Another assignment from Central Queensland University requires stu- dents to paraphrase what they have learned about search strategies for a younger sister or brother who has asked for their help on a school assign- ment.16 This assignment requires students to have mastered the nature of search strategies and the ability to communicate them in plain English, or layman’s terms, for a younger student. This particular assignment is not rec- ommended for lower-level undergraduates, but for students who have been exposed to search strategies and have used and reinforced these skills over time, it would be ideal.
Another assignment requires students to write the headline for a prese- lected paragraph from which all identifying information has been stripped.
The students then share what they have written and compare it to the actual headline for the paragraph. An interactive discussion is held when the li- brarian or instructor picks key words from the paragraph and asks how many headlines contained those key words, then points out how many did not. A similarly effective activity is distributing paint chips in varying shades of one color, for example, blue. The interactive discussion could then include the creative names for the shades of blue and how many different ways you can say blue to sell paint, and also how many of the chips actually contain the word blue.
is a critical step, because if students don’t know what the list of citations they have retrieved represents, they could waste valuable time looking for a book in a database, or searching a catalog using the journal article’s title instead of the title of the journal itself. A careful review of the database record, specif- ically the field names (e.g., Title, Author, Source), can reveal valuable infor- mation about the bibliographic citation. But students are often unable to dis- cern that Source means the source of the article, as in the journal title. When it comes to published bibliographies, and course syllabi with reference list- ings, where there are no field names, students are often not familiar with ci- tation styles, and since these can be so varied—some italicize the title of journal, others underline, and so on—this makes it even more difficult to figure out just what they are looking for.
There is a general consensus among students and other library users that federated searching, or the ability to search multiple library resources simul- taneously, is a good thing. This creates a dilemma for librarians, because the potential for increased frustration and confusion for the user is multiplied once results lists contain a multitude of resources in a variety of formats from various types of sources. Databases such as PsycINFO are ahead of the game with citations assigned to one of eight types of sources (authored book, ed- ited book, chapter, journal, peer-reviewed journal, dissertation abstract, re- port, secondary publication). The examples below are PsycINFOcitations for a book chapter and a peer-reviewed journal article.
Coronary heart disease and hypertension. O’Callahan, Mark; Andrews, Amy M.; Krantz, David S.; In: Handbook of psychology: Health psy- chology, Vol. 9. Nezu, Arthur M.; Nezu, Christine Maguth; New York, NY, US: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2003. pp. 339–364. [Chapter]
Awareness, treatment, and control of vascular risk factors in African Americans with stroke. Ruland, S.; Raman, R.; Chaturvedi, S.; Neurol- ogy, Vol 60(1), Jan 2003. pp. 64–68. [Peer Reviewed Journal]
This kind of added value to abstracting and indexing sources is ideal but far from universal. Some vendors, such as OCLC FirstSearchand EBSCO, allow users to search more than one database at a time. Libraries are also in- creasingly moving toward providing seamless off-campus access to electronic resources, including the catalog, and full-text e-journals through portals. This is a good thing in that it allows users to search multiple electronic resources simultaneously, but retrieving materials based on the citations resulting from
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such a search will continue to be problematic as long as students do not have the expertise to identify what the citations represent.
In addition, students need to be familiar with how libraries and informa- tion are organized. They need to understand classification systems such as the Library of Congress classification scheme and the Superintendent of Documents classification scheme, among others, in order to find resources organized and housed in libraries or available electronically. They need to un- derstand the difference between reference, stacks, and government docu- ments in order to determine where to go in libraries to find information, and the difference between the library catalog, databases, and indexes. They also need to understand the concept of access versus ownership, when libraries, due to a variety of circumstances, focus their efforts on providing access to information rather than acquiring it and storing it physically in the library.
.
Assessment Queries
The UMBC Survey includes two questions for this performance indicator.
One question provides a citation from a journal with the major elements numbered and asks students to match the numbered items to a list of cita- tion elements. A related question provides a list of citation types and asks stu- dents to decide what each citation represents. This type of assessment query can also be used to discern primary sources from secondary sources (see out- come 1.2.d).
Outcome 2.3.c. Uses specialized online or in-person services available at the institution to retrieve information needed (e.g., interlibrary loan/document delivery, professional associations, institutional research offices, community resources, experts, and practitioners)
Outcome 2.3.d. Uses surveys, letters, interviews, and other forms of inquiry to retrieve primary information
There is empirical evidence that although graduate students are aware of available library services, they still perceive the need for bibliographic in- struction.17All students should be familiar with library services like interli- brary loan, cooperative resource-sharing agreements (which may allow them privileges to use and check out materials from other libraries in a consortium),
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and document delivery (wherein the library provides access via certain ven- dors to full-text documents delivered on demand via fax or electronically). In times of extreme budget constraints coupled with escalating serials costs and serials cancellation projects, it is not realistic for any one library to attempt to physically acquire everything. Students need to be aware of the circum- stances and the variety of options available to them to access and retrieve in- formation. Depending on the student’s level and the research need, it may be necessary to use a variety of formats to retrieve primary source information.
Students completing research projects for dissertations, theses, and senior re- search projects may choose to gather data using surveys, letters, interviews, and other methods of inquiry. The use of these research methods is usually determined earlier in this standard (2.1.a, 2.1.d), but students should be aware of the possibilities and also of the responsibilities of using such methods.
Assessment Queries
In order to determine if students are familiar with services offered in many libraries, Anne C. Moore’s 2001 dissertation uses the New Mexico State Uni- versity Information Literacy Instrumentto ask the following:
The service offered in most public and academic libraries that allows you to get almost any publication you need is called
a. reserves b. reference
c. interlibrary loan d. full text
A more specific question about interlibrary loan service was developed by Morner for the Morner Test:
Which of the following best describes how to locate dissertations from other schools? They are available
a. at no cost from University Microfilm b. on computer in full-text format
c. on microfiche at many university libraries d. through interlibrary loan
This question could easily be revised to make it more general. Students could be asked to pick the statement that describes how to locate journal
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articles or books from other schools. They could also be asked to respond to queries about the availability and use of other services that your library of- fers. A key aspect in the acquisition and use of information literacy skills is transferability. It is a good idea to keep in mind that the students you are as- sessing may not spend their entire academic career at your institution. Resist the temptation to write questions that are too focused on your institution’s in- dividual practices and procedures. For example, all institutions do not charge for ILL, but some do. In terms of local quizzes and one-shot lectures, it may be appropriate to quiz students at this level of granularity on ILL practices;
however, in terms of information literacy assessment, this approach may not be the ideal.
Assignments
Richard Feinberg at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, de- scribes an assignment where students are required to analyze a bibliography of sources, identify what the citations represent, and then determine whether the local library owns them.18 Before students can locate resources, they must be able to determine what that resource is. This is an excellent assign- ment in developing this skill, and moreover it goes a step further and illus- trates outcome 2.3.b. Once students have determined whether a citation rep- resents a book, a book chapter, a journal, or a dissertation, they need the skills to be able to find it. If it is a book, then they need to know that the next step is the library’s catalog; if it is a book chapter, they need to know that the next step is the library’s catalog, but to search for the book title and not the chapter title.
Joan Reitz, instruction librarian at Western Connecticut State University, has developed an interactive Library of Congress call number quiz.19It is de- signed to teach students basic call number order skills. A similar quiz could be designed to teach students the Superintendent of Documents classifica- tion scheme or a local classification scheme developed for a special collection or for local/state government documents.
Librarians at Central Queensland University describe an assignment that challenges students to find alternatives to texts and resources recom- mended by teaching faculty.20Working in small groups, students can identify a range of strategies such as requesting materials via ILL or cooperative resource-sharing agreements, selecting an earlier edition of the same text, or browsing the shelves in the same call number area.
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