Impact Measures in Research Libraries, SPEC Kit 318 (September 2010)

Koltay, Zsuzsa; Li, Xin

20 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
CORRELATION OF LIBRARY INSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES AND STUDENTS’ INFORMATION
LITERACY SKILLS
11. Has your library recently studied or has plans to study any correlation of library instruction
activities and students’ information literacy skills as shown in the matrix below? N=55
Yes, we have studied this correlation within the past three years 15 27%
Yes, we plan to study this correlation within the next 12 months 12 22%
No, we have not studied and have no plans to study this correlation 28 51%
12. If your library has studied this correlation within the last three years, how many studies have been
conducted? N=12
Number of studies
Minimum Maximum Mean Median Std Dev
1 15 3.83 1.50 4.73
Studies Responses
1 6
2 1
3 2
4 —
5 1
5 2
Comments
Have studied correlation
Evaluation within context of credit-bearing Library Research classes.
Librarians teach a credit-bearing required course for undergraduates. IL skills and knowledge are assessed in a pre-
test -post-test structure, and also via student self-assessment and student attitudes collected via summative course
evaluations.
Multiple. We also plan to study this correlation within the next 12 months. In the past few years, CUL has been working

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SPEC Kit 318: Impact Measures in Research Libraries (September 2010) resources

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20 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
CORRELATION OF LIBRARY INSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES AND STUDENTS’ INFORMATION
LITERACY SKILLS
11. Has your library recently studied or has plans to study any correlation of library instruction
activities and students’ information literacy skills as shown in the matrix below? N=55
Yes, we have studied this correlation within the past three years 15 27%
Yes, we plan to study this correlation within the next 12 months 12 22%
No, we have not studied and have no plans to study this correlation 28 51%
12. If your library has studied this correlation within the last three years, how many studies have been
conducted? N=12
Number of studies
Minimum Maximum Mean Median Std Dev
1 15 3.83 1.50 4.73
Studies Responses
1 6
2 1
3 2
4 —
5 1
5 2
Comments
Have studied correlation
Evaluation within context of credit-bearing Library Research classes.
Librarians teach a credit-bearing required course for undergraduates. IL skills and knowledge are assessed in a pre-
test -post-test structure, and also via student self-assessment and student attitudes collected via summative course
evaluations.
Multiple. We also plan to study this correlation within the next 12 months. In the past few years, CUL has been working

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SPEC Kit 318: Impact Measures in Research Libraries · 19
9. Please indicate whether the study results were used to influence any of the following decisions by
the library or parent institution. Check all that apply. N=6
Library Parent Institution Response Count
Not yet decided 3 1 3
No influence 1 1 1
Strategic planning 2 — 2
Budget allocations 2 — 2
Service decisions 2 — 2
Staffing decisions 2 — 2
Space decisions 2 — 2
Reorganization decisions 1 — 1
Instruction or curriculum change 1 — 1
Defining specific targets of library success 1 — 1
Other decision 1 — 1
Response Count 6 2 6
If you checked “Other decision,” please briefly describe the decision for which the data were used.
Staff training decisions, promotional/advertising decisions, and collection development decisions. Penn State has
multiple library locations, some of which have made decisions that were influenced by the LibQUAL+® results, some of
which have not.
10. Were the results of the study made available to others beyond the library? N=6
Yes 1 17%
No 3 50%
Don’t know 2 33%
If yes, please briefly describe with whom and how much detail about the results were shared.
The University’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning collects and does basic analysis of survey results.
Additional comments about how the study results or sharing the results made a difference to the
library.
At this time we are still performing the study and have just started to analyze the fall semester data so too soon to be
doing anything with results.

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SPEC Kit 318: Impact Measures in Research Libraries (September 2010) resources

SPEC Kit 318: Impact Measures in Research Libraries · 21
towards being able to assess its instruction efforts more systematically. One example, described in this section, is
Cornell’s Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative (CUICI). In addition, CUL’s Instruction Committee is working
towards developing a preliminary framework to assess CUL’s instruction efforts at the program level. It will likely start
by targeting and assessing several learning outcomes in a certain percentage of classes. Accreditation is one driving
force. However, for many years, and through various methodologies, staff have been seeking feedback from students,
faculty and peers to improve their instruction efforts. The Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative
(CUICI) was started by the Library, but is a multi-unit program (funded by grants from the Library, the Office of the
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and the Center for Teaching Excellence). First offered in 2008, the CUICI
encourages faculty (with funding, opportunity and assistance) to explore creative and effective ways to engage students
by integrating research skills into the classroom and the curriculum through the redesign and creation of assignments
for undergraduate courses. It serves as a strong advocate for learning outcome assessment through its emphasis on
and support for integrating practices such as articulating and sharing learning goals, systematically assessing student
progress toward each separate learning goal, and improving teaching based on this assessment. Faculty members
participate in a 5-day summer institute that launches long-term collaborations in redesigning assignments and teaching
the enhanced courses. Each faculty member is part of an implementation team, which consists of a librarian, an
instructional technologist and a pedagogical expert. In 2009/2010, six faculty members were selected to participate.
Ongoing study of pre-test and post-test scores for credit-bearing course.
There is no way to guesstimate as these “studies” happen at the individual library or unit level, or even at the individual
librarian level. An enterprise-wide study has not been conducted.
This is the First Year Writing project, which is an ongoing assessment project. We are analyzing the papers of students
who had library instruction and students who did not have library instruction and comparing the outcomes of the paper.
We also expect to continue to study this correlation in the next 12 months.
We are exploring correlations between library instruction activities and student information literacy (IL) skills in several
ways: 1. Working with the university’s Center for Teaching Excellence – we are studying the impact of library and
writing center participation in assignment design and targeted library instruction within specific courses. This includes
comparing student outcomes between control courses without these interventions and the modified courses. We are
using pre/post testing, rubric analysis of student work product and the CLA (Collegiate Learning Assessment). 2. We
are currently teaching several sessions of a 1-credit information literacy course at the honors and at the standard level.
One of the sessions is geared towards incoming student athletes. In the next 12 months, we hope to do follow up
studies with students who have taken the courses, evaluating their perception of impact, GPA and other factors. 3. We
are working with a course (PRE 101) designed to help student adjust to University academic life. Our role is to provide
an introduction to the libraries, designed to minimize library anxiety and increase student confidence in conducting
research.
Plan to study correlation
The instruction librarian serves on the Assessment Cross-functional team and would like to create a more formal
mechanism for determining impact of information literacy instruction.
The Library &Information Literacy Instruction Program has been a site of the libraries’ early efforts to look at our
impact on student learning outcomes. Information literacy is among the Essential Learning Outcomes that campus
has identified as an overarching framework for assessment of student learning. In 2009, librarians developed a Web
site (http://www.library.wisc.edu/inst-services/assessment.html) summarizing findings to date about the information
literacy of our students. The site points to a number of direct assessments of student learning conducted by the library in
collaboration with faculty and departments: in the current year, these include structured analyses of student responses

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Page 7Survey Results click to expand contents

Page 47Representative Documents click to expand contents

Page 49Impact Assessment Goals click to expand contents

Page 59Library Value Calculation click to expand contents

Page 65User Surveys click to expand contents

Page 115Selected Resources click to expand contents

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SPEC Kit 318: Impact Measures in Research Libraries (September 2010) resources

SPEC Kit 318: Impact Measures in Research Libraries (September 2010) resources