Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Journal)
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Relevancy Trumps Format When Teaching Information Literacy
No full textA Review of:
Tewell, E. C. (2014). Tying television comedies to information literacy: A mixed-methods investigation. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40(2), 134-141. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2014.02.004
Abstract
Objective – This study assessed the effects of showing television comedy clips to demonstrate information literacy concepts when teaching one-shot instruction sessions. More specifically, it examined whether the students’ retention and understanding increased when television comedy clips were used and whether students preferred instruction that included popular culture examples.
Design – A mixed-methods investigation that employed multiple-choice questionnaires and focus group interviews.
Setting – A small liberal arts college in the United States of America.
Subjects – A total of 211 freshmen students enrolled in a First-Year Studies course. The students were divided into 16 class sections. The author collected a total of 193 valid responses to the pretests and posttests in his study.
Methods – Half of the class sections (103 respondents) were taught selected information literacy concepts using television comedy clips and a group discussion led by the instructor. The other half (90 respondents) were taught using only an instructor-led discussion. The classes were randomly selected to belong to the experimental group (with TV comedy clips) or the control group (without TV comedy clips). An online pretest questionnaire, consisting of 10 multiple-choice questions, was administered at the beginning of the 90-minute library instruction session for both groups. An online posttest questionnaire, consisting of the same questions as the pretest but in a randomized order, was completed by the students at the end of the session. About a month later, one-hour focus group interviews were conducted with a small subset of the study’s subjects who volunteered to participate in the focus groups. The experimental focus group consisted of five study participants who had attended a library instruction session that involved showing the television comedy clips and the control focus group consisted of six study participants who had attended a library instruction session that did not include showing the television comedy clips.
Main Results – The experimental group scored higher than the control group on the posttest with an average “increase of 1.07 points from pre- to posttest compared to a 0.13 mean increase in the control group” (p. 139), which means that the experimental group answered one more question correctly. Four out of the five participants in the experimental focus group also discussed the television comedy clips even though they were not asked about them. Conversely, when asked about what they enjoyed in the class, the majority of participants from both focus groups discussed the content covered in the session rather than any teaching methods employed. “The quantitative results suggest that student test results either increased, as in the experimental group, or remained relatively level, as in the control group, due to the type of instruction received” (p. 137).
Conclusion – The author states that the results from the test questionnaires and answers from focus group sessions indicate that using television comedy clips may be a successful way of improving students’ retention of course content. However, the study’s results could not demonstrate that students liked classes with popular culture examples more than classes without them, since the majority of focus group participants found the course content more interesting than the manner in which the content was taught. The relevancy of the content presented in an information literacy session appears to make more of an impact on the students than the format in which it is presented
The Evolution of Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Part III: Revitalizing the Profession through EBLIP
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Learners with Low Self-Efficacy for Information Literacy Rely on Library Resources Less Often But Are More Willing to Learn How to Use Them
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Tang, Y., & Tseng, H. W. (2013). Distance learners’ self-efficacy and information literacy skills. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 39(6): 517-521. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2013.08.008
Abstract
Objectives – To determine whether there is a relationship between self-efficacy (i.e., confidence) regarding information literacy skills and self-efficacy for distance learning; and to compare the use of electronic resources by high and low information literacy self-efficacy distance learners and their interest in learning more about searching.
Design – Online survey.
Setting – A small public university in the United States of America.
Subjects – Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in one or more online courses. Most respondents were in their twenties, 76% were female, 59% were undergraduates, and 69% were full time students.
Methods – Students were asked six demographic questions, eight questions measuring their self-efficacy for information literacy, and four questions measuring their self-efficacy for online learning. All self-efficacy questions were adapted from previous studies and used a one to five Likert scale. The response rate was 6.2%. Correlational analysis was conducted to test the first two hypotheses (students who have higher self-efficacy for information seeking are more likely to have higher self-efficacy for online learning and for information manipulation). Descriptive analysis was used for the remaining hypotheses, to test whether students who have higher information literacy self-efficacy are more likely to have high library skills (hypothesis three) and are more interested in learning about how to use library resources (hypothesis four). Among respondents high information literacy self-efficacy and low self-efficacy groups were distinguished, using the mean score of information literacy self-efficacy.
Main Results – There was a significant correlation between self-efficacy for information seeking and self-efficacy for online learning (r = .27), as well as self-efficacy for information manipulation (r = .79). Students with high information seeking self-efficacy were more likely to use library databases (28.72%), while low self-efficacy respondents more often chose commercial search engines (30.98%). However those respondents were more likely to be interested in learning how to use library resources.
Conclusion – Distance students with higher self-efficacy for information seeking and use also had higher self-efficacy for online learning. It is important to encourage such self-efficacy since studies have shown that it relates to better information literacy skills and a higher ability to be self-regulated learners. Confident learners process information, make effective decisions, and improve their learning more easily. Furthermore many respondents in this survey had little or false knowledge of how to use appropriate resources for their learning needs. This points to the need for effective library instruction. This study also shows that low self-efficacy students would like to have library instruction, especially to help them plan specific research assignments
Academic Library Administrators Perceive Value in Their Librarians’ Research
No full textA Review of:
Perkins, G.H. & Slowik, A.J.W. (2013). The value of research in academic libraries. College & Research Libraries, 74(2), 143-158. Retrieved from http://crl.acrl.org/content/74/2/143.full.pdf+html
Abstract
Objective – To explore academic library administrators’ perceived value of their librarians’ research, specifically the importance to the profession and the library community.
Design – Qualitative, exploratory study using a survey questionnaire.
Setting – Academic libraries in the United States of America.
Subjects – 23 library administrators.
Methods – During the summer of 2010, one of the authors conducted 20-30 minute telephone interviews with 23 academic library administrators. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for coding. Interview questions 1-3 and 8-19 were content-analyzed; the authors described common themes for each of these questions. Items 4-7 had Likert scale response formats, and a mean and standard deviation were computed for each of these items.
Main Results – The benefits of librarians’ research included fulfilling tenure-track requirements, enriching relationships with teaching faculty, library faculty recognition, improved services and programs, collaboration with others, research result application to daily issues, development as librarians, and improved knowledge of the research field.
The perceived current changes and future issues for university libraries included increased digitization of collections, scholarly communication, and expanded instructional engagement of faculty and students, as well as future economic downturn and budget cuts. Administrators noted several methods that influenced their thinking: professional meetings, reading professional journals, informal discussions with colleagues, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Academic library administrators used a variety of methods to support their librarians’ research. These included tenure-track requirements, research incentives, travel funds, grants, sabbaticals, release time, and shared communication about research. Additionally, there was a substantial perceived interrelationship between how librarians’ research benefited the librarian, the library, the university, and the profession. Recognition and new programs and services were thought to benefit all four areas, and monetary rewards were considered benefits for the first three areas.
Conclusion – Based on the sample of 23 academic library administrators, the authors conclude that librarians’ research is perceived as valuable to both the academic and library communities
Perceived and Actual Search Behaviors May Provide Markers for Healthcare Utilization and Severity of Illness
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White, R. W., & Horvitz, E. (2014). From health search to healthcare: explorations of intention and utilization via query logs and user surveys. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 21(1), 49-55. Retrieved from http://dx.doi/org10.1136/amiajnl-2012-001473
Abstract
Objective – To gain an understanding of the relationship between online health information searching behaviour and healthcare utilization.
Design – Survey and log data analysis.
Setting – A software development campus and health information websites with servers in the United States of America.
Subjects – Two separate subject groups were used for this study. For the search log analysis, participants were randomly selected English-speaking users of a Microsoft toolbar who had consented to provide their anonymous log data. 489 volunteers who indicated they could recall their last visit to a medical facility were invited to participate in the survey.
Methods – To determine search behaviour, four months of data from 2011 were collected and analyzed from search engine logs. A unique user identifier allowed for analysis of individual search behaviour across multiple sessions, which then provided the opportunity to identify search behaviour changes over time. Search queries were labelled and annotated as symptoms, serious illnesses, and benign explanation based on curated lists identified in a related study. Erroneous synonymous entries were removed to increase labelling precision (e.g., astrology-related terms were removed for “cancer”). The researchers specifically noted searches signifying health utilization intent (HUI). Initial queries indicating HUI for each user were identified to determine whether or not there were changes in search behaviour prior to and following searches indicating HUI.
Perceptions of motivators related to healthcare utilization (HU) were gathered through a validated, anonymous electronic survey. Through fifty open and closed questions, participants were asked how they search for medical information online, how they locate medical facilities and scheduled appointments, and how their search behaviour might differ before and after HU. Survey results were compared with search log data to identify and explain trends.
Main Results – From log data, search queries focusing on symptoms increased prior to the first indication of HUI and decreased afterwards. The authors suggest that this increase may reflect a “heightened state of concern or uncertainty” (p. 51). As well, searches on relatively benign symptoms were observed to spike dramatically three weeks after the first identified HUI search, reflecting what the authors suggest may be related to users having been reassured through a visit with a health professional. The increase in benign symptom searching is supported by survey data. The number of symptom-related searches is shown to correlate with the number of HUI searches using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r=0.64, t(78)=14.43,
Digital Libraries that Demonstrate High Levels of Mutual Complementarity in Collection-level Metadata Give a Richer Representation of their Content and Improve Subject Access for Users
No full textA Review of:
Zavalina, O. L. (2013). Complementarity in subject metadata in large-scale digital libraries: A comparative analysis. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 52(1), 77-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2013.848316
Abstract
Objective – To determine how well digital library content is represented through free-text and subject headings. Specifically to examine whether a combination of free-text description data and controlled vocabulary is more comprehensive than free-text description data alone in describing digital collections.
Design – Qualitative content analysis and complementarity comparison.
Setting – Three large scale cultural heritage digital libraries: one in Europe and two in the United States of America.
Methods – The researcher retrieved XML files of complete metadata records for two of the digital libraries, while the third library openly exposed its full metadata. The systematic samples obtained for all three libraries enabled qualitative content analysis to uncover how metadata values relate to each other at the collection level. The researcher retrieved 99 collection-level metadata records in total for analysis. The breakdown was 39, 33, and 27 records per digital library. When comparing metadata in the free-text Description metadata element with data in four controlled vocabulary elements, Subject, Geographic Coverage, Temporal Coverage and Object Type, the researcher observed three types of complementarity: one-way, two-way and multiple-complementarity. The author refers to complementarity as “describing a collection’s subject matter with mutually complementary data values in controlled vocabulary and free-text subject metadata elements” (Zavalina, 2013, p. 77). For example, within a Temporal Coverage metadata element the term “19th century” would complement a Description metadata element “1850–1899” in the same record.
Main Results – The researcher found a high level of one-way complementarity in the metadata of all three digital libraries. This was mostly demonstrated by free-text data in the Description element complemented by data in the controlled vocabulary elements of Subject, Geographic Coverage, Temporal Coverage, and Object Type. Only one library demonstrated a significant proportion (19%) of redundancy between free-text and controlled vocabulary metadata. An example of redundancy found included a repetition of geographic information in both a Description and Geographic Coverage metadata elements.
Conclusion – The author reports high levels of mutual complementarity in the three cultural heritage digital libraries studied. The findings demonstrate that collection-level metadata which includes both free-text and controlled vocabulary is more representative of the intellectual content of the collections and improves subject access for users. The author maintains that there is no standard for collection-level metadata descriptions, and that this research may contribute to best practice guidelines in this area. It is unclear whether the digital libraries studied had written policies in place on how to describe collections and if those policies were adhered to in practice. The author expresses a need for further research to be conducted on collection-level metadata in other domains, such as science and interdisciplinary digital libraries, and on other scales (e.g., regional or state collections) and geographic regions beyond Europe and the United States