New Grant Assesses Information Literacy

Research librarians play an increasingly more visible and important role in teaching students how to locate, evaluate and use information effectively. Understanding what students know when they arrive at UCI will allow us to focus our teaching and to measure the impact that we have on student learning over time.

College students of today are entering the world of higher education at time when the amount of information available on any topic is expanding at an unprecedented rate. According to a recent IDC market report, the amount of digital information created and replicated in the world will grow to 35 trillion gigabytes by 2020. In this increasingly digital era, where information is so readily available, information literacy, defined as a set of abilities individuals employ when they "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use the needed information effectively" has emerged as a necessary key to a student's academic success.

The early analysis of the survey reveals that almost 90% of incoming first year students indicate that the ability to conduct library research is an important skill for undergraduates.

In order to determine what our first year, incoming students information literacy levels are, Cathy Palmer, the Libraries' Head of Education and Outreach, and Dr. Jonathan Alexander, Professor of English and Campus Writing Coordinator, received a Division of Undergraduate Education Assessment Grant to measure the information literacy competencies of first year students at the beginning and at the end of their first year of university study.

The first phase of the Information Literacy Assessment project was to administer a survey of Research Practices to over 700 first year students. The survey asked students about their attitudes and beliefs about research, as well their familiarity with research strategies. Students will complete a similar survey at the end of their first year and will help librarians and composition faculty identify those areas where students improved as a result of their first year of instruction at UCI, and those areas which continue to challenge them. The early analysis of the survey reveals, that regardless of their skill level, almost 90% of incoming first year students indicate that the ability to conduct library research is an important skill for undergraduates.

For further information please contact Cathy Palmer, Head of Education and Outreach, at 949.824. or cpalmer@uci.edu.


		New Grant Assesses Information Literacy Research librarians play an increasingly more visible and important role in teaching students how to locate, evaluate and use information effectively. Understanding what students know when they arrive at UCI will allow us to focus our teaching and to measure the impact that we have on student learning over time. College students of today are entering the world of higher education at time when the amount of information available on any topic is expanding at an unprecedented rate. According to a recent IDC market report, the amount of digital information created and replicated in the world will grow to 35 trillion gigabytes by 2020. In this increasingly digital era, where information is so readily available, information literacy, defined as a set of abilities individuals employ when they "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use the needed information effectively" has emerged as a necessary key to a student's academic success. The early analysis of the survey reveals that almost 90% of incoming first year students indicate that the ability to conduct library research is an important skill for undergraduates. In order to determine what our first year, incoming students information literacy levels are, Cathy Palmer, the Libraries' Head of Education and Outreach, and Dr. Jonathan Alexander, Professor of English and Campus Writing Coordinator, received a Division of Undergraduate Education Assessment Grant to measure the information literacy competencies of first year students at the beginning and at the end of their first year of university study. The first phase of the Information Literacy Assessment project was to administer a survey of Research Practices to over 700 first year students. The survey asked students about their attitudes and beliefs about research, as well their familiarity with research strategies. Students will complete a similar survey at the end of their first year and will help librarians and composition faculty identify those areas where students improved as a result of their first year of instruction at UCI, and those areas which continue to challenge them. The early analysis of the survey reveals, that regardless of their skill level, almost 90% of incoming first year students indicate that the ability to conduct library research is an important skill for undergraduates. For further information please contact Cathy Palmer, Head of Education and Outreach, at 949.824. or cpalmer@uci.edu.