A Survey of Librarian Perceptions of Information Literacy Techniques
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Volume 9, Issue 2, 2015 [ARTICLE] A SURVEY OF LIBRARIAN PERCEPTIONS OF INFORMATION LITERACY TECHNIQUES Simone L. Yearwood Teaching research competencies and Queens College, City University of information literacy is an integral part of the New York academic librarian’s role. There has long been debate among librarians over what are the most Nancy M. Foasberg effective methods of instruction for college Queens College, City University of students. Library Faculty members at a large New York urban university system were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the effectiveness Kenneth D. Rosenberg of common information literacy instruction Queens College, City University of techniques. The system includes community New York and senior colleges, as well as graduate and professional degree granting institutions. This research was undertaken for the purpose of better prioritizing institutional teaching activities in the current academic climate. Survey results show that instructional models giving librarians more time with students, particularly highly-engaged students, are believed to be the most effective. 186 Yearwood, et al, A Survey of Librarian Perceptions Communications in Information Literacy 9(2), 2015 INTRODUCTION which approaches they believe will be most effective in many different instructional Librarians have been teaching for over a situations. century and continue to have an important presence in the classroom. However, the In order to better understand librarians’ complexity of teaching activities and the preferences, practices and perceptions amount of teaching expected of librarians regarding instruction at their institution, the have dramatically increased in the past authors surveyed the library faculty at the fifteen years (Walter, 2008). In the twenty- City University of New York (CUNY). As first century, access to students comes in a large, diverse university system which many different forms. Students may come to includes senior (4-year), community (2- librarians virtually or face-to-face, once or year), and graduate institutions, CUNY many times, voluntarily or mandatorily. includes librarians with many different Librarians may meet with them one-on-one perspectives owing to the difference among or as part of a class, and may play the roles their institutions. of guest speakers, primary instructors, or “research therapists” (Booth, 2011). CUNY is the largest public urban university Unsurprisingly, each model—the “one-shot” in the United States, with more than session, one-on-one research instruction, 269,000 degree-credit students at 24 full-semester credit course instruction, and colleges across New York City. The embedded librarianship (see Table 1)—has CUNY Library System serves many its proponents and detractors. In such a different populations and includes 11 senior complex landscape, individual librarians colleges, seven community colleges, and develop their own pedagogy, whether five graduate and professional schools. The explicit or implicit, making choices about smallest college enrolls around 200 students and the largest around 24,000. Librarians TABLE 1—TYPES OF INSTRUCTION Type of Instruction Definition One-shot instruction session A single library session with a course instructor, designed to provide an introduction to general library skills or instruction around a specific assignment One-on-one research The student and librarian discuss research needs on a one-on-one basis Credit-course instruction A librarian, as the primary course instructor, teaches information literacy in a class over the course of a semester or partial-semester Embedded librarianship Semester-long partnership between subject faculty member and librarian in a course [ARTICLE] 187 Yearwood, et al, A Survey of Librarian Perceptions Communications in Information Literacy 9(2), 2015 within the CUNY Library System have neutral as to which is a more effective faculty status. method for teaching information literacy. Some researchers laud the effectiveness of The survey used in this study was reference services; Johnson & Lindsay administered with the intention of better (2006) and Cull (2005) found that their understanding how academic librarians survey respondents considered reference think about instruction. Which models do work the most effective way of teaching they consider the most effective? What are information literacy to students, because it their main instructional goals? How well do is focused on a student’s individual needs. the kinds of teaching they do match their Some librarians consider reference work preferred practices? The authors hope to more professionally satisfying than provide an overview of these attitudes for conducting one-shot instruction sessions consideration in decisions about prioritizing (Johnson & Lindsay, 2006). Others teaching activities. While librarians’ advocate for the effectiveness of credit preference and perceptions do not trump the courses (Davis, Lundstrom & Martin, 2011; need for assessment, they can reveal a great Partello, 2005). Some authors argue that deal about what we, as a profession, value one-shot instruction sessions can be when it comes to teaching. effective, but are improved by using active learning techniques in place of the LITERATURE REVIEW traditional lecture and demonstration (Hollister & Coe, 2003), and that their Published research shows how academic effectiveness depends heavily on effective librarians teach in many different contexts. collaboration with subject faculty Julien and Genuis (2011), in a national (Derakhshan & Singh, 2011). However, survey of Canadian librarians, found that collaboration can be difficult, as librarians librarians were involved in numerous kinds and subject faculty do not always agree of instructional activities, including multiple about which methods are most effective sessions in the same class, credit courses, (Davidson, 2001), and subject faculty are one-on-one instruction, and others. often less invested in information literacy However, traditional one-shot presentations than are library faculty (Julien & Genuis, were found to be the most common method 2011). of instruction. Ultimately, library researchers conclude that There is debate about the effectiveness of the most effective way to teach information each model of information literacy literacy is to use multiple forms of instruction, including the most common instruction, so that in-class, one-on-one, and ones. Despite the ubiquity of one-shot asynchronous methods can complement instruction methods in the literature, some each other’s strengths and weaknesses librarians are skeptical of them. Davis, (Mahaffy, 2012; Tumbleson & Burke, Lundstrom & Martin (2011), who detail the 2010). Embedded librarianship typically arguments for both one-shot instruction includes several methods of librarian/faculty sessions and credit courses, found that over contact; as a result, some researchers 50% of the librarians in their study were advocate it as the best overall approach [ARTICLE] 188 Yearwood, et al, A Survey of Librarian Perceptions Communications in Information Literacy 9(2), 2015 (Jacobsen & Mark, 2000; Tumbleson & With the approval of the local Institutional Burke, 2010). Review Board, the survey was distributed by email to all the librarians included on the METHODOLOGY list. The survey was hosted online through SurveyMonkey. Data collection took place To study librarians’ instructional practices for two weeks early in the fall 2013 and preferences, a survey was distributed to semester. After the first week, a reminder all full-time faculty librarians within the email was sent to all potential participants. CUNY Library System. The authors chose The survey was anonymous and personally to focus on this university system rather identifying information was not solicited. than targeting a national listserv in order to To protect the participants’ identities, blind encourage the participation of librarians carbon copies were used for both the initial with a variety of different perspectives, not email and the reminder. Once the data only the high-achieving and highly collection was complete, the text responses instruction-oriented librarians who were grouped according to themes and characteristically participate in professional coded by the researchers. Quantitative data listservs. Although the small population was analyzed for mean, median, and mode may limit generalizability, this effect is using Microsoft Excel. balanced by the diversity of the colleges belonging to the CUNY, which includes RESULTS community, senior, and graduate colleges with a wide variety of missions, Of the 246 librarians surveyed, 44 populations, and strengths. As a result, responded, for a response rate of 18%. survey participants were more likely to According to Sauermann and Roach (2013), provide a broad range of experiences and a response rate of 10-25% is common for opinions regarding instruction. CUNY detailed online surveys, putting this survey represents a different kind of professional in the expected response range. Although microcosm than instructional listservs the researchers specified in the introductory frequented by the most engaged among us. letter that responses from all faculty librarians were of interest, public service The researchers contacted administrative librarians dominated the responses. Thirty- authorities to obtain a list of [its] librarians one respondents identified themselves as who had full-time faculty status. As of May public services librarians, while only one