Comments on: Latest NCES Data Shows Little IL Progress

By: Jennifer Rudolph

Jennifer Rudolph — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:52:38 +0000

I am on a committee that is attempting to incorporate both information and computer literacy competencies into the core. We have come a long way; however, our committee is stalled at the assessment level on information literacy and I have a fear that the assessment piece may prevent any implementation. I am looking for colleges that incorporate information literacy/fluency into their curriculum and would like any information on current assessment models used.

By: Terri Fishel

Terri Fishel — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:47:09 +0000

As academic institutions, the term information “literacy” does not resonate with faculty and/or administrators of our colleges. In our experience, we found that once we started using the term “fluency”, we were able to gain traction with the faculty in promoting our programs and gaining participation in our programs that emphasized what defined an information fluent student. Our students are information literate when they arrive on our campuses, it is “fluency” that we are hoping to develop and we need the partnership of the faculty in order to achieve that goal. It’s time to change the term to something that will elicit faculty support and enthusiasm.

By: jp

jp — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:28:46 +0000

I wonder if the data reflects more some librarians’ real discomfort with the phrase (and indeed even the concept) “information literacy.” It could be that librarians still don’t have much power institutionally. Or, it could be that they aren’t pushing for something they don’t believe in.

Or, it could be they don’t want to set up impossible-to-reach assessment goals. If you push to have info lit articulated in institutional missions, aren’t you then committed to figuring out how to measure it? Then how else will you know if you’ve met your goal? We are so dependent on instructors to let us teach “their” students. It seems sensible not to set standards you don’t have much control over ever reaching.

(Or maybe I’m just projecting. Especially about the part where many librarians still aren’t comfortable with the phrase or concept as it’s articulated by ACRL.)

Following along the lines of Barbara’s comment, I’d be interested in seeing data about students IL skills at similar schools where IL is and is not articulated as a goal. I suspect the actual skills wouldn’t be that different.

Do we have any evidence that students at schools which define an IL student actually have more IL students?

By: barbara fister

barbara fister — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:53:02 +0000

It makes sense that circulation is down as ILL of returnables (e.g. mostly books) is up. We have less money for books, so we have to do more sharing.

The inclusion of the words “information literacy” in strategic planning documents seems an imprecise way to measure its importance to an institution. I can easily imagine a situation where it’s articulated but not enacted – and very much the reverse, particularly when the faculty play a major role in enacting it; they tend not to use this lingo and often find strategic planning documents an unimaginative form of speculative fiction, yet may be involving students in inquiry all the time.