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This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2018.

The paper provides a brief description of all 422 sources, and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and anyone interested as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how first-year students conduct everyday life research and how, if possible, their everyday research skills can inform information literacy instruction in higher education. Very few studies in information literacy emphasize existing knowledge that students bring with them to college; instead, the emphasis tends to fall on deficits in students’ academic research skills. Strengths-based approaches or asset-based approaches as found in the literature of psychology and education provide a basis for exploring this direction in information literacy education.

The research used a phenomenographic methodology, interviewing 40 first-year students from two large universities, a medium-sized university and a community college.

The qualitative study suggests that first-year students are capable of using information purposefully to learn or research interests that have sparked their curiosities. They are also capable of reflecting on the ways that their investigations fulfilled their purposes, resulted in unexpected outcomes or made them consider their issue in a new light. These existing capacities provide promising starting points for strengths-based approaches to information literacy instruction.

Dialogue with students about prior research experiences enables teaching librarians to plan engaging, authentic information literacy curriculum that acknowledges existing strengths.

This study provides a valuable contribution to empirical evidence of student research skills prior to entering higher education and suggests connections between those skills and the ACRL Information Literacy Framework. In addition, the study provides a case for strengths-based education, activating students’ prior knowledge to learn and create new knowledge. Authors have presented at Library Instruction West, July 2018.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the recent outreach service efforts of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Main Library in the form of a Hall of Residence Librarian Programme. The aim of the programme was to minimize library anxiety through partnership with the Office of Students Services.

The transition from the secondary to the tertiary level is not always the smoothest for some students. On the islands of the English-speaking Caribbean, such as Jamaica, it can be especially difficult as some matriculants have never used an automated library. These students often experience great difficulty in effectively using the library which may result in them shying away from doing so and thus negatively impact the quality of their work. The UWI, the UWI Main Library, Mona campus, Jamaica has sought to address this challenge through the development of an outreach project to the first-year students entitled the Halls of Residence Librarian (HRL) programme.

This new form of library outreach on The UWI Mona campus has yielded the offering of library services in new locations, strategic partnerships, increased interactions with the first-year students and a greater awareness of these students ' needs. Most importantly, it was very effective in reducing library anxiety among the first-year students.

The “low” turnout to Research Rescue was largely attributed to the fact that this programme was entirely optional for the students, and it was not affiliated with any compulsory course or class. There was also the issue of a lack of incentives to boost student attendance at these sessions.

This initiative is untested in the English-speaking Caribbean. The paper explores the outreach efforts of the library at the Mona campus of The UWI and seeks to add to the limited body of literature on Academic Library Outreach in the Caribbean.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the expectations and reality perspectives accrued in a preliminary management course and understand if they impart and embed real-world skills and develop work readiness.

Primary data collected for the research were qualitative. A total of six focus groups were conducted with a total of 52 students enrolled at a large metropolitan university in Australia. NViVO was used to code and analyse the data.

The study found that at the commencement of university studies, the expectations were simple like, making new friends, getting around the campus and settling well into the university culture, which over time extended to getting a part-time job, securing internships, memberships of associations, desire to participate in exchange programs and get work-ready by the close of the first year. The research outcomes show that those who held a part-time job while studying demonstrated a better understanding of the preliminary management subject matter taught in class and obtained better grades. Primarily, the preliminary management course did not specifically impart work-ready skills and it would be fitting to embed employability skills in the management curriculum from the commencement of their programs in the first year.

Qualitative research is used to comprehend a research problem from the outlook perspectives of the local population it involves. The limitations of this methodology includes no objectively verifiable result, adept interviewing skills for interviewers, slow and time consuming during interviewing process and intensive category process also as qualitative inquiry is normally open-ended, the participants have more control over the content of the data collected.

The lack of skill mismatch and graduates who are not work-ready incurs significant economic and social costs. A number of policy implications emerge due to university-labour market links and skills mismatches and the impact on students and the labour market. The rise in unemployment and the skills mismatch seen after the economic crisis requires immediate attention. Job creation is crucial but so is the need to develop graduate with appropriate matching skills and qualities to do the job. Mandatory internships, apprenticeships and on-the-job training for university students would help. Governments can provide financial incentives and subsidies to organisations providing the above services and working cooperatively with the universities to get students work-ready. Universities must raise the educational requirements over time as jobs become more complex. Universities can build communities of practice with the assistance of this scheme to enable students to interact with the industry professionals. An additional year of vocational training could be recommended for the graduating students. This would help the young graduates to get work-related skills. Wheelahan et al. (2015) state that building better links between education and work can help provide a more rational approach to vocational development. They propose the use of vocational streams and productive capabilities in the education system and labour market to achieve this.

This requires a combined effort from all stakeholders. A systematic approach needs to be adopted. First, the gap between the knowledge provided by the universities and the skills required by the employers need to be reduced. Second, the employers and the universities should keep a watch on the labour market and develop strategies to meet the dynamic requirements of the labour market collaboratively. Third, career guidance will help inform students make a career choice to match the labour market opportunities. This should be a part of the policy agenda for responding to the lack of work-ready graduates in the labour market.

Learning and teaching activities must include industry interface and engagement right from the first year at university. The main findings from this research indicated the need for better understanding of first-year students’ expectations. The two significant student expectations that emerged were “need for collaborations” and “industry interface”.

Purpose – Through a description of changes in institutional approaches to academic advising, this case study provides strategies for improving retention rates of first-year students deemed ‘at-risk’ of leaving university before second-year enrolment.

Methodology/approach – The study targets first-years who have been identified as ‘at-risk’ in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Temple is a large public research institution in the United States, home to approximately 35,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, of whom, 6,000 are enrolled in the CLA. The current case study focuses on the systematic and intentional processes developed by academic advisors or tutors in CLA to ensure students' progression from their first to second year. Project 2013, named for the intended graduation year of the initial target population, is a proactive retention initiative, and this study delineates the evolution of the innovation, development of the target group, project objectives, implementation of retention strategies, outcomes of the project, successes, limitations and future considerations.

Findings – Through sustained highly personalised interventions with first-year ‘at-risk’ students, the retention rate for this population improved by nearly 7% over the University's average for similar students and met the overall retention rate of the University's general student population.

Practical implications – The outcomes of this project suggest that with careful, strategic planning, clear execution by facilitators and ongoing assessment of such interventions, student retention and, by extension, persistence to graduation should improve significantly enough to warrant strong, ongoing institutional commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between engagement indicators and intent to persist of first-year full-time Hispanic students attending public versus private universities.

Metadata from the Your First College Year survey from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) were selected for this study. The approach included using a descriptive correlational design and regression analysis to examine the relationship between engagement indicators and persistence among first-year, full-time Hispanic students and persistence. Purposeful sampling obtained from the HERI data set resulted in a sample size of 1,206 students who attended public institutions and 1,187 students who attended private institutions.

Analysis of the results disclosed a positive correlation between first-year Hispanic students’ intent to persist, satisfaction with peer interactions, amount of contact with faculty, first-year programs and sense of belonging. The results of the analysis disclosed differences between public and private institutions. Of the collective variables, satisfaction with amount of contact with faculty and sense of belonging are significant predictors of persistence.

The sample of the study was limited to the use of archival data and the responses to specific questions obtained from the 2014 YFCY survey. Factors such as insufficient experience at the college students are attending, unwillingness to provide honest feedback and exaggerating specific areas of their behavior or performance may affect students who respond to surveys (Kuh, 2004), affecting the accuracy of the data. Further, 89.7 per cent of the variance in persistence has not been explained. Adding or using different variables and utilizing a more advanced statistical technique may account for additional variance. Cause and effect cannot be determined from correlational analysis, and the possibility exists that an unknown variable may be the cause of a correlation within the study. Incomplete information from predictors, complete separation and overdispersion can lead to SPSS output errors for logistic regression analysis.

It is important for higher education administrators to understand the cultural differences of not only Hispanic students but other ethnic and racial groups. As a global society, public and private higher education institutions are looking for more inclusion of multi-cultural students. Recruitment is obviously important, but to recruit is not enough. It is the responsibility of higher education administrators to do all that is reasonably possible to retain students through graduation.

Studies have been conducted on academic disparities between Hispanic students and their White counterparts, but few studies exist on the factors associated to persistence among the first-year Hispanic student population. The results of this study may add to the existing body of knowledge and assist with faculty development of programs, decisions on class size, improvements to pedagogy and discussions to improve the campus climate for Hispanic students. Using the resources of HERI, future studies can be conducted involving other races and ethnicities.

This paper aims to explore the differences in first-year and senior engineering students’ engineering agency beliefs and career goals related to sustainable development. The authors also sought to understand how topics related to sustainable development in engineering courses affect senior engineering students’ goals to address these issues in their careers. This work provides evidence of how students’ agency beliefs may be shaped by higher education, which is essential to workforce development.

Findings stem from two national surveys of engineering first-year (Sustainability and Gender in Engineering, n = 7,709) and senior students (Student Survey about Career Goals, College Experiences, n = 4,605). The authors compared both groups using pairwise testing by class standing.

The results indicate that undergraduate studies tend to reinforce students’ engineering agency beliefs to improve their quality of life and preserve the environment. Significantly more senior students selected career goals to address environmental issues compared to first-year students. In general, students undervalue their roles as engineers in addressing issues related to social inequities. Those topics are rarely addressed in engineering courses. Findings from this work suggest discussing sustainability in courses positively impact setting career goals to address such challenges.

The study compares results from two distinct surveys, conveyed at different periods. Nonetheless, the sample size and national spread of respondents across US colleges and universities are robust to offer relevant insights on sustainable development in engineering education.

Adapting engineering curriculum by ensuring that engineering students are prepared to confront global problems related to sustainable development in their careers will have a positive societal impact.

This study highlights shortcomings of engineering education in promoting social and economic sustainability as related to the engineering field. Educational programs would benefit from emphasizing the interconnectedness of environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development. This approach could increase diversity in engineering education and the industry, and by ripple effect, benefit the communities and local governance.

This work is a first step toward understanding how undergraduate experiences impact students’ engineering agency beliefs and career goals related to sustainability. It explores potential factors that could increase students’ engineering agency and goals to make a change through engineering.

This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015.

This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL.

Since the education of Master of Science students in the discipline of agriculture is catalectic without libraries, the present paper seeks to assess the information literacy competency (ILC) of post graduate (PG) students at Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India, along with the impact of instruction initiatives in this respect.

Based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology, 2006, an instrument was developed with 79 scoring items in the first part of the questionnaire along with non‐scoring items in the second part. Broad headings of the questions asked are shown in detail. Validity and reliability of the instrument are also reported.

Information literacy competency of PG students has been found satisfactory along with significant difference between the first and second year students. Results of the paper distinguish between the first and second year students in the light of five information literacy (IL) standards along with other considerations. Various instruction initiatives were found to have a positive impact upon the ILC of PG students.

Since the study has been able to establish a positive relationship between instruction initiatives and ILC, such initiatives may be introduced in other academic institutions.

None of the earlier reported research instruments had used science and engineering/technology IL standards, especially upon PG students in agriculture. This study further paved the way for the development of such an nstrument along with assessing the ILC of PG students and impact of instruction initiatives in an agricultural university.

The paper aims to describe a framework for a summer research/writing workshop for new university students, and its evolution over time and across institutions.

The University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC) has successfully offered its award‐winning two‐day Summer Learning Institute on Research, Writing and Presentation Skills for four years (2004‐2007), to increasing enrolments. Memorial University of Newfoundland (Memorial) adapted the UTSC model and successfully piloted its four‐day workshop, Summer Program in Academic Research and Communication (SPARC), in August 2006. Both programs were low‐cost, non‐credit summer workshops for new students to help them prepare for university‐level research and writing. Memorial offered its program a second time in August 2007. This paper focuses on the Memorial experience.

The success of these programs is attributed to a common framework used in each case: program planning, marketing, and delivery and assessment.

The framework described in this paper could be adapted by other institutions wishing to implement such a program. In addition, the SPARC team will continually improve the program by reflecting on each part of the framework.

Much research has been done to identify and address the specific needs of first‐year university students. For example, some institutions offer “first year experience” courses for credit, while others place first‐year students into Interest Groups. Most academic libraries offer information literacy sessions to groups of undergraduate students during the regular semester. This paper presents a model for reaching first year students before they take their first class at university.