OVERCONFIDENCE, GOOGLE DEPENDENCE
Responses to the student survey came from a range of educational levels, from middle schoolers through graduate students, with most—59 percent—in high school. Librarians and educators were spread more evenly, from elementary through four-year academic institutions, although the majority, at 31 percent, was also based in high schools. The survey’s most notable finding involved the discrepancies between how students and librarians perceived students’ levels of information literacy. Students evaluated themselves, and librarians evaluated their students, on the following competencies: Level of understanding of website credibility Frequency of students using the open web (i.e., Google) versus authoritative library resources To what degree students struggle with effectively using paraphrases and direct quotes in research The levels of confidence students reported in their own abilities far outstripped librarians’ assessment of their skills. 36.1 percent of the students surveyed felt that they had an advanced understanding of website evaluation, whereas only two percent of librarians considered their students to have a high degree of skill in the same area. The numbers of students who believed they had only an average understanding of website evaluation, at 49.7 percent, more closely matched the 47 percent of librarians who said the same of their students. Results were similar when students and librarians were asked how often they struggled with understanding how to paraphrase and quote correctly: 58 percent of the student respondents answered “rarely,” whereas fewer than five percent of librarians and educators agreed. However, on the question of using open web resources over authoritative library sources, students’ and librarians’ responses matched closely. Gover believes these results are a direct result of poorly funded or closed school libraries. Students “get by using things like Google or Wikipedia and putting together shoddy paraphrases,” she told LJ, and end up unable to do “the quality research that’s expected of them by the time they get to college. And they assume if they can get a passing grade that what they’re doing is sufficient.” While, unsurprisingly, all academic librarians reported that they offered some form of information literacy instruction at their institutions, only a quarter of them offered full-length courses on the subject. Roughly 12 percent of all K-12 librarians (and more than a quarter of the high school librarians who answered) provided no information literacy instruction ofn how to conduct research at all. Academic librarians were more likely to teach one-shot sessions than K–12 librarians, who were more prone to do collaborative or multiple lessons with students. The results of the 2012 and 2014 surveys suggest that, while students’ dependence on sites such as Google has decreased—teachers’ reports of students using the Open Web “very often” decreased from 84 percent to 60 percent—librarians’ perceived roles as the sole purveyors of information literacy have also been minimized. In 2012 close to 95% of librarians identified the library’s role as “extremely important”; by 2012 the number was slightly more than 50 percent, with a nearly 40 percent increase in the answer, “pretty important, but faculty has an influence.” The report attributes this, in part, to the increase of collaboration between library and faculty, but adds, “other factors may influence this trend as well, such as state or national standards that require more research in the classroom.” A more troubling statistic is the 29.3 percent increase, over the past two years, in the perception that students have a rudimentary understanding of web evaluation. “Despite data showing that librarians feel students are now using the open web for research less than they did in 2012,” the report says, “when students are on the open web, their evaluation skills are more lackluster.”USEFUL AND IMPORTANT DATA
Gover hopes this data will be of use to educators and librarians at all levels. “I can see K-12 librarians using some of these statistics to show the importance of their roles in teaching these critical skills to students,” she told LJ. “Students have certain perspectives on these really important and foundational skills they need beyond college—for their careers as well—and they just don’t have it.” She envisions K-12 librarians using the information to push for an increased presence in their schools, and academics potentially using it to create discussion around improving instruction, or whether their institution’s information literacy program is where they want it to be. And given some of the more dire statistics regarding nonexistent information literacy capabilities, public librarians could use it as an opportunity to provide research instruction in communities where school libraries may be lacking. While a citation generator like EasyBib is a useful productivity and research management tool, Gover said, “we help students with information literacy but we’re not teaching it to them.” ResearchReady, however, is better positioned to fill those needs. It currently uses four levels of scaffolded curriculum from third grade through college freshman level to “teach effective and ethical research methods,” according to its website. If future data show a shift in information literacy statistics—more online instruction, blended learning, or collaboration with professors—Gover told LJ, “we may want to tweak ResearchReady so it fits in with more specific-subject areas…so [students] could hone in on those critical skills they need for their various disciplines and majors.” EasyBib will be conducting further such surveys and improving on them in the coming years. “I feel like it’s becoming increasingly important,” Gover asserted. “We’re hoping…these statistics [will] show how there needs to be improvement within information literacy instruction in school library programs around the country.”We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing
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