Information literacy in sociology at UCLA.

Abstract

The challenges of implementing an Information Literacy (IL) program at a major research institution can be daunting. Librarians at UCLA have begun by collaborating with senior faculty in the sociology department to develop a sequential, three-tiered curriculum-integrated program through which students learn increasingly advanced IL skills as they progress through their undergraduate career.

"For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow." Plutarch: Of the Training of Children.

Genesis

In 1994 the University of California Berkeley conducted a study of the information literacy (IL) competencies of 255 students graduating in political science and sociology. Approximately 63% of the scores were either poor or failing (Maughan, 1995). A study conducted in 1999 to measure the IL competencies of a random sample of 453 undergraduates at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) also found "critical gaps" in the overall level of students' skills. Recommendations from the study included closer collaboration with faculty in order to integrate IL more abundantly into the curriculum in a systematic manner (Caravello and others, 2001). By early 2002 the Library launched its IL Initiative involving most of the campus library units with the goals of assessing and improving IL skills at UCLA, and "increasing awareness of IL concepts among members of the UCLA community" (UCLA, 2004b). Librarians work on the initiative in various interest groups to further the IL mission, and it was through the outreach efforts of the collaborating group that initial contact with the sociology department was made.

UCLA's sociology department is one of the largest in the country with over 1100 students. Historically, however, it had not utilized the library for extensive instruction, nor been a target for much library outreach. Like several academic departments on campus, faculty had been exploring ways to raise departmental standards and increase credit requirements. The presiding chair of the department realized that these goals intersected with the mission of the IL Initiative (UCLA, 2004b), and in spring 2003 responded to the collaborating group's overtures by calling a meeting of six faculty and four librarians to discuss a collaborative approach. Eventually a three-tiered curriculum-integrated plan was developed.

Literature review

Many institutions have used successful collaboration between librarians and sociology faculty to enhance students' IL skills. Some collaborators produced a single assignment for a specific course (Glasberg and others, 1990; Abowitz 1994). Others sprinkled IL instruction throughout a course as the students progress on their research assignments (Ford and Williams, 2002; Dodgen and others, 2003).

Several institutions have also implemented sequential and tiered IL instruction in general education and specific disciplines, (Dorner, Taylor & Hodson-Carlton, 2001; Huerta & McMillan, 2000; Samson, 2000). Paglia and Donahue (2003) discuss how they integrated IL into the psychology curriculum by focusing on discipline-based instruction at the upper division level after students had already learned IL basics. A four-tiered IL program was developed in Missouri which began with general skills and branched into discipline specifics, but only the first two levels were required, therefore not all students received advanced information instruction in their major, (Ury, 1994). This was the first attempt at UCLA to integrate IL throughout a departmental curriculum in close collaboration with faculty.

Implementation

A key factor to the successful planning and implementation of the program was the cooperation and mutual professional respect of the main players. The librarian team was united in their goals and beliefs of what IL comprises, and each respected the others' strengths and unique contributions. Members included a senior arts librarian who had many acquaintances among the sociology faculty; a specialist in social sciences from the Research Library; a librarian from College Library; and a librarian from the Institute for Social Science Research. Having the active support of the department chair from the beginning was essential in implementing the IL program as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Besides the chair, other key faculty members included the head of undergraduate curriculum, the director of graduate studies, a member and now chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Libraries, and other senior sociology professors.

Librarians and faculty both had concerns they wanted addressed through the program. Librarians knew from working closely with students how unprepared they often are for library research; noting a lack of both sophistication in research techniques, and awareness of the richness and depth of the library's resources. They knew that IL, the ability to identify an information need, find, evaluate and effectively use information, is a skill which, like other learned skills, must be absorbed and practiced over time, and felt the usual one-shot library instruction method to be limited in its scope and effectiveness. Faculty in sociology and other departments had commented to librarians on the disappointing quality of student research and writing skills, noting particularly students' overdependence on web sources, often of questionable reliability, problems with plagiarism, and an overall weakness in critical thinking skills. Some faculty mentioned their reluctance to assign research papers because of these issues, which of course, lessens the students' opportunities to improve their skills. Through a series of discussions, librarians and faculty developed a three-tiered sequential model of integrating IL at different stages in the sociology curriculum:

I. Lower division introductory course--Basic IL skills & resources

II. Gateway to major course--Discipline specific resources & strategies

III. Upper division--Advanced skills & resources

The first levels of the program were to be implemented in two large compulsory courses: Introductory Sociology (Soc1), and Introduction to Sociological Research Methods (Soc 20). The third tier is a one-unit IL course tied to a group of upper division core courses. The goal of this sequential program is to deliver instruction at students' point of need with direct applicability to assignments, and to continue to advance their research and information skills throughout their undergraduate careers.

Tier I: Sociology 1 - Introductory Sociology

Soc 1 is a general education, lecture based course with approximately 250-300 students per quarter, of whom only about 20% are sociology majors. The course is taught throughout the year by a single instructor who is an enthusiastic supporter of the IL goals, ensuring a consistency of course content and cooperation throughout the academic year. For this course each student had to complete three IL assignments. Included in the class syllabus was an outline of these assignments, their due dates, and a rubric for how their research papers would be evaluated for IL competence. The three assignments were:

1. An online web tutorial adapted from the Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT), during the first and second weeks of the quarter. In three modules, it introduces basic IL concepts such as types of sources, popular and scholarly publications, search strategies and Boolean operators. Being online, students can complete it on their own time, and gain some theoretical knowledge before their in-library session. TILT developers found this method successful, writing that students in composition classes who had completed the tutorial before library sessions were "'more prepared for advanced research and are active participants in the sessions," (Fowler & Dupuis, 2000, p. 348) and that librarians "were free to build upon (the basic concepts) and focus on critical thinking issues" (p. 345). Students in Soc 1 at UCLA, found TILT to be too long and elementary, and so the assignment was subsequently shortened to require only the first module.

2. An online citation and catalog exercise called "Which is Which? What is Where?" to be completed during the second and third weeks of the quarter. The goals of this component are to ensure that students knew how to properly read citations, use the UCLA Library catalog to find known items in a bibliography, and learn certain clues in the citations for preliminary evaluation of sources. Librarians felt students must first understand the components of citations before learning how to use the catalog. Not being able to differentiate types of citations often leads to frustration when students cannot find a journal article or book chapter in the catalog. The 'Which is Which?' portion of this exercise lists a variety of six citations, and asks the student to label each as a journal article, chapter in a book, or book. There is a link to a lesson page for those students who need help. Students are then asked to find each citation in the library catalog and choose the correct library unit location and call number. Links to online lessons in using the catalog are also provided. Reading the lesson pages is optional, therefore saving time for students who are familiar with this process. Finally, students must answer three evaluative questions based on the citations. The lessons are then submitted electronically to the teaching assistant (TA) for participation credit.

3. Students come into the library in their twelve sections for a tour and hands-on lesson in the fourth week of the quarter, after receiving their first research assignment. The goals of this session are for students to practice basic research strategies including key concepts, alternate search terms, Boolean operators, and truncation, and immediately apply this knowledge by finding relevant articles in appropriate databases for their assignment. Librarians have observed that the most efficient way of ensuring student learning and retention is to reach them at their "point of need" with appropriate instruction to an immediate task. Feedback from students in Soc 1 most frequently cited the in-library session as the most useful and relevant of all three IL assignments. A course library webpage was created and posted with links to the online assignments, relevant resources, help guides, and other places of interest: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college /classes/sociology1/index.htm.

Lessons Learned

Librarians learned several lessons from the IL Soc 1 program. The most important, in light of limited library personnel and the desire to reach the maximum number of students in large introductory classes, is that online tutorials can be used to introduce basic IL concepts and to teach the technicalities of using catalogs and databases. Today's students often engage in independent learning of various technologies such as public search engines, instant messaging, and cell-phones; they do not need a class to learn where to type and click. They do need in-library instruction for learning critical thinking skills--how to critically analyze the information they retrieve, build effective search strategies and why it is important not to give up or be satisfied after one superficial foray into the resources. This lesson can help guide librarians seeking alternative instruction methods such as blended instruction.

Another point learned is that students often lose patience and question the use of their time when online lessons run longer than 30 minutes per module. And librarians were again able to confirm from student feedback that lessons are most useful when they are relevant and directly applicable to a class assignment. Students appreciate the practicality of being taught what they need when they need it--rather than theory they will likely forget.

Tier II: Sociology 20--Introduction to Sociological Research Methods

The objective of IL instruction to Soc 20 is to re-enforce students' basic research skills, deepen their awareness and knowledge of sociologically related resources, and sharpen their critical evaluation skills of such resources and the information they provide. This course, with up to 240 sociology students per quarter, is taught by different faculty members. Because each professor has his/her own syllabus and method of instruction, a formula had to be developed which would enable coverage of the IL goals while meshing with the individual style of each instructor. An in-library session format was developed in which students receive or choose a topic and must find relevant articles using assigned databases and other resources. They then share and compare with the class their search methods, strategies and results. Databases covered include Expanded Academic, Sociological Abstracts, PsycInfo, Social Science Citation Index and Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). Instruction is held in the group discussion sections.

In order to ensure that all Soc 20 students come to their session with fundamental IL knowledge, students are required to take a pre-test from the 'Road to Research' online tutorial. 'Road to Research' is a new tool developed at UCLA that teaches how to use the UCLA Library resources, and is mapped to the IL competencies as defined by UCLA (UCLA, 2004a). Students scoring well enough on the pre-test are excused from the rest of the tutorial, while students who do not score well are required to complete it and the appropriate quizzes. Students appreciate the recognition that some of them do not need the tutorial and should not be required to spend time on it.

Tier III: One-unit IL course

For the advanced tier of the program an upper division one-unit IL course was developed to be taken in conjunction with a sociology core course. This IL course supports the syllabus and goals of the parent course with the objective of deepening students' information competencies beyond the introductory level, and focuses on the information knowledge, skills, resources and critical thinking abilities required by an advanced student of sociology. Students select a topic from their core course and, among other assignments, present a critical annotated bibliography which could be the basis for a research paper. Lessons include researching gray literature and finding useful information in statistical resources as well as emphasizing critical thinking and evaluation of sources. Scheduled to beginning in fall 2004 as a pilot course, this will be team taught by librarians with input from the sociology instructors. Along with the instruction provided in the courses above, librarians continue to work with other sociology courses as requested by instructors, including upper division seminars and graduate level courses.

Feedback and Impact

Using online affective surveys, open questions attached to final exams, and direct formal and informal communications, librarians have found response to the Sociology IL program tremendously positive. Throughout the academic year over 80% of the Soc 1 students indicated through their comments that they felt the program was successful or very successful in increasing their library and information skills. Feedback showed that common issues such as library anxiety and unawareness of the wealth of library resources were being remedied. Interest by students in the IL initiative was also evidenced in an article about the program in the Daily Bruin newspaper by a student in a Soc 1 class, and an inquiry from the President of the Panhellenic organization on campus into establishing an IL program for all students in the Greek system. TAs have noticed the difference the IL program is making on the papers they read. One TA commented in her feedback survey, "Comparing papers from last year and this year, there is no contest: papers this year are more disciplined, rigorous, analytical and sociological. In short, there has been a drastic improvement in the quality of Soc 1 papers this year." The attitude of the faculty can be summed up by this comment from Professor Mel Pollner, Undergraduate Curriculum Coordinator through 2004, "The IL program is among the most important changes or developments in the sociology undergraduate curriculum to occur in recent years" (M. Pollner, personal communication: e-mail, April 23, 2004).

In the year that the IL sociology program has been operating the Library's instruction statistics to that department has grown exponentially from seven sessions with 82 students in 2002-2003, to 91 sessions reaching over 1800 students in 2003-2004. Librarians at the undergraduate library, following uniform outlines, delivered instruction to Soc 1 and Soc 20. The increased instructional load resulted in several librarians teaching up to six classes a week, and ideas are being explored to lessen other task loads during these times.

Future plans

Work is currently underway to define IL competencies specifically for upper division sociology students. This would supplement the initiative's Core Information Competencies (UCLA, 2004a) and draw upon sociology literature and discussions with faculty on what they view as the essential skills, knowledge and resources to include in the framework of sociology IL instruction. Once completed, these competencies will be instrumental in the development of assessment mechanisms to measure sociology students' levels of information literacy.

References

Abowitz, D. (1994). Developing awareness and use of library resources in undergraduate sociology: A sample assignment. Teaching Sociology, 22, 58-64.

Caravello, P., Borah, E., Herschman, J., & Mitchell, E. (2001) Information Competence at UCLA. Retrieved July 23, 2004 from http://www.library.ucla.edu/infocompetence

Dodgen, L., Naper, S., Palmer, O., & Rapp, A. (2003). Not so SILI: Sociology information literacy infusion as the focus of faculty and librarian collaboration. Community & Junior College Libraries, 11(4), 27-33.

Dorner, J.L., Taylor, S.E., & Hodson-Carlton, K. (2001). Faculty-librarian collaboration for nursing IL: A tiered approach. Reference Services Review, 29(2), 132-141.

Ford, M., & Williams, C. (2002). Research and writing in sociology: A collaboration between classroom instructor and librarian. Public Services Quarterly, 1(3), 37-49.

Fowler, C.S., & Dupuis, E.A. (2000). What have we done? TILT's impact on our instruction program. Reference Services Review, 28(4), 343-348.

Glasberg, D.S., Harwood, J., Hawkes, R., & Martinsek, C. (1990). The library scavenger hunt: Teaching library skills in introductory sociology courses. Teaching Sociology. 18, 231-234.

Huerta, D., & McMillan, V.E. (2000). Collaborative instruction by writing and library faculty: A two-tiered approach to the teaching of scientific writing," Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship 28(Fall), retrieved July 23, 2004 from http:// www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/00-fall/article1.html

Maughan, P.D. (1995). Information Literacy Survey. Retrieved August 13, 2004 from http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Survey.html

Paglia, A., & Donahue, A. (2003). Collaboration works: Integrating information competencies into the psychology curricula. Reference Services Review, 31(4), 320-328.

Samson, S. (2000). What and when do they know? Web-based assessment. Reference Services Review, 28(4), 335-342.

University of California Los Angeles. (2004a). Developing core information literacy competencies for UCLA students. Retrieved August 26, 2004 from http://www.library.ucla.edu/infolit/developing_competencies-html

University of California Los Angeles. (2004b). The Information Literacy Initiative@ UCLA. Retrieved July 23, 2004 from http://www.library.ucla.edu/infolit/index.html

Ury, Connie. (1994). A tiered approach to bibliographic instruction: the MEDAL program. Research Strategies, 12(4), 247-250.

Diane Mizrachi, University of California Los Angeles

Mizrachi is an Information Literacy/Reference Librarian at College Library, UCLA