Information literacy competencies in social work.

Abstract

The Social Work Library at the University of Michigan integrates library instruction into the school's fall orientation, two foundation courses, and several advanced research courses, in a structured approach to establishing information literacy competencies across the curriculum. Beginning with the entry level of "Novice" in orientation, progressing to "Journeyman" and "Mastery" in two foundations courses, the ultimate goal is to have 350 incoming students each year advance to the "MSW" level of evidence-based practice (decision-making based on research findings rather than on tradition, authority, and experience). How course-integrated library instruction is structured, assessed and currently evolving is described in this paper. The library's pre/post tests and results are available on request from the author.

Introduction

The Social Work Library at the University of Michigan is a branch library located within the school. Housed at the library are 42,000 books, 200 periodical subscriptions, and an extensive website for social work students (Reiman-Sendi, 2003). The primary clientele are over 600 Masters of Social Work (MSW) students. Of the 341 students making up the class of 2002-03, 23% are students of color and 6% are international students. Of the 275 who attended a mandatory library orientation in August 2002, 87% were between the ages of 20-30, 10% were between 30-40, 3% were between the ages of 40-50, and 1% were over 50.

As consecutive chairs of the Social Work/Social Welfare Committee of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) since 1999, the two social work librarians at Michigan have worked with other librarians across the country on information literacy competency standards for social work students. They have also served as Ex Officio members of the University's School of Social Work Curriculum Committee. This privilege has enhanced their residence within the academic user community, built bridges within the two organizational cultures, and fostered collaboration around class assignments. The Social Work Librarian is on the school's Information & Technology Committee and the Public Services Librarian has been invited into discussions on Promoting Critical Thinking and Information Literacy. Their joint proposal, incorporated into this article, has been forwarded to the Social Work Curriculum Committee and is on their agenda this fall. In addition, they were able to assess some learning outcomes of first semester students in Fall 2002. The ultimate goal, consistent with educational policy and accreditation standards of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) (2001), is to ensure full exposure and assessment at the beginning of the program and then periodic reevaluations (using the same instruments) later.

Library Literature Review

According to D'Angelo (2001), much of the information literacy instruction in libraries today is based on Carol Kuhlthau's model (1988, 1991, 1993). The model on the library search process, with its focus on critical thinking and information-seeking behavior, has provided a context for assessing information competency instruction. D'Angelo's study on "Integrating and assessing information in a gateway course" is a qualitative study of one course in one undergraduate program. The pre-test asked open-ended questions about the research process, e.g., "What information do you think you need prior to composing this essay?" The post-test was administered after the second instructional session and asked how students would change their answers. D'Angelo later read the finished products and applied an evaluation rubric to determine if the information literacy concepts taught were applied in the essays. Though access to student assignments is rare for librarians, this is the ideal faculty/librarian collaboration since it led to the instructor altering the assignment (to emphasize the research process and the students' own thought processes) and the librarian altering the library session (by using a specific topic and particular resources for student analysis). The desired outcome after these changes were made was that "Essays were more well-developed around a central thesis with substantiating evidence from cited sources, rather than an unfocussed essay woven around the most convenient and easily found sources" (p. 288).

The Social Work Library's instructional program (Lawler, 2003a) seeks to bring MSW students to the above Novice and Journeyman levels in orientation and one foundation course. Our ultimate goal is for social work students to apply the higher-level information-seeking skills (Mastery and MSW) to their future practice. Mastery involves incorporating data and observation into needs assessments and grant proposals; MSW involves defining a client or program problem and finding the information required to solve it. This also implies selecting the best of relevant studies and data sources, including systematic reviews. It remains an on-going challenge, however, to continuously measure across the school's curriculum all four levels of competencies.

Synthesizing Information Literacy and Social Work Competencies

According to Borland (2001) and the Committee on the Foundation of Assessment (2001), assessment begins with what is valued in the curriculum and is a process of measurement so that educators know if their interventions and learners' progress are positively related. Without tests in library instruction, not only is a powerful motivator missing for the student, but also the librarian has little feedback for corrective action to become a better instructor. Library instruction in higher education is mostly assessed on a very small-scale and is tied to national library standards (e.g., ACRL, 2002). In social work, it should also be tied to the school's national standards (CSWE, 2001). In regard to program assessment and continuous improvement, Educational Policy and Accreditation Standard 8: Program Assessment and Continuous Improvement require that:

* The program has an assessment plan and procedures for evaluating the outcome of each program objective. The plan specifies the measurement procedures and methods used to evaluate the outcome of each program objective.

* The program implements its plan to evaluate the outcome of each program objective and shows evidence that the analysis is used continuously to affirm and improve the educational program. (CSWE, 2001, p.5)

B. R. Cournoyer (2001) describes the Indiana Model for Standard 8 in terms of course learning objectives and assessment of student learning. Policy implications are also discussed. The University of Michigan School of Social Work faculty is in the process of breaking out goals and competencies across the curriculum in relation to an intensive focus agenda on the topics of Privilege, Oppression, Diversity and Social Justice.

If information literacy is an objective at the School of Social Work, such a program requires full cooperation among the librarians and the faculty, and their respective administrators. Within library services, sensitive library instructors and reference staff reinforce course-integrated library instruction. Fister (2002) advises, "Without being too invasive, the librarian must assess what the assignment is, what level of sophistication the student brings to it, and how much information the student can absorb" (p. B20). A subject specialist who collaborates with faculty on term assignments can provide a web page and a class presentation that serves both the instructional needs of the class, as well as a heads up and training module for the reference staff. The logic of the research process and exposure to a variety of discipline-based databases should be reinforced in tutorials for specific assignments. In addition, the need to lead "students away from Google and toward[s] vetted scholarly material" can be accomplished through faculty members' courseware becoming "a portal through which students will get a list of databases especially recommended for their discipline, as well as contact information for a librarian who specializes in their field ..." (Carlson 2003, A33).

We have noticed that students are more likely to use the library web pages designed for their classes, if faculty have linked to them from their course web sites. "Melding diverse sources of content in courseware requires collaborations among departments, yet many institutions are bureaucratically segmented, and departments are short on time and talent. Groups of instructional-technology experts, librarians, and professors have just started meeting at Ohio State to figure out how to beef up their course pages. "Unfortunately we're still in our separate silos," Ms. Metros says" (ibid, 2003, A33).

The Social Work Library's definition of competencies is based on Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (ACRL 2002). We have added to these standards the "MSW" level, based on evidence-based practice in medicine (Sackett, Rosenberg, Gray, Haynes, & Richardson, 1996). It is a useful talking point with faculty because they often choose excellent examples of secondary or review literature for required reading. The library empowers the students to be consumers of cross-discipline research by teaching them how to find these kinds of articles. Not surprisingly, the Mental Health Concentration states evidenced-based practice is both a core competency and an advanced knowledge skill depending on the intervention (Community Organization, Research, Interpersonal Practice, or Management). In an internal document they urge students to "Acquire knowledge of evidence-based practices in mental health treatment and rehabilitation with particular attention paid to diverse populations ... to continually update personal knowledge." Practice decision-making based on research findings rather than on tradition, authority, and experience translates well into lifelong learning goals of information literacy.

At the School of Social Work, we have networked with faculty teaching first year foundation and specialized research courses. With adjunct faculty, we provide valuable continuity to the curriculum. For example, a new adjunct teaching "Practice in International Social Work" was eager to learn about library resources that would support international research. From her syllabus and our meeting, the author developed a web page for the class (Lawler, 2002a), which we both used for our respective agendas: She displayed content in the classroom, such as human rights law, linked from a related page, and I used the class web page for library instruction in the computer lab. Students were encouraged to identify disciplines that might study their topic and to think about the kinds of organizations that collect data on war crimes, for example. We also talked about the importance of starting with a database that has an international perspective and then turning to more comprehensive subject database(s). We covered search strategies and terminology to find secondary literature such as systematic reviews or best practice to get an overview of a topic, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Evidence-based practice for social work library instruction is also informed by gerontology (Olson, 1996) and the University of Michigan Taubman Medical Library (2002). Lawler (2003b) provides a template for teaching this module based on the rich information resources at the University of Michigan, but faculty and librarians are concerned that these skills will be difficult to apply in the workplace once students graduate. Mental health clinics and other human service agencies typically do not subscribe to indexing and abstracting services of scholarly articles. Watson (2003) discusses funding and policy implications of evidence-based practice in welfare services in the U.K., especially the obstacles for continuing professional development on the Internet. Lawler (2003c) attempts to bridge the gap with a fledgling web page for non-university affiliated social workers.

The micro-level definition of evidence-based practice is flexible enough to be adapted to the macro level. For instance, in a community organization course, where the activist/instructor is exploring the U.S.A. Patriot Act's impact on immigrant community development, he and the author have collaborated on a web tutorial that suggests community learning for organizers is a form of evidence-based practice when a community shifts away from authoritative, top-down development and learns new skills for problem-solving (Gruidl and Hustedde, 2003). This kind of learning has been threatened by repressive immigration laws throughout our nation's history. The author uses a chronological grid showing popular names of immigration laws, cultural assumptions of the "other" at the time, and landmark court decisions that either defended or refuted racist thinking (Lawler, 2003d). From an information literacy perspective, analyzing historical factors that affect current social problems is one of the best ways of exercising critical thinking skills (Burman, 2000).

Measuring Baseline Competencies

Working with the School of Social Work Student Services staff and with the assistance of the university-wide library staff, we offer an orientation program each fail when the School welcomes 350 incoming masters' students. At the beginning of Fall Orientation 2001, library instructors administered a 5-minute self-assessment tool to determine a baseline of information competencies of new students. Two hundred and fifty three students who attended Fall Orientation 2001 responded to the brief questionnaire. Main findings were that most incoming social work students are computer literate, but more than half had had one or less library instructional sessions in college. Virtually all respondents used e-mail. Some older students identified themselves during Orientation as being anxious or ill-prepared on a one-minute "How am I doing?" questionnaire. Students who had trouble keeping up with the "Novice" level (understanding the difference between an index and a catalog; the mechanics of navigating databases; knowing why to use a keyword search as opposed to a subject search, etc.), gave us their e-mail address so we could contact them about library workshops outside of regular class time or arrange for private consultations.

Introducing Course-Integrated Library Instruction 2001

We succeeded in getting course-integrated library instruction at the "Mastery" level in all sections of one foundation class during Fall 2001: Management, Community Organization and Policy Practice. Based on common assignments and most students' lack of exposure to complex databases, the author was invited three times to all nine sections of the course to give a half hour online presentation for each of the three assignment: 1) tracking current legislation, 2) conducting a community needs assessment, 3) finding funding sources for a proposed service. U.S. Decennial Census questions had a major impact on reference desk services during fall 2001, indicating that the half-hour presentation on American FactFinder in each section was insufficient to teach the use of the database. The format was changed to one to three hours Fall 2002, emphasizing concepts and hands-on-exercises (York, 2002), and time for group projects. Census reference questions both decreased in number and became more sophisticated that semester, indicating a measure of success over the previous format.

As the author made in-class library presentations during the Winter Term of 2002 in mental health and research methods classes, a show of hands revealed that few first-year students had used Social Work Abstracts, the primary index for the discipline. In addition, they were very unfamiliar with finding full-text articles outside of ProQuest, which does not cover the field adequately. The lack of awareness of subject-specific databases in reference questions and class workshops indicated that "Novice" instruction during Fall Orientation was not reinforced in subsequent fall instruction. For example, "Journeyman" level (asking research questions, translating the questions into search strategies, choosing the best databases, and evaluating the sources) could not be adequately addressed in brief presentations on specialized databases such as LexisNexis Congressional, American FactFinder, and FCSearch. Library Orientation in August, therefore, created a disconnect within the curriculum, since none of the "Novice" skills taught there became the building blocks for Fall 2001 library instruction. Luckily, our presence on the Curriculum Committee gave as a forum to which we could address the problem.

Solving the Problem of Disconnect in Library Instruction

At the February 2002 Curriculum Committee, faculty identified Introduction to Social Welfare Policy and Services as the logical foundation course in which to introduce "Journeyman" skills. The web-based tutorial, Transportation as a Civil Rights Issues (Lawler, 2002b) was redesigned from previous versions to introduce "journeyman" skills, as well as to introduce an historical approach to social policy, legislation and thinking critically.

In addition, the author expanded the brief survey used in 2001 with more research process questions, including strategies for finding primary and secondary historical sources. The survey was administered prior to library instruction in Fall Orientation 2002 and became the "pre-test" for entering students. At a planning meeting with faculty, it was decided that all students in all sections of the class would be "required" to attend an hour-long hands-on workshop outside of class, that the author had designed. Part III of the survey became the "post-test" or Library Quiz after students attended the tutorial. This effort was 'quasi' experimental and more 'descriptive' in nature than a standardized test. The instrument only tells us that a subset of incoming students did better on the questionnaire after library instruction, than before. It tells us nothing about applying those skills to research papers throughout their academic career. We need a continuous assessment tool and further collaboration with faculty to know if we are assisting social worker students to locate, retrieve, evaluate and manage information effectively and efficiently in course assignments.

Collaboration with individual faculty members and teams helped us realize the complexity of resource-based assignments across such an interdisciplinary curriculum. There is a growing consensus among social work faculty that information literacy is an integral part of learning the course content. With this consensus, we could better envision proceeding more logically toward integrated library instruction and continuous assessment.

Recommendations for the future

Information literacy competencies needed at the disciplinary level (Lawler, 2003a) have been identified at the School of Social Work through collaborative efforts between faculty and librarians. Structural barriers, however, impede integrating these competencies across the MSW curriculum. This paper makes four recommendations for increasing faculty and librarian collaboration with the objective of improving outcomes for students. From our experience, we know that about one hundred students do not attend library training during Fall Orientation and thus may lack the most basic skills for using the university library at the entry level ("Novice"). Others place out of foundation courses and thus may be unexposed to the mid-level competencies ("Journeyman" and "Mastery"). In addition, we learned from the pre-test for Social Work Students Fall 2002 that 63% had had one or less library instructional sessions in college as undergraduates. Only a small percentage of students who were "required" to take the library workshop attended and took the "post-test" (65 students). There were no consequences for not fulfilling the "requirement". Not only are the lower-level information literacy competencies "hit and miss" despite the library's best efforts to coordinate, but also the evidence-based practice module is even harder to integrate into the curriculum.

In our vision, library instruction and continuous assessment would be tied to the school's curriculum and to faculty development by:

Library Instruction:

* Teaching all four levels of competencies during the first year. URL: http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/infolitcomp.html

* Increasing awareness of high quality, public domain web sites. Resources for Social Work Professionals is a start in this direction and promotes concepts of privilege, oppression, diversity and social justice, as well as evidence-based practice to the broader community. URL: http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/swlvisitor.html

Faculty Development:

* Inviting faculty to workshops geared to their specific context of practice, e.g., Secondary Data in Evidence-based Practice. This web page is the template used to teach social workers how to become consumers of research across different disciplines in their careers. URL: http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/secondarydata.html

* Making library resources and research strategies more accessible through CourseTools by encouraging faculty to link to library web pages appropriate to their assignments.

Classroom Instruction:

* Integrating information technology literacy into all appropriate courses.

* Preparing to integrate information literacy competencies into the foundation courses at a branch campus.

Continuous Assessment: providing guidance to faculty and librarians, assessment tools can:

* Measure the competencies taught at Orientation 2003 with the Quizzes embedded in a new campus-wide resource, SearchPath (an intelligent online tutor). URL: http://www.lib.umich.edu/ugl/searchpath/

* Measure "Journeyman" competencies with the post-test following a one-and-a-half-hour workshop during class time (one instructor has agreed so far). URL: http://www.umich.edu/socwork/rescue/sw530.html

* Administer the post-test to a control group (first-semester students who have not attended library orientation nor the "Journeyman" workshop) to determine if there is consistent and measurable change due to library instruction.

* Consider the measure of "Mastery" to be the community needs assessment and grant writing assignments. URL: http://www.umicb.edu/socwork/reseue/sw560.html (Lawler, 2003e)

* Develop a new instrument to measure evidence-based practice competencies once that instruction gains consensus and is integrated into the curriculum.

In summary, building on these collaborative efforts, the library can strengthen the school's ability (1) to ensure that education and training in social work incorporates the knowledge available from existing research across related disciplines; (2) to improve access to clinical practice guidelines, consensus statements, best practices, etc., by empowering students to think in term of secondary literature searches; (3) to promote the general dissemination of research findings to local policy makers, administrators, practitioners and clients.

References

ACRL (2002). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html

Borland, K. W. Jr. (2001). What is assessment and its place in education? (Editorial) Academic Exchange Quarterly 5 (1), p.2.

Burman, S. (2000). Critical thinking: Its application to substance abuse education and practice. Journal of Teaching and in Social Work: 20(3/4): 155-172.

Carlson, S. (2003). New allies in the fight against research by Googling. Chronicle of Higher Education Section: Information Technology. 49(28): A33. [On-line] Retrieved March 27, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i28/28a03301.htm

Committee on the Foundations of Assessment, Board on Testing and Assessment, Center for Education, Division of Behavioral end Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council; James W. Pellegrino, Naomi Chudowsky, and Robert Glaser, editors. (2001). Knowing what students know: The science and design of educational assessment. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

CSWE. (2001). Educational policy and accreditation standards. Council on Social Work Education. [On-line] Retrieved May 20, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://departments.bloomu.edu/swp/cswe3.htm

Cournoyer, B. R. (2001). Assessment of student learning in social work education: The Indiana model. Advances in Social Work 2(2): 128-151.

D'Angelo, B. J. (2001) Integrating and assessing information competencies in a gateway course. Reference Services Review 29(4): 282-293.

Fister, B. (2002). Fear of reference. Chronicle of Higher Education. 48(40): B.20. June 14.

Gruidl, J.J. and Hustedde, R. J. (2003). Key practices in creating a learning community. In The American Midwest: Managing change in rural transition. Walzer, N., editor. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.

Kuhlthau, C.C. (1988). Developing a model of the library search process: Cognitive and affective aspects. RQ 28: 232-42.

Kuhlthau, C.C. (1991). Inside the search process: Information seeking from the user's perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42: 361-71.

Kuhlthau, C.C. (1993) Seeking meaning. In A process approach to library and information services. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Lawler, S.H. (2002a). Practice in international social work. http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/rescue/archive/sw701.html

Lawler, S.H. (2002b). Transportation as a civil rights issue. http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/rescue/sw530.html

Lawler, S.H. (2003a). Information literacy competencies. http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/infolitcomp.html

Lawler, S.H. (2003b) Secondary data in evidence-based practice. http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/secondarydata.html

Lawler, S.H. (2003c). Resources for social work professionals. http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/swlvisitor.html

Lawler, S.H. (2003d). Community information needs in the context of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/rescue/archive/sw652.html

Lawler, S.H. (2003e). The Community Profile and Finding Funding Sources. URL: http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/rescue/sw560.html

Olson, E. A. (1996). Evidence-based practice: A new approach to teaching the integration of research and practice in Gerontology. Educational Gerontology 22(6): 523-37.

Reimen-Sendi, K. (2003) Social Work Library. http://www.lib.umich.edu/socwork/

Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W.M.C., Gray, J A M., Haynes, R B., Richardson, W S. 1996. Evidence-based medicine: What it is and what it isn't. British Medical Journal 312:71-72 (13 January). [On-line] Retrieved July 9, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/312/7023/71

University of Michigan Taubman Medical Library (2002). Research Resources: Evidence. http://www.lib.umich.edu/tauhman/nursing/researchevidence.html

University of Michigan (2003). SearchPath. http://www.lib.umich.edu/ugl/searchpath/

Watson, M. (2003). Using the Internet for evidence-based practice. In Information and communication technologies in the welfare services. Harlow, E. and Webb, S.A., editors. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

York, G. Changing neighborhoods and the census. http://www.lih.umich.edu/govdocs/census2/sw650.htm (click on Slide Show).

Sally Haines Lawler, University of Michigan

Lawler is a Public Services Librarian in the Social Work Library. She was Documents Librarian at Wayne State University from 1991-2000 and is completing a Certificate in Aging at the University of Michigan Fall 2003.