A Practical Guide to Information Literacy Assessment for Academic Librarians

Citation

Lindsay, M. (2009), "A Practical Guide to Information Literacy Assessment for Academic Librarians", Library Review, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 74-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530910928979

The authors explain that information literacy assessment provides useful information for academics and administrators and helps to identify gaps in teaching. Different levels of assessment are considered such as classroom, programmes of study and institutional assessment. The aim of this guide is to provide practical advice for academic librarians and others who want to ascertain the information literacy levels of their students. The book guides you through the assessment process. A selection of tools is presented with clear directions for using them.

The various information literacy standards are cited, with emphasis given to the US Association of College and Research Libraries standards. These five standards incorporate detailed performance indicators and outcomes that can be used in developing assessment projects. Web links are provided of information standards developed in US colleges and universities.

The core of the book is the discussion of 12 different “tools” for techniques of assessment. These include: informal techniques, classroom assessment, surveys, interviewing, focus groups, knowledge tests, concept maps, performance and portfolios. The accountability of time spent by librarians teaching information literacy is emphasised because of the trend toward more student‐centred teaching and the focus on lifelong learning which can all be aided by assessment.

As there is such a good selection of assessment techniques discussed here, the book may be most profitably used for reference. An informal assessment will be appropriate to observe, question and self‐reflect in one session, but a survey may be better in a different situation. The strength of this text is that the reader can select appropriate techniques to suit different situations.

The practical features of the book include: tips for informal observations, questioning and instructor self‐reflection in the chapter on informal assessment techniques. The discussion of classroom assessment techniques provides ten major steps cited from a handbook for college teachers. There are suggestions for survey questions and notes on defining survey objectives, writing survey items and constructing the survey. The chapter on interviewing offers five types of open‐ended questions and then proposed questions.

The use of concept maps offers a structure to the more familiar brainstorming technique. There are graphic representations of the ways people organise their knowledge. They can provide an illustration of what was learned as well as what was not fully integrated or understood. Diagrams are provided to illustrate evaluating sources. It would have been useful also if Tony and Barry Buzan's “mind mapping” approach (represented in a series of books on the subject) had been included in the further reading, although not many readers will have studied all the cited references.

A consistent strength of this book is the clear layout, with the use or icons for key indicators such as time, money, level, domain and access to participants, degree of academic collaboration and the need for outside expertise. This avoids repetition of otherwise lengthy definitions in each chapter. A secondary benefit is the comprehensive way each theme is addressed with sections, which could be used to help social research enquirers who are concerned about methodology. The clarity of the text is enhanced by diagrams and tables and figures.