Library Awareness and Use Among Graduate Social Work Students: An Assessment and Action Research Project

Abstract

This article details the evolution of an action research project over the fall of 2011 through the spring of 2014. The project investigates the engagement of social work students at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College with library resources and services. In addition to a review of the literature and a contextualizing discussion around the status of information literacy instruction in social work, the article describes the development and use of an online assessment tool, the introduction of new information literacy instruction strategies and materials including online research guides, and a discussion of the descriptive and inferential findings generated from 3 years of survey data.

Attitudes toward Information Competency of University Students in Social Sciences

“…On the other hand, social work students confer the lowest relevance and self-efficacy to the competencies, showing scores below overall mean values for all four groups of competencies, a deficiency already identified by some studies in the United States. 44 A number of significant differences have been found among the degree programs in connection with the mean levels of belief in importance and self-efficacy for all four groups of competencies. Information science shows higher levels than the rest of the degree programs.…”

“…27 Margaret Bausman and Sarah Ward used an online assessment tool to investigate the engagement of social work students with library resources and services. 28 Wendy Holliday, Betty Dance, Erin Davis, Britt Fagerheim, Anne Hedrich, Kacy Lundstrom, and Pamela Martin applied the VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) rubric to assess students' IL through the analysis of 900 student papers. 29 Katelyn Angell sought to test the reliability and validity of assessment rubrics used to evaluate student learning outcomes in information literacy classrooms.…”

Academic Library Instruction, Evidence-Based Practice, and Social Workers: An Exploratory Survey

“…Bellard's (2005) case study also examined a required information literacy workshop for students. Bausman and Ward (2015) investigated social work students' engagement with library services over multiple years, finding that independent interactions with library services and resources increased along with changes in library instructional approaches. One study that explicitly merged information literacy and EBP instruction efforts was Bingham, Wirjapranata, and Chinnery (2016).…”

An assessment of library instruction:

“…The use of workshops proved to have an impact on the students' further research. Based on a study conducted between 2011 and 2014, Bausman and Ward (2015) conclude that their social work students should have several IL classes at different times during the course of their programme. One instruction session is not enough to ensure that students are ILcompetent.…”