This article reports on a project to develop an instrument for programmatic-level assessment of information literacy skills that is valid—and thus credible—to university administrators and other academic personnel. Using a systems approach for test development and an item response theory for data analysis, researchers have undertaken a rigorous and replicable process. Once validated, this instrument will be administered to students to assess entry skills upon admission to the university and longitudinally to ascertain whether there is significant change in skill levels from admission to graduation.
Several prominent scholars suggest that investigations of human information behavior or "information needs, seeking, and uses" rarely measure how received information is applied or its effects on the recipient, that is, its outcomes. This article explores this assertion via systematic analysis of studies published in journals between 1950 and 2012. Five time periods and four journals were sampled, including 1,391 journal articles, 915 of which were empirical studies. Based on these samples, the percentage of studies of information outcomes climbed from zero in the 1950s and 1960s, to 8% in recent research reports. The barriers to studying information outcomes and possible future research on this topic are explored.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the emergence of information literacy (IL) by analyzing professional discourse and demonstrating that there is much evidence to support Foster's claim that regardless of what else IL might achieve, it was in part a professional response and an attempt to rearticulate and legitimate librarians' claim to an educational jurisdiction at a time their traditional access‐oriented jurisdiction was threatened.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs document analysis and critical analysis.FindingsThe paper finds that IL is, in part, the result of librarians' need to protect their professional territory from the systemic disturbances caused by information technology, fiscal challenges and the educational reform movement.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper should be of interest to researchers involved in the field of IL.Practical implicationsThe paper discusses the place of IL in the field of modern librarianship, and as such should be wide interest in various sectors of librarianship.Originality/valueThe results of this study offer a critical analysis of the development of IL in the field of librarianship, and as such deals with an important issue facing librarians in the twenty‐first century.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to determine how the professionalization of school and academic librarianship contributed to the establishment of information literacy as a form of legitimation. Design/methodology/approach -Historical analysis via Abbott. Findings -The need to obtain and maintain professional status did place school and academic librarians in a vulnerable position during a time of change that forced them to seek a new jurisdiciton of expertise. Originality/value -Important for the profession to examine the context of the emergence of a current and important framework.
This exploratory study examines the information seeking and use behaviors of a group of US retired or near-retirement investors from everyday life information seeking and serious leisure perspectives. Although primarily qualitative, it also collects and analyzes quanitative data to describe retired investors’ information preferences and use. Semi-structured interviews and journaling are used to examine the information seeking behaviors of a diverse group of investors and to assess the impact that personal characteristics, such as sex, socio-economic status, and educational attainment have on their behaviors. Findings suggest that the female investors studied were less likely to create information intensive fields and that this tendency is exacerbated by low educational attainment. Furthermore, the male investors studied were more likely to adopt Internet technology for their investing information seeking regardless of their educational attainment. Recommendations are made for improving information services to this important segment of the population.
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