E-info labs: fostering information literacy on a shoestring.

Abstract

With limited resources, UNB Libraries' instructional librarians have successfully started an information literacy program, originating from a series of workshops that were developed through a collegial working group approach.

**********

Like many other academic libraries of similar size and scope, the library at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Fredericton entered the limitless information world of the new millennium with limited resources to act as a conduit to that world. The four libraries at UNB's Fredericton campus provide services to two academic institutions, St. Thomas University (STU) and UNB. While STU offers undergraduate liberal arts and professional degrees to 2500 full-time students with 160 teaching staff, UNB offers undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees to about 7200 full-time students with a teaching staff of about 450. UNB also maintains a number of very active research programs and institutes. Library instructional services to these communities have been provided by eight to ten public service librarians who do this in addition to their other administrative, collections, reference and systems responsibilities.

Without the benefit of dedicated positions or additional financial resources, bibliographic instruction at UNB Libraries has evolved into an information literacy program originating from a small series of workshops called the "E-info Labs." The collegial working group approach of the librarians involved provides a model of program development suitable to a small library system of limited means. The series has helped to foster a campus culture favourable to information literacy, which is now moving from the library into classrooms and into graduate and undergraduate curricula.

Early Days of Library Instruction

Librarians at UNB have been delivering instruction to students, faculty and staff in one form or another for over twenty-five years. Over the term of its practice, instruction has been offered in various phases, both formal and informal. More often this has been an informal, un-coordinated effort in that reference or information services librarians have delivered instruction at orientation, at the point of need or on demand, rather than from a pedagogical framework. Yet pockets of exciting initiatives existed--for example, a spirited coordinated effort at the launch of the libraries' first online catalogue earned the librarians on staff recognition at a Library Orientation Exchange (LOEX) poster session. This was the early 1980s, when online searching occurred via acoustic coupler and decwriter, computing involved the mainframe and terminal, and the librarian served as information mediary.

As the pace of change accelerated, the library was hit with a series of devastating budget cuts affecting staffing and print collections. After several years of such changes, the library system began the 1990s with a vast array of networked CD-ROM resources, the beginnings of web access and no planned approach to helping patrons know about, let alone become proficient in, the use of all the available resources.

This one-two punch of declining resources and increasingly complex print and digital information sources resulted in fragmented instruction. Seamans' 2001 thesis covers this territory in an all-too-familiar tale. In building the case for her study of freshmen students' perceptions about their own information acquisition and use, she reviews the literature, history and development of bibliographic instruction cum information literacy. Her summary of the patterns of popularity in instruction, the challenges of appropriate delivery format and curriculum issues should reverberate with many practitioners. To briefly summarize the UNB version, every day librarians faced students at information/reference desks who lacked fundamental information literacy skills. Concomitantly, faculty had difficulty keeping up with the constantly changing suite of electronic resources. While librarians were providing ad hoc one-shot instruction sessions for specific courses in some departments and faculties, there was no structured program, and many people were missing out. In trying to satisfy the immediate requirement for basic help, the content of most sessions focused on the "how-to" of specific sources and tools. But like many other librarians across the profession, the information services group at UN-B understood the long-term value in teaching the more transferable research skills that are part of information literacy (Julien, 2000; Grafstein, 2002).

Beginning With Little Institutional Support

The libraries' director recognized the need to do something. While he was supportive, the problem would be to move from a library instruction program to an information literacy program with the existing staff complement and in a climate wherein faculty, in reaction to some of the cutback decisions, were generally not supportive of the library.

In 1996, realizing that some effort was required to develop any kind of instruction program, it was understood by a small working group that the first component was to make the university community aware of what was available. If faculty and students understood why they might be interested in some of the libraries' resources from a subject perspective, then, it was assumed, they would want to learn how to use these sources effectively.

The librarians forming this working group engaged in lively debate as to how it might be possible to generate support for a more structured information literacy program. The consensus at this early stage was that it would be important to take the library to the faculties to re-establish a positive faculty contact, to demonstrate the portability of the new sources and to offer some subject focus. The structure of these "demo" sessions was to survey relevant sources, and their features, with a lead-in to planned hands-on workshops offering an opportunity for review and practice in applying search skills.

So began a process of finding wired meeting rooms, booking data-show projectors, setting dates and times through sometimes mystified departmental contacts, and, in those days, procuring a list of hard-coded ip (internet protocol) addresses and gateways. The payoff was evident in the appreciation of those faculty who did come to these first demo sessions and who whole-heartedly supported our plans to follow up with workshops.

Attendance at these first labs in the winter of 1997 was very good. Follow-up surveys identified a number of key elements that the evolving "instruction group" of librarians put to use. The surveys indicated there was a real lack of knowledge about what resources were available. Those who did know something about the resources admitted to feeling very limited in their ability to use them. The surveys also indicated that participants felt that the librarians had been well prepared, had presented sessions at an appropriate level, and that there was much scope for expanding such offerings.

With an acknowledgement that this was the domain of the library's professional staff and the recognition that there was much to be learned, there was a clear pocket of faculty support as the instruction group met to discuss plans for a more structured series of workshops in the following academic year.

E-info Labs Evolution and Evaluation

As the workshop series began to establish itself as the campus conduit for information literacy, UNB Libraries' public services librarians also evolved a collaborative, collegial process for developing the series, informed by regular session and series evaluation. In the fall of 1997, there were only five individual lab sessions. By the winter of 2002, the series had grown to eighteen offerings. Over that same time the sessions evolved to incorporate more elements of instructional design and deliberate integration of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000).

By 1998 the "E-info Labs" title had become accepted and widely recognized through an extensive promotional campaign via posters, brochures, university newspaper ads, newsletters, campus e-mail distribution lists, and a dedicated web site. Having settled on a name, the instruction group met regularly to discuss what did and did not work in individual sessions and how the sessions fit together to work progressively. To develop teaching skills, the group contacted the university's Teaching and Learning Centre, participating in several workshops themselves. Delivering trial sessions to colleagues developed teaching skills along with collaborative instructional design. Participant evaluations were also considered carefully, leading to many improvements.

However, it was also understood that these kinds of internal evaluations were not enough to validate the strength of the series. Given the initial positive university community response, the library administration was very willing to support and fund a more formal assessment. In the winter of 2000 an outside consultant was hired to conduct focus group evaluations (Wall, 2000). While this provided very positive feedback on the quality of instruction and the application of learning, there were also recommendations whose implementation led to a more structured program.

The report indicated that while there was a good flow or connection among the sessions, there was not an overarching or explicit explanation of that flow. In response, an introductory "Information Research Fundamentals" session was added, helping to unite all the labs into a comprehensive package by giving instructional librarians an opportunity to present information literacy concepts at the beginning of the series. The report also indicated the need to articulate objectives explicitly for each session and for the series as a whole. In response, individual "means" learning objectives were developed for each lab, while the general "ends" objectives of the entire series were articulated as follows (UNB Libraries' Instructional Services Committee, 2002):

The objectives of the series are to encourage the following within the University community:

* a greater familiarity with the libraries' resources

* the best use of library and information sources, including:

a .an understanding of general research skills and strategies

b. the ability to access different types of information effectively

The consultant's report also reflected the participants' desire to have recognized their commitment to following the entire series, leading to a "Certificate of Participation" which has been issued to thirty-nine people since 2000. This desire for recognition triggered a discussion of assessment among the librarians. To that end, in 2001, two members of the group took assessment a step further with the development of a pre-test and a post-test for those attending the whole series. Although this assessment did not produce substantive results, as a first attempt it was still a very useful learning experience, providing information on how better to administer and design such tests in the future.

Through this evaluation and evolution, the E-info Lab series developed a stable core content. The complimentary component to the core content has been the collegial process of program development. All librarians in the instruction group have been involved in individual session and overall series planning, putting that design and teaching experience to use.

Model Program

While working towards better discipline integration, the basic information literacy curriculum of the E-info Labs has been adapted for more subject-specific programs, and to fill gaps in the absence of such programs. For example, last year the UNB Senate Library Users' Committee passed a recommendation that the libraries offer a pilot information literacy program to graduate Engineering students, using the E-info Lab curriculum as its model. The success of the pilot with Mechanical Engineering graduate students has spurred similar courses for Computer Science graduate students, with plans in the works for the remaining Engineering graduates. In addition, instruction librarians are now developing curriculum-integrated programs in Education, Kinesiology, Nursing and Sociology, adapting the E-info Labs to suit specific needs.

The Labs have also been used to target specific groups, such as faculty, or to handle specific needs such as staff training. Faculty do have an opportunity to participate in an annual summer library workshop, but inevitably there are some who are either away, or who feel they need more in-depth information than what [s offered in the one day summer workshop. They can pick up what they need from one or two of the Labs, although one recent faculty participant said she would "recommend [the series] for all new faculty."

Campus support staff also use the series to enhance their own skill level or to help them in some aspect of their work. Considerable positive feedback from various individuals who have attended a Lab or two---such as the departmental secretary who needed to use the catalogue in order to properly submit book purchase request forms, or the physical plant worker who wanted to better understand the internet in order to help his fifteen-year old son with his homework--suggest this is an area for continued growth.

With regard to library staff training and development, most workshops are co-taught by two librarians, enabling instructors to learn from each other's teaching style and technique. New librarians typically begin their teaching with the Labs before moving on to solo in course-specific or other instruction sessions. This team-teaching training method has proven to be quite successful. The Labs have also helped librarians to learn new resources as they come along. For example, when deciding to evaluate and purchase bibliographic management software for the campus, a test workshop for the instruction librarians was developed around the software. The old adage "the best way to learn something is to teach it" has proven to be true.

New para-professionals staffing library information desks have also attended the series as part of their training. Because the Labs cover most of the libraries' key access tools, para-professional library staff receive a detailed overview of the many sources they will encounter on a daily basis, along with ideas for an approach to presenting those sources to patrons.

Recognition of the Libraries' Teaching Role

Perhaps the most profound benefit of the E-info Labs has been their impact on how the library is viewed on campus. Specifically, the highly publicized series has helped to foster a favourable culture on campus in which other information literacy programs may grow. As one of the library's most publicized services, the Labs have come to be widely recognized as a regular service. The recognition of the libraries' role as a teaching unit has been seen through day-to-day contact with faculty colleagues, as well as through more formal communication. A forceful measure of that acknowledgement was put forward by the faculty union in a recent collective bargaining bulletin emphasizing the role of librarians in "instructing us all in the use of an increasingly complex mix of digital and print, current and historical, networked and local resources" (Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers, 2001).

While the popularity of and attendance at the Labs has increased, peaking at an average of twenty-three participants per session, so too has the demand from faculty for course-specific instruction. For example, the number of classes taught by our main library's reference department more than doubled between 1997 and 2001. The anecdotal evidence supports a correlation. The series has always had a number of faculty participants, and several have asked librarians to provide course-specific instruction suggesting that they valued their own learning experience. Other faculty have asked for sessions after noticing an ad for the labs. The fact is that information literacy is now working its way into faculty and departmental curriculum discussions.

Internally, the library director's recent annual reports and budget proposals have identified information literacy instruction as integral to the libraries' mandate, solidifying recognition of our teaching responsibility. Additional recognition has come through the recent transition of the un-official instruction group into UNB Libraries' Instructional Services Committee, a formal committee of the Library Board.

Ongoing Challenges

Although the E-info Labs series has proven to be an excellent way to get information literacy off the ground, it has not been without its challenges, staffing perhaps being the greatest challenge. The eight to ten instructional librarians involved are also responsible for subject-specific sessions, along with other duties. While the experience of the Labs has helped to develop a coterie of information literacy librarians, there is a tension between maintaining the commitment to the Labs while developing discipline specific programs.

Our experience has shown that something substantial can grow from a very small beginning. The E-info Labs have certainly not met all the needs for information literacy at UNB and STU, but they have helped to build a foundation for information literacy on campus. We look forward to seeing what else can be built upon that foundation within the university community and with our colleagues. [1]

[1] The team of librarians involved with the E-info Labs has included Lesley Balcom, Lindsay Beatty, Barry Cull, Francesca Holyoke, Patricia Johnston, John Neilson, Patricia Oakley, Doffs Rauch, Stephen Sloan, and Lisa Sloniowski

References

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2001, March). Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: Working Ed. Retrieved September 19, 2001 http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/criteria.html

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2000). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. (2000). Retrieved July 19, 2002 from http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html.

Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers. (2001, September 10). Academic Mission. Collective Bargaining Bulletin, 7, 1-2.

Grafstein, A. (2002). A discipline-based approach to information literacy. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 28, (4), 197-204.

Julien, H. (2000). Information literacy instruction in Canadian academic libraries: Longitudinal trends and international comparisons. College & Research Libraries, 61(6), 510-523.

Seamans, N. H. (2001). Information literacy: A study of freshman students' perceptions, with recommendations (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001). Retrieved July 24, 2002, http ://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-051420011 04550/unrestricted/ Seamans.pdf

UNB Libraries' Instructional Services Committee. (2002, February 18). E-info Labs: Winter 2002. Retrieved July 17, 2002, from http://www.lib.unb.ca/instruction/LabsWinter02.html

Wall, M. E. (2000, May 15). E-info Labs: Focus Groups - Final Report. Fredericton, NB: Integrated Learning Solutions.

Barry Cull, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada
Francesca Holyoke, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada

Barry is an Information Services Librarian. He co-ordinates library instructional services for the social sciences, humanities and several professional schools at UNB, and teaches information literacy skills to students in sociology and related subject areas. Francesca is Head of the Science and Forestry Library and chair of the libraries' Instructional Services Committee. She promotes information literacy throughout the university by assisting colleagues in their own efforts, and teaches students in the faculties of Forestry, Nursing and Science.