Search results

This paper aims to explore both instruction librarians' attitudes on teaching and how they identify themselves as teachers. Particular attention is to be paid to teaching librarians' views on the effectiveness of two types of instruction models: for‐credit courses and course‐integrated library instruction.

To investigate librarians' attitudes towards these two models, a survey was constructed targeting librarians who teach information literacy (IL).

The results indicate that there is an important relationship between the IL instruction model employed and feelings towards campus politics, perceived effectiveness of IL models, and librarians' self‐identification as teachers.

The survey was sent to list‐servs whose readership includes high percentages of teaching librarians and received 276 responses. This is by no means an exhaustive study. The research is intended to be exploratory and to delve more deeply than the past editorials and blog posts on the issue of comparing for‐credit and course‐integrated instruction.

This study can help librarians gain a better understanding of how information literacy models impact librarian perceptions of themselves and their role on campus.

The authors seek to transform a discussion that has occurred mostly informally (in blog posts, on list‐servs, and in conversations) into a formal investigation of librarians' attitudes towards the two models.

There is a lack of data about information literacy (IL) credit courses in US academic libraries. This paper aims to provide a detailed snapshot of IL credit courses, including percentages of libraries that offer credit courses, the number of credits offered, the audience and how public institutions differ from private nonprofits and for-profits.

The authors surveyed a stratified random sample of libraries at higher education institutions across all categories from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Qualtrics software was used to create and distribute the email survey. The response rate was 39 per cent (n = 691).

In all, 19 per cent of the institutions in the survey have IL credit courses taught by librarians. Large institutions, public institutions and those granting doctoral degrees are the most likely to offer IL credit courses. The majority of these courses are undergraduate electives of 1-2 credit hours offered under the library aegis, although a significant minority are required, worth 3-4 credit hours, and taught within another academic department or campus-wide program.

The findings update previous surveys and provide a more granular picture of the characteristics of librarian-taught credit-bearing courses, the types of academic institutions that offer them and compensation teaching librarians receive. This survey is the first study of credit-bearing IL instruction to include for-profit colleges and universities.

Based for more than fifteen years at the School of Librarianship and Information Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the EBSI) records management training has firm roots at the University of Montreal. Even when relations between librarianship and records management were at their lowest — I am thinking here of the “battle of the manuscripts” in 1973 — the EBSI continued to offer records management training. A tradition has been established and this is not to be sneezed at because, like Rome, university courses cannot be built in a day. Maurice Lebel, the famous Quebec academic, once said, “It takes 25 years of hard work to build up a quality department.” The EBSI celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary in 1987, and records management courses have now been running in the department for some fifteen years. We can therefore rightly claim that at the University of Montreal records management is able to develop within the framework of a well‐established school.

The authors teach a three‐credit, upper‐division, information literacy (IL) course to students in various majors. The purpose of this paper is to share the various philosophies and activities the authors use to engage their students and create a cohesive interdisciplinary course and to describe the various assessment tools utilized.

In this case study, the authors give specific examples of engaging assignments and methods for evaluating student work in a credit‐bearing IL course.

It is found that if students are engaged, and effective assessment tools are employed, library credit instruction in a face‐to‐face setting with upper‐classmen from diverse majors is an impactful way to teach IL.

This article provides ideas on how to use a topical theme in teaching an interdisciplinary IL credit course; concrete approaches on engaging students in an IL course; and new strategies for assessing an IL credit‐bearing course. Many of the engagement and assessment methods the authors share may also be applied to one‐shot instruction sessions.

The paper provides a practical case study of the authors' experiences engaging students and assessing their work in an upper level, three‐credit, face‐to‐face class, a type of course not well represented in the information literacy literature at this point in time.

Student engagement can be a difficult thing to nurture in an online, asynchronous course. This paper aims to try to encourage a student interaction in such a course, one that additionally is not a requirement for any major or general education plan, the author argues that using extra credit activities can increase student interaction and engagement.

Students were given the opportunity to complete extra credit activities of several different types for a small number of extra credit points, the total of which was 5% of the students’ grade in the course. Activities included solo activities, such as playing short online information literacy games and collaborative activities that included posting and responding in a discussion forum.

The results were disappointing; only 2 out of 17 students in the sample completed extra credit activities, and those that did so would have received high grades whether or not they completed extra credit. This may be due to the low number of extra credit points available per activity, lack of motivation and other issues. Further study on this topic could help resolve these issues.

While the results of this study were not what was hoped for, the results and methods may be useful for other instructors of online, for-credit library classes looking for new ways to engage with students.

Advancements in technology have led to many changes in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). As global communications and technology continue to become more available and sophisticated, LIS programs need to prepare students for employment in rapidly changing and globalized LIS professions.

Data from a total of 63 programs from the American Library Association (ALA) and 32 programs from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) was collected through openly accessible websites of these programs. Areas explored include program name, name and level of the academic unit offering the program, credit hours, required courses, percentage of required courses and capstone measurements used within the different LIS programs.

A majority of programs still preserve the keyword “Library” in their name, but not the academic units offering them. Most programs in ALA and CILIP follow a semester-based program. Research methods, internships, practical experience, combined with traditional library core and information technology requirements were found to constitute the major subjects in general. Comprehensive exams were replaced by e-portfolios among ALA programs while a dissertation remains the preferred choice of capstone requirement for CILIP.

Scant studies compare accredited LIS programs worldwide, motivating the study of the similarities, differences and trends of LIS programs under the current globalized technology-driven knowledge economy. This paper seeks to fill the literature gap and promote a global discussion and understanding of LIS curricula in different regions of the world, guiding potential students to select their suitable LIS programs.

The continuing globalization of business and recent world events underscore the importance of educating students to develop a broad world view. Internationalizing the undergraduate curriculum has moved to the forefront of higher education in business. And international travel and study has become a core part in the curriculum. However, creating and coordinating a meaningful study abroad experience is perhaps the most challenging issue faced by academics and administrators involved in international business education. While the concept of incorporating a practical or “real world” component into a university degree program is not unique, particularly in business education, the structural obstacles and other difficulties associated with bringing about truly international learning experiences tend to be very different. On the one hand, the student(s) involved generally are highly motivated for such an experience. The challenge on the student side is one of channeling this excitement through the proper process in order to ensure they receive maximum transfer credit. This means, from the institutional side, it is necessary to fit the experience, whose characteristics sometimes fall outside the conventional institutional structure, into an individual’s degree program and still meet administrative criteria as they relate to content, rigor, accreditation requirements, etc.

This chapter presents data from research studies specifically aimed at gathering the perspectives of K-12 students who are taking online courses for credit recovery, their virtual school teachers, and face-to-face school support professionals.

This research employed ethnographic techniques to explore the benefits and challenges of online learning as a strategy for credit recovery.

Our research explores several key findings. The data suggest that the benefits and challenges of online learning for students are one in the same. With proper orientation, individualized support, and purposeful structuring of online programs, online and blended learning as a potential solution for credit recovery students, potentially decreasing the number of future high school dropouts.

This chapter suggests a need to look more carefully at orientation, support, and structuring procedures for online credit recovery.

This chapter is very valuable as a tool for thinking about credit recovery online. It also provides valuable insight into credit recovery from the perspectives of students who are doing the online courses.

This account aims to introduce contrasting perspectives on teaching and learning methods, and to detail the growth of new forms and vocabularies of access to learning. As we move towards the new millennium, the development of national, yet diversified, credit frameworks and systems will provide an essential underpinning for the organisational culture that will be needed to sustain the wellbeing and growth of the educational system. These new systems are already being incorporated into the practice of ‘virtual’ education. Lifelong learning has widespread support across the social and political spectrum and its importance can hardly be over‐stated as we seek to maintain competitiveness in a changing world. Increasing knowledge and understanding to serve both the needs of the economy and of individuals to play a major role in democratic life has become an agenda of necessity as well as desire. An open society requires open systems of knowledge. A prognosis for the future is submitted where the significance of part‐time modular and open flexible learning is evaluated in terms of a curriculum rooted in useful knowledge and competences, acquired at different sites of learning, including the workplace. It is argued that modular structures, using the potential offered by credit accumulation and transfer to different institutions with different missions, can transcend and transform the learning opportunities for students in a mass system of higher education which is rapidly becoming part of a global market economy and society. Continuous lifelong learning involving its key features of open access, recognition of learning wherever it takes place and the growth of new learning networks and partnerships, is at the conceptual heart of the development of the virtual university.