Information Literacy and Measurable Learning Objectives

This has been a very tough week for me as we experienced the loss of our beloved Abby this week.  I apologize in advance for the quality of this week’s posting.  It is difficult to fully investigate the material when dealing with a tragic loss.  I will do my best.

           

I love information literacy.  This is good since I have chosen to study a field in which it weighs heavily.  So, I have to admit that I was intrigued to read Information Literacy: The Partnership of Sociology Faculty and Social Science Librarians.   As many have posted in the class blog, it seems common sense what is presented in this article and it could easily be tailored to meet the needs of each higher education discipline.  As librarians, we must work to ensure that this happens. So many people, and I am sure that this includes faculty and instructors at institutes of higher education in addition to the students of these programs, believe that they are information literate. After all, most are adept at searching Google.  And while there is perfunctory instruction on assessing sources in some high school programs, does it go far enough?  Couldn’t each discipline work to ensure that the standards of its discipline are incorporated within information literacy?  In my Foundations class, we read Instructional Preferences of First-Year College Students with Below-Proficient Information Literacy Skills.  It was eye opening to see that most students, even honors students grossly overestimated their own information literacy skills.  Librarians cannot wait for faculty and students to come to them; they are not likely to seek help if they do not realize that their skills are lacking.  Librarians should seek out faculty and students, not just within the sociology field, but also in all fields to assist in developing information literacy skills that work in conjunction with the standards of each discipline. 

So back to Sociology and Information Literacy. I really appreciate what has gone into developing the Anthropology and Sociology Information Literacy Standards.  It adapts the ACRL’s generic Information Literacy Standards to meet the needs of the fields of Anthropology and Sociology. Because sociology works so closely with human subjects, ethics is not a separate standard but is incorporated within each of the standards (Caravello, Kain, Kuchi, Macicak, Weiss, 2008, 11). 

            Reviewing the Anthropology and Sociology Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ANSS) was interesting. As you may have guessed, I was first drawn to the information literacy standards to review them myself and not simply rely on the review put forth by Caravello ET all.  The next thing I did was review the most current and the oldest Newsletter available to see what had changed since 1997. In 1997, the newsletter appears to have been scanned in and the Spring 2013 is much more reader friendly. In 1997, members of the ANSS were looking for tips on instruction.  This continues today but now there is a committee for the Information Literacy Standards for Anthropology and Sociology Students (ANSS Currents, Spring 2013, 6).  What I found most interesting was that the ASA is also looing at developing “…clearly defined assessment strategies” (ANSS, 2013, 7).    And while the separation of Anthropology and Sociology within the ANSS indicates that the differences between sociology and anthropology are important, I was more interested in the development of measuring success of the learning outcomes of information literacy instruction. As important as information literacy instruction is within all disciplines, not just sociology, it is important to develop measurable learning outcomes.  The trends in education require measurable learning outcomes and we must keep pace.  It is important to consider this within all disciplines. I am interested in this trend of providing measurable outcomes and hope to see it develop throughout the LIS field.

References:

ACRL Anthropology & Sociology Section.   (1997, May).  ANSS Currents.  12 (1).  Retrieved from http://anssacrl.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/anss-currents-spring-1997.pdf.

ACRL Anthropology & Sociology Section.  (2013, Spring).  ANSS Currents.  28,  (1). Retrieved from http://anssacrl.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/anss-currents-spring-2013.pdf.

Caravello, P.S., Kain, E.L., Kuchi, T., Macicak, S. & Weiss, G.L.  (2008).  Information literacy: The partnership of sociology faculty and social science librarians. Teaching Sociology, 36, 8-16).

Latham, D., & Gross, M. (2013). Instructional Preferences of First-Year College Students with Below-Proficient Information Literacy Skills: A Focus Group Study. College & Research Libraries, 74(5), 430-449.