Information Literacy Assessment

Teresa Y. Neely Information Literacy Assessment Standards-Based Tools and Assignments INFORMATION LITERACY ASSESSMENT Standards-Based Tools and Assignments Teresa Y. Neely Foreword by Hannelore Rader AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION Chicago 2006 While extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of information appearing in this book, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, on the accuracy or reliability of the information, and does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in this publication. Composition by ALA Editions using QuarkXpress 5.0 on a PC platform. Typefaces: New Caledonia and Helvetica Narrow. Printed on 50-pound white offset, a pH-neutral stock, and bound in 10-point cover stock by Batson Printing. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Neely, Teresa Y. Information literacy assessment : standards-based tools and assignments / Teresa Y. Neely ; foreword by Hannelore Rader. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8389-0914-0 (alk. paper) 1. Information literacy—Standards. 2. Information literacy—Study and teaching (Higher) 3. Information literacy—Ability testing. 4. Library orientation for college students—Evaluation. I. Title. ZA3075.N435 2006 028.7—dc22 2005037186 Copyright © 2006 by the American Library Association. All rights reserved except those which may be granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. Printed in the United States of America 1009080706 54321 CONTENTS FOREWORD v Hannelore Rader 1 The Importance of Standards and Assessment 1 Teresa Y. Neely 2 Integrating the ACRL Standards 6 Teresa Y. Neely and Katy Sullivan 3 Developing a Topic and Identifying Sources of Information 19 Katy Sullivan 4 Accessing Information Effectively and Efficiently 44 Teresa Y. Neely 5 Evaluating Information 72 Teresa Y. Neely with Simmona Simmons-Hodo iii iv Contents 6 Using Information Effectively 96 Teresa Y. Neely and Katy Sullivan 7 Information, Social Context, and Ethical and Legal Issues 114 Olga François 8 Beyond the Standards: What Now? 136 Teresa Y. Neely 9 Developing Information Literacy Assessment Instruments 153 Teresa Y. Neely with Jessame Ferguson 10 Automating Assessment Instruments 172 Jay J. Patel and Teresa Y. Neely with Jessame Ferguson APPENDIX Information Literacy Survey Instruments 185 Teresa Y. Neely BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 Katy Sullivan INDEX 205 FOREWORD Hannelore Rader nformation literacy has been a topic of much interest both nationally and internationally during the past two decades. In 1989 the American ILibrary Association (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy published its final report, defining the concept of information literacy and its importance for education, citizens, and the workforce in the information age. The National Forum on Information Literacy was started the same year in Washington, D.C., to provide opportunities for representatives from more than eighty organizations—both profit and nonprofit—to discuss and advance the concept of information literacy nationally. The Institute of Information Literacy was established in 1997 by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and is dedicated to playing a leadership role in helping individuals and institutions to integrate information literacy throughout the full spectrum of the educational process. In 1998 the ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy issued the Progress Report on Information Literacy: An Update. This update clarified the amazing progress that had been made to produce an information-literate population, and it provided six recommendations for further advancement of this important endeavor. Information literacy has been an important factor in the development of librarian-faculty partnerships to improve students’ learning outcomes. Librar- ians and faculty have worked more closely together in recent times to integrate v vi Foreword the teaching of information and technology skills into the entire curriculum. This has been especially significant since the rise of the Internet. As students rely more and more on the electronic environment, they need appropriate information and technology expertise, and librarians together with faculty are providing this important instruction. Information literacy gained in significance with the ACRL’s development in 2000 of the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, which gave academic librarians a framework for their instruction. In 2001 the ACRL issued another important set of guidelines, Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: A Model Statement for Academic Librar- ians. The ACRL Competency Standards stress that information literacy “forms the basis for lifelong learning,” and the “objectives” can be used as a guide for librarians to promote the ACRL Standards at their institutions. A toolkit has also been prepared to provide a step-by-step introduction to each of the five standards, the performance indicators for each standard, and the outcomes for each performance indicator. The standards have been trans- lated into French, Greek, Spanish, and German. Information literacy has become a global issue during the past decade. National conferences on this topic have been held on every continent, and many publications have been issued as well. It is significant that the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) recently created an Information Literacy Section to address information literacy worldwide. Many programs in IFLA’s annual conferences have focused on information literacy, and interest in this topic is growing. Educators and librarians in Canada and Australia have been active in information literacy activities sim- ilar to those in the United States, holding annual conferences on the topic and publishing articles and books as well. In the United States several organizations are involved with the concept of information literacy, including the American Association of School Libraries, the ACRL Instruction Section, the Library Instruction Roundtable, the National Forum on Information Liter- acy, and the Teaching, Learning and Technology Affiliate of the American Association of Higher Education. The Library Orientation Exchange, located at Eastern Michigan University, is the national clearinghouse for information literacy materials and since 1972 has sponsored two annual conferences on this topic. Many state library associations also have committees or groups working on information literacy. Assessing the outcomes of information literacy has been a concern for librarians since the beginning. Recently, however, this concern has gained in Foreword vii strength due to the fact that national accreditation agencies have begun to demand evidence of students’ achievements in learning information literacy skills. This book provides a much-needed resource for assessing the learning outcomes of teaching information skills to students in higher education. It is significant that the authors have identified more than seventy survey instruments to help with the assessment of information skills. There is also work in progress to develop national testing instruments for assessing learning outcomes related to information literacy, one example of which is the Educa- tional Testing Service’s work on a unique performance-based student assessment instrument for information and communication technology. There is a real need within the education community to obtain information regarding the assessment of information skills instruction and related learning outcomes. This book provides a good understanding and basis for information literacy testing based on the ACRL Standards. It provides appropriate background information on information literacy, supplies many valu- able references to additional information on assessing the information skills of students, and also provides examples of questions from existing testing instruments. This book is indeed a much-needed publication for the library and education community and a major printed guide to assist librarians and faculty in assessing students’ information and technology skills. 1 The Importance of Standards and Assessment Teresa Y. Neely he library profession has long recognized the importance of standards in all aspects of library work. Since 1959 the Association of College and Research Libraries has taken the lead in developing standards T 1 and guidelines for academic libraries. The ACRL website notes that the “ACRL is the source that the higher education community looks to for standards and guidelines on academic libraries.”2 The development and wide- spread acceptance and use of standards is critical in the assessment of student outcomes, especially for information literacy. Librarians in Maryland con- cluded that in order for students at all levels to succeed academically, they must be able to access, retrieve, evaluate, manage, and use information effectively and efficiently from a variety of print and non- print sources. Information resources are multiplying exponentially, and becoming more diverse, more complex, and more interdiscipli- nary. Successful students must be information literate, as well as technologically proficient, in order to complete basic coursework and degree requirements.3 Nowhere else

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