Mind the Gap: Examining Perceptions of Graduate Student Information Literacy Skills

Presenter(s) Information

Britt Foster, California State University, FresnoFollow
Matt Doyle, California State University, FresnoFollow

Start Date

3-22-2018 9:30 AM

End Date

3-22-2018 10:00 AM

Author(s) Bio

Matthew Doyle is a Public Services Librarian at California State University, Fresno, where he serves as liaison to the education department. He received his MLIS in 2010 from the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University. He is also a member of the Henry Madden Library Graduate Interest Group, planning and coordinating efforts to serve graduate students. Britt Foster is a Public Services Librarian to several of the agricultural sciences departments at California State University, Fresno. She also serves on the Graduate Interest Group (GIG), working with colleagues to serve the unique needs of post-baccalaureate students on the Fresno State campus. Britt completed her MLIS from UCLA in 2011, and anticipates completing a master’s in education in Spring 2018.

Description of Proposal

As partners with librarians in supporting the success of graduate students in their academic and professional work, understanding faculty perceptions of information literacy for graduate students is key to providing library services to graduate programs. Several librarians who provide these services have surveyed faculty to develop a picture of their priorities for the information literacy of graduate students: in some studies, faculty have perceived information literacy skills to be lower than students self-assess, which may impact how faculty and students access library instruction resources (Kim, S.U., & Shumaker, D., 2015; Ganley, B.J., Gilbert, A., & Rosario, D., 2013).

In an attempt to understand several aspects of this relationship, and to better understand how to work with faculty and graduate students to develop graduate student information literacy, the researchers set out to answer several questions:

1. What are faculty perceptions of the information literacy skills of incoming graduate students?

2. What are student perceptions of their own information literacy skills as they enter graduate studies?

3. How do these perceptions compare to actual measure IL skills?

4. Do these perceptions differ for international and returning students?

Creating a perceptions measurement tool based on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Competencies, graduate faculty and incoming graduate students were surveyed regarding their perceptions of information literacy skill. Graduate students were then administered the Threshold Achievement Test of Information Literacy to determine actual information literacy. Results from the perceptions and actual information literacy skills assessments were then analyzed to determine the gaps in faculty and student perceptions, and the gap is perceptions and actual IL skill. In addition, the results were examined to determine if faculty perceive graduate student or returning student information literacy as different than traditional graduate student IL skills.

In this presentation, the researchers will share their motivations for undertaking this study, and the process of developing the Perceptions of Information Literacy assessment. They will also share the results of the study, and discuss the implications for library services to graduate students, particularly in terms of outreach and collaboration with graduate instructional faculty.

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2015). A Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework.

Ganley, B. J., Gilbert, A., & Rosario, D. (2013). Faculty and Student Perceptions and Behaviours Related to Information Literacy: A Pilot Study Using Triangulation. Journal of Information Literacy, 7(2), 80-96. doi:10.11645/7.2.1793

Kim Un, S., David. (2015). Student, Librarian, and Instructor Perceptions of Information Literacy Instruction and Skills in a First Year Experience Program: A Case Study. 41, 449-456. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2015.04.005

What takeaways will attendees learn from your session?

Understanding instructional faculty perceptions about graduate student information literacy is helpful for designing and providing graduate student information literacy/research skills services. Often, however, there is a gap between the expectations faculty have of graduate students, and the readiness of graduate students to engage in the high-level, complex information skills necessary in this stage of their academic career. This study examines three aspects of graduate student information literacy: 1) Faculty perceptions of graduate student information literacy; 2) First-year graduate students’ perception of their own information literacy skills; and 3) Actual information literacy skills of first-year graduate students, as determined by the Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy (TATIL). In this presentation, the researchers will discuss the key findings from this investigation, and implications for providing information literacy/research skills outreach and instruction for graduate students and their faculty/advisors. The researchers will also discuss the development of the “Perceptions of Information Literacy Skills” (PILS) test. This test was designed around the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, and was used to measure both faculty and graduate student perceptions of information literacy skills. Attendees will leave the presentation with a potential workflow for administering the PILS test at their own institution, as well as some insights into the discovered barriers and opportunities for “closing the gap” between faculty expectations and graduate students’ real information skills.