class preparation and vary in time and resources necessary to implement and assess

Train the Trainer: Introduction to Systematic Reviews

In this session, participants will take part in a graduate level workshop entitled “Introduction to Systematic Reviews*”. I developed this workshop in response to increasing requests for help in understanding how to complete a systematic review. Initially those requests came primarily from the pharmacy and communication disorders graduate students to whom I liaise, but more and more requests are coming from graduate students in areas as diverse as engineering, education, fisheries, veterinary medicine, and social work. One unique aspect of the workshop is the use of sample systematic reviews to illustrate how the different steps appear in a published journal article. After the workshop content is complete, discussion will include various ways in which librarians can support graduate students working on systematic reviews. *A systematic review is a formal research study that seeks to first identify, through a systematic and comprehensive search, all relevant literature answering a focused research question, then appraise the identified literature and finally analyze, synthesize, and present data from all studies included in the review

The Effectiveness of Library Instruction for Graduate/Professional Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Library instruction to improve information literacy (IL) is often considered essential only for undergraduates. However, students in graduate/professional programs do not always have the requisite skills needed for graduate level study and research, which suggests they may also benefit from library instruction targeted specifically to graduate students. This study used a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of library instruction for increasing IL skills and/or knowledge among graduate and professional students. The authors searched seven databases to identify studies published in English between 2000 and 2019 that reported on library instruction for graduate or professional students, and objectively measured change in IL knowledge and/or skills. Sixteen studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the systematic review; 12 of the 16 included sufficient information to be included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis showed the overall effect of library instruction was significant with graduate/professional students scoring slightly more than one standard deviation higher on a measure of IL skills after instruction. Subgroup analysis showed no statistically significant moderation in effect by format of instruction; however, there was a significant moderation when comparing the two broad disciplines of health science and non-health science students. To strengthen the accuracy of future meta-analyses, there is a need for larger numbers of studies that measure the impact of library instruction, particularly instruction provided in an online or hybrid format. There is also a need for more precise description of instructional sessions as well as more robust data reporting by authors of primary studies