José-Antonio Gómez-Hernández

Designing and implementing web-based tools to assess information competences of social science students at Spanish universities

We describe the process of designing and applying four web-based tools that assess information competences, focused on Social Science students at Spanish universities. We draw on our previous experience in developing web resources, tests and tutorials for learning information skills (E-coms, Alfamedia, Alfineees, Infolitrans, IL-HUMASS). The toolkit includes: 1) a corpus of texts with a controlled degree of difficulty to be used by students when acquiring the required competences; 2) the IL-HUMASS questionnaire, which measures students’ attitudes and perceptions on the importance and self-effectiveness of information competences; 3) a knowledge test, organised in four categories (information search, evaluation, processing, and communication-dissemination); and 4) assessment rubrics, designed to prove students’ know-how by fulfilling a set of objective tasks. The combined application of these instruments to a sample of students of Social Science degrees allowed us to confirm the internal validity and reliability of our tools.

The Public Library System as an Element in the 2007 and 2015 Electoral Programs of Spain's Political Parties in the Region of Castilla-La Mancha

ABSTRACT To assess the relevance of the Public Library System in the political agenda, programs presented by the Political Parties competing in Regional and Local elections in the Spanish Region of Castilla-La Mancha were analyzed and the proposals about these library institutions were identified. All Regional programs were collected and also an ample sample from the Municipalities for the 2007 and 2015 elections, trying to find the differences influenced by the impact of the financial crisis and recession on the public-library policies. The conclusion arrived at was that, although the Public Libraries may be reasonably present in the studied programs, there is a low awareness by the Political Parties of the main problems.