Florida SULS Information Literacy Subcommittee Presentation by group

1. Council of State University Libraries (CSUL)
Public Services Planning Committee & Information
Literacy Subcommittee
June 2011
Jim Alderman (UNF), Alyse Ergood (FAU),Carol Maksian (FGCU)&
Kristy Padron, Information Literacy Subcommittee Chair (‘10 & ‘11)

2. Source: Florida Board of Governors,
http://www.flbog.edu/resources/iud/enrollment_search

3. Top program areas:
Health Professions to
Clinical Sciences
Education
Business Management/
Marketing
Engineering
Biological/Medical
Sciences
Physical Sciences

4. else
^
 Recent Graduates with What does this influence?
Bachelor Degrees
Class Environment
 Returning Adult o Instructor-Student Interactions
Students (Formal vs. Friendly)
^
a o Motivation (Competitive vs.
Cooperative)

n
Women** Andragogy: Adult Learning
 d
Increasing Numbers of Practices
o Respecting prior knowledge & life
Blacks & Latinos**
experience
Communication & Cultural
 International Students
Exchange
**May depend on program.
 “…I had to change my teaching,”
said one professor.

5.  Professors and faculty influence their students to use the
library; if they do not mention it, then students do not use it.
 Students lack knowledge of library resources and services;
this usually comes later in their course of study.
 Students possess varied abilities and comfort levels with
using the library, doing research and also with using
technology.
 Students rely on the Internet for information and are more
likely to use Google instead of library resources.
◦ If something isn’t available online, it’s ignored.
◦ Some studies suggest that despite instruction on scholarly research,
students avoid using library tools because of their difficulty.

6.  Level and scope of degree
◦ Ph.D/ Ed.D, Masters Level, or Certificate /
Credentials
 Type of Enrollment
◦ Full-Time, Part-Time, or Accelerated
 Subject area and discipline research methods
◦ Lab-based, field work, literature reviews, case law,
etc.
 Overall program environment
◦ Formal/informal; Competitive/Cooperative;
Supportive/”Survival of the Fittest”

7.  Basic knowledge of and confidence in subject area
resources.
 Active relationships with faculty liaisons.
 Knowledge and application of andragogy.
 Flexible communication skills: asking questions,
listening, cultural/gender norms.
 Technological expertise to recommend (or “sell”)
library tools and resources to students and faculty
alike; helps with assisting in times of need.
 Advising on search strategies, vocabulary, and other
resources; leave the topic development and
refinement to the professor who is a subject expert.

8.  Library catalog and local services most used by graduate
students (interlibrary loan, consultations, etc.)
 Multidisciplinary databases (ProQuest Central, Academic Search
Premier) are not sufficient resources for a comprehensive
graduate-level literature review.
 Introduce and demonstrate subject-area databases and Web of
Science or other citation databases.
 Additional information sources: WorldCat, SUL Union Catalog,
dissertation databases (ProQuest & WorldCat), controlled
vocabulary sources (MeSH, CINAHL headings, thesauri)
 Bibliographic management software (RefWorks, EndNote)

9.  Advise students to identify and read literature
reviews by others within their subject area;
approach the literature toward finding something
new.
 Ask questions that could help the student discover
his or her own refinements.
 Subject and research areas are becoming
increasingly multidisciplinary; suggest related areas
and resources as needed.
 Suggest to researcher that consultation with the
faculty adviser might be the next step in the
process.

10. The Purpose of the Literature Review:
 Set the background on what has been researched
on a topic.
 Show why a topic is significant to a subject area.
 Discover relationships between ideas.
 Identify major themes & concepts.
 Identify critical gaps & points of disagreement.
 Help the researcher turn a network of articles into a
coherent view of the literature.

11. Web Pages & Tutorials Selected Articles
Florida Gulf Coast University Library. Blummer, B. (2009). Providing library
Conducting & Writing Literature Reviews instruction to graduate students: A review of
(LibGuide). the literature. Public Services Quarterly,
http://fgcu.libguides.com/litreviews 5(1): 15-39.
Harkins, M.J., Rodrigues, D.B., and Orlov, S.
North Carolina State Libraries. Literature (2011). Where to start? Consideration for
Reviews: An Overview for Graduate faculty and librarians in delivering
Students. information literacy instruction for graduate
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/lit-review/ students. Practical Academic Librarianship:
The International Journal of the SLA
The University of Arizona University Academic Division, 1(1), 28-50.
Libraries. Researching and Writing Williams, H.C. (2000). User Education for
Literature Reviews. Graduate Students: Never a Given, and Not
http://www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/litreviews/index.html
Always Received in Teaching the new
library to today's users: reaching
international, minority, senior citizens,
gay/lesbian, first-generation college, at-risk,
graduate and returning students, and
distance learners. Trudi E. Jacobson (ed.).
New York: Neal-Schuman, pp 145-172.