Information literacy assessment: Where do we start?

Interest in developing ways to assess information literacy has been growing for several years. Many librarians have developed their own tools to assess aspects of information literacy and have written articles to share their experiences. This article reviews the literature and offers readers a flavour of the methods being used for assessment: those which are popular within the field and also illustrative examples from some of the case studies found, particularly where they show how the reliability and validity of the methods have been considered. It does not aim to be an exhaustive list of case studies or methods, but a representative sample to act as a `jumping off point' for librarians considering introducing assessment of information literacy into their own institutions.

[1]  Julia Roberts,et al.  Senior student nurses information seeking skills: a comparative study. , 2004, Nurse education today.

[2]  Shikha Sharma,et al.  From Chaos to Clarity: Using the Research Portfolio to Teach and Assess Information Literacy Skills. , 2007 .

[3]  Nancy Wootton Colborn,et al.  Moving from Subjective to Objective Assessments of Your Instruction Program , 1998 .

[4]  A. Casey,et al.  Health Information Literacy and Competencies of Information Age Students: Results From the Interactive Online Research Readiness Self-Assessment (RRSA) , 2006, Journal of medical Internet research.

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[8]  Judith Tierney,et al.  Information literacy and a college library: A continuing experiment , 1992 .

[9]  Andrew M Karen Robinson,et al.  Student Bibliographies Improve When Professors Provide Enforceable Guidelines for Citations , 2004 .

[10]  Nancy Noe,et al.  Assessing Auburn University Library's Tiger Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT) , 2005 .

[11]  Eric Novotny,et al.  If We Teach, Do They Learn? The Impact of Instruction on Online Catalog Search Strategies , 2006 .

[12]  Kalervo Järvelin,et al.  Assessing learning outcomes in two information retrieval learning environments , 2005, Inf. Process. Manag..

[13]  Jennifer E. Nutefall.  Paper Trail: One method of information literacy assessment , 2004 .

[14]  S. Wise,et al.  The Development and Validation of the Information Literacy Test , 2007 .

[15]  Joanna M. Burkhardt.  Assessing Library Skills: A First Step to Information Literacy , 2007 .

[16]  Teresa Y. Neely,et al.  Information literacy assessment : standards-based tools and assignments , 2006 .

[17]  Sue Samson,et al.  The learning environment: First-year students, teaching assistants, and information literacy , 2003 .

[18]  Elizabeth Amy E Missy Choinski,et al.  Assessment with Rubrics: An Efficient and Objective Means of Assessing Student Outcomes in an Information Resources Class , 2003 .

[19]  Lorrie Knight,et al.  The role of assessment in library user education , 2002 .

[20]  Barbara J. D'Angelo,et al.  Integrating and assessing information competencies in a gateway course , 2001 .

[21]  Molly R. Flaspohler.  Information literacy program assessment: one small college takes the big plunge , 2003 .

[22]  Carolyn J. Radcliff,et al.  Applying Systems Design and Item Response Theory to the Problem of Measuring Information Literacy Skills , 2002 .

[23]  Valeda F. Dent,et al.  A longitudinal study of the development and evaluation of an information literacy test , 2005 .

[24]  Ina Fourie,et al.  Using portfolio assessment in a module in research information skills , 1999, Educ. Inf..

[25]  Kimberly B. Kelley,et al.  Information Literacy and the Distant Student , 2004 .

[26]  DeAnne L. Luck,et al.  Integrating Information Literacy into the Virtual University: A Course Model , 2002, Libr. Trends.

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[28]  Patricia A Iannuzzi.  Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education , 2000 .

[29]  Elizabeth Fuseler Avery.  Assessing student learning outcomes for information literacy instruction in academic institutions , 2003 .

[30]  Valerie Sonley,et al.  Information literacy assessment by portfolio: a case study , 2007 .

[31]  Karen A. Hartman,et al.  “But Are They Learning Anything?” , 2000 .

[32]  Timothy K. Daugherty,et al.  Assessment of Outcome-Focused Library Instruction in Psychology. , 1997 .

[33]  Virginia E. Young,et al.  Evaluation of Student Research Paper Bibliographies: Refining Evaluation Criteria. , 1995 .

[34]  Dorothy A. Warner.  Programmatic assessment: turning process into practice by teaching for learning , 2003 .

[35]  M. Gross,et al.  Attaining information literacy: An investigation of the relationship between skill level, self-estimates of skill, and library anxiety , 2007 .

[36]  Jonathan Helmke Ba,et al.  Assessing Freshman Library Skills and Attitudes Before Program Development , 2008 .

[37]  Terrance S. Newell.  Thinking beyond the Disjunctive Opposition of Information Literacy Assessment in Theory and Practice , 2004 .

[38]  P. Maughan.  Assessing Information Literacy among Undergraduates: A Discussion of the Literature and the University of California-Berkeley Assessment Experience. , 2001 .

[39]  Van Houlson.  Getting Results from One-Shot Instruction , 2007 .

[40]  Ruth Stubbings,et al.  Overview of the HE Academy Development Fund Project : Critical evaluation of information literacy questions used to support the Department of Politics, International Relations & European Studies (PIRES) , 2006 .

[41]  Mark Emmons,et al.  Engaging Conversation: Evaluating the Contribution of Library Instruction to the Quality of Student Research , 2002 .

[42]  Karen Hovde.  Check the citation: library instruction and student paper bibliographies , 2000 .

[43]  N. Tallent.  Psychological testing. , 1960, The American journal of nursing.

[44]  N. Elliot,et al.  Direct Assessment of Information Literacy Using Writing Portfolios. , 2007 .

[45]  Lorrie A. Knight.  Using rubrics to assess information literacy , 2006 .

[46]  Judith Emde,et al.  Assessing information literacy skills using the ACRL standards as a guide , 2007 .

[47]  Kathleen Dunn,et al.  Assessing information literacy skills in the California State University: A progress report , 2002 .

[48]  Ann Manning Fiegen,et al.  Reflections on collaboration: learning outcomes and information literacy assessment in the business curriculum , 2002 .

[49]  Kim Granath,et al.  Reading, writing, and research: added value to university first-year experience programs , 2004 .

[50]  Serap Kurbanoglu,et al.  Developing the information literacy self-efficacy scale , 2006, J. Documentation.

[51]  B. Johnston,et al.  Information Literacy in Higher Education: A review and case study , 2003 .