Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Journal)
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Availability of Library and Information Services for Rural Community Development in Nigeria: A Case Study of Ewatto, in Esan South East LGA of Edo State
No full textAbstract
Objective – This paper examines the availability of Library and Information Services in a rural community using as a case study the community of Ewatto in Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State in Nigeria
Methods – Questionnaires were distributed by hand in each of Ewatto’s eighteen villages.
Results – The survey found that the information needs of Ewatto rural dwellers are in the areas of health, occupation, politics, as well as family and education. Their major sources of information include town criers, oral information from neighbours and newspapers. The major challenges hindering information availability include absence of libraries and information service centres, lack of internet connectivity and poor attitude of rural extension workers.
Conclusion – For any nation to develop maximally, rural communities must be provided with adequate, relevant, and up-to-date information, the authors recommend the establishment of a library and information centre in Ewatto
Developing Countries Lag Behind the US and UK in Contributing to Institutional Repository Literature
No full textA Review of:
Bhardwaj, R. K. (2014). Institutional repository literature: A bibliometric analysis. Science &Technology Libraries, 33(2), 185-202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2014.906018
Abstract
Objective – Quantify the IR literature across the world by identifying countries with relatively high concentration of articles, describing the distribution of the literature by language, author (institutional and individual), journal, and examining characteristics such as the transformative activity index, and authorship and citation patterns.
Design – This exploratory study of the literature used several bibliometric research methods to describe patterns and identify highly represented articles, authors, institutions, and journals.
Setting – The Library and Information Science Abstracts database.
Subjects – 436 articles from 118 journals.
Methods – Research articles and review papers published through December 31, 2012, were identified by searching Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA). Citation data for the 436 articles selected was gathered from LISA and Scopus.
Main Results – The 436 articles from 118 journals had publication dates from 2001 through 2012, originated from 68 countries in 19 languages, and had authors affiliated with 159 institutions. The greatest number of institutional repository articles were published in 2011 while year-to-year growth was greatest from 2005-2006. Most highly represented were the United States and the United Kingdom, followed by India, Australia, and Spain.
Twenty publishers were responsible for nearly half of the selected articles. The top four journals included OCLC Systems & Services, D-Lib Magazine, Serials Review, and Library Hi Tech. D-Lib Magazine alone published seven of the top 20 most cited articles. While most articles were written by a single author, the majority of the multiple author articles came from developed countries. Citation analysis reveals that the 436 articles were cited 2,071 times, for an average of 4.8 citations per article. However, 147 articles received no citations. The five most prolific authors were Elizabeth Yakel, Kim Jihyun, Karen Markey, Jingfeng Xia, and Sarika Sawant.
Conclusion – The author concludes that developing countries lag behind in establishing and publishing on institutional repositories and suggests that more authors will deposit in IR in the future. A proposed role for LIS professionals is to communicate the objectives, values, and principles behind institutional repositories
First-Year Library Student Assistants Have Better Information Literacy Skills, and Demonstrate a Larger Increase in these Skills, Compared to Their First-Year Peers
No full textA Review of:
Folk, A. L. (2014). How well are we preparing them?: An assessment of first-year library student assistants’ information literacy skills. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 21(2), 177-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2013.829377
Objective – To examine the information literacy skills of first year library student assistants, in comparison to first year students who are not library assistants. Additionally, the study investigates whether information literacy skills of library student assistants increased more than those of the general student population during their first semester at college.
Design – Pretest/posttest.
Setting – Two regional campuses of a research university in the United States of America.
Subjects – First-year students, including library student assistants and students in the Freshman Seminar course. At one regional campus, 103 first-year students, including 5 library student assistants, completed the pretest. At the same campus, 75 first year students, including 5 library student assistants, completed the posttest. At the other campus, 30 first-year students, including 3 library student assistants, completed the pretest, and 26 first-year students, including 2 library student assistants, completed the posttest.
Methods – The researcher distributed a pretest and posttest that included demographic questions and 11 items related to information literacy to first-year students. The pretest was given within the first two weeks of the fall semester, before the students attended library instructional sessions. At one campus, the library student assistants took the pretest at the beginning of their first shift, while at the second campus, the library student assistants completed the pretest within the first two weeks of the semester. The posttest was given to participants within the last two weeks of classes during the fall semester.
Main Results – On the pretest, the library student assistant scores ranged from 6 to 10, out of a maximum of 11 points. For the posttest, these students had scores that ranged from 8 to 11. Both of these score ranges were higher than the mean score of the general first-year students.
The mean of the pretest scores of the general first-year students was 5.95 points out of 11 points with a mean score of 54.1%, while the mean of the pretest scores for the library student assistants was 8.13, or 73.9%. The mean of the posttest scores for the general first-year students was 7.29, or 66.3%, while the mean of the posttest scores for the library student assistants was 9.43, or 85.7%. No students earned a perfect score on the pretest. On the posttest, 29% of the library student assistants scored a perfect 11 points, while only 4% of the general first-year students earned a perfect score.
In comparing pretest to posttest scores, the general first-year students’ mean score increased 1.34 points, while the mean score of the library student assistants increased by 1.3 points. The library student assistants scored higher than the general first-year students on both the pretest and posttest; these numbers are statistically significant. The author reports that the increase in the mean scores from the pretest to the posttest for the library student assistants is not statistically significant. On the other hand, the increase of the mean scores from the pretest to the posttest for the general first-year students is statistically significant (p. 186).
Conclusions – The author concludes that the information literacy skills of first-year library student assistants are better than general first-year students. This information is valuable to librarians who wish to gauge how well they are doing in regards to teaching information literacy skills to library student assistants. Additionally, librarians can better understand how their instruction is contributing to the library student assistants’ educational experiences in general as well as their future as lifelong learners
Outcomes Assessment in Select Papers from the 2012 Library Assessment Conference
No full textNo abstract
Applying Kolb’s Learning Theory to Library Instruction: An Observational Study
No full textAbstract
Objective – This article answers the following questions: does applying Kolb’s Learning theory to library instruction enhance student engagement and will it improve librarian teaching practices?
Methods – This observational study analyzed four forms of qualitative data to examine the learning experience of first year nursing students and the teaching experience of two Faculty Librarians. The four forms of data collected were: (1) post-class qualitative feedback to assess the students’ engagement; (2) library instructors’ shared teaching observations; (3) librarian peer feedback after observing each other teach; and (4) feedback from an instructional facilitator on the individual librarian’s teaching skills. Two distinct lesson plans were developed: Lesson Plan One was the first attempt at incorporating Kolb’s theory into practice and Lesson Plan Two was a refinement of Lesson Plan One. Teaching strategies were altered from one lesson plan to the next based on the instructional facilitator’s feedback. The role of the instructional facilitator was to guide the professional development of new instructors by providing them with information and feedback on their teaching skills.
Results – There were perceived improvements in student engagement and teaching practice from Lesson Plan One to Two. Although the students’ reported experience remained similar from one to the next, both the librarians and instructional facilitator felt the students were more engaged and the environment seemed more collaborative when following Lesson Plan Two. With the second lesson plan, librarian instructors experienced a positive transformation as teachers, becoming facilitators of learning rather than lecturers.
Conclusion – Incorporating Kolb’s theory into instructional practice resulted in librarian instructors perceiving a positive effect on both instruction and on student engagement in the teaching-learning process
Individualized Research Consultations in Academic Libraries: A Scoping Review of Practice and Evaluation Methods
No full textAbstract
Introduction – Librarians in academic institutions have been providing personalized services to the student population by offering individualized research consultations (IRC) for decades. These consultations usually consume many hours of librarians’ busy schedules, and yet the impact of these consultations is unknown. Therefore, it’s worth asking the question: what assessment methods have been used in academic libraries to evaluate the impact of IRC?
Methods – A retrospective scoping review of the literature was performed using the following databases: Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), Library and Information Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Scopus, and Web of Science. Additionally, a manual search of the included papers reference lists was conducted to locate additional relevant papers. Articles that mentioned a format of evaluation or assessment and were based within a library setting were included. Articles that discussed group instruction that were not in a library setting, or that did not include any form of evaluation or assessment, were excluded.
Results – Researchers located 578 articles and reviewed titles and abstracts. 523 titles were eliminated, while full text sources of the remaining 55 were examined to check inclusion and exclusion criteria. 20 articles remained for qualitative synthesis. Specific methods of assessment were reviewed and three overall assessment methods were identified: 1) usage statistics, 2) survey, and 3) objective quantitative methods.
Conclusion – Many articles using a usage statistics method stated that they wanted to further their assessment of individual consultations. Several authors using a survey method described the value of the information gathered by surveying their users for improving their service, but also mentioned that this method is subjective in nature. They mentioned that objective assessment methods would provide a better understanding of the impact of IRCs. The few articles using objective quantitative methods obtained mixed results. Overall, more research in the assessment of IRCs is needed, particularly those with objective quantitative methods
Reading Faculty’s Research Publications Helps to Determine Which Professors to Target for Data Services
No full textObjective – The research project examined university faculty’s publications in order to find professors with previous data experiences. The professors could then be approached with an offer of the library’s data services.
Design – Bibliographic study.
Setting – Department of Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Subjects – A total of 62 assistant, associate, and full professors.
Methods – The author searched Web of Science and faculty web pages to find each of the subjects’ two most recent research or review articles. Altogether, 124 articles were read to check whether data sources were used and shared.
Data sources were defined as sources other than traditional citations to literature for information or ideas, such as data repositories, supplementary files, and weather stations. Data sharing was defined as publicly sharing data beyond that published in the journal article, such as providing supplementary files with the article or submitting data sets to a disciplinary repository (p. 205).
Main Results – Thirty of the 124 articles, which were written by 20 different professors, referred to additional data that was made openly accessible. The analysis of the articles uncovered a variety of data experiences, such as faculty who utilized repository data, published supplementary files, submitted their own data to repositories, or posted data on their university’s website. These 20 faculty members were contacted and asked for a meeting “to discuss their data sharing thoughts and experiences and to ask whether they [saw] a role for the library in facilitating data sharing” (p. 206). The author received a positive response from seven of the faculty members and had a successful meeting with each of them.
Conclusion – A bibliographic study can be employed to select which professors to target for data services. While this method is time-consuming, it allows librarians to gather rich data about faculty research that will help them to create customized, relevant messages to professors about the library’s data services. It also allows them to become more knowledgeable about data practices and resources in a particular discipline