Melissa Gross

What's skill got to do with it?: Information literacy skills and self-views of ability among first-year college students

This study replicates a previous study based on work in psychology, which demonstrates that students who score as below proficient in information literacy (IL) skills have a miscalibrated self-view of their ability. Simply stated, these students tend to believe that they have above-average IL skills, when, in fact, an objective test of their ability indicates that they are below-proficient in terms of their actual skills. This investigation was part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services-funded project and includes demographic data about participants, their scores on an objective test of their information literacy skills, and self-estimates of their ability. Findings support previous research that indicates many students come to college without proficient IL skills, that students with below-proficient IL skills have inflated views of their ability, and that this miscalibration can also be expressed by students who test as proficient. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Imposed Queries in the School Library Media Center: A Descriptive Study

This work replicates and builds on a pilot study designed to test the theoretical model of information-seeking behavior called the imposed query. The same cross-sectional approach was used to collect data at the pilot site and at two other similar schools, and interviews were conducted with the school library media specialist, teachers, and students at the pilot site. Major quantitative findings include the persistence of a relationship between grade level and question type, gender difference in library use at the pilot site, and a significant difference in prevalence rate for one school as compared with the other two. Qualitative findings identify teachers, the school library media specialist, parents, and children as imposers. Children were most hindered by limited reading skills, showed a preference for browsing and known items, demonstrated a limited ability to assess information critically, and used a wider variety of sources for imposed queries than for self-generated questions.

Experiences with and Perceptions of Information: A Phenomenographic Study of First-Year College Students.

This investigation examines experiences with and perceptions of information reported by first-year college students whose level of information literacy skill is known. Participants were identified as having either proficient or below-proficient information literacy skills based on an objective test of their abilities. Interviews were performed outside of a classroom or library context and were equally interested in imposed (school assignments) and self-generated (personal) information seeking. The study uses a phenomenographic approach to collect, categorize, and analyze transcripts from seventy-seven interviews. The resulting categories of description illustrate how conceptions of information mask and minimize the need for individuals to attain information literacy skills, the primacy of the Internet and people as information resources, limited interest in information quality, and differences in experience with and perceptions of information when imposed and self-generated contexts are compared.

Project CATE Using outcome measures to assess school-age children's use of technology in urban public libraries: A collaborative research process

Although outcome-based evaluation was routine in governmental and nonprofit agencies by 2002, it had not been systematically applied to the evaluation of childrens services in public libraries. At the same time, digital technology had grown commonplace in public libraries, with 94.5% of libraries providing Internet access to the public in the year 2000. This article examines various definitions and models of outcome-based evaluation; describes the lack of knowledge regarding childrens use of technology in public libraries, despite their majority status among users; and presents an original outcome-based evaluation model (the Project CATE model) developed to assess this use. Although this unique, dynamic, and interactive evaluation research model was conceived as a collaboration between the Saint Louis Public Library and the Florida State University School of Information Studies, it is designed to be transportable and applicable in a wide variety of assessment situations.

Integrating the imposed query into the evaluation of reference service: A dichotomous analysis of user ratings

Abstract A secondary analysis of a user survey administered in 13 public libraries examined user ratings of reference services by transaction type. Transaction type is defined dichotomously as self-generated (users transacting questions they have determined for themselves) or imposed (agent users in the library seeking information on behalf of someone else). Users with self-generated questions rated library services lower than did users with imposed questions. Both groups rated the library experience lower than their reference desk experience, and imposed queries were responsible for proportionately higher “first time” use of the reference desk. No significant difference existed between groups for ratings of finding useful information in the library, finding everything wanted in the library visit, frequency of library use, or levels of attained formal education. There were significant differences found for ratings of the reference librarians service behaviors, user satisfaction with reference service, and frequency of reference desk use.

Improving Below-Proficient Information Literacy Skills: Designing an Evidence-Based Educational Intervention.

This article describes the design and development of an educational intervention intended to improve information literacy skills based on research with first-year college students. The intervention was developed over the course of a three-year period, during which time grant funding was received from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), supporting the collection of research data on the learning needs of first-year college students who scored below proficient on a standardized information literacy test. A variety of empirical methods including tests, surveys, interviews, and focus groups were used to collect data. The resulting intervention is a modular session that can be used as a stand-alone presentation or incorporated into other information literacy interventions. The design of the intervention stresses three main research goals: orientation to information literacy as a skill set, improved ability to self assess skills, and the acquisition of at least one skill that demonstrates the utility of instruction. At the heart of the intervention is the three-step Analyze, Search, Evaluate (ASE) process model of information literacy, which is easy to remember, easy to adapt to multiple instructional situations, and can provide a foundation for building additional information literacy skills.

New Perspectives: An Analysis of Gender, Net-Generation Children, and Computers

In the Project CATE (Children’s Access to and Use of Technology Evaluation), based on grades 4–8 children’s responses from surveys, focus group participations, and observations in the Saint Louis Public Library, girls’ attitudes toward computers and toward their skill level were equally as positive as those of their male counterparts. Girls differed little from boys in what they wanted to learn and how they used computers, with games the largest portion of observed computer use for both genders. Eighty-five parents queried by survey and ten by focus group responded very similarly about their children’s attitudes and use. Juxtaposing this study with other contemporary research findings suggests that some former research results, as well as conventional wisdom about gender differences in relation to computers, no longer hold true for net-generation youth. The need for moving on beyond these already-addressed issues into more sophisticated analyses is established. The Project CATE study is unique in speaking to these gender-related questions in a public library setting. The results draw attention to the public library as a venue for studying informal use of computers and for self-generated information seeking and recreation, as well as homework-related use, in a gender-neutral environment.

WHAT DO YOUNG ADULT NOVELS SAY ABOUT HIV/AIDS? A SECOND LOOK

Young adult information needs related to HIV/AIDS persist. However, in recent years, little has been written in either the research or the professional literature in library and information science about the HIV/AIDS information needs of youth. This article reports on a content analysis of young adult novels written in English between 1995 and 2005 that contain at least one character who is HIV positive or who has AIDS. The methods, definitions, and research questions replicate a study that assessed young adult novels published between 1981 and 1994 and bring the study forward by focusing on newer works and trends that have developed in this body of literature. While some of the problems identified in the previous study persist, in the current body of literature under study, improvements have been made in terms of providing more specific, usable, and personally relevant facts about HIV/AIDS for young adults.

Costing Reference: Issues, Approaches, and Directions for Research

Abstract The Assessing Quality in Digital Reference project is a first step toward understanding the cost of digital reference services in libraries. This article presents three measures isolated by project participants as being most useful for their immediate needs: total cost of providing digital reference service, the cost of digital reference service as a percent of the total reference budget, and the cost of reference as a percent of the total library or organizational budget. In addition, it reviews selected outstanding issues in the ongoing question of how to determine the cost of reference services in libraries and offers direction for further study toward a general cost model for information services.

The Analyze, Search, Evaluate (ASE) Process Model: Three Steps Toward Information Literacy

The Analyze, Search, Evaluate (ASE) process model is one result of the three-year IMLS study, Attaining Information Literacy (AIL), which focused on developing interventions for students who test as below-proficient on an objective information literacy skills test. The ASE process model provides a three-step process that is easy to understand and remember and that can be used as the basis for a variety of information literacy (IL) interventions. It was developed in response to data provided by below proficient students in surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Both the ASE process model and the related AIL educational intervention were developed using iterative formative evaluation and underwent extensive summative evaluation. This article introduces the ASE process model and explains how it can be used in community and Junior colleges to prepare students for college-level work, entrance into the workforce, and self-directed learning.