Information literacy from the trenches: How do humanities and social science majors conduct academic research?

College and Research Libraries

Volumn 69, Issue 5, 2008, Pages 427-445

  Head, Alison J ^a,b  

^a SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b Project Information Literacy

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 53949085524     PISSN: 00100870     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5860/crl.69.5.427     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. This definition of information literacy is a compilation, derived from definitions provided by different campus libraries and published online. Available online from www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefoxa&rls= org.mozilla:enUS:official&hs=1P3&pwst=1&defl=en&q=define: Information+Literacy&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title. [Accessed 24 April 2007].
2. For more about the complexities with defining information literacy, see David Bawden, "Information and Digital Literacies: A Review of Concepts," Journal of Documentation 57 (Mar. 2001): 218-59.
3. For one of the few studies published in the library literature about students' research practices, see the qualitative study by Gloria J. Leckie, "Desperately Seeking Citations: Uncovering Faculty Assumptions about the Undergraduate Research Process," Journal of Academic Librarianship, 22 (May 1996): 201-08.
4. Another article by the same author, discussing findings from this research, appeared in First Monday and was entitled "Beyond Google: How Do Students Conduct Academic Research?" by Alison J. Head, First Monday 12, no. 8 (Aug. 2007) and is available online from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/head/index.hrml. [Accessed 25 October 2007]
5. and a First Monday Podcast entitled, "Google Scholars?," an interview with Alison Head (Feb. 2008), http://www.firstmondaypodcast.org/audio/ head_final.mp3, (5.3 MB, 15:22). [Accessed 21 July 2008].
6. The complete report issued from this study, including research tools, is available online from http://library.stmarys-ca.edu/features/SMCInfoLit.pdf (400 KB). [Accessed 6 July 2007].
7. Ibid.
8. A definition of information literacy was first issued by ACRL in 1989. In 2000, ACRL published "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education," ACRL Standards Committee (2000), in which they laid out standards, performance indicators, and outcome measures and referred to their own 1989 definition, while expanding its meaning at the same time. Available online from http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standards.pdf. [Accessed 26 June 2007].
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., 2.
11. Ibid., 3.
12. Ibid., 4.
13. The statistic, 13 percent, which described information literacy rates from the ETS study, appeared in an article about the ETS study by Andrea L. Foster, "Students Lack 'Information Literacy' Testing Service Finds," Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 17, 2006.
14. For preliminary results from the study, see Educational Testing Services, 2006 ICT Literacy Assessment Preliminary Findings (2007). Available online from www.ets.org/Media/Products/ICT_Literacy/pdf/ 2006_Preliminary_Findings.pdf. [Accessed 26 June 2007].
15. In Kathleen Dunn's large-scale quantitative 2002 study of students enrolled in the California State University System, she found information literacy levels are strongly correlated with library use. The finding was published in "Assessing Information Literacy Skills in the California State University: A Progress Report," Journal of Academic Librarianship, 28, no. 1-2 (Jan.-Mar. 2002): 26-35.
16. Steve Jones, "The Internet Goes to College: How Students Are Living in the Future with Today's Technology," Pew Internet and American Life Project, (Sep. 2002). Available online from www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/ PIP_College_Report.pdf. [Accessed 27 June 2007].
17. See Anna M. Van Scoyoc, "The Electronic Academic Library: Undergraduate Research Behavior in a Library without Books," Libraries and the Academy 6 (Jan. 2006): 47-58;
18. and Deborah J. Grimes and Carl H. Boening, "Worries with the Web: A Look at Student Use of Web Resources," College & Research Libraries 62, no. 4 (2005): 11-23. Grimes' article available online from www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crljournal/backissues2001b/january01/grimes.pdf. [Accessed 28 June 2007].
19. Christen Thompson, "Information Illiterate or Lazy: How College Students Use the Web for Research," Libraries and the Academy 3, no. 2 (Apr.) 259-68.
20. Angela Weiler, "Information-Seeking Behavior in Generation Y Students: Motivation, Critical Thinking, and Learning Theory," Journal of Academic Librarianship 31, no. 1 (Jan. 2005): 46-53.
21. Anne F. Pierce, "Improving the Strategies High School Students Use to Conduct Research on the Internet by Teaching Essential Skills and Providing Practical Skills," ED 427756 (1998).
22. Ibid.
23. Leckie, "Desperately Seeking Citations," 203.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Christopher Hollister, "Having Something to Say," Communications in Information Literacy 1, no. 1 (2007). Available online from www.comminfolit.org/index.php/cil/article/view/Spring2007ED1/24. [Accessed 27 June 2007].
27. Saint Mary's College Fact Book (2007). Available online from www.stmarys-ca.edu/about/fact_book/toc.html. [Accessed 24 June 2007].
28. The sample is fairly representative of gender of the overall student population on campus. Current statistics from the SMC Fact Book show the SMC population is 65 percent female and 35 percent male.
29. Kimberly A. Neuendorf, The Content Analysis Guidebook (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2002), 151.
30. Also see Klaus Krippendorf, Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1980): 134.
31. Neuendorf, The Content Analysis Guidebook, 143.
32. Note that students in the survey (40%) reported turning to course readings first for academic research. Although professors and librarians may define course-related research as identifying, evaluating, and using "outside references," our student sample considered class readings a logical first step in their research process, especially as they tried to narrow down a topic and determine the scope of their papers.
33. The data reporting students' limitations was derived from Survey Question #12, which used a five-point Likert scale (that is, a statement that asks the respondents to rank their level of agreement to disagreement with the statement). The percentages reported in this section combine the percentages and collapse two response categories: those who "strongly agreed" and "somewhat agreed" with statements about what worked for them when they conducted research and what challenges they faced.
34. Note that our content analysis was of research handouts professors have distributed in SMC classes over the last two years. We did not collect or analyze data about the information and explanations professors may verbally provide to students in class or in office hours about research assignments and how to conduct research.
35. ALA Standards for Higher Education, 11.
36. ALA Standards for Higher Education, 8.
37. For more about the structures and purposes of rubrics, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, see Heidi Goodrich Andrade, "Teaching with Rubrics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," College Teaching 53, no. 1 (Winter 2005), 27-31.