1. Assessment of Information Literacy Presented by Touro College Libraries Sara Tabaei, Information Literacy Director Bashe Simon, Director of Touro Libraries Committee on Outcomes Assessment March 10, 2011

2. Why is the library conducting assessment? Assessment Meaningful measure of student learning Strengthens our instructiona l program Accountability to Middle States Focuses our instruction al objectives

3. History of assessment in the library: Fall 2008 N= 91 Project SAILS Meaningful only if approached as cohort study Only conducted in the Lander Colleges The testing instrument requires too much time

4. Library databases are different from the free internet sites What was the most significant thing you learned today? Search the library databases instead of going to Wikipedia and Google What will you do differently in your research process from now on? What questions do you still have about the use of the library? History of assessment in the library: Fall 2008 One minute survey

5. History of assessment in the library continues … We needed quantitative data and we only had qualitative data! So we created a pre and a post test. But our plan did not work out because only limited time is given to the librarians!

6. History of assessment in the library

7. The Current Post-test 3 indirect & 10 direct questions. Has all its direct questions based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)information literacy competency standards for higher education. The ACRL standards are similar to the objectives of the Information literacy goals in the General Education statement of Touro College.

8. Information Literacy competencies ACRL Standards Determines the extent of information needed Accesses the needed information effectively & efficiently Evaluates information and its sources critically Uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose Understands the economic, legal & social issues surrounding the use of information Touro General Education Goals adapted from ACRL Standards To develop, refine & focus a topic The ability to select information from books, journals, the internet & other media Evaluate and apply appropriate search strategies Appraise the quality of sources in terms of reliability, bias, currency & authority Demonstrate awareness of legal & ethical considerations in the use of information

9. The Current Post-test The post test is posted online via Google Docs. The responses go directly into an excel sheet- - the results are summarized instanteously. Not all sites have computers for their students—so we also give the test in paper & pencil format. The answers are analyzed and if 75% answer correctly, we adjust or change the question.

10. Touro library sites administered post-tests in 2010 N= 2241

11. A reference book can be borrowed. TrueFalseUnsure

12. A reference book can be borrowed N=2241

13. WikipediaCdc.govArthritis.comUnsure From which of the following websites would you consider information on Arthritis to be most accurate?

14. From which of the following websites would you consider information on Arthritis to be most accurate? N= 2241

15. From which of the following websites would you consider information on Arthritis to be most accurate?

16. In determining the reliability of an Internet site, you should look for: The responsibility of the site User friendliness A sentence or paragraph stating that the information is correct Unsure

17. In determining the reliability of an Internet site, you should look for:

18. Which of the following is a characteristic of articles found in scholarly journals ? Contains glossy pictures Provides the author’s opinion and viewpoint Has a list of references Unsure

19. Which of the following is a characteristic of articles found in scholarly journals? N=2241

20. Which of the following is a characteristic of articles found in scholarly journals?

21. A recent study concluded that “women today eat about 300 calories more per day than women did in the 1970s—mostly from carbs”. Does this information need to be cited when you use it in your paper? Yes, it needs to be cited No, it does not need to be cited Unsure

22. A recent study concluded that “women today eat about 300 calories more per day than women did in the 1970s—mostly from carbs”. Does this information need to be cited when you use it in your paper? N=2241

23. What did you learn today! Most interesting comments “I wasn’t aware of the fact that we have books available on the touro website that are easily viewable and downloadable as well. there are many usefool tools to help conduct research and I will utilize it for future assignments.” “I learnt more about the dangers of plagiarism and how I can be susceptible to it. “ “I learned how to use the system. I also learned if i'm writting something from another author how I suppose to do it to not be considerate as a stealer.” “There is a lot of valuable information in the library in- service- I think that it should be part of a general orientation at the beginning of each semester for new students. “

24. Results and Recommendations The post tests appear to be reliable since the results are more or less consistent throughout the semesters. The post tests appear to have validity since we have based our questions on the ACRL information literacy standards. We will add more direct questions to strengthen the validity of the post test. We need to assess according to the grade levels of the students. For the most recent post test, we have added a question on whether English is their first language or their second.

25. Challenges! The current post test is focusing on individual parts of a concept. Studies have shown that assessment of information literacy skills are more accurate when linked to a contextualized problem or assignment. Currently we are testing short term skills and lower-level thinking skills. If information literacy testing becomes part of an assignment, we could test higher-level thinking skills, such as research skills.

26. Improvements We will add more questions to the post test to construct a more valid assessment tool. Embedded librarian in subject specific courses. Identify classes that could have information literacy skills incorporated through curriculum mapping of those courses. A general information literacy class for incoming freshmen and subject specific courses for upper divisions of undergraduate and/or graduate students based on the evidence of the post tests.

27. Contact Information Sara Tabaei, MLIS, MA Information Literacy Services Director p: 212-463-0400 ext. 5233 email: sara.tabaei@touro.edu